After the big Downton Abbey finale aired I will admit, I have been forclempt to find anything good on TV. I’ve been following politics on and off…but I yearn for some British or historical piece that will hold my attention. I confessed to my husband that I was addict of soap operas as a teen and between Downton ending and the current political atmosphere we were at a loss to find that “thing” we could watch together. Because my husband is Australian, he doesn’t particularly like American TV especially sitcoms and frankly who could blame the poor bloke….
My 5th grader invited us to a special presentation that his class had been working on for the week about the American Revolution. He was so excited to have a line in the Enchanted Theater’s performance, especially because he got to use the word “damn” and use it without getting in trouble. He also rocked the cardboard musket like nobodies business. His class reenactment of some key events in the American Revolution including the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Boston Massacre. During their theater performance, it got me thinking about how I learned history as a child, which mainly came from having to read boring textbooks and doodle through lecture style classes even at the elementary grade level. I don’t ever remember doing an integrational arts program with theater, music and visual arts. Education has come a long way even if we have a tendency to be it’s worst skeptical critics. The result is that one thing is for certain is that these 5th grade kids probably understand much of history at their age than I ever did. They knew who King George was because my little friend Vivi played the BEST King George.
We were so impressed with how these kids took in and displayed these historical events we decided to rewatch for a second time the HBO miniseries John Adams based on John McCullough’s book. They had shown the 5th graders several clips of the series and ignited once again my son’s enthusiastic desire to learn about history. We decided to venture again to the miniseries because of the volatile political climate we have found ourselves experiencing. Over the last several weeks we’ve observed the events of the American Revolution and it is uncanny what you can learn viewing something for a second time around and I would venture to say which in my humble opinion, that the role of John Adams is the creme de la creme that John Giamatti has ever done. Some observations that I took away with me personally from this series I feel are relevant to today’s political circus, and I would recommend anyone and everyone to partake in the incredible story of John Adams who was a patriot and a founding father to our modern nation.
The vote for Independence was not unanimous.
The vote for Independance weighed heavily on every representative in the Continental Congress so much so, there was one patriot that refused to sign on the dotted line. A vote for independence was also a vote for war against Britain and the King, yet their mere conspiring independance from the crown would be counted as high treason punishable by death. The moderates debated whether war with Britain outweighed the real benefits colonists enjoyed as subjects of the king. John Dickinson, Quaker and representative of Pennsylvania was such patriot that he refused to sign the Declaration of Independance.
Up against a rock and a hard place.
The birth of our country was fraught with war, and rumors of wars. The American Revolution was a real war, people died including children in this war and the war of 1812, also known as the “second” war of Independance. The the French Revolution (a period of history that I love) was co occuring as the American Revolution and should understand that France had a lot to do with our success of throwing off the shackles of Britain. We should note: no nation wins independence on their own. At one point the American government considered tossing out FRENCH “nationals” for fear of their lack of loyalty to the new nation when the French tried to drag us into another war with Britain. Such murky times but we share a lot of history with France and Britain.
The difference of opinion and ideologies.
The political ideologies and philosophy of government of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and other patriots held a wide spectrum of doctrines and some of them were more inspired by the Age of Reason and Enlightenment than actual Judeo/Christian doctrines, yet they were still heavily influenced by Biblical truths and ideas. Deism to which Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin subscribed to is a far cry from Christian principles that we know today, yet if the context of history is not explored we run the risk of ever knowing the founding father’s intentions when they wrote the Constitution. We do err on the wrong side of history not to do our “work” of understanding what historical context actually is and how it affects our worldview. Most of the founding fathers of our nation agreed to disagree and united to succeed in the writing of our Constitution. Quakers, Catholics, Anabaptists, Congregationalists, Reformed Protestants, Deists…they all have intrinsic differences of spiritual doctrines however they managed to unify the nation. We should learn from this and not tar and feather the other side for simply disagreeing nor subscribing to a fringe spiritual doctrine.
They didn’t know for certain what they were doing.
The Congress really sort of “felt” things out as they felt George Washington held too much power and was also influenced by military leaders. They debated the role and powers of the President. We have glamorized and moralized our founding fathers when in reality they were all pretty much vying for power and top dog. The values of the different states…were inherently just that….different. We should understand this more and not allow our state histories to divide our country, we in turn should accept even the demons of our fractured history and not gloss over them for the sake of “progress”. We must come to terms with things like the Trail of Tears (thank you Andrew Jackson) and slavery in our country that was the major means of labor in this new land was also the means to which the British colonized this land. Many abolitionists wanted slaves to be given their freedom, but they also wanted to ship them back to Africa. John Adams did not hold any slaves, but Thomas Jefferson did as did many of our founding fathers.
“Half fed slaves building our Capital, what good can come of this?”- said Abigail Adams.
When was America ever “Great”?
Politics were always dirty and filled with personal attacks. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, though compatriots were also embittered against each other in a nasty run for the Presidency. We also did not have political parties, super PACs and I really wonder what John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would make of today’s political process. When we spend hours discussing a Trump tweet sent out in the middle of the night maybe ponder this.
If Thomas Jefferson had Twitter it might look like this:
“John Adams is a hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”@Southernvalues1776
And if Adams likewise would respond:
“Vice President Jefferson is a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father.” @purebredWhiteYankee
Not exactly following the anti bullying and micro aggression rules now are they?
Money and Trade have always influenced our nation’s politics.
Risky speculation on Wall Street. Not a new thing. John Adams son dabbled in it and lost. Just a thought… you can’t tax people’s bad decisions can you? The price of a free country is also free trade and a capitalist society. The whole idea is with the idea that you get to “capitalize” on the natural resources and products that it’s people produce and our country can and should be allowed to import and export openly. If you don’t produce much…you don’t really have much to trade. Everyone should familiarize themselves with the Stamp Act and the regulations Britain imposed on its colonies and understand a history of how trade, war debt from the French/Indian War and regulation of trade imposed on the colonies the like had a tremendous influential aspect to the political climate leading up to the American Revolution. Trade and economics might not seem like a big issue, but they are foundational to understanding how the world works and our place in western civilization.
Nothing blooms without blood, toil and tears.
John Adams spent a whole hell of a lot of time away from home and his beloved country to which he fought for and advocated for in Europe. He hated the French courts and the same country he fought against he spent much of his time as an Ambassador to Britain.There were consequences relationally and physically with his family which was hinted at the direction of the fact that the Adams left their children quite young to be Ambassadors to Britain. I wonder if he thought it worth the while with what our country has become today.
“Oh posterity, you will never know how much it cost us to preserve your freedom. I hope that you will make a good use of it, for if you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”- John Adams
Since I live in Massachusetts it’s easy to forget that history is all around me. It’s also easy for us as a nation to not do due diligence in teaching the next generation the core principles, ideas and historical context of history as it’s story is told and retold. Believe it or not, I even have great hope and faith that regardless of who is the next President that the American people have great resolve if they will acknowledge the messy parts of our nation’s beginning and not just try to “rewrite” history in our own words.
Lucy in Grace 