Garcia 1
Maria Minerva Garcia
HIST-1700-005
Instructor: Chad Kenneth Ostler.
The Market and Equality: She Said, He said
Lecture Review
The documents to review are from Frances Wright and Alexis de Tocqueville. They were written at the beginning of the 1800s during their first visit to America. They talk about the concept of equality and the people’s behavior in the United States.
Frances Wright was a Scottish-born writer and later she became an advocate for slaves, workers, and women in America. She mentions how the people in America use their knowledge in a practical way. She also writes about the correlation between political equality, public virtue and liberty in America.
The productivity in America was an important factor to accomplish a great empire and it is a characteristic of our market system today. Wright mentions, “A people so engaged are not those with whom a lounger might find it agreeable to associate: he seeks amusement, and he finds business…”(Davidson,268). America was merging as a new country and individuals were developing new ideas to improve the government and the states.
In her writings she mentions the division of classes, “the insolence is entailed upon the higher, servility or envy, and often both united upon the lower…” (Davidson,268). It seems contradictory to talk about equality involving the division of social classes at the same time. The higher class was for the ones who owned wealth. They could invest in land or build factories and organize banks which really meant inequality for the rest of the population. In her positive point of view, Wright mentions, “America fortunately had, in her first youth, virtue sufficient to repel the introduction of hereditary honors…”(Davidson,268). Nevertheless, there are many efforts to reduce inequality between the social classes, butstill American’s economic system generates inequality between the social classes today.
When Wright talks about liberty, she gives an idealistic concept when she says, “Liberty is here secure, because it is equally the portion of all.” (Davidson,268). Was it really equalityfor all the people disregarding color and gender,or was it just the assimilation of the concept of democracy? Political equality is where all members of the states have equalrights and obligations. Applying this concept in the Americas during the 1800’s the democracy was in reality applied mostly to all white men. However,it is fair to say white people in the United States had far more freedom rights than many different countries in the world.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker, gives his point of view about equality as a concept more difficult to achieve and asself-contradictory in America. He says, “I saw the freest and most enlightened men, placed in the happiest circumstances which the world affords,”(Davidson,268). De Tocqueville’s amusement about life in American is not deniable, but then he continues his writing about the negative effects in the people of United States when he says, “In the United States a man builds a house to spend his later years in it, and he sells it before the roof is on…” “…he embraces a profession, and gives it up; he settles in a place, which he soon afterward leaves, to carry his changeable longings.” (Davidson,268). It could be very interesting to know which States Alexis de Tocqueville visited during his first trip to America. The culture varied in many different areas especially between the northern and the southern states.
Alexis de Tocqueville writes, “Not only are they themselves powerless, but they are met at every step by immense obstacles, which they did not at first perceive.” (Davidson,268). Alexis de Tocqueville does not mention the kind of obstacles the people in America were facing. However, it can be assumed the market and the economic society influenced the people enough toput high pressure on individuals to stop them from reaching their levels of personal satisfaction. However, were all the people facing the same issue?
De Tocqueville mentions how easy it is to attain certain equality conditions in a democracy. However, the personal satisfaction is never reached. He says,” At every moment they think are about to grasp it; it escapes at every moment from their hold…”(Davidson,268). Personal satisfaction was possibly difficult to obtain in America during that time. The population of the United States was growing during the early 1800s. One of the reasons was people emigrating from Europe. In contrast, after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, a large wave of emigration from France came to America. This lasted through the start of the American Civil War, (Hillstrom 24). Was personal satisfaction easier to reach in France during the 1800s or was it more difficult?
The scope of the optimal level of personal satisfaction will vary according to the individual and the society. The meaning of the word ‘equality’ is very complex and has different interpretations. However, embracing these ideals in society can lead to more freedom rights and less inequality between the social classes.
Work Cited
Davidson, James West, Brian DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, Stoff. Selected Chapters of Experience History Interpreting American’s Past. Volume I Salt lake Community College. McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. 2011. United States of America. Print. Page 268
Hillstrom, Laurie Collier. “French Americans.” Countries and their Cultures. Advameg, Inc. 2012. Web. 12 June 2012. <