6. American Independence and the Myth of the Founding Fathers

The myth of the Founding Fathers constitutes an American master narrative that has enshrined a group of statesmen and politicians of the revolutionary and post-revolutionary period as personifications of the origin of American nationhood, republicanism, and democratic culture. More so than with the previously discussed individuals and groups, the Founding Fathers epitomize a political myth of origin that is phrased in a language of kinship. The term ‘Fathers’ suggests tradition, legitimacy, and paternity and creates an allegory of family and affiliation that affirms the union and the cohesion of the new nation. When the colonists in the revolutionary decade argued that they were no longer subjects of the British King and that they could now govern themselves, they claimed not only the maturity of the colonies and its ruling elite but also their capacity to produce progenitors in their own right. The construction of ‘new world’ authority and the logic of reproduction went hand in hand

7. The Myth of the Melting Pot

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the metaphor of a "crucible" or "melting pot" was used to describe the fusion of different nationalities, ethnicities and cultures. It was used together with concepts of the United States as an ideal republic and a "city upon a hill" or new promised land. It was a metaphor for the idealized process of immigration and colonization by which different nationalities, cultures and "races" were to blend into a new, virtuous community, and it was connected to utopian visions of the emergence of an American "new man".

8. The Self-Made Man

the notion that upward mobility in US society is unlimited regardless of inherited social and financial status has been used to contrast the US to European societies with rigidly stratified social hierarchies, and to support the claim that the American economic system leads to a higher standard of living in general as well as to a higher degree of individual agency and economic opportunity

The national type of the self-made man and the creed of American mobility imply “parity in competition”, and, in fact, “an endless race open to all” despite the fact that not all start out even or compete on an equal footing, and have been used to bolster the assumption that there are no permanent classes in US society. The providential success of the self-made man was identified with the success of the national project, and expressive individualism was thus regarded not only as the basis for individual but also for collective success.

Puritan concept of Covenant (agreement/завіт) with God

Winthrop said that the Puritans had “entered into Covenant" with God for the work, and if God “ratified this Covenant” by bringing them safely to America, then God "will expect a strict performance of the Articles contained in it.” Winthrop claimed that New England would be a community of love, where everyone would “delight in each other,” identify with one another, “rejoyce together, mourn together, labor and suffer together,” and pray together. The sermon also reveals Winthrop's fundamental belief in the great chain of being as a model for the hierarchic system that underlay his aristocratic social beliefs.

In this famous essay written aboard the Arabella during his passage to New England in 1630, John Winthrop (1606-1676) proclaims that the Puritan had made a covenant with God to establish a truly Christian community, in which the wealthy were to show charity and avoid exploiting their neighbors while the poor were to work diligently. If they abided by this covenant, God would make them an example with the world--a "city upon a hill." But if they broke the covenant, the entire community would feel God's wrath.

In his stress on the importance of a stable community and reciprocal obligations between rich and poor, Winthrop was implicitly criticizing disruptive social and economic changes that were rapidly transforming English society. As a result of the enclosure of traditional common lands, which were increasingly used to raise sheep, many rural laborers were thrown off the land, producing a vast floating population. As many as half of all village residents left their community each decade. In his call for tightly-knit communities and families, Winthrop was striving to recreate a social ideal that was breaking down in England itself.