American nationalism was superior to Europe because American values were superior, he claimed.[22]. See Brian Pelanda, "Declarations of Cultural Independence: The Nationalistic Imperative Behind the Passage of Early American Copyright Laws, 1783–1787" 58, Citing this article, "at first he kept the, Algeo, John. "[44], Nathan Austin has explored the intersection of lexicographical and poetic practices in American literature, and attempts to map out a "lexical poetics" using Webster's definitions as his base. As time went on, Webster changed the spellings in the book to more phonetic ones. 367 pp. Webster married well and had joined the elite in Hartford but did not have much money. [46], Webster in early life was something of a freethinker, but in 1808 he became a convert to Calvinistic orthodoxy, and thereafter became a devout Congregationalist who preached the need to Christianize the nation. See the fact file below for more information on the Noah Webster or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Noah Webster worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment. His four years at Yale overlapped the American Revolutionary War and, because of food shortages and the possibility of British invasion, many of his classes had to be held in other towns. Webster founded the Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1791 but later became somewhat disillusioned with the abolitionist movement. [40], Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in January 1825 in a boarding house in Cambridge, England. He later defended Jay's Treaty between the United States and Britain. In A Companion to the American Revolution (2008), John Algeo notes: "It is often assumed that characteristically American spellings were invented by Noah Webster. Noah Webster, creator of “An American Dictionary of the English Language” and the ‘Blue-Backed speller’, was an early and important … Webster was instrumental in giving American English a dignity and vitality of its own. He used the King James Version (KJV) as a base and consulted the Hebrew and Greek along with various other versions and commentaries. In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes. "Neglect of Economic Education in Webster's 'Blue-Backed Speller'". “A Citizen of America” [Noah Webster] “An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution” “A Foreign Spectator” [Nicholas Collin] “An Essay on the Means of Promoting Federal Sentiments in the United States”: I, IV, VI, VII, X, XV, XX, XXI, XXIII He moved back to New Haven in 1798; he was elected as a Federalist to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1800 and 1802–1807. However, after 1840, Webster's books lost market share to the McGuffey Eclectic Readers of William Holmes McGuffey, which sold over 120 million copies. He wrote so much that a modern bibliography of his published works required 655 pages. Webster wrote, "slavery is a great sin and a general calamity—but it is not our sin, though it may prove to be a terrible calamity to us in the north. Culturally conservative Federalists denounced the work as radical—too inclusive in its lexicon and even bordering on vulgar. Noah Webster, Jr. (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843), was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author. [55], American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, writer, editor, and author, American Reformers: Early/Mid 1800s: Noah Webster. "[33] He also added American words, like "skunk", that did not appear in British dictionaries. Webster said that children pass through distinctive learning phases in which they master increasingly complex or abstract tasks. His 1828 American Dictionary contained the greatest number of Biblical definitions given in any reference volume. Webster went on to become an ardent member of the Federalist Party. [36] It ended with two pages of important dates in American history, beginning with Columbus's discovery of America in 1492 and ending with the battle of Yorktown in 1781. Hamilton subsidized the Federalist editors, wrote for their papers and in 1801 established his own paper, the New York Evening Post. There was no mention of God, the Bible, or sacred events. Most of them already existed as alternative spellings. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education". Vile, John R. “Noah Webster: Proposing and Promoting Stronger National Union through the Power of Language.” In Introduction to Noah Webster: Sketches of American Policy. Although he practiced law for some time, he became best known for his writings, which began with a speller, a grammar, and a reader for school students and culminated in 1828 with the publication of his 70,000-word American Dictionary of the English Language. He also published the semi-weekly publication The Herald, A … There he found the belief that a nation's linguistic forms and the thoughts correlated with them shaped individuals' behavior. 1828. Its The Imperial Dictionary, English, Technological, and Scientific, Adapted to the Present State of Literature, Science, and Art; On the Basis of Webster's English Dictionary used Webster's for most of their text, adding some additional technical words that went with illustrations of machinery. He remains best known, however, for furthering a distinctive American brand of the English language and for uniting pupils around common readings on American history. [45], In 1850 Blackie and Son in Glasgow published the first general dictionary of English that relied heavily upon pictorial illustrations integrated with the text. Declarations of Cultural Independence: The Nationalistic Imperative Behind the Passage of Early American Copyright Laws, 1783–1787, The Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society, Noah Webster Collection, Special Collections, Jones Library, Amherst MA, Searchable Webster's 1828 wildcard dictionary, A proposal for spelling reform from his younger and more radical days, Online Webster Bible Searchable by verse and keywords, Commentary of a Speech by Noah Webster on July 4, 1802, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Noah_Webster&oldid=1004953131, English-language spelling reform advocates, Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Members of the Connecticut House of Representatives, Members of the New York Manumission Society, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2019, Articles needing additional references from April 2017, All articles needing additional references, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with default search, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with multiple identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Eliza Steele (1803–1888) m. Rev. In 1793, Alexander Hamilton lent him $1,500 to move to New York City to edit the leading Federalist Party newspaper. During the ratification debates of the US Constitution, there was conversation over the necessity of a bill of rights to define people’s rights and limit the government’s powers. Noah Webster married Rebecca Greenleaf (1766–1847) on October 26, 1789, New Haven, Connecticut. Some publications certainly may be a breach of civil law. Webster's mother spent long hours teaching her children spelling, mathematics, and music. Now relocated to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. ", Gallardo, Andres. Webster would later contend that he played a pivotal role on designing the Constitution. The fourth son of five children of Noah and Mercy Steele Webster, young Noah showed exceptional scholarly talents as a child, and his father sacrificed much in order that his son would gain the best education available. To replace it, he sought to create a utopian America, cleansed of luxury and ostentation and the champion of freedom. The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay promoting the ratification of... Noah Webster Dictionary First dictionary of the American Language. Webster dedicated his Speller and Dictionary to providing an intellectual foundation for American nationalism. Or rather, where will you end? This master linguist understood the power of words, their definitions, and the need for precise word usage in communication to maintain independence. ", This page was last edited on 5 February 2021, at 06:32. "[37] Later in life, Webster became intensely religious and added religious themes. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-eight languages, including Old English, Gothic, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Welsh, Russian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit. In terms of political theory, he de-emphasized virtue (a core value of republicanism) and emphasized widespread ownership of property (a key element of Federalism). Students received the usual quota of Plutarch, Shakespeare, Swift, and Addison, as well as such Americans as Joel Barlow's Vision of Columbus, Timothy Dwight's Conquest of Canaan, and John Trumbull's poem M'Fingal. [28] Webster also played a critical role lobbying individual states throughout the country during the 1780s to pass the first American copyright laws, which were expected to have distinct nationalistic implications for the infant nation.[29]. It also helped create the popular contests known as spelling bees. Webster helped found the Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1791,[51] but by the 1830s rejected the new tone among abolitionists that emphasized that Americans who tolerated slavery were themselves sinners. One biographer said, "The dictionary was no mere reference book to her; she read it as a priest his breviary—over and over, page by page, with utter absorption. His goal was to provide a uniquely American approach to training children. His blue-backed speller books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read. Webster thought that Americans should learn from American books, so he began writing the three volume compendium A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. 1774 At age 16 Noah went to Yale University in New Haven. He was also influential in establishing the Copyright Act of 1831, the first major statutory revision of U.S. copyright law. 1772 At age 14 Noah was taught by the local minister to prepare him for college. "[24] The pamphlet was influential, particularly outside New York State. He passed the bar examination after studying law under Oliver Ellsworth and others, but was unable to find work as a lawyer. Despite getting his early education in a broken down, one-room schoolhouse, Noah Webster received acceptance to Yale University. [34], Part three of his Grammatical Institute (1785) was a reader designed to uplift the mind and "diffuse the principles of virtue and patriotism. Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. [6], Webster's father never attended college, but he was intellectually curious and prized education. (1828; 2nd ed., 1840). Clark, N.J.: Law Book Exchange, 2007. Though it now has an honored place in the history of American English, Webster's first dictionary only sold 2,500 copies. His American Dictionary emphasized the virtues of social control over human passions and individualism, submission to authority, and fear of God; they were necessary for the maintenance of the American social order. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education." They also spelled, pronounced, and used English words differently. Many federalists believed such a bill of rights would not only be unnecessary, but would weaken the constitution and the people, and give the government powers they should have. As such, he supported the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the latter of which made it a federal crime to print libelous criticism of governmental officials. Webster himself saw the dictionaries as a nationalizing device to separate America from Britain, calling his project a "federal language", with competing forces towards regularity on the one hand and innovation on the other. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in the United States. As a result, he was repeatedly denounced by the Jeffersonian Republicans as "a pusillanimous, half-begotten, self-dubbed patriot," "an incurable lunatic," and "a deceitful newsmonger ... Pedagogue and Quack." This article was originally published in 2009. In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. For more pictures go to the Media section. In December, he founded New York's first daily newspaper American Minerva (later known as the Commercial Advertiser), which he edited for four years, writing the equivalent of 20 volumes of articles and editorials. [18] He then founded a private school catering to wealthy parents in Goshen, New York and, by 1785, he had written his speller, a grammar book and a reader for elementary schools. [43], Scholars have long seen Webster's 1844 dictionary to be an important resource for reading poet Emily Dickinson's life and work; she once commented that the "Lexicon" was her "only companion" for years. Over the course of 385 editions in his lifetime, the title was changed in 1786 to The American Spelling Book, and again in 1829 to The Elementary Spelling Book. Poets mined his dictionaries, often drawing upon the lexicography in order to express word play. Connecticut History, May 28, 2016. Webster, Noah. Although he wrote essays favoring ratification of the new Constitution, Webster did not think a bill of rights was necessary. Rollins, Richard M. "Words as Social Control: Noah Webster and the Creation of the American Dictionary". New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1998. [39], In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. "The Effects of the Revolution on Language," in. 1775 Noah saw George Washington (Commander in Chief of the Army) as he passed through New Haven on his way to Boston. Additionally, he worked for Alexander Hamilton writing pieces in support of the Federalist Party. Noah Webster, Noah Hamilton And James Wilson's Argument Against The Bill Of Rights. [16] Turning to literary work as a way to overcome his losses and channel his ambitions,[17] he began writing a series of well-received articles for a prominent New England newspaper justifying and praising the American Revolution and arguing that the separation from Britain would be a permanent state of affairs. Webster was a Federalist, supported Alien and Sedition Acts. "Noah Webster and the Dream of a Common Language." God's Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct."[49][50]. DAI 1981 41(8): 3557-A. Several of those masterly addresses of Congress, written at the commencement of the late Revolution, contain such noble, just, and independent sentiments of liberty and patriotism, that I cannot help wishing to transfuse them into the breasts of the rising generation.". 3 Webster's New Haven home, where he wrote An American Dictionary of the English Language. Noah Webster: A Citizen of New Haven Roger Sherman: A Columbian Patriot Mercy Warren: A Countryman Roger Sherman: A Country Federalist James Kent: Crito Stephen Hopkins: Examiner Charles McKnight: Federal Farmer: Anti-Federalist. The Bible was America's basic text book in all fields. He believed that American nationalism was superior to Europe because American values were superior. [47] Webster grew increasingly authoritarian and elitist, fighting against the prevailing grain of Jacksonian Democracy. Nov 23, 1787: Agrippa I (Massachusetts) Nov 24, 1787: Federalist Paper No. A strong supporter of the American Revolution and the ratification of the United States Constitution, Webster later criticized American society for being in need of an intellectual foundation. John R. Vile. 1762), and two sisters, Mercy (1749–1820) and Jerusha (1756–1831). In 1837, Webster warned his daughter Eliza about her fervent support of the abolitionist cause. Of all the memorable eras that have marked the progress of men from the savage state to the refinements of luxury, that which has combined them into society, under a wise system of government, and given form to a nation, has ever been recorded and celebrated as the most important.Legislators have ever been deemed the greatest benefactors of … He was one of the few Americans who paid much attention to French theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau. [9], At age fourteen, his church pastor began tutoring him in Latin and Greek to prepare him for entering Yale College. Noah Webster (1758-1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, political writer, and editor. The following year, he started working on an expanded and comprehensive dictionary, finally publishing it in 1828. Noah Webster Jr. (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author. [Noah Webster, of later dictionary fame, was a strong Federalist who wrote an early pamphlet, An Examination Into The Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (October 10, 1787), under the pseudonym A Citizen of America. [3], In 1793, Alexander Hamilton recruited Webster to move to New York City and become an editor for a Federalist Party newspaper. Nevertheless, he soon closed it and left town, probably because of a failed romance. Webster served in the Connecticut Militia. They had eight children: He moved to Amherst, Massachusetts in 1812, where he helped to found Amherst College. Here was the first appearance of 'civics' in American schoolbooks. He became a prolific author, publishing newspaper articles, political essays, and textbooks. Noah Webster [electronic resource]. For decades, he was one of the most prolific authors in the new nation, publishing textbooks, political essays, a report on infectious diseases, and newspaper articles for his Federalist party. John Vile is a professor of political science and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University. The Last Founding Father - James Monroe and. [13] While studying law under future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth, Webster also taught full-time in Hartford—which was grueling, and ultimately impossible to continue. His "Blue-backed Speller" books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read. He organized his speller accordingly, beginning with the alphabet and moving systematically through the different sounds of vowels and consonants, then syllables, then simple words, then more complex words, then sentences.[32].
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