Joseph Ellis Founding Brothers

When the United States was first established it was hard for everyone to get on their feet in a “new world”, but for some people it was harder than you would think. I do not know how we get away with slavery, but somehow we did and I hope we never have to go down that road again. One of the most famous people you hear talking about slavery is Frederick Douglass he is significant because he was once a slave who learned how to read and write and eventually stood up for what he believed in. Frederick Douglass ended up with his own views and he had a lot of different influences throughout his life to make these opinions and views. There are two sides to slavery and they have completely different views on governments and how to handle that situation. Frederick Douglass wrote a narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in this he sides with Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, in this he makes his own views on the political ideals that are significant like natural law, and on the other side the slave holders would agree most with Machiavelli’s Prince in the aspect of how to run government.

The founding fathers, or as the book calls them the founding brothers, are an assorted group of men from wildly different backgrounds. In political terms, they were divided. Yet, they came to together to help shape this country into the place it is today. Now on their journey towards the making of this country they did encounter some trouble. They encountered heated debates among themselves though for getting through these debates they show just why they deserve to be called, founding brothers.

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis is an episodic recount of six pivotal moments in post-revolutionary America’s history. The book follows Abigail Adams, John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington through these events. The author seeks to show not only the outcomes that occurred in them, but to give in detail deeper thought about the thinking and actions that lead to those outcomes.

    A main idea in the first chapter is about the history of slavery and freedom in the U.S. Firstly slavery had existed during the American Revolution. Despite the fact that the founding fathers wanted freedom as a right to all men, then African Americans should also rightfully be allowed freedom. Foner quotes Lemuel Haynes, “ If liberty were truly ‘an innate principle” for all mankind’ Haynes wrote, ‘ even an African [had] as equally good a right to his liberty in common with Englishmen.’(Foner 9). Slavery was a problem in the United States history from the beginning.

Joseph J. Ellis the author of American Creation which turns out to be a national best seller who wrote other book such as His Excellency, founding brother, American Sphinx, Passionate sage, after the revolution, and school for soldiers. What the author does that make this book a very unique book is he give us a brief back around of American coming to life after multiple attempt to set up a government. He tells us how we use much different culture to build our government from deciding if we should have a dictatorship like in England or not but have a democracy like the Romans. Joseph makes important arguments which could not be resolved at the time we were building the Constitution, of how we should governing a long-term argument over the

The Quartet by Joseph Ellis was a novel to provide detail of the years following the American Revolution, and how the Quartet of George Washington, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton each provided a quality in guiding America toward the right direction. Ellis creates a theme almost as if the reader is on a tour guide, because he explains the perspective on how America was being created between the “Second Revolution” of the years 1783-1789. But, the main goal Ellis wanted to make clear was this time period was the process of how America became a Nation. After finishing the book, Ellis was effective in making the case that the Quartet of Washington, Jay, Hamilton, Madison, as well as other major influences, greatly affected the “transition from confederation to nation.” Each Quartet presented a value in help transitioning America into a Nation, and Ellis provides excellent examples to solidify that claim.

The book report is on "Slavery's Constitution From Revolution to Ratification"1 by David Waldstreicher. This book is primarily a history book that speaks about the creation, ratification, and the implementation of the United States Constitution with regards to slavery. The author is trying to convey to the reader that the Constitution, while never actually mentioning slavery, had slavery written all over it. The author chose this topic to talk about because it's very clear by reading Constitution once that there isn't much discussion about slavery. What Waldstreicher would argue is that this conception is wrong, and the only way to understand that it is incorrect is to go back into the early stages of colonial history and work your way up to

In the 1800’s, slavery was a huge part of America. Slavery helped boost the economy and was heavily dependent upon by Americans. Slaves were treated as if they were not humans, but property. Slaves natural right of freedom was taken away by the white Americans. This oppression occurred in America, while they claimed that their nation was the nation of freedom and liberty. One of the slaves that would help change history was named Frederick Douglass, and he had a lot to say about American hypocrisy. Frederick Douglass was a former slave. He taught himself to read and write at a young age, and years later he started his own newspaper called “The North Star”, and ended up writing and editing most of the articles himself. Another thing he

In Joseph Ellis’ Founding Brothers, the novel surrounds the major political leaders during the 1790s. The acts and intentions of these few leaders were responsible for the shaping of this national institution. Ellis explores this revolutionary generation full of honorable men who argued just as much as any other generation, but acted for posterity and themselves. Throughout the book, the theme of truth is expressed in the accounts of the political leaders and Ellis’ writing. The theme can be found through the accounts of Hamilton and Burr, Washington, and Adams and Jefferson.

Ellis, Joseph J. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Print.

In Founding Brothers, the three most important chapters that impact America today were The Duel, The Silence, and The Farewell and the least important was The Friendship. The book is about our seven founding brothers and about different events that happened to them in post revolutionary America. It is a nonfiction book that was written to show what they experienced and how they interacted with others.

When looking at the idea the United States emphasizes freedom vs. emphasizing the very real existence of chattel slavery. The issue of slavery in America was not as easily thought as black and white. Mostly, people in the North were opposed to slavery, while the South promoted it. However, many people were indifferent. People in the North could see slavery as neither good nor bad, instead a way of Southern life. Frederick Douglass, knowing the North was home to lots of abolitionists, wrote his narrative “Narrative of Life” in order to show indifferent people in the north to see slavery as the shameful practice that it is. Douglass focuses on dehumanization of slaves, existence of slavery, and freedom in order to get his point across.

Joseph J.Ellis provides an insight of how a nation emerged, with a group of memorable individuals that founded the American Republic. Founding Brothers deals with confrontations and crucial issues that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and George Washington encountered during an undefined decade where a fragile nation was being formed. With its main and secondary theme that focuses on the struggles the leaders of the Revolutionary Generation dealt with for the success of a Union, Founding Brothers is a marvelous book for historical readers that want an understanding of the political chaos of the early republic.

What Foner wants us to get in the intro of the book. Is to show Lincolns points on how slavery is growing and changing throughout his life, and how in fact Lincoln wants to put a change to it. As we know Lincoln was born in 1809 in Kentucky. At the age of seven his family moved to southern Indiana where he will live for most of his childhood. Until around 1830 when his parents would move to Illinois and where Lincoln would live until he assumed the presidency in 1861. What Lincoln explains during his childhood was that slavery was legal in Kentucky. Though, most people who had slaves in Kentucky at that time where urban farmers. Though since Lincoln never really saw slavery in Kentucky since he was so little. He never witnessed it in Indiana

The book was published in 1788 -- substantially after the events described took place. The time gap did not seriously affect the main content of the material because the events he describes were very serious and unforgettable ones. He wrote the material at the time he had already been a member of the Anti- Slavery Society leaving room for a little suspicion of his tendency to exaggerate some descriptions in his narrative. This been said, it is pertinent to note that it is unequivocally clear that the events he describes in this book are those he witnessed firsthand and they made a lasting impression on him. Consequently, this impression