The Birth of America: From Before Columbus to the Revolution

by William R. Polk

In this provocative account of colonial America, William R. Polk explores the key events, individuals, and themes of this critical period. With vivid descriptions of the societies that people from Europe came from and with an emphasis on what they believed they were going to , Polk introduces the native Indians encountered in the New World and the black Africans who were brought across the Atlantic. With insightful analysis, he also discusses the dual truths of colonial societies' "growing up" and "growing apart." As John Adams would point out to Thomas Jefferson, the long years that witnessed the formation of our national character and the growth of our spirit of independence were indeed the real revolution. That story forms the basis of The Birth of America . In addition to its discussion of the influence the British had on the colonies, The Birth of America covers the pivotal roles played by the Spanish, French, and Dutch in early America. From the fearful crossing of the stormy Atlantic to the growth of the early settlements, to the French and Indian War and the unrest of the 1760s, William Polk brilliantly traces the progress of the colonies to the point where itwas no longer possible to recapture the past and the break with England was inevitable. America had been born.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Ebooks, American

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

William R. Polk taught Arabic literature and history at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, served on the Policy Planning Council under President Kennedy, negotiated the Egyptian-Israeli Suez ceasefire, and founded the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs. He has written nineteen books.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb history of America up to the Revolutionary War. The author brings no bias or slant to his recounting of this history. The good and the bad, the admirable and the horrible are laid bare. There are so many great passages to present but I will limit my gushing to these few:

The description of a sea voyage to the “New World” is shocking to contemplate. Yet many took the risk to find a better life:
…defecating was not only messy but dangerous. Toilets were either buckets, which must often have overturned in rough seas, or openings in the railings where, as waves slammed into the ship’s hull, the brave or desperate precariously perched, fearing to be washed overboard and getting frequent baths of seawater while they were relieving themselves.

Even on relatively calm days, everything loose-boxes, bedding, utensils, and people-skidded unceasingly, like a pendulum or a metronome, back and forth, port to starboard, starboard to port, across the deck, slamming into other bales and boxes, upending people, overturning buckets of slops. There was no escape, since every inch of *tween-decks was packed with people, goods, and animals. The stench of excrement and vomit, the bellows of the terrified animals, the moaning of the sick, the screams of the children, the creaking of the ship’s timbers, and the crash of the sea can scarcely be imagined. This bedlam was enveloped in an almost pitch-black gloom. No candles or lanterns could be allowed between decks because a fire at sea was too frightening to contemplate. Passengers and crew alike thought of ’tween-decks as a dungeon and spoke of the inhabitants getting what some of them, probably from their English penal days, called jail fever. Jail fever was probably typhus.

The impact of the European arrival is not minimized and begins with the Hispanic invasion:
Spain was obsessed not only with religious purity and administrative order but also with judicial justification for its dominion. Only by trying to save their souls, the Spaniards believed, did it acquire the right to exploit the natives. Since, like the people of the Canaries, these natives were primitive barbarians, the state as agent of the church had a sacred obligation to convert them. They were to be issued with the requirement (in Spanish, requerimiento) that they accept the authority of the state and the faith and leadership of the church. Those who resisted were to be read a warning by the local military authority (in Spanish, of course, which few natives could have understood): “The resultant deaths and damages [of your rebellion] shall be your fault and not the monarch’s or mine or the soldiers.” Against those who remained recalcitrant, war was just, and the legal penalty for those who survived was enslavement. It was on these conditions that the aims of the conquistadors and the priests united. The impact on the Indians was catastrophic.

We can now see, however, that Spanish explorers not only “opened” the interior of our continent but changed it in significant ways. Perhaps the most powerful change was brought about by their unwitting importation of European diseases to peoples without immunities to them. Thus they set in motion a demographic revolution in which many Native American societies would be wiped out. Indian population uniformly shows catastrophic decline in size, often as much as 90 percent. At the time of “contact,” the Native American population east of the Mississippi had reached somewhere around 2 million; and by roughly 1750 it had dropped to approximately 250,000.

Polk makes a good case that the real spark of independence begain in the mid-1600’s when England was embroiled in a civil war and other conflicts closer to home. Getting to/from America was likened to going to the moon, so remote. With England preoccupied, the locals took charge and liked ruling themselves. But a democratic approach did not come easily:
….and assembled together as the colony’s first “Generall Court” or legislature. That body then appointed itself a ruling council as the Governor’s Court of Assistants” in which all executive, legislative, and judicial powers were to be lodged. Sure of their mission and driven by the urgency of getting the community organized, the governor, John Winthrop, and the “assistants” set to work. They made no pretence of election, entertained no concept of the division of powers, and certainly planned no tolerance for opposition. They acted as they thought “meete,” that is, in line with their interpretation of biblical commandments and current needs. They moved fast and comprehensively. With control of both the proprietary company and the charter, they granted land to incoming Puritans, incorporated towns, assessed taxes, and appointed officers of government. Since they always intended Massachusetts to be a self-governing theocracy as defined by their church, they made no pretence of allowing freedom of religion to others; “non-Puritans” were outsiders, living on sufferance so long as they conformed to strictly enforced codes of dress, drink, and deportment. If they did not conform, they were to be punished, driven away, mutilated, or even executed. As though to prove their growing alienation from England, the new government required all inhabitants to pledge allegiance not to the king but to Massachusetts.

Foreshadowing the great issue of the eighteenth century, the first significant dissent from the government of Massachusetts came over the issue of ‘taxation without representation.” The Puritan minister at Watertown Deacon George Phillips, advised his parishioners in 1632 that it would be wrong to pay taxes they had not been represented in levying. Stung by this criticism, Governor Winthrop took the first small step toward representative government by allowing each township to elect two delegates “to advise with the governor and assistants.” But they were not to enact law. Laws were to be created only by the Puritan elders. In fact, Massachusetts moved away from popular participation in government and law by mandating in 1641 a comprehensive and intrusive list, not of rights but of crimes.

Polk does not spare on the horror of slavery. He explains the institution in general and then specifically:

Like a giant whirlpool, the transatlantic traffic sucked out of Africa perhaps as many as 12 million people. Of them, about half a million were sent to North America as slaves.…they kept the Africans under tight control and put them to work. In effect, they treated the Africans as a species of farm animal.

Treating enslaved people as animals has a long history. The ancient Assyrians spoke of slavery as eli erbi ritti pasalu, “walking on all fours” that is, behaving like a domesticated animal. Most primitive and ancient peoples referred to themselves as “The People.” That is the meaning of many of what we think of as American Indian tribal names: Lenni Lenape (Delawares), Ongwe Honwe (Iroquois), Illinois, Navaho or Nemene (Apache). In Africa, there are the Nuer or Dinka and scores more. A stranger was not of the people, not one of us; by definition, he was not a fellow human being. The word “slave” in all Indo-European languages is derived from the concept “captive alien”; that was also the meaning of lu in Tang Chinese. Terms for aliens in many languages are derived from or formed on analogies to wild beasts: the Aryan invaders of India called the Dravidian aboriginals dasa, which means something like “beasts of the forest”; the Bushmen of the Kalahari called aliens “animals without hooves.” Like animals, aliens could not speak (our) language: they were to the Greeks, barbaros; to the Arabs, barbarri; to the Sanskrit-speaking Aryans, me-luh-ha. To look or smell different was, in itself, a justification for being regarded as not human. The wall friezes of the Assyrians and Egyptians minutely detail the outlandish dress, unfamiliar facial features, and bizarre hairstyles of foreigners who were destined for slavery.

If the master believed that Africans were not of the same species, were indeed animals, how should he handle them? By analogy, the answer was clear: he had to domesticate them. The key behavioral characteristic of the domesticated animal as opposed to the wild animal is that it is “broken,” “tamed,” or “trained” so that it becomes subservient to the will of the master. That is the essence of slavery.

How was the future slave “domesticated”? Polk gives a stark description of the process:

Being “broken” began with capture at interior African villages and a march to a port. The captives were at least traumatized and often also wounded; all their possessions, usually including their clothing, had been taken away from them; they had seen family members killed or abandoned; and they had no idea what would happen to them. Then, awaiting transfer to a ship, they were chained and penned in what amounted to dungeons and were almost starved. When they were examined by ships’ mates, usually the first white men they had ever seen, they suspected that they were being prepared for slaughter to be eaten. Then they were “burned,” as branding was called. The whole experience to that point must have resembled what happens as people are taken to concentration camps or as “enemy combatants” are hooded to disorient them. Such vestiges of humanity as the captives had left were stripped from them. Many died, as the surgeon of one ship put it, simply of “melancholy.” What he called melancholy was known in the Nazi concentration camps as becoming a “zombie.” If not already in the barracoon, then certainly during the voyage, the captives were already well on the way to being broken in spirit.

It was not only the spirit that was broken. The prisoners were loaded onto waiting ships, where they were packed, as one account reports, like “books on a shelf,” fed only enough to keep them barely alive, and clamped two by two in leg irons. Thus their bodies were also wasted. “Walking skeletons covered over with a piece of tanned leather” was one description. Jammed with the sick and dying, with no facilities for hygiene, a slave ship was a floating cesspool. Smallpox, diarrhea, “the bloody flux,” and other diseases swept through the ships like wildfire; ….

Polk also spends time covering the relationships between the newcomers and the native Americans. Sometimes friendly but often not, the unstoppable flow of settlers has some impact:

Subversion of the Indians was a subtle process involving not only guns and rum but a variety of other trade goods on which the Indians became dependent. Fur capes were replaced by imported cloth, stone tools by steel, and clay pots by iron. As each new item became standard, the Indians forgot how to make the things that had formed their traditional material culture. Finally, as Skiagunsta, the war chief of the Lower Cherokee, said, “The clothes we wear we cannot make ourselves. They are made for us. We use their ammunition with which to kill deer. We cannot make our guns, Every necessary of life we must have from the white people.” The Mohawks coined a name for Europeans, asseroni, or “ax-maker”-and sadly concluded that they could no longer dress themselves in skins but required English “strouds” or Belgian “duffles.”

Polk spends a lot of time on the growing rift between "Mother" Britain and her "daughter" colonies. As the colonies grew more prosperous, Britain tried to keep competition down by only allowing raw materials and "crude" products (e.g., pig iron but not steel) from America. In the run-up to declaring independence, the colonies did not have much to support a war:

In contrast, the economy of the colonies was rudimentary, fragile, and largely restricted to primary products. Industry hardly existed, particularly in those areas essential to warfare. Britain had retarded the growth of colonial mills capable of turning iron into steel, and only three sizable shops were capable of making firearms. Lead was in such short supply that when fighting began, the colonists had to melt down statues, window weights, and even gutters from houses. Flint, essential for firing a musket, was desperately short. Only in 1776 was a good vein of stone located, and even then few residents in the colonies knew how to shape it to strike a spark. No one in the colonies knew how to turn saltpeter (sodium nitrate) into gunpowder. Such powder as was needed for hunting was customarily imported from Britain. Washington’s army in the summer of 1775 had only about half a pound per man. Getting gunpowder would remain a serious problem Even the paper required to make a musket “cartridge” was imported from Britain. As the British knew, the hunting rifles used on the frontier could not be fitted with the weapon the British regarded as basic to infantry tactics, the bayonet; so “Kentucky long rifles” could be largely discounted from the already scanty inventory of colonial firearms. Even shoes were not being produced in the quantity an army would require. And the transport and communication system, which relied heavily on coastal shipping, was vulnerable to the strongest of Britain’s weapons, its navy.

Easily 5 Stars

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Birth of America: From Before Columbus to the Revolution by William R. Polk is a provocative account of colonial America and themes of this critical period. With vivid descriptions of the societies that people from Europe came from and with an emphasis on what they believed they were going to, the author introduces the native Indians encountered in the New World and the black Africans who were brought across the Atlantic.

He also discusses the dual truths of colonial societies' "growing up" and "growing apart." As John Adams would point out to Thomas Jefferson, the long years that witnessed the formation of our national character and the growth of our spirit of independence were indeed the real revolution. That story forms the basis of The Birth of America. In addition to its discussion of the influence the British had on the colonies, The Birth of America covers the pivotal roles played by the Spanish, French, and Dutch in early America.

From the fearful crossing of the stormy Atlantic to the growth of the early settlements, to the French and Indian War and the unrest of the 1760s, William Polk brilliantly traces the progress of the colonies to the point where it was no longer possible to recapture the past and the break with England was inevitable. America had been born. Well-researched and written to provide a unique way of looking at the emergence of the American character.

[Cheryl Gatling]

The premise of The Birth of America is that most histories of the American Revolution take too narrow a view. They concentrate on events that took place on this continent among English speakers who left written records, and begin just as revolutionary furor began to boil. Polk argues that a great many more influences helped to make this land the America that ended up becoming our nation. He steps back to look at the experiences of the Spanish, the French, the American Indians, the Africans, and what was happening back on the continent.

A few interesting ideas: The British found that the Indians, with their hut-like houses and cape-like garments, reminded them of the Irish back home, and they treated them accordingly. Also, in many cases, the colonists "got away with" running their own affairs, and developed a taste for independence, because the Mother Country was just too busy fighting European wars to deal with the Americans. England made sporadic attempts to crack down on troublesome colonists, but was often distracted or didn't follow through. So the gap between the interests and the viewpoints of England and the colonies grew too wide to be reconciled.

The book does kind of jump over a wide range of subjects, but I found all of them interesting. As always, I enjoyed reading about the details of everyday life, about houses, and soap, and travel, and the fact that there was no such thing as a police force. All of these things, as well as policies, diseases, cultural influences, misunderstandings, and lack of communication (there was also no postal service) went into the big pot that became America.

[Quinn House · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, a really good book. Was surprised I'd never heard of William Polk before, his writing style is succinct and to the point but covers the bases on each topic very well. This book serves as a great introduction to early Americas and provides insight to the global super powers of the time (British, Spanish & French Empires) to help readers get an understanding of geopolitical relations. I really enjoyed this aspect of the book, as it's an important part of understanding both the basis of the country and growth of the American colonies.

On this point the layout of the book was great. Looking at a variety of different factors including economics, politics, migration patterns, colonial life, etc. paints a clear and fascinating picture of the growth of the American colonies. This helps illustrate our complex relationship with Native tribes and European powers especially that of the "Mother" country Great Britain.

There are times where Polk gets a little too elaborate and provides information that really isn't relevant to the historical topic but all in all he does a good job with relating different sections of the book with the overall timeline of early history in America.

4/5 stars, great introduction to early America and the timeline of various events that helped lay the foundation of our great nation.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

American history before America

Everyone with even a moderate interest in American history should read this book. Our (I'm an American) history began in Europe, not in Jamestown or Massachusetts Bay; maybe not even in England but rather in Spain or France. Facinating!! This author takes us to Spain, Portugal, France, Africa, and the Netherlands to a better understanding of history. Read it and Lean.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most complete and clear history I have read. So many facts overlooked or ignored by other historians are here. "The Truth", if you will about what happened in the beginnings of our country. Real and honest are the best words I can use for this book.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not entirely unbiased in parts, but overall a good look at the varying factors that led to the Revolutionary War.

[Umut Yavuz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great source of information about the formation of American society.

[Laura Moorhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forget how fragile the history of this nation is and how many lives were lost in the earliest white settlements. It's easy to see these things as faits accompli in school books. It's another to consider what it would mean to pack up your life and child and take as much food as you could afford or carry on a ship into unknown waters and pray just to reach the coast. The death toll both on sea & land and poor life expectancy is shocking by almost any standard.

On a political note, I didn't know how many skirmishes and struggles for power and actual coups d'état took place in the commonwealth of Massachusetts and elsewhere in New York and New England as early as the 1660s. England's neglect and/or inconsistent oversight + the established colonial authorities + growing desire for autonomy began to tug at the seams of the political fabric from an early date.

In 1664, when New York was taken from the Dutch and given to James, Duke of York, representative assemblies were considered to be "of dangerous consequence [and] prove destructive to, or very oft disturb, the peace of the government." However, the duke agreed to let New York have one "when the settlers on Long Island refused to pay taxes unless he did."

[D Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book sooo much that after I borrowed it from the library and read it I then purchased it. It has some very interesting facts that I did not know about America that no history teacher of my past taught. The way people lived back then seems so harsh as compared to today's standard of living! (And when I say harsh I mean there is no amount of money you could pay me to live like the settlers and slaves of early America). Eating rats, eating people, feces and urine everywhere, rampant diseases, etc. This book gives a chilling DETAILED account of the horrors that settlers and slaves went through. Trust me when I write that you will find someting in this book that you never before learned in school.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone interested in American history this is a great place to start. Author talks about not only who came to this country from Europe, but why they left and how that shaped their experiences in the 'new land'. Also gives an accurate account of how the native americans were treated at the hands of the Europeans.

[James Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall this book had lots of information, but was not structured very well. It jumped around quit a bit and the author often repeated topics discussed earlier in the book.

[Michael Hettinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, low-intensity read. Nothing spectacular, but gave me some ideas on Colonial-era subjects to explore in more detail.

[Marjdomingo Obeso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so love this book, and became fascinated with anything pre-Revolution days.

[Tim Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A focus on the social, political and economic trends in Europe and Africa during America's colonial era was refreshing. These often are ignored in histories of the time.