Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870
Channel: US National Archives
Date: 2021-05-19

Known as the age of democracy, the nineteenth century witnessed the extension of the franchise and the rise of party politics. In Democracy by Petition, award-winning author Daniel Carpenter shows, however, democracy in America emerged not merely through elections and parties, but through the transformation of an ancient political tool: the petition. A statement of grievance accompanied by a list of signatures, the petition afforded women and men excluded from formal politics the chance to make their voices heard and to reshape the landscape of political possibility. This pioneering work of political history recovers the central and largely forgotten role that petitioning played in the formative years of North American democracy.   For Live Captioning, use:  https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=DemocracybyPetition16371