Monroe was born on April 28, 1758. He spent his childhood in Westmoreland County, Virginia, near the southern banks of the Potomac River. His parents-Spence Monroe and Elizabeth Jones Monroe-owned a 500-acre plantation they called Monroe Hall.
James was one of five children. He had an older sister and three younger brothers. Both his father and his mother's brother, Joseph Jones, were friendly with other Virginia patriots. They joined together to resist growing British oppression in the 1760s and early 1770s.
The Monroes owned a modest but comfortable home and provided their children with an education. By 1774, when James was 16 years old, both his parents had died. Jones took in the Monroe boys (their sister, Elizabeth, was married by then). He became a father figure and role model for James. Jones enrolled his nephew at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He encouraged James to study law and consider politics.
Williamsburg was the capital of colonial Virginia. It was an interesting place and time to be a student. News of the Boston Tea Party, which had taken place the year before, had reached Virginia. During the Boston Tea Party, patriots had destroyed three shiploads of British tea to avoid paying a tax on it.
Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Putting the Pieces Together
Americans needed to begin to put the past behind them, come together, and plan for the future in the spring of 1865. But Abraham Lincoln, the man best equipped to lead them and who had hoped to restore the country as smoothly and peacefully as possible, had been assassinated.
LAST SHOTS
The last Confederate forces in the Civil War didn’t surrender in the spring of 1865 or on a battlefield.
AND IN OTHER 1865 NEWS
A group of African Americans stop at the White House’s annual public reception on January 1, where they shake hands with President Abraham Lincoln.
A Plot to Kill President the
For several months, actor John Wilkes Booth’s band of conspirators had plotted to capture President Abraham Lincoln and hold him hostage in exchange for Confederate prisoners.
Let the Thing Be Pressed
In June 1864, Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant began a nearly 10-month campaign in Virginia.
HEALING THE NATION
President Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for the second time on March 4, 1865.
A Helping Hand
The spring season is hard in any agricultural society. Plants and animals are too small to eat.
WAR SHERMAN-STYLE
As far as Union Major General William T. Sherman was concerned, the Civil War had gone on long enough.
PEACE TALKS
The fall of Fort Fisher made clear that the Confederacy’s days were numbered. Southerners were tired and hungry.
FORT FISHER'S FALL
Outnumbered Confederate soldiers inside Fort Fisher were unable to withstand the approach of Union troops by land and the constant Union naval bombardment from the sea.
