Did Americans Struggle To Redefine The American Identity?

How have Americans struggled to redefine the American identity during the time period of 1820-1850, especially considering the ideals of Democracy, Freedom, and Individuality?

Americans struggled to redefine the American identity during the thirty-year period of 1820-1850. Before this period, American Identity could be defined by three core values: freedom, individuality and democracy. However, the industrial Revolution in the North and the spread of slavery in the South were catalysts in corrupting these key principles of American identity. As a result, many prominent Americans from various backgrounds fought to revert the American Identity back to its original values of freedom, individuality and democracy during the time period of 1820-1850.
Firstly, America’s identity as a free nation was in grave danger by disallowing freedom to a large portion of its adult population.
The country was founded on this central principle of liberty: first by European colonists in search of freedom from persecution, then with the fight for America’s freedom from Britain, and finally with our government, which was built on the constitutional notion that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among there are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” However, with slaves making up 15.6% of the American population, famous abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, recognized and acted on the need to redirect the formation of American identity as a genuinely free country (as envisioned by its founding fathers). This was achieved, for example, through Garrison’s prominent newspaper, “The Liberator,” which proclaimed the immorality of slavery and argued the need for the immediate emancipation of slaves to thousands of individuals worldwide. Garrison also founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832 and met with delegates from around the nation to from the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. However, the fight for freedom of all people was not peaceful. In fact, in 1837, when a pro-slavery mob murdered the abolitionist, Lovejoy, in 1837 prominent militants decided that only violence would dislodge the sin of
slavery.
Secondly, another of America’s key identity, individuality, was corrupted during the Industrial revolution. It was replacing human workers with machines and was erasing the importance of individuality due to the uniform machines and production. For example, the invention of these machines removed the need for Artisans and placed these skilled men among the ranks of thousands of Immigrants who could operate the same machinery with a minimum of training. In fact, by 1850 the percentage of skilled craftsmen in the workforce had diminished sharply and the number of manufactures had largely increased. In reaction to this, artisans who feared a loss of status in the face of mechanization formed unions to protect their individuality. Moreover, Transcendentalists strongly disagreed with the Industrial Revolution because individualism is one of the fundamental ideas of Transcendentalism and thus many American transcendentalists struggled to revert America back to a country that valued individualism over conformity. In fact, the famous transcendentalist, Ralf Waldo Emerson, wrote: "Conformity is the death of individualism." Finally, slavery, as well as the absence of women’s right to vote, represented the paramount challenges to the consolidation of American national identity and political institutions as a genuine democracy.
Indeed, the institution of slavery in America raised the serious danger that America would become, at best, a deeply flawed democracy or an illiberal democracy, or at worse, not a democracy at all, since slavery prohibited the freedom and individual rights of around 1/6 of its population. Certain Americans, such as the famous abolitionist leader, William Lloyd Garrison, understood this threat and thus struggled to fight against it. For example, Garrison and his followers believed that the U.S. Constitution was the result of a terrible bargain between freedom and slavery. Garrison called the constitution a “covenant with death” and “an agreement with Hell.” Moreover, he refused to participate in American electoral politics—also key in democratic institutions—because to do so meant supporting “the pro-slavery, war sanctioning Constitution of the United States.” With his actions, Garrison worked toward his goal to make the US a truly egalitarian democracy. Furthermore, suffragettes, such as Sarah and Angelina Grimke, argued that the democratic rights to freedom and voting should be extended to everyone, regardless of their gender. In fact, Angelina Grimke publically debated that “It is a woman’s right to have a voice in all laws and regulations by which she is to be
governed.”
To conclude, many Americans fought to revert the American Identity back to its original values of freedom, individuality and democracy during the time period of 1820-1850. However, this was not a unique moment in history when America strayed away from its identity as a country where these principles are valued. For example, the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by John Adams in 1798, prohibiting public opposition to the government and disallowing immigrants into the US hugely contradicts these values. This, as well as the more recent Patriot Act of 2001 which suspended some civil liberties, illustrates how America’s actions in response to disruption—be it immigration, industrialization, or an attack— often threaten these fragile concepts of freedom, democracy and individuality.

EXTRA NOTES:
This time period was characterized by the rise of abolition and the gradual polarization of the country between abolitionists and supporters of slavery. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution— which caused America’s transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy—shifted the north to manufacturing, while lucrative cotton plantations dominated the southern economy.
The annexation of new territory and western expansion saw the reinforcement of American individualism and of Manifest Destiny, the idea that Americans and the institutions of the U.S. are morally superior and Americans are morally obligated to spread these institutions.