Public Memory of the Revolution and its Participants
In order to accurately write about public memory and its role in our remembering of the American Revolution, we must first define public memory. Public memory is the study of how the public remembers the events that happened in years past. Where history is a collection of knowledge about the past, public memory analyzes the public’s thoughts about these past people, actions, and events.
History exists to remind us of our past. Public memory exists to remind us of our history. Who will we remember? Why will we remember them? Who really chooses the ones we remember? Are there any patterns to be found in the ones that are chosen to exist forever in our public memory? How do we honor those that are chosen? It is with these questions in mind that I will delve into the study of public memory. Using the likes of Nathan Hale, the Oneida tribe, George Robert Twelves Hewes, Crispus Attucks, and Haym Salomon I will attempt to extract and explain the factors that helped catapult them into our memory of the American Revolution.
It is this author’s opinion that there are three major factors which apply to each of our subjects which helped them make the leap into our thoughts whenever it is that we discuss the American Revolution. These factors are as follows: the person or group must have participated in an event or occupation relevant to the Revolution, the person or group must have something which helps define themselves as different from the rest of the participants of said event, and the person or group’s status in public memory changes over time. It is with this basic foundation of factors that we can truly examine the way and reason that some people enter our historical lore while others simply fade away without so much as a page and a gravestone to remember them by.
We can begin by dissecting what it means to have participated in a Revolutionary event. In the case of Nathan Hale and the Oneida tribe, we see active participants of the Revolutionary War, and in Haym Salomon’s case, a participant from afar. In the case of Crispus Attacks, we see a man who met his end during the firing of the first shots in the Boston Massacre. As for George Robert Twelves Hewes, we find a Boston Tea Party participant. Although these are certainly very important events in our history as Americans, we do not go out of our way to remember each and every Revolutionary veteran, Boston Massacre victim, or Boston Tea Partier. What is it that sets a certain person apart from the crowd of souls involved in these events?
Unlike most others in the Revolutionary War, Nathan Hale was a spy for the American forces. A job that was, at the time, looked down upon was enough to make him different. He was a young, patriotic man who would do anything, even participate in the lowly sport of spying, to provide for his country. The Oneida, a tribe aligned with American and French forces during the Revolutionary War, made a name for themselves by providing active duty as a Native American nation. When they could have easily chosen not to align with any side, or to join other Indian tribes in attacking American and French forces, the Oneida chose to create a bond with the forces against the British. Haym Salomon, while not directly involved with the fighting of the American Revolution, was a financier for the cause. A Polish-Jew immigrant, Haym Salomon made a name for himself among the minds of the Revolution as a man brilliant enough with finances to manage the States’ checkbook. Crispus Attucks, who may have been named in books anyway if not quite “remembered” just for being slain in the streets of Boston, was a half-black, half-Indian man. Perhaps the luckiest of those remembered is George Robert Twelves Hewes who, plainly, was remembered for living longer than any of the others who participated in the Tea Party that day. A man who went from the life of a lowly shoemaker would later in life be thrust into a sort of local fame, simply for being an old man with a story. However, we do not make a habit of erecting statues to the living or celebrating holidays in the name of people still alive, it takes time and a spark for an individual or group to truly shine in the annals of our memory.
Time plays an interesting part in the way we view individuals and groups. It is time that can build a legend and time that can destroy one. It is probably Crispus Attucks and the Oneida tribe that best exemplify this quality. Crispus Attucks was born outside of Boston to mixed race parentage in 1723. Being of mixed race (and being referred to primarily as a “mulatto”), his life before the Massacre is somewhat shrouded in mystery. Some historians argue that he was a man of wild behavior, which may have led to his decision to allegedly grab the bayonet of a British soldier and, while equipping a leather tanning instrument in hand as a weapon, attack said soldier. His falling first in what would be called the Boston Massacre was, at the time, little more than a casualty. For years, historians would leave Crispus Attucks out of their books or mention his name in passing; it was not until the dawn of antebellum America, around 75 years later, that Crispus Attucks would be referred to and revered as a black patriot and the first to bleed for his country, which we will discuss further later in this post. On the flip side of the coin we have the Oneida tribe. The Oneida tribe sent active fighters to aid the French and American forces against the British during the Revolutionary War. During the war, the tribe formed bonds with the American and French allies, but especially with French officer Marquis de Lafayette. It was Lafayette who noticed, on his trip back to the States after the war, that the Oneida had been left out of any war remembrance speeches or events. Those tribesmen who had fought with and shed blood alongside French and American men years before were nowhere to be found in neither the physical space surrounding Lafayette nor the mental space of the Americans involved in the celebrations. It was Philip Schuyler who, after the war, said to the Oneida, “sooner should a fond mother forget her only Son than we shall forget you.” However, unlike Philip Schuyler and Marquis de Lafayette, forgetting the Oneida and their contributions is exactly what Americans did. The Oneida had made a major contribution to a war effort that brought the United States of America to fruition and they were effectively slighted a spot in the history books and our public memory. Why did Crispus Attucks go from a relatively unknown biracial man from the outskirts of Boston to a renowned patriot while the Oneida were left to a future of legal battles over land and money? It would seem that a spark is needed to truly propel a figure into our public memory.
Something pushes people to promote a figure’s everlasting memory. In the case of Nathan Hale and George Robert Twelves Hewes, it was the desire to recognize the struggles of becoming a nation and to recognize the ones who were involved in those struggles at a level that allowed the average American to relate. Georges Robert Twelves Hewes received his recognition while still alive; having outlived the rest of the Tea Party’s participants (and somehow holding on to his mental acuity well into his 80’s and 90’s) he was celebrated for standing up against British tyranny. Hewes would make annual appearances in Bostonian celebrations for the day that would induct him into the halls of our memory. While Hewes worked humble laboring jobs like shoemaking and fishing and never really accrued any fortune, big or small, his age and willingness to share his story with a few historians made him a name to remember when speaking about the American Revolution. When we dissect the reason behind our remembrance of Nathan Hale, a few things become apparent. Unlike Hewes, Hale had much more opportunity in the relatively short amount of years he lived. Hale was an eloquent, intelligent, athletic, artistic man who attended Yale; after attending, he joined the Seventh Connecticut Regiment as a Lieutenant. During his time with the regiment, he volunteered to become a spy, knowing that the position was considered less than honorable, because he believed that it was a necessary evil. It was during his stint as a spy that he was caught by British forces and sentenced to hang. Hale, with his last words bravely stated, “I only regret is that I have but one life to lose for my country”. It is for that bravery and dedication to his country (not to mention that quote) that we remember him today. When staring into the face of death he did not falter, he continued to stick up for his belief in what would eventually be the United States of America. It was Hale’s unwavering patriotism, his wisdom far beyond his years, and probably his last words which led the American public to back the building of his monument. Not every person in our public memory was put there simply to memorialize the Revolutionary War, some were hand selected by people trying to promote their own ideas and agenda as well as the American spirit.
Crispus Attucks and Haym Salomon are two examples of individuals whose remembrance is not completely based on their involvement in the Revolution and its origins. Crispus Attucks, who was mentioned earlier is this post, was not mentioned much in history books until about a decade before the Civil War. The reason for this is simple enough: until then, historians and writers would almost never find importance in a half-Indian, half-black ma. It was not until black activists found out that Crispus Attucks was, in fact, a black man that he began to become a symbol for the freedom of blacks throughout America. A common argument for freedom by many black activists was “if the first person to shed blood for the freedom and independence of this country was a black man, should we not have true freedom?” Black leaders would begin to use Attucks for years to come, whenever race was a factor. The memory of Haym Salomon presents us with a similar story. Salomon was a Polish Jew that immigrated to America before the Revolution and during it became a financier for the American cause. It would be Barnet Hodes (another Jewish-Pole descendent) that would, 150 years after the Revolution, propose that a statue be built in honor of Salomon. By requesting that the statue also feature Robert Morris and George Washington, Hodes virtually guaranteed that the statue would be built. Hodes used Salomon’s image to convey a message of minority support in the American Revolution, rather than just a monument to Jewish people, Polish people, or immigrants. By appealing to the entirety of the American public, Hodes was able to get enough donations for a statue of Salomon during the Great Depression. It is this factor which truly decides how we will remember an individual or group. In order to remember somebody there must be a drive and reason to remember them, and being an American that we can aspire to be is reason enough.
Alfred Young's George Robert Twelves Hewes (1742-1840): A Boston Shoemaker and the Memory of the American Revolution
Joseph Glatthaar's Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution
Mitch Kachun's From Forgotten Founder to Indispensable Icon: Crispus Attucks, Black Citizenship, and Collective Memory, 1770–1865
Christopher J. Young's Barnet Hodes’s Quest to Remember Haym Salomon, the Almost-Forgotten Jewish Patriot of the American Revolution
Robert E. Cray Jr.'s The Revolutionary Spy as Hero: Nathan Hale in the Public Memory, 1776-1846
