Topic 3.11 Notes – Developing an American Identity

What American Identity Became After the Revolution

Before 1763, most colonists thought of themselves first as British subjects and then as Virginians, New Yorkers, Puritans, Anglicans, merchants, or planters. The colonies were separate places with their own histories and habits.

The Revolution pulled those separate identities into a shared story.

• Common grievances against Britain gave colonists a reason to think together.
• The Continental Congresses, the war, and independence created shared experiences across colonies.
• The new republic turned many people, at least legally, from subjects of a king into citizens of a nation.

That new identity centered on political ideals more than ancestry.

• Liberty meant freedom from tyranny.
• Republicanism meant government by citizens, not monarchy.
• Civic virtue meant putting the public good above selfish interest.
• Americans praised public service, practical achievement, and distance from inherited privilege.

Still, this was not a total break from Europe. Americans kept European languages, religions, artistic styles, and classical Greek and Roman models. On tests, a very common point is that national identity grew alongside regional identity, not instead of it.

How a National Culture Took Shape

A nation becomes real when people who never meet still feel connected. Print, schools, writers, and artists helped do that.

Print and education

• Newspapers, pamphlets, almanacs, sermons, broadsides, and political essays created a national public conversation.
• Fierce party arguments actually helped build political culture because Americans were debating shared national issues.
• The Copyright Act of 1790 protected authors’ works.
• The Patent Act of 1790, plus constitutional protection for patents and copyrights, showed that the new nation valued invention and useful knowledge.
• Noah Webster’s American Spelling Book or “Blue-Backed Speller” pushed standard American spelling and patriotic education.
• Benjamin Franklin became a model American figure through self-education, thrift, science, diplomacy, and civic service.
• Poor Richard’s Almanack taught habits like industry and frugality.
• Franklin’s Autobiography helped create the self-made ideal.

Literature

American writers still used European forms, but their subjects became more American.

• Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) showed literary talent that challenged racist assumptions.
• Wheatley’s 1775 poem to George Washington used Columbia, an early female symbol of America.
• Philip Freneau wrote on American politics and identity.
• Joel Barlow’s The Vision of Columbus imagined America’s past and future on an epic scale.
• Columbia became an early national personification of the United States.

Visual art and memory

Portraiture and history painting helped turn recent events into shared national memory. Washington's image became especially important.

Charles Willson Peale, George Washington at the Battle of Princeton

• John Singleton Copley’s colonial portraits showed continuity with British artistic conventions.
• Benjamin West’s The Death of General Wolfe treated North American history as heroic subject matter.
• John Trumbull’s The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill and The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec turned Revolutionary sacrifice into national memory.
• Charles Willson Peale’s portraits of Washington, especially George Washington at the Battle of Princeton, made Washington a civic hero.
• Peale’s Philadelphia museum linked national memory to science and useful knowledge.
• George Washington became the central national symbol of republican virtue, often compared to Cincinnatus.

Symbols, Architecture, and Religion in the New Nation

National symbols and civic ritual

• The flag resolution of 1777 created 13 stripes and 13 stars.
• The Great Seal in 1782 used the bald eagle, shield, olive branch, arrows, and E pluribus unum.

Great Seal of the United States

• Public readings of the Declaration, Fourth of July celebrations, civic processions, and military commemorations made nationalism visible.
• Washington’s death in 1799 became a major moment of national mourning.
• Common symbols included Liberty, eagles, liberty caps, columns, shields, stars, and groups of 13.

Architecture

• Georgian style continued from the colonial period.
• Federal style adapted British neoclassical forms to fit a republic.
• Classical architecture mattered because Americans linked Greece and Rome to republican government.
• Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia State Capitol, based on the Maison Carrée, expressed republican ideals.

Virginia State Capitol, Richmond

• The Residence Act of 1790 created a permanent capital.
• Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s 1791 plan for Washington, D.C. gave the city a grand national design.
• The President’s House began in 1792 and the Capitol in 1793.

Religion and national identity

Religious diversity made one national church unrealistic.

• The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) defended liberty of conscience.
• The First Amendment (1791) barred a national establishment of religion.
• Sermons still used providential language, feeding early ideas of American exceptionalism.

Regional Differences and the Limits of Unity

Americans were building one nation, but daily life still felt very regional.

Population diversity mattered too. The new nation included many European groups, enslaved Africans, free Black communities, and American Indian nations.

Belonging had sharp limits:

• The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited citizenship to “free white persons.”
• Republican motherhood gave women a civic role through raising virtuous citizens, but not political equality.
• Slavery directly contradicted revolutionary ideals.
• Indigenous nations remained outside U.S. citizenship and often in conflict with U.S. expansion.