The Story of Sam Patch

During the early 1800s, the United States was hit by the Market Revolution which quickly changed the economic and social status all around. It created a division of those who were greatly benefitting from the market and those who were suffering from it. In Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper written by Paul E. Johnson, the writer exemplifies how the revolution affected people socially and economically through the story of a young man, Sam Patch and how like many, he became a failure of the Market Revolution.

Patch continued to jump off many more waterfalls which soon led him to his stardom. Patch illuminated many changes in American history due to his career as a falls jumper. Johnson argues that, “Sam inhabited and helped shape an America in which things like factory work and modern celebrity were beginning to happen” (Johnson, 2003, p.1).

Paul E. Johnson’s 2004 book Sam Patch: The Famous Jumper uses a mill worker’s personal background to relay a series of socio-economic changes that occurred during the 1800’s. The Industrial Revolution, for many, was the beginning of something new. Due to the development and proliferation of technology, the economic gain from the Industrial Revolution was formidable. Unfortunately, the working class was forced to endure hazardous working conditions. For Sam Patch— a nineteenth century daredevil exhibitionist with nothing to his name— leaping from tall cliffs was a form of visual oppression designed to challenge the authority of well-respected political leaders of the upper class. The ideology that a simple man rose to fame by performing acts that, by many, was considered foolish, contradicted the beliefs of the upper class. This publication highlights several broad changes that occurred during this time period. Society’s perception of fame changed dramatically. Sam Patch went from being a simple mill worker to being a celebrity overnight. This work also highlights issues regarding domestic textile industries, including poor working conditions and child labor. Sam Patch began working at the age of seven; that was not entirely uncommon during this time period. Children were subjected to dust-filled rooms that were either “hot in the summer or cold in the winter.” Furthermore, this book also emphathizes the growing hostility between the Whig Party and the Jacksonian Party.

The monograph revealed information over Sam Patch’s background of his family and particularly short overlooks of industrialization on the working class on America in the 1820’s. Sam Patch was a piece of one of the primary families that were making America's first material fabricate. He moved to Pawtucket with his mom, father and siblings when his family had been told by Samuel Slater of conceivable openings for work. Sam Patch started working in mule spinning which “required experience, along with a practiced mix of strength and a sensitive touch” (Johnson, 2003, pg.32). As Sam Patch was being formed by his work and workmates in the plants at a very young age, his father Greenleaf could not look for some kind of employment and began drinking. Later in the novel, as youthful Sam Patch awed his workmates, he became one of the primary American mule spinners. At the point when not working at the mill, Patch, alongside other Pawtucket young men, made thrill seeker jumps from Pawtucket Falls. The Pawtucket young men, Johnson composes, “all jumped in the same way[…]” (Johnson, 2003, pg. 39). To these young men, this was a talent—one that “called for bravery [...] self possession and a mastery of skills as well” (Johnson, 2003, pg. 39).

American Reformers, 1815-1860 goes into the social and political issues surrounding the Jackson Presidency. Ronald G. Walters effectively chronicalizes the reformation and radicalization of the main issues prevalent in early 19th century. These issues included slavery, alcoholism, women’s rights, religion and science. He explains how these issues led to the transformation of our country into what it is today and explains the reformers responsible for such radical change. He emphasizes the idea that every individual during this time period had some sense of radical reform ideology. These antebellum reformers worked to resolve the social and political issues plaguing the nation through reform and Ronald G. Walters eloquently depicts the reform movements of the early-mid 19th century. His work is very accurate and progressive in every sense.

Ultimately, John Larkin is able to enlighten his audience of the conditions experienced by commoners in 19th century America. He crushes the misconceptions of American life that most people accept to be true. History changes greatly based on perspective as different social classes undergo vastly different

Andrew Jackson’s ‘Era of the Common Man’ or the ‘Jacksonian Period’ (1824-1845) starts at his inauguration, and ends as the Civil War begins. Jackson was the first president that was not born into wealth or education, but instead made his own wealth, and taught himself up to a prime education, a ‘self-made man’, as some may say, this and his military history made him the defining figure of his age. Although, he downplayed his past successes to make him more like the ‘common man’, and appeal to the voters, his past, and his future changes to political policies, economy, and the overall society, marks this special period as the Era of the Common Man.

The “Roaring Twenties” was a decade of American economy growth and consumerism following World War I. During this time period, Americans turned to sports as a form of entertainment and started to view athletes as stars. Among these athletes was a man named Lou Gehrig who played for the New York Yankees. Babe Ruth, a New York Yankee slugger, overshadowed Lou Gehrig for much of the twenties as he had a well known gift for hitting home runs. In addition, he best represented the ideology of the “Roaring Twenties” for he was a gambler, drinker, and partier (Evans 2016).

Andrew Jackson was one of the most powerful and influential presidents of the nineteenth century. To many Americans in the 1820s and 1830s, Andrew Jackson was a champion of democracy, a symbol of a spirit of anti-elitism and equality of all people that was sweeping American life. In fact, many considered that Andrew Jackson did more than any other American of his generation to enlarge the possibilities of American democracy. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, however, historians have disagreed sharply not only in their assessments of Jackson himself, but also in their portrayal of American society in his era. The progressive historians of the early twentieth century tended to see the politics of Jackson and his supporters as a indication of their own generation’s battles against economic privilege and political corruption. As a result, Jackson is one of the most controversial presidents in American history. Although the portrayal of Jackson as a champion

Throughout the Roaring Twenties (20s), “the parties were bigger. The pace was faster, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser, and the liquor was cheaper” (Fitzgerald 112, My Lost City). The 1920s was an innovated evolution, away from traditional morals of many Americans to those values less conservative and open-minded. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, and Ernest Hemingway’s, The Sun Also Rises, act as an exploration of Americans’ shift in values, post-World War One (WWI). These authors do so by commenting on the excessive partying and drinking, the falsification of relationships, and the lost generation of the veterans who fought in the Great War.

The Jacksonian period of 1824-1848 can also be celebrated as the era of the “common man” because it lived up to its expectations due to the impact it had on America’s politics. Jackson put

In the American history, Sam Patch, famously known as Sam the jumper was referred to as a suicidal and melancholic drunkard whose fame was accredited to his adventure, which entailed leaping from waterfalls. Sam’s actions clearly showed that he was a daredevil, a showman, a stuntman and a risk taker. He is an exceptional example of how free minded and spirited the Americans were as an influence of industrialization. During the Early Republic Period (1800-1837), America experienced many changes that had an enormous effect on shaping the history of the country (Johnson, 349).

In 1920s, America undergoes a period of cultural and social revolution. After the shocks by the chaos and violence of WWI, with a burst of economy which brought unprecedented levels of prosperity to the country, the generation turned into a lifestyle of wild and extravagant. Both published in 1925, the time when the jazz age at it’s peak, “The great Gatsby” by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway depict the fragmentation of the soared society by narrating the experience of characters.

The motion picture Patch Adams revolves around the troubles a young man named Patch faces in his lifetime. Patch voluntarily admits himself to a mental institution and his experiences there convince Adams to become a doctor. When Patch enrolls at the medical college of Virginia, he is shocked at the cold, clinical professionalism that alienates patients from their caregivers. Determined to provide emotional and spiritual relief as well as medicine, Adams clowns around for his patients, getting to know them personally. His unorthodox approach to treatment and learning led to a continuous conflict between the Dean’s way of learning and Patch’s new unique and spontaneous way. Raising the question of, “How would John Stuart Mill judge the actions of Patch Adams and Dean Walcott in the society in which they live? Drawing on the book On Liberty, I will argue Patch’s actions of nonconformity were legitimate as he possesses self-regarding action and I will conclude that Patch’s individuality is needed in the cultivations of social progress. In addition, I will claim

In Cheap Amusements, Kathy Peiss studies the customs, values, public styles, and ritualized interactions expressed in leisure time of the working-class women living in New York. The social experiences of these young women gives different clues to the ways in which these women constructed and gave meaning to their lives between the years of 1880-1920.