Charles Grier Sellers

Private Profits and British Colonial Policy: The Speculations of Henry McCulloh

W T THY did the once loyal inhabitants of British America become the rebels of I776? This question-which no simple reply satisfies-remains and will remain the first question asked about the origins of the United States, and any answer which throws light on any aspect of the problem is of value. This paper addresses itself to one feature of the story in one colony-North Carolina-in the hope that the story of Henry McCulloh will help to explain in part why certain North Carolinians were willing to set their feet on the road that led to revolution in I776. British officials in their dealings with the American colonies subscribed heartily to orthodox mercantilist axioms. But there proved to be many a slip between principle and practice. Efforts to explain the inconsistencies of Englands colonial policy have emphasized British politics and the problem of administrative organization. Too little attention has been paid to the less obvious influence of the acquisitive Englishman with friends in high places, whose interests were permitted to override the demands of sound colonial administration. Through the four decades preceding the Revolution, the ambitious land speculations of one Henry McCulloh helped keep the politics of the province of North Carolina in turmoil. All the while, in London, McCulloh was giving royal officials advice on colonial problems, advice which was by no means uninfluenced by his personal concerns. Scottish by descent, McCulloh displayed in his pursuit of profit a full measure of the shrewdness and tirelessness for which his countrymen were becoming unpopular. By the 1730s he was netting an average of ? 6oo a year from his mercantile business and by the end of the decade had accumulated a modest fortune of ?5400.1 Since i726 he had been

The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846.

The Market Revolution offers a sweeping, comprehensive overview of the Jacksonian period in a synthesis of political, social, economic, and cultural history. This book examines the tensions between democracy and capitalism that arose during this period after the war of 1812 and the massive transformation of American society that followed in its wake.

Verschwindet Geschichte aus unseren Schulen und kümmern sich unsere Historiker darum

Der Anthropologe wurde diese Zusammenkunft (83. Jahreskongres der American Historical Association) als eine institutionalisierte Form von Lippenbekenntnis ansehen, die fur die Gilde der Historiker hochst funktional ist. Die reine Existenz des Rituals, wohnt man ihm nun bei oder nicht, ermoglicht es den »Stammesangehorigen«, sich stets wohl zu fuhlen, sich weiterhin wenig Gedanken zu machen und noch weniger zu tun fur das Lehren, oder richtiger: fur das Lernen von Geschichte. In der letzten Zeit jedoch muste das Ritual einige Veranderungen uber sich ergehen lassen, um funktional zu bleiben. Einige wenige Stammesangehorige, die es wagten, in die Dschungel der Umgebung auszuschweifen, haben mit dem benachbarten Stamm der Schullehrer kulturelle Interaktion gehabt. Affiziert durch diese beunruhigende Erfahrung haben sie angefangen zu murren, Lippendienst sei nicht genug, und selbst dem »Service Center for Teachers of History« ist es nicht gelungen, diese Unzufriedenheit und Untreue zu steuern. Um nun die Heiterkeit und Gelassenheit des Stammes als Ganzem zu bewahren, haben die Alteren einfach die rituelle Sitzung uber Unterricht den abweichenden Stammesgenossen zur Verfugung gestellt. Sie ist zu einer Gelegenheit geworden, wo die Abweichler Dampf ablassen konnen, ohne ihre Mitgenossen ungebuhrlich zu storen, und konsequenterweise wurde von nun an zum zentralen Zug des Rituals die Jeremiade.