Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States between the period 1801 and 1809. He was born on April 13, 1743 at Goochland County in Virginia. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1762. Due to his active involvement in opposing the British rule, he was appointed to the Second Continental Congress in 1776 and was given the privilege to write the Declaration of Independence, which focused on the fundamental human rights. The rights proposed by him; freedom of speech, assembly and to practice religion have become synonymous to American life since then.
Before being appointed as the President, Thomas Jefferson served as a delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates and as a governor of Virginia for the period of two years. He also served as America's minister to France. Jefferson was also appointed as the secretary of state under Washington until 1793.
After a tie vote in the Electoral College, and a deadlock in the House of Representatives, Jefferson was finally elected as the third President of America. In an effort to cut down the national debt, he reduced the number of government employees and military personnel to a great extent. As a young politician, he always fought for the prohibition of slavery in American territories. His brilliant negotiation and tie-ups with France led to the purchase of Louisiana for $15 million, which doubled the size of the nation. Jefferson authorized the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition during the period 1804-1806. In 1809, Jefferson retired to his Virginia plantation home, Monticello. He devoted himself to founding the University of Virginia and finally left his breath on July 4, 1826.
Freedoms/liberties with respect to male factory workers in the North
The factory system began in America in which workers assembled at one location to produce goods and most of the factories were mainly concentrated in the North. There were always issues arising due to immigration and ethnicity, slavery, gender bias, equality and racism. To fill the new factory jobs, a lot of immigrants entered into the United States in the 1840-1850’s. Northern workers had to go to work for extended periods of time without seeing their family and had to work with dangerous machinery. They had to work extremely hard and most of them lost their lives due to fatigue.
Employers always had the freedom and right to hire or terminate the workers with respect to changes in the market. Many female workers were replaced with immigrants who would work for less wages and who were less bothered about factory conditions. This led to the Civil war where workers had to fight for their rights.
The civil war brought the employer’s domination to an end and earned respectable work hours and sufficient wages to the workers. Ever since the workers had some sort of liberty and freedom at work. North workers had to raise funds to reconstruct areas that had been destroyed during the civil war. Many labor unions emerged during this time. Gender bias was brought to an end with this act and women started to work equally like men.
Abolition movement
The Abolition Movement brought to end the slavery of Africans in America. In the North this movement was led by social reformers such as Frederick Douglass and Langston brothers who helped found the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. There were some very great politicians who tried to pass the anti-slavery bill to abolish slavery but the bill did not pass because of controversy over the rights of the slaves. Free blacks were subject to racial separation and discrimination in the North.
At the United States Constitutional Convention of 1787, there were many delegates who debated over slavery, to protect the international slave trade for 20 years. By that time, all the states had individually passed their own laws to abolish the international trade of slaves. In 1806, President Thomas Jefferson denounced the international slave trade and called for a law to make it a crime. The import of slaves into America was officially banned on January 1, 1808 which led to a reduction of over 90% in the volume of the slave trade from Africa to the United States. However, no action was taken on the nation's internal domestic slave trade.
In 1820’s, there were many blacks who brought the concept of Colonization. However, many African Americans opposed colonization, and simply wanted to be given the rights of free citizens in the United States. A crucial change took place in the 1830s, when William Lloyd Garrison, demanded for the abolition of slavery in the United States.
But finally, it was in 1860 that the Abolition Movement succeeded when Abraham Lincoln became the President of America and opposed the spread of slavery in the United States. This was a turning point in the Abolition movement. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1865) which prohibited slavery throughout the country .
Women's Rights movement
Jeannette Rankin’s entry into Congress brought the beginning of the fight for women’s suffrage in the United States which led to the Women’s Rights movement . The first gathering to women’s rights was held in July, 1848 in New York. About 100 people attended the convention out of which two-thirds were women. Many issues were discussed by women reformers such as social and institutional barriers, family responsibilities, and lack of educational and economic opportunities and absence of a voice in political debates.
California Senator Aaron Sargent introduced a women’s suffrage amendment in 1878 in Congress. The late 1880s and early 1890s, saw some volunteers from the middle-class women activists and members of women’s clubs. By 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed. In spite of the new momentum, however, some reformers were impatient with the change. Moreover, they insisted that the failure to extend the right to vote for women might lead women to jam their participation in the war and play a prominent role as workers or volunteers outside the home.
The next main concern was the role of women in local or national political bodies. Many women of the first generation in the Congress were solely dependent on their husbands or fathers for their political power. Moreover, these first women in Congress could not come to a conclusion as to which form the political participation of American women would be effective. Should they be employed in public offices or should they be restricted to just participants in nonpartisan reform groups was a question of major concern.
Finally it was in 1920, that the constitutional victory of suffrage reformers broadened women’s role in government bodies and there after continued throughout the 20th century and the 21st century.
Works Cited
Fredrickson, George M. William Lloyd Garrison:Great lives observed. Prentice-Hall, 1968.
Guelzo, Allen C. Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999.
Josephson, Hannah. Jeannette Rankin: First Lady in Congress. Michigan: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974.
Kuersten, Ashlyn K. Women and the Law: Leaders, Cases, and Documents. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003.
Martha. Independence Hall Association. 4 7 1995. 6 4 2014 <ushistory.org>.
Onuf, Peter. "millercenter." 22 december 2010. millercenter. 6 april 2014 <http://millercenter.org/president/jefferson>.
Peach, John Harding. Thomas Jefferson. Bloomington: CrossBooks, 2012.
