Observations from a simple life: The American Spirit of Rebellion

Rebellion is the heart, soul, and blood of America. Today’s political and social climate of protests, riots and violence has many people questioning and even looking at these events as oddities. Rebellion, bucking the system, standing up for a cause, whether it is wrong or right, is at the very core of what makes America, America. Good, bad, ugly, Americans have always had a spirit of rebellion. Even in the early colonies, Americans have shown themselves more than willing to take up arms in defense (US History.org). I say that rebellion is at the heart of what it is to be American. At every turn of American history, people have been standing up and saying “enough’s enough!” Either it has the desired outcome or not, each rebellion is a part of the American Spirit. Other than rebellions related to the Revolutionary War, what other rebellions have been on American soil? I covered some well-known rebellions as well as some not so well known. This is a very general overview.

SHAY’S REBELLION (AUGUST 1786-JUNE 1787)

Shay’s rebellion was an armed uprising around Springfield, Massachusetts against the state’s government increased efforts to collect taxes on individuals and their trades to pay the war debt. Daniel Shay and his followers unsuccessfully attempted to seize weapons from the Springfield Armory and overthrow the government. It is widely held that Shay’s Rebellion exposed the failures of the Articles of Confederation and opened the road to the Constitutional Convention (May-September 1787) and the new US Constitution.

WHISKEY REBELLION (1791-1794)

The Whiskey Rebellion was a tax protest led by James McFarlane, a major who served in the Revolutionary War. The “whiskey tax” was applied to all distilled spirits but whiskey was very popular, and the name stuck. Its intention was to generate revenue for debt incurred during the war. President George Washington had responded by sending peace commissioners to negotiate with the rebels as well as urging governors to use the militia to enforce the tax. The whiskey tax would later be repealed during the Jefferson administration in 1802.

NAT TURNER’S REBELLION (AUGUST 21-31, 1831)

Also known as the Southampton Insurrection in Southampton County Virginia, it was a rebellion of enslaved black people led by Nat Turner, who may have stated that he wanted to spread terror and alarm among whites. The insurrectionists killed between 55 and 65 people, at least 51 were white, including women and children. In the aftermath, state legislatures passed new laws prohibiting the education of slaves and freed black people, restricting rights of assembly and other civil liberties for free black people.

ANTI-RENT WAR (1839-1845)

A tenants’ revolt in upstate New York began when Anti-Renters declared their independence from the manor system run by patroons (aka landowners), resisting tax collectors and demanding land reform. After the death of Stephen Van Rensselaer III in 1839, outstanding rent was due to his heirs. When the tenants couldn’t pay the full amount, couldn’t agree to a payment agreement, or find relief in the courts, they revolted. Many of the Anti-Renters would tar and feather tax collectors and law enforcement. The main result from the Anti-Rent War was a provision was added to the New York Constitution in 1846 fir tenants’ rights, abolishing the feudal tenures and outlawing leases lasting longer than 12 years.

JOHN BROWN’S RAID ON HARPERS FERRY (OCTOBER 16-18, 1859)

Many are familiar with this event as abolitionist John Brown wanted to initiate a slave revolt by trying to take over the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown had originally asked Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to join him. Tubman declined due to illness and Douglass declined as he thought Brown would fail. Brown had expected major support from slaves as he thought they were ready to rebel, but no one showed. Many local slaves had no idea who Brown was or believed a white man wanted to arm them. Brown would be tried for treason and inciting a slave insurrection, found guilty and executed on December 2, 1859. The raid did not have the effect Brown wanted but it has been called the dress rehearsal or a bloody prelude to the Civil War (1861-1865).

NEW YORK CITY DRAFT RIOTS (JULY 13-16, 1863)

A violent riot in Lower Manhattan as the culmination of the white working class’s resentment with new laws passed by Congress in 1863 to draft men into the war as well the wealthier men who paid $300 (about $6,200 in 2019) in a commutation fee to hire a substitute and being spared from the draft. The riot eventually turned into a race riot as overwhelmingly white working class were angry at the competition for jobs with the freed blacks. After the riots, many blacks left Manhattan to settle in Brooklyn. On August 19, the draft resumed with incident.

ELECTION RIOT OF 1874 (NOVEMBER 3, 1874)

In Barbour County, Alabama, freed blacks comprised most of the population and had been electing Republican candidates to office. Members of the White League, a paramilitary group supporting the Democratic party’s drive to regain conservative political power in the county and state, had attacked black Republican voters as they arrived at the polls. Seven would be killed, 70 wounded and more than 1,000 unarmed blacks were kept from the polls. Due to the actual or perceived threats, blacks stayed away from polls in Barbour County. By 1901, a Democratic run state legislature as well as other states in the south, enact election laws to exclude blacks including poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses.

GREENWOOD INSURRECTION (FEBRUARY 1882)

The citizens of Greenwood, New York resisted the seizure and sale of property to pay for bonds that were attained to build the Rochester, Hornelsville and Pine Creek Railroad, that was never built after the Panic of 1873. Many residents were bitter about the sale of the property and would attack tax collectors. When a sale was adjourned because of threats made against any purchasers, Governor Alonzo Cornell proclaimed an insurrection which allowed him to collect the money anyway. With the violence that occurred, many believe the Molly Maguires were involved. Molly Maguires was an Irish secret society known for their violent conflicts.

GREEN CORN REBELLION (AUGUST 2-3, 1917)

In rural Oklahoma, tenant farmers consisting of whites, Seminoles, Muscogee Creeks and African Americans began an uprising in reaction to the attempt to enforce the Selective Draft Act of 1917, which authorized the raising of a national army for service in WWI. With 76% of the farmers rented their land and 45% of them were between 25-33, those heavily impacted by the draft and economic uncertainty if they were to lose those land if drafted. The rebellion was said to begin with the ambush of a county sheriff and visiting deputy. Raiding parties would go on to cut phone lines and burn railroad bridges. Many saw the draft as an invasion of their rights and rebelled to keep the government away from their sons.

THE RED POWER MOVEMENT (1960s-PRESENT)

A social movement led by Native American youth to demand self-determination for Native Americans. Together with American Indian Movement (AIM) and National Indian Youth Council (NIYC), Native Americans sought the rights for Native Americans to make policies and programs for themselves while maintaining and controlling their own land and resources. They used confrontational and civil disobedience to incite change with events like the Occupation of Alcatraz (November 20, 1969 - June 11, 1971), Trail of Broken Treaties, a cross country protest in the autumn of 1972 and the Wounded Knee Occupation (February 27, 1973 – May 8, 1973). As a result of the Red Power Movement, laws were passed in favor of Native Americans including education funds, Indian Child Welfare Act (1978) and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978) which terminated laws which outlawed certain religious practices.

THE CHICANO MOVEMENT (1960s-1970s)

The Chicano Movement, aka El Movimiento, was a civil rights movement inspired acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, beginning with the Pachucos of the 1940s and 1950s. The movement was reclaimed in the 1960s and 1970s to express political autonomy, ethnic and cultural solidarity. With leaders likes Cesar Chavez, Reies Tijerina and Rodolfo Gonzales, the movement sought to combat structural racism, encourage revitalization and community empowerment as well as moving away from the Mexican American identity. Political demonstrations were organized including the East LA Walkouts (March 1968), which protested unequal conditions in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Chicano Moratorium (August 29, 1970), an Anti-Vietnam War event. The Chicano Movement helped fuel Chicano visual art, literature, and music. The historic Estrada Courts Housing Projects in Boyle Heights would become “the site of the 1970s birth of the Chicano Mural Art Movement” (Los Angeles Conservancy).

THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT (1960s-PRESENT)

The Women’s Movement or the Feminist Movement gained momentum in 1968 as Simone de Beauvoir’s book, The Second Sex, (1949) began a resurgence in readership. It is a political movement with a series of political campaigns for reforms in terms as martial rights, reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. The movement is said to have gone through third waves. First wave focused on the suffrage and political equality of middle- or upper-class white women. The second wave focused on the social and cultural inequalities of women of color as well as women in developing nations. The third wave addressed continuing financial, social and cultural inequalities which called for renewed campaigns for greater influence of women in politics and media. A fourth wave is said to be in effect due to the rise of the internet and social media.

THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT (1960s – PRESENT)

The imagery of the Black Power Movement has been seen by many from history classes to movies. The Black Power Movement started as a social movement influenced by the desire for safety and self-sufficiency of redlined African American neighborhoods. To counter the rise in violent white supremacy of the KKK, the Black Power Movement demanded immediate violent reaction. Much of the influence was influenced by Malcolm X’s criticisms of Martin Luther King Jr’s peaceful protest movement and urban uprisings surged following Malcolm X’s assassination on February 21, 1965. After increased violence faced by its members, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee cut ties with the mainstream civil rights movement (Editors, 2020). They argued that blacks needed to build their own power, rather than seek accommodations from the existing power structure. The Black Power Movement saw an escalation in the late 1960s, a peak in the 1970s and a decline in the 1980s. There has been a resurgence of Black Power Movement in the modern Black Lives movement (Boyle, 2015).

In conclusion, these are just a few of the rebellions and insurrections that I came across in my research. America was founded on rebellion and continued to see rebellion for good or not. Even if you disagree with why someone is rebelling against the status quo or a law they disagree with, it is very false to say that such a rebellion is un-American. Whether or not the desired outcome of a rebellion occurs, the fighting spirit for fairness, justice and change is always there. Many people are shocked at the violence of today’s riots but after my research, it no longer shocks me. America has seen her share of violent uprisings and while there should be a better way to invoke change, violence always seems to come into play. Unfortunately, I have no answers or solutions. My goal was to simply point out that a part of being an American is to be a rebel, to stand up and say, “I disagree” and I hope I achieved that.

Observations from a simple life

Thursday, August 27, 2020

The American Spirit of Rebellion

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