𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔 𝗜𝗡 𝟭𝟳𝟴𝟵: 𝗔 𝗦𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗟, 𝗣𝗢𝗢𝗥, 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞𝗬 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 | Zane History Buff 🇺🇸🦅

Zane History Buff.  ·

 

𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔 𝗜𝗡 𝟭𝟳𝟴𝟵: 𝗔 𝗦𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗟, 𝗣𝗢𝗢𝗥, 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞𝗬 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧

— Zane History Buff

 

In 1789, the United States was not a superpower.

It was smaller than modern Los Angeles County, broke, mostly farmland, and nobody was sure it would survive 10 years—let alone 200+.

 

Here’s what the USA actually looked like when George Washington took the oath.

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A Skinny Country on the Coast

• Only 13 states, hugging the Atlantic coast

• Population: around 3.9–4 million people

• Biggest cities (still tiny by modern standards):

• Philadelphia – ~40,000

• New York City – similar size

• Boston, Charleston, Baltimore – important but not huge

• Most people lived on farms, in villages, or frontier cabins, not cities

 

West of the Appalachians was mostly frontier and contested territory:

• The U.S. claimed land to the Mississippi River

• Spain controlled New Orleans and the river’s mouth

• Britain still had forts near the Great Lakes despite losing the Revolution

The US was basically a thin coastal strip with a giant, uncertain interior.

⸻

A Brand-New Government, No Guarantee It Would Work

1789 is Year 1 of the Constitution in action.

Before this, the US used the Articles of Confederation—a loose, weak system that almost fell apart.

Now:

• George Washington becomes first President in April 1789 (in New York City, not DC)

• The First Congress meets and starts:

• Setting up federal courts

• Creating the Departments of War, State, Treasury

• Arguing about how powerful the federal government should be

• James Madison introduces amendments that become the Bill of Rights

 

There are no official parties yet, but factions are forming:

• Hamilton & the Federalists – want a strong central government, finance, trade, closer ties with Britain

• Jefferson & emerging Democratic-Republicans – want more power to states and farmers, suspicious of centralized authority

 

In 1789, the Constitution is an untested experiment.

Plenty of people think it might collapse or drift into monarchy or chaos.

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A Farm Republic in Serious Debt

The economy in 1789:

• Over 90% rural

• Most people are farmers—subsistence or small commercial farms

• No railroads, no telegraph, no factories in the modern sense 

 

Regional flavors:

• New England – small farms, fishing, coastal trade, early mills

• Middle States (NY, PA, NJ) – mixed farming, trade, growing towns

• South (VA, MD, NC, SC, GA) – plantation agriculture:

• Tobacco, rice, indigo, and soon cotton

• Dependent on enslaved labor

 

Financial reality:

• The national government is deeply in debt from the Revolution

• Individual states are heavily in debt too

• There’s no central bank yet, and currency is messy

 

When Washington takes office, the US is closer to a fragile startup than to an empire.

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Freedom for Some, Slavery for Many

The rhetoric says “all men are created equal”.

 

The reality in 1789:

• Roughly 1 in 5 people in the U.S. is enslaved

• Slavery is legal and central to the economy in the Southern states

• Some Northern states are starting gradual abolition, but slavery still exists there too

 

The new Constitution has just:

• Counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for representation

• Protected the international slave trade from being banned before 1808

 

Women:

• Cannot vote (with a brief, narrow exception in early New Jersey property law)

• Are legally controlled by fathers or husbands in most states

• Have no formal political rights, despite crucial roles in homes, farms, shops, and informal politics

 

Native American nations:

• Are treated as foreign nations and obstacles, not citizens

• Control large areas west of the Appalachians

• Are already in violent conflict with US settlers and militias, especially in the Ohio Valley

 

So the “land of liberty” in 1789 is really:

A republic dominated by white male property owners, built on

enslaved African labor, ongoing Native dispossession, and

women largely shut out of official power.

⸻

A Small Republic in a World of Empires

On the global map, the U.S. in 1789 is:

• Weak militarily

• Not yet a major trading power

• Surrounded by empires:

• Britain in Canada & western forts

• Spain in Florida, Louisiana (Mississippi mouth), and the Southwest

• France in the Caribbean and still influential

 

Americans are nervous about:

• British influence on the frontier

• Spanish control of New Orleans and Western trade

• Being dragged into European wars

 

And just as the U.S. gets its new government going, across the Atlantic:

• The French Revolution begins in 1789

• That will soon split American opinion and pressure Washington’s foreign policy

 

The United States is a small, experimental republic in a world of kings.

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Everyday Life: Half Colonial, Half “American”

Life in 1789 still feels very much 18th century:

• Lighting by candles and oil lamps

• Heat from fireplaces and wood stoves

• Water from wells, streams, and pumps

• No electricity, no cars, no phones—news travels by horse, ship, and rumor

 

Culture:

• High literacy rates among white men in many regions

• Newspapers and pamphlets are fiery, partisan, and influential

• Churches are central to community and politics

 

Yet something new is emerging:

• People call themselves “Americans”, not just Virginians or former Britons

• The Revolution is already being turned into a founding myth

• Writers and politicians are asking: Can a republic this big actually last?

They don’t know the answer.

They are living the question.

⸻

The US in 1789 in One Line

A small, rural, deeply unequal, heavily indebted republic,

just launching a risky new Constitution under George Washington,

surrounded by empires, unsure if it would survive—

but already carrying the seeds of the superpower it would one day become.

— 𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔 𝗜𝗡 𝟭𝟳𝟴𝟵: 𝗔 𝗦𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗟, 𝗣𝗢𝗢𝗥, 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞𝗬 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧

⸻

𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦

• Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution

• Alan Taylor, American Revolutions and American Republics

• Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers and American Creation

• Jack N. Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution

• Carol Berkin, A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution

• Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America

• Daniel K. Richter, Facing East from Indian Country

 

#EarlyAmerica #1789 #GeorgeWashington #FoundingEra #USHistory #Constitution #ZaneHistoryBuff