Dreaming in America

From the Puritans who left everything they knew to come to a strange place and start over, to Thomas Jefferson who enjoyed his wine, the American Dream is the common cultural trend during the colonial to the revolutionary period, even onto today. The idea of the American Dream as we know it is upward movement in society, in money, and just in life in general. This idea that if we work hard and commit ourselves we can do better, that is the American Dream.  All people of all classes are capable of this and go about achieving it in different ways.

For the Puritans the American Dream was reform, and “reform meant starting over, building a new society of believers for themselves and their children.” [1] In short the Puritans were looking for freedom. More so than anything else they wanted to ability to practice their religion in a place where they were surrounded by likeminded people. The reason the Dream is so important in the case of the Puritans is that these people were not poor and looking for work (though that is the American Dream for some future immigrants), these were “relatively well educated people who in many cases had substantial financial resources at their disposal, making their decision to leave everything behind all the more striking”. [2] Therefore these were middle class, sometimes much higher classed people who left in search of something unknown but all because they wanted something better. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were another set who strove for better things.

After much trouble with England through taxation and general laws without representation from the Americas in Parliament, the Congressman of America wrote the Declaration of Independence. This document proclaimed that America should be free of British control and above other things that all men are equal and deserve life, liberty and happiness. Though “it said a bunch of things that may well have been wishful thinking” it was and is a symbol of the American Dream and what makes us as a country. [3] However the Declaration is very broadly termed, and truly the American Dream is personal.

The idea of the American Dream is not simply freedom of religion, it is also about money. The ability to push upward in society through advancement and hard work is a very common American Dream. Though George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had already attained great popularity in society, it was their ever constant efforts at earning money that show this particular dream. Though Washington had earned a great fortune before the Revolutionary war, that did not stop him during his retirement from trying to continue it. A great farmer and gardener, Washington at first had a tobacco dependency, but upon realizing “he could not make a decent profit off of tobacco” because of the many fees involved, he soon “decided that he had to diversify into other crops and even other endeavors – some farm related some not” in order to make his land profitable. [4] Washington ever looking forward and unafraid of change even went so far as to build a threshing barn, distillery, and fishing net five hundred feet long all in order to make more money on his farm. Thomas Jefferson was not far behind him. Though Jefferson had more money problems then Washington he was ever trying to better his bank account by trying new ideas. In one instance he was so sure the profit to be made from foreign products that he continuously tried to plant olive trees (which never would grow in the Virginia climate), and grapes for wine. Though neither of these worked Jefferson continued trying new ideas and looked for ways to turn a profit. Money has always been a standard of bettering ones position in life, and therefore ties into many peoples personal American Dreams.

Finally I would just like to mention the dream of a baker. Working for George Washington is probably not all bad, being head chef in the White House either, but for Hercules Washington it was probably not what he wanted. Right before Washington left Philadelphia, his head baker and slave Hercules Washington disappeared and was never heard or found again. The Dream of something better is so strong that people will leave everything they know behind and cross a dangerous ocean to get it, and a slave will run from his master just to find it.

[1] Jim Cullen, The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation (New York: Oxford Press, 2003), 15.

[2] ibid., 17.

[3] ibid., 45.

[4] Dave DeWitt, The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine (Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2010), 75.

Finally I found this website that explains a bit about Hercules Washington.

 http://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/slaves/hercules.htm

I like knowing that even though of course by leaving he was free, but that in 1801 it was legally so.