Descending spiral: Case studies in political violence in early U.S. history

This research focuses on four distinct episodes of political violence in U.S. history that occurred during a thirty-year span from 1799 to 1829. The four events in question are Fries’ Rebellion of 1799, the German Coast Slave Revolt of 1811, the Baltimore Riots of 1812, and the Cincinnati Riots of 1829. The historiography on political violence in early U.S. history has, so far, been very siloed. Rather than considering different manifestations of political violence together, scholars have tended to isolate events like these from each other and have instead organized their analysis around specific time periods, methods of violence, or shared ideological motivations. The objective of this project is to utilize comparative analysis to bring these four different episodes of political violence into conversation with one another, examining their causes, the reactions by state authorities, and the depictions of them in the press. Some of the most useful sources for this research have been the personal papers of state and local officials, documents from legal investigations, newspapers, and travel narratives that provide insights into the communities in question. Through comparative analysis, this thesis argues that familiar motivations, such as economic frustrations and ethnic prejudices, could help generate acts of political violence in the early U.S. Additionally, government officials displayed a far greater willingness to forcefully confront those engaging in political violence when they directly challenged state authority. When the targets of the violence were private citizens and especially unpopular minority groups, authorities were more reluctant to get involved. The press also showed itself to be inconsistent in how it responded to different acts of political violence, with newspapers allowing their coverage to be influenced by numerous arbitrary factors, such as political affiliations, race, and international affairs. Ultimately, historical research on political violence is vital because it is a phenomenon that we still contend with today. Political issues change over time, but questions surrounding how political violence comes about, how authorities react, and how the press portrays such events are all relevant to the present.