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Washington, the founding father of the United States, was a slave owner
After independence, the United States created a set of "founding myths" and praised Washington as a "saint", as if Washington was flawless, without any shortcomings, and was a staunch fighter for freedom. But in reality, Washington's so-called "freedom and equality" was aimed at "citizens", and he also supported slavery and was a slave owner himself.
These slaves included black and white slaves, but Washington treated them "equally." Washington argued that since these people were not citizens, they did not deserve equal rights and deserved to accept their own servitude. In fact, while Washington was writing for the cause of "free civil rights," there were often slaves in his family who were being whipped.
Washington inherited 10 slaves from his father's estate at the age of 11, and since then as Washington's family business has expanded, more and more slaves have served him. When Washington married Martha Dandridge Castius, a wealthy widow, in 1759, the number of slaves in the family reached nearly 100. Before the American Revolution, there were about 150 slaves in Washington's family, all of whom were counted as Washington's personal property.
After the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, 10 slaves in Washington's family escaped. Washington immediately issued a bounty offering promising a reward for the 10 slaves. After Washington was elected president of the United States, he continued to support the existence of slavery, and he himself continued to expand the size of slavery.
Ironically, Washington, despite his pro-slavery support, was arguably the best of America's Founding Fathers in his attitude toward slavery, and the only person to reflect deeply on slavery in his later years. Although the Declaration of Independence also provided for the emancipation of slaves, few of the Founding Fathers of the United States did so.
Washington began to reflect on the necessity of slavery after leaving his presidency, and before his death he left a will that all slaves would be freed after the death of his wife. The old, the weak, the sick and the disabled among the slaves were to be fed, and the children were to be brought up to adulthood and educated. But until the last moment, Washington did not dare to publicly condemn slavery, and could only improve the treatment of its own slaves.
The United States has moved its capital three times
The United States did not specify its own capital at the beginning of its existence, but the Confederate Congress and its central agencies have long been based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the two Continental Congresses were held, and the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation were also issued in Philadelphia, so Philadelphia has actually become the "default capital" of the United States.
However, after the British army was repulsed, the U.S. government was unable to repay the high debts incurred during the Revolutionary War, and its finances were unable to make ends meet, to the point that even some of the troops could not be paid. At this time, the United States was still a confederation system, not a later federal system, and its state structure was relatively loose and its income was very low.
As a result, in 1783, U.S. soldiers stationed in Philadelphia demanded payment from the Confederate government, and 400 U.S. troops even surrounded the Confederate Capitol. The congressmen hurriedly demanded that Pennsylvania send troops to "quell the rebellion", but the Pennsylvania legislature considered the soldiers' behavior of begging for money justified and refused to send troops to help, and the Confederate congressmen left Philadelphia in anger.
Since then, the Confederate Congress has traveled to many places, and it can be said that there was no fixed capital of the United States during this time. It wasn't until 1785 that the Confederate Congress finally stabilized in New York, which was finally officially designated as the capital of the United States.
The Founding Fathers of the United States also realized that the lack of power in the central government had to be changed, and the Confederation system should be abolished. Thus, in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the United States was transformed from a confederation to a federation, and the location of the new capital was also on the agenda.
Since it was in New York that the founding president of the United States, Washington, was sworn in, and the Supreme Court was established in New York, many politicians, especially northerners, supported the continuation of the capital in New York. However, this proposal made the South extremely dissatisfied, they believed that both Philadelphia and New York were too far north, completely under the political influence of the North, and that the establishment of the capital here would weaken the South's voice in federal affairs, so they firmly opposed it, and the proposal to make New York the capital failed to pass.
In the end, the North and the South reached a compromise due to a financial crisis, and the United States owed a large amount of debt during the Revolutionary War, and its Treasury Secretary Hamilton proposed a plan to propose that the North and the South should share the debt of the United States.
This proposal made the Southern delegates very unhappy, because the southern states were in a better economic position and had largely paid off their debts. The northern states, on the other hand, were heavily indebted, so most of the debt in the United States at this time was owed by the North. The representatives of the South again objected to the idea that the joint debt was in effect a transfer of the debt of the North to the South.
Hamilton told the Southern delegates that if they were against it, they would be against it, and that the North would have to withdraw from the Union. Hamilton then proposed a compromise: if the South was willing to share the debt, the capital of the United States could be located in the south. As a result, representatives from the North and the South reached a compromise in Congress and agreed to establish a new U.S. capital on the banks of the Potomac River, the natural border between the North and the South of the United States, named after Founding President Washington.
However, the Philadelphia delegates were not satisfied with the loss of the capital, and after their protests, Congress finally agreed: during the construction of the new capital, Washington, the capital of the United States would be moved back to Philadelphia, and the capital of the United States would be changed from New York to Philadelphia.
After the completion of the new capital, Washington, the capital of the United States was officially set in Washington, D.C., and it has not changed since. In the past 20 years, the capital of the United States has moved from Philadelphia to New York, then from New York to Philadelphia, and finally from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., a total of three capital moves.
The American Revolutionary War was both a war in which the United States gained independence from Great Britain and a civil war in the United States
Many people thought of the Revolutionary War as a war in which the American people rose up and then the British desperately suppressed the revolt. However, they often overlooked another important group in the United States at that time, the "loyalists".
Loyalists, as the name suggests, are the opposite of independents. They opposed the independence of the United States from Great Britain and believed that the Thirteen Colonies should remain loyal to King George IV. But after the Second Continental Congress, the independents gained the upper hand, and loyalists across the United States were brutally attacked.
It is worth mentioning that the Loyalists did not believe that they should bow to the British Crown, and that they continued to be loyal to the British Monarch for a variety of reasons. Some argue that the Continental Congress is a minority manipulation and does not represent the voice of the people. Some argue that the independents are too arbitrary and violate parliamentary principles. Some argue that the colonial situation should be improved through reform and that violence should not be resorted to so quickly. There are also those who simply have a personal grudge against the independents and are on their opposite side in the war.
But in any case, their treatment in the United States at that time was similar, that is, they were ruthlessly suppressed. The loyalists did not sit idly by, some of them organized militias against independence, while others simply joined the British army. That's why the book "The Growth of the American Republic" reads: "The American Revolution was a civil war. ”
Others were powerless to resist and had no choice but to go into exile, most of them fleeing to colonial Canada and the British mainland. At that time, there were several loyalist settlements in London. One of the most famous loyalists was William Franklin, the son of the scientist Franklin, who had done lightning experiments with his father. He served as governor of New Jersey, but after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he stood firmly on the side of the British crown and was forfeited all his possessions in the United States.
And the victory of the American Revolutionary War was a defeat for these loyalists. As a result, most of them were also miserable, often living in a foreign land, dying of hunger and cold, and the loyalists who had fled the United States earlier brought out some of their possessions, and their lives were better, but their property in the United States was also confiscated. Some tried to return to the United States to get their property back, but most ended up in prison.
Thus, the War of Independence was not only a war between the United States and Great Britain, but also between Americans loyal to the British crown and Americans who supported independence. However, the image of the "loyalist" is often deliberately erased in film and television dramas showing the American Revolutionary War, which creates the illusion that the Revolutionary War is a national rebellion against Britain in the United States.
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