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American Revolution
John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, showing
theCommittee of Five presenting its work to Congress.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about political and social developments, and the origins and
aftermath of the war. For military actions, see American Revolutionary War.
For other uses, see American Revolution (disambiguation).
In this article, inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies who supported the American
Revolution are primarily referred to as "Americans" or "Patriots," and
sometimes as "Whigs," "Rebels" or "Revolutionaries." Colonists who supported
the British side are called "Loyalists" or "Tories". In accordance with the policy
of this encyclopedia, this article uses American English terminology; in British
English these events are known as the "American War of Independence".
The American
Revolution was a
political upheaval
that took place
between 1765 and
1783 during which
the Thirteen
American
Coloniesbroke
from the British
Empire and
formed an
independent
nation, the United
States of America. The American Revolution was the result of a series of
social, political, and intellectual transformations in American society,
government and ways of thinking. Starting in 1765 the Americans rejected the
authority of Parliament to tax them without elected representation; protests
escalated as in the Boston Tea Party of 1773, and the British imposed punitive
lawsthe Intolerable Actson Massachusetts in 1774. In 1774 the Patriots
suppressed the Loyalists and expelled all royal officials. Each colony now had
anew government that took control. The British responded by sending combat
troops to re-establish royal control. Through the Second Continental
Congress, the Patriots fought the British in the American Revolutionary
War (1775 - 1783).
The British sent invasion armies and used their powerful navy to blockade the
coast. Former Virginia militia soldier George Washington became
the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, working with Congress and
the states to raise armies and neutralize the influence of Loyalists. While
precise proportions are not known, about 40% of the colonists were Patriots,
20% were Loyalists and the rest were neutral or kept quiet. Claiming British
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rule was tyrannical and violated the rights of Englishmen, the Patriot leadership
professed the political philosophies ofliberalism and republicanism to
reject monarchy and aristocracy, and proclaimed that all men are created
equal. The Continental Congress declared independence in July 1776,
when Thomas Jefferson wrote and the Congress unanimously approved
the United States Declaration of Independence. The colonies now became
states, and Congress rejected British proposals for compromise that would
keep them under the king. The British were forced out of Boston in 1776, but
then captured and held New York City for the duration of the war, nearly
capturing General Washington and his army. The British blockaded the ports
and captured other cities for brief periods, but 90% of the people were in rural
areas.
In early 1778, after an invading British army from Canada was captured by the
Americans, the French entered the war as allies of the United States. The
naval and military power of the two sides were about equal, and France had
allies in the Netherlands and Spain, while Britain had no major allies in this
large-scale war. The war turned to the American South, where the British
captured an army atSouth Carolina, but failed to enlist enough volunteers from
Loyalist civilians to take effective control. A combined AmericanFrench force
captured a second British army at Yorktown in 1781, effectively ending the war
in the United States. A peace treaty in 1783 confirmed the new nation's
complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took
possession of nearly all the territory east of theMississippi River and south of
the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada and Spain taking
Florida. Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of a
democratically-elected representative governmentresponsible to the will of the
people.
The period after the peace treaty came in 1783 involved debates between
nationally-minded men like Washington who wanted a strong national
government, and leaders who wanted strong states but a weak national
government. The former group won out the ratification of a new United States
Constitution in 1788. It replaced the weaker Articles of Confederation and
Perpetual Union. The new Constitution established a relatively
strong federal national government that included a strong elected
president, national courts, a bicameral Congress that represented both states
in the Senate and population in the House of Representatives. Congress had
powers of taxation that were lacking under the old Articles. The United States
Bill of Rights of 1791 comprised the first ten amendments to the Constitution,
guaranteeing many "natural rights" that were influential in justifying the
revolution, and attempted to balance a strong national government with strong
state governments and broad personal liberties. The American shift to liberal
republicanism, and the gradually increasing democracy, caused an upheaval
of traditional social hierarchy and gave birth to the ethic that has formed a core
of political values in the United States.[1][2]
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1 Origins
1.1 17641766: Taxes imposed and withdrawn
1.2 17671773: Townshend Acts and the Tea Act
1.3 17741775: Intolerable Acts and the Quebec Act
2 Military hostilities begin
2.1 Prisoners
3 Independence and Union
4 Defending the Revolution
4.1 British return: 17761777
4.2 American alliances after 1778
4.3 The British move South, 17781783
4.3.1 Yorktown 1781
4.4 The end of the war
5 Peace treaty
5.1 Impact on Britain
6 Finance
7 Creating new state constitutions
8 Concluding the Revolution
8.1 Creating a "more perfect union" and guaranteeing rights
8.2 National debt
9 Ideology and Factions
9.1 Ideology behind the Revolution
9.1.1 Natural rights and republicanism
9.1.1.1 Fusing republicanism and liberalism
9.1.2 Impact of Great Awakening
9.2 Class and psychology of the factions
9.3 King George III
9.4 Patriots
9.5 Loyalists
9.6 Neutrals
9.7 Role of women
10 Other participants
10.1 France
10.2 Spain
10.3 Native Americans
10.4 African Americans
11 Effects of the Revolution
11.1 Loyalist expatriation
11.2 Interpretations
11.3 As an example or inspiration
11.4 Status of American women
11.5 Memory
12 See also
13 Notes
14 References
15 Bibliography
15.1 Reference works
15.2 Surveys of the era
15.3 Specialized studies
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Eastern North America in 1775. The British Province of
Quebec, the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic coast and
theIndian Reserve as defined by the Royal Proclamation of
1763. The 1763 "Proclamation line" comprises the border
between the red and the pink areas, while the orange area
represents the Spanish claim.
15.4 Primary sources
16 External links
Origins
A number of
ideas, attitudes
and events led up
to the American
Revolution.
Combined, they
had the effect of a
political and social
separation of 13
of the colonial
possessions from
the home
Kingdom and a
coalescing of
those former
individual colonies
into an
independent
political entity.
The American
revolutionary era
began in 1763,
after a series of
victories by British
forces at the
conclusion of
theFrench and
Indian War ended the French military threat to the British North American
colonies. Adopting the policy that the colonies should contribute more to
maintain the territories as part of what became known as the Empire, Britain
imposed direct taxes (the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts from
1767 onwards). Because the colonies lacked elected representation in the
governing British Parliament, many colonistsregarded the new laws as
illegitimate and a violation of their rights as Englishmen.
17641766: Taxes imposed and withdrawn
Main articles: Sugar Act, Currency Act, Quartering Acts, Stamp Act
1765 andDeclaratory Act
Further information: No taxation without representation and Virtual
representation
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In 1764 the British Parliament enacted the Sugar Act and the Currency Act,
further vexing the colonists. The following year, the British enacted
the Quartering Acts, which required British soldiers to be quartered at the
expense of residents in certain areas. Colonists objected to this as well.
Britain did not expect the colonies to contribute to the interest or the retirement
of debt incurred during its wars, but did expect the Americans to pay a portion
of the expenses for colonial defense. Estimating the expenses of defending the
continental colonies and the British West Indies at approximately 200,000
annually, the British aimed after the end of the French and Indian War (1754
1763) to raise 78,000 of this amount from American taxpayers. In 1765 British
Prime Minister George Grenville and the Parliament passed the Stamp Act,
instituting the first direct tax levied on the colonies. All official documents,
newspapers, almanacs and pamphletseven decks of playing cardswere
required to have the stamps. The colonists objected chiefly on the grounds not
that the taxes were high (they were low),[3] but because they had no
representation in the Parliament. Benjamin Franklin testified in Parliament that
Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of their portion of the
Empire, the local governments raising, clothing and paying nearly twenty-five
thousand men, and spending many millions from American treasuries doing so
in the French and Indian War alone.[4]
In addition to these considerations, by the middle of the eighteenth century,
the British Army had a well-established system in which commissions were
bought and sold. Officer positions were in high demand among the British
aristocracythe rank of captain or major sold for thousands of pounds, and
could be resold once an officer purchased an even higher rank or left the
service.[5] In order to keep such a system viable, the British demanded all of
the commissions for themselves; commissioning colonial officers who would
pay nothing for their commissions was out of the question. Following
the Glorious Revolution of the late seventeenth century, stationing a standing
army in Great Britain during peacetime would have been politically
unacceptable. With some 1,500 well-connected British officers who would have
become redundant in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War, London would
therefore have had to discharge them if they did not assign them to North
America.[6]
In 1765 the Sons of Liberty formed. They used public demonstrations, violence
and threats of violence to ensure that the British tax laws were unenforceable.
While openly hostile to what they considered an oppressive Parliament acting
illegally, colonists persisted in sending numerous petitions and pleas for
intervention from a monarch to whom they still claimed loyalty. In Boston, the
Sons of Liberty burned the records of the vice-admiralty court and looted the
home of the chief justice, Thomas Hutchinson. Several legislatures called for
united action, and nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act
Congress in New York City in October 1765. Moderates led by John
Dickinson drew up a "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" stating that taxes
passed without representation violated theirrights as Englishmen. Colonists
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Burning of the Gaspe
emphasized their determination by boycotting imports of British merchandise.[7]
The Parliament at Westminster saw itself as the supreme lawmaking authority
throughout all British possessions and thus entitled to levy any tax without
colonial approval.[8] Parliament insisted that the colonies effectively enjoyed a
"virtual representation". Americans such as James Otis maintained the
Americans were not in fact virtually represented.[9]
In London, the Rockingham government came to power (July 1765) and
Parliament debated whether to repeal the stamp tax or to send an army to
enforce it. Benjamin Franklin made the case for repeal, explaining the colonies
had spent heavily in manpower, money, and blood in defense of the empire in
a series of wars against the French and Indians, and that further taxes to pay
for those wars were unjust and might bring about a rebellion. Parliament
agreed and repealed the tax (February 21, 1766), but in the Declaratory Act of
March 1766 insisted that parliament retained full power to make laws for the
colonies "in all cases whatsoever".[10]
17671773: Townshend Acts and the Tea Act
Main articles: Townshend Acts and Tea Act
Further information: Massachusetts Circular Letter, Boston
Massacre andBoston Tea Party
In 1767 the Parliament passed
theTownshend Acts, which placed a tax
on a number of essential goods
including paper, glass, and tea.
Angered at the tax increases, colonists
organized a boycott of British goods.
Meanwhile, riots against trade
regulations led to the deployment of
British troops to Boston in 1768. On
March 5, 1770 a large mob gathered
around a group of British soldiers. The
mob grew more and more threatening,
throwing snowballs, rocks and debris at
the soldiers. One soldier was clubbed
and fell.[11]
All but one of the soldiers fired into the
crowd. They hit 11 people; three
civilians died at the scene of the
shooting, and two died after the
incident. The event quickly came to be called the Boston Massacre. Although
the soldiers were tried and acquitted (defended by John Adams), the
widespread descriptions soon became propaganda to turn colonial sentiment
against the British. This in turn began a downward spiral in the relationship
between Britain and the Province of Massachusetts.[11]
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This 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel
Currierwas entitled "The Destruction of Tea
at Boston Harbor"; the phrase "Boston Tea
Party" had not yet become standard.[12]
Responding to protests, in 1770 Parliament withdrew all taxes except the tax on
tea, giving up its efforts to raise revenue. This temporarily resolved the crisis
and the boycott of British goods largely ceased, with only the more radical
patriots such as Samuel Adams continuing to agitate.
In June 1772, in what became
known as the Gaspe Affair,
Americanpatriots including John
Brown burned a British warship
that had been vigorously
enforcing unpopular trade
regulations. About a year
later,private letters were
published in which Massachusetts
Governor Thomas Hutchinson
called for the abridgement of
colonial rights, and Lieutenant
Governor Andrew Oliver called for the direct payment of colonial officials (until
then the purview of the colonial assembly, and a means by which it controlled
the governor). The furor over the affair contributed to Hutchinson's recall, and
brought a conciliatory Benjamin Franklin firmly to the side of the colonists.
In late 1772 Samuel Adams in Boston set about creating new Committees of
Correspondence, which linked Patriots in all 13 colonies and eventually
provided the framework for a rebel government. In early 1773 Virginia, the
largest colony, set up its Committee of Correspondence, on which Patrick
Henry and Thomas Jefferson served.[13]
A total of about 7000 to 8000 Patriots served on "Committees of
Correspondence" at the colonial and local levels, comprising most of the
leadership in their communities Loyalists were excluded. The committees
became the leaders of the American resistance to British actions, and largely
determined the war effort at the state and local level. When the First
Continental Congress decided to boycott British products, the colonial and
local Committees took charge, examining merchant records and publishing the
names of merchants who attempted to defy the boycott by importing British
goods.[14]
In 1773 Parliament decided to lower the price of tea in order to undersell
smuggled Dutch tea. Special consignees were appointed to sell the tea in
order to bypass colonial merchants. In most instances the consignees were
forced to resign and the tea was turned back, but Massachusetts
governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to give into pressure. In Boston on
December 16, 1773 a group of men, led by Samuel Adams and dressed to
evoke American Indians, boarded the ships of the government-favored British
East India Company and dumped an estimated 10,000 worth of tea from their
holds (approximately 636,000 in 2008) intoBoston Harbor. This event became
known as the Boston Tea Party and remains a significant part of American
patriotic lore.[15]
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A 1774 etching from The London
Magazine, copied by Paul
Revere of Boston.Prime Minister Lord North,
author of theBoston Port Act, forces
the Intolerable Actsdown the throat of
America, whose arms are restrained by Lord
Chief Justice Mansfieldwhile Lord
Sandwich pins down her feet and peers up
her robes. Behind them, Mother
Britannia weeps helplessly.
17741775: Intolerable Acts and the Quebec Act
Main articles: Quebec
Act andIntolerable Acts
The British government
responded by passing several
Acts which came to be known as
the Intolerable Acts, which further
darkened colonial opinion towards
the British. They consisted of four
laws enacted by the British
parliament.[16] The first,
theMassachusetts Government
Act, altered the Massachusetts
charter and restricted town
meetings. The second Act,
the Administration of Justice Act,
ordered that all British soldiers to
be tried were to be arraigned in
Britain, not in the colonies. The
third Act was the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until the
British had been compensated for the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party. The
fourth Act was the Quartering Act of 1774, which allowed royal governors to
house British troops in the homes of citizens without requiring permission of the
owner.[17]
In response, Massachusetts patriots issued the Suffolk Resolves and formed
an alternative shadow government known as the "Provincial Congress" which
began training militia outside British-occupied Boston.[18] In September 1774,
the First Continental Congress convened, consisting of representatives from
each of the colonies, to serve as a vehicle for deliberation and collective
action. During secret debates conservative Joseph Galloway proposed the
creation of a colonial Parliament that would be able to approve or disapprove
of acts of the British Parliament but his idea was not accepted. The Congress
instead endorsed the proposal of John Adams that Americans would obey
Parliament voluntarily but would resist all taxes in disguise. Congress called for
a boycott beginning on 1 December 1774 of all British goods; it was enforced
by new committees authorized by the Congress.[19]
The Quebec Act of 1774 extended Quebec's boundaries to the Ohio River,
shutting out the claims of the 13 colonies. By then, however, the Americans
had little regard for new laws from London; they were drilling militia and
organizing for war.[20]
The British retaliated by confining all trade of the New England colonies to
Britain and excluding them from the Newfoundland fisheries. Lord
North advanced a compromise proposal in which Parliament would not tax so
long as the colonies made fixed contributions for defense and to support civil
government. This would also be rejected.
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Join, or Die by Benjamin Franklin was
recycled to encourage the former colonies to
unite against British rule.
Military hostilities begin
Further information: Shot
heard 'round the world, Boston
campaignand Invasion of
Canada (1775)
Massachusetts was declared in a
state of rebellion in February
1775 and the British garrison
received orders to disarm the
rebels and arrest their leaders,
leading to the Battles of
Lexington and Concord on 19
April 1775. The Patriots set siege
to Boston, expelled royal officials from all the colonies, and took control
through the establishment of Provincial Congresses. The Battle of Bunker
Hill followed on June 17, 1775. While a British victory, it was at a great cost;
about 1,000 British casualties from a garrison of about 6,000, as compared to
500 American casualties from a much larger force.[21][22] First ostensibly loyal
to King George III and desiring to govern themselves while remaining in the
empire, the repeated pleas by the First Continental Congress for royal
intervention on their behalf with Parliament resulted in the declaration by the
King that the states were "in rebellion", and the members of Congress were
traitors.
In one of the first incidences of biological warfare, the British Army with the
approval of General Howe deliberately infected thousands of American civilians
and black slaves with smallpox, then sent them behind Continental Army lines
and among the inhabitants of Continental-held towns in late 1775 and early
1776. The ensuing devastation of the Continental Army and the inhabitants
due to the smallpox and disease from infected persons led George
Washington to order that all newly consigned troops and civilians be variolated
(an early form ofvaccination).[23]
In the winter of 1775, the Americans invaded Canada. General Richard
Montgomery captured Montreal but a joint attack on Quebec with the help
ofBenedict Arnold failed.
In March 1776, with George Washington as the commander of the new army,
the Continental Army forced the British to evacuate Boston. The
revolutionaries were now in full control of all 13 colonies and were ready to
declare independence. While there still were many Loyalists, they were no
longer in control anywhere by July 1776, and all of the Royal officials had
fled.[24]
Prisoners
Main article: Prisoners of war in the American Revolutionary War
In August 1775, George III declared Americans in arms against royal authority
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Johannes Adam Simon Oertel. Pulling
Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C.,
ca. 1859. The painting is
a romanticisedversion of the Sons of
Liberty destroying the symbol of monarchy
following the reading of the United States
Declaration of Independence to the
Continental Army and residents on the New
York City commons by George Washington,
July 9th, 1776
to be traitors to the Crown. Although Lord Germain took a hard line, the British
generals on the scene never held treason trials; they treated captured enemy
soldiers as prisoners of war.[25] The dilemma was that tens of thousands of
Loyalists were under American control and American retaliation would have
been easy. The British built much of their strategy around using these
Loyalists.[26]
Following their surrender at the Battles of Saratoga in October 1777, there
were thousands of British and Hessian soldiers in American hands. Therefore,
no Americans were put on trial for treason. The British maltreated the
prisoners they held, resulting in more deaths to American sailors and soldiers
than from combat operations.[26] At the end of the war, both sides released
their surviving prisoners.[27]
Independence and Union
Further information: Lee
Resolution, Articles of
Confederation, Committee of
Fiveand United States
Declaration of Independence
In April 1776 the North Carolina
Provincial Congress issued
the Halifax Resolves, explicitly
authorizing its delegates to vote
for independence.[28] In May
Congress called on all the states
to write constitutions, and
eliminate the last remnants of
royal rule.
By June nine colonies were ready
for independence; one by one the
last four Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland and New York
fell into line. Richard Henry Lee was instructed by the Virginia legislature to
propose independence, and he did so on June 7, 1776. On the 11th a
committee was created to draft a document explaining the justifications for
separation from Britain. After securing enough votes for passage,
independence was voted for on July 2. The Declaration of Independence,
drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson and presented by the committee, was
slightly revised and unanimously adopted by the entire Congress on July 4,
marking the formation of a new sovereign nation, which called itself the United
States of America.[29]
The Second Continental Congress approved a new constitution, the "Articles
of Confederation," for ratification by the states on November 15, 1777, and
immediately began operating under their terms. The Articles were formally
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ratified on March 1, 1781. At that point, the Continental Congress was
dissolved and on the following day a new government of the United States in
Congress Assembledtook its place, with Samuel Huntington as presiding
officer.[30][31]
Defending the Revolution
Main article: American Revolutionary War
British return: 17761777
Further information: New York and New Jersey campaign, Staten Island
Peace Conference, Saratoga campaign and Philadelphia campaign
After Washington forced the British out of Boston in spring 1776, neither the
British nor the Loyalists controlled any significant areas. The British, however,
were massing forces at their naval base at Halifax, Nova Scotia. They returned
in force in July 1776, landing in New York and defeating Washington's
Continental Army at the Battle of Brooklyn in August, one of the largest
engagements of the war. After the Battle of Brooklyn, the British requested a
meeting with representatives from Congress to negotiate an end to
hostilities.[32][33]
A delegation including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin met Howe on Staten
Island in New York Harbor on September 11, in what became known as
the Staten Island Peace Conference. Howe demanded a retraction of the
Declaration of Independence, which was refused, and negotiations ended until
1781. The British then quickly seized New York City and nearly captured
General Washington. They made the city their main political and military base
of operations in North America,holding it until November 1783. New York City
consequently became the destination for Loyalist refugees, and a focal point of
Washington's intelligence network.[32][33]
The British also took New Jersey, pushing the Continental Army into
Pennsylvania. In a surprise attack in late December 1776 Washington crossed
the Delaware River back into New Jersey and defeated Hessian and British
armies at Trentonand Princeton, thereby regaining New Jersey. The victories
gave an important boost to pro-independence supporters at a time when
morale was flagging, and have become iconic events of the war.
In 1777, as part of a grand strategy to end the war, the British sent an invasion
force from Canada to seal off New England, which the British perceived as the
primary source of agitators. In a major case of mis-coordination, the British
army in New York City went to Philadelphia which it captured from Washington.
The invasion army under Burgoyne waited in vain for reinforcements from New
York, and became trapped in northern New York state. It surrendered after
the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777. From early October 1777 until
November 15 a pivotalsiege at Fort Mifflin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
distracted British troops and allowed Washington time to preserve the
Continental Army by safely leading his troops to harsh winter quarters at Valley
Forge.
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Hessian troops hired out to the British by
their German sovereigns.
American alliances after 1778
Further information: France in the American Revolutionary War and Spain
in the American Revolutionary War
The capture of a British army at Saratoga encouraged the French to formally
enter the war in support of Congress, as Benjamin Franklin negotiated a
permanent military alliance in early 1778, significantly becoming the first
country to officially recognize the Declaration of Independence. On February 6,
1778, a Treaty of Amity and Commerce and a Treaty of Alliance were signed
between the United States and France.[34] William Pitt spoke out in parliament
urging Britain to make peace in America, and unite with America against
France, while other British politicians who had previously sympathised with
colonial grievances now turned against the American rebels for allying with
Britain's international rival and enemy.[35]
Later Spain (in 1779) and the Dutch (1780) became allies of the French,
leaving the British Empire to fight a global war alone without major allies, and
requiring it to slip through a combined blockade of the Atlantic. The American
theater thus became only one front in Britain's war.[36] The British were forced
to withdraw troops from continental America to reinforce the valuable sugar-
producing Caribbean colonies, which were considered more important.
Because of the alliance with France and the deteriorating military situation, Sir
Henry Clinton, the British commander, evacuated Philadelphia to reinforce New
York City. General Washington attempted to intercept the retreating column,
resulting in the Battle of Monmouth Court House, the last major battle fought in
the north. After an inconclusive engagement, the British successfully retreated
to New York City. The northern war subsequently became a stalemate, as the
focus of attention shifted to the smaller southern theater.[37]
The British move South,
17781783
Further information: Southern
theater of the American
Revolutionary War and Naval
operations in the American
Revolutionary War
The British strategy in America
now concentrated on a campaign
in the southern colonies. With
fewer regular troops at their
disposal, the British commanders saw the "southern strategy" as a more viable
plan, as the south was perceived as being more strongly Loyalist, with a large
population of recent immigrants as well as large numbers of slaves who might
be captured or run away to join the British.[38]
Beginning in late December 1778, the British captured Savannah and
controlled the Georgia coastline. In 1780 they launched a fresh invasion
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The siege of Yorktown ended with the
surrender of a second British army, marking
effective British defeat.
and took Charlestonas well. A significant victory at the Battle of Camden meant
that royal forces soon controlled most of Georgia and South Carolina. The
British set up a network of forts inland, hoping the Loyalists would rally to the
flag.[39]
Not enough Loyalists turned out, however, and the British had to fight their way
north into North Carolina and Virginia, with a severely weakened army. Behind
them much of the territory they had already captured dissolved into a
chaoticguerrilla war, fought predominantly between bands of Loyalist and
American militia, which negated many of the gains the British had previously
made.[39]
Yorktown 1781
Main article: Siege of Yorktown
The British army under Cornwallis
marched to Yorktown,
Virginia where they expected to be
rescued by a British fleet.[40] The
fleet showed up but so did a
larger French fleet, so the British
fleet after the Battle of the
Chesapeake returned to New York
for reinforcements, leaving
Cornwallis trapped. In October
1781 under a combined siege by
the French and Continental
armies under Washington, the
British surrendered their second invading army of the war.[41]
The end of the war
Support for the conflict had never been strong in Britain, where many
sympathized with the rebels, but now it reached a new low.[42] Although King
George III personally wanted to fight on, his supporters lost control of
Parliament, and no further major land offensives were launched in the
American Theater.[37][43]
Washington could not know that after Yorktown the British would not reopen
hostilities. They still had 26,000 troops occupying New York City, Charleston
and Savannah, together with a powerful fleet. The French army and navy
departed, so the Americans were on their own in 178283.[44] The treasury
was empty, and the unpaid soldiers were growing restive, almost to the point of
mutiny or possiblecoup d'tat. The unrest among officers of the Newburgh
Conspiracy was personally dispelled by Washington in 1783, and Congress
subsequently created the promise of a five years bonus for all officers.[45]
Peace treaty
Main article: Treaty of Paris (1783)
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The peace treaty with Britain, known as the Treaty of Paris, gave the U.S. all
land east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, though not
including Florida (On September 3, 1783, Britain entered into a separate
agreement with Spain under which Britain ceded Florida back to Spain.) The
British abandoned the Indian allies living in this region; they were not a party to
this treaty and did not recognize it until they were defeated militarily by the
United States. Issues regarding boundaries and debts were not resolved until
the Jay Treaty of 1795.[46]Since the blockade was lifted and the old imperial
restrictions were gone, American merchants were free to trade with any nation
anywhere in the world, and their businesses flourished.
Impact on Britain
Losing the war and the 13 colonies was a shock to Britain. The war revealed
the limitations of Britain's fiscal-military state when it discovered it suddenly
faced powerful enemies, with no allies, and dependent on extended and
vulnerable transatlantic lines of communication. The defeat heightened
dissension and escalated political antagonism to the King's ministers. Inside
parliament, the primary concern changed from fears of an over-mighty
monarch to the issues of representation, parliamentary reform, and
government retrenchment. Reformers sought to destroy what they saw as
widespread institutional corruption.[47][48]
The result was a powerful crisis, 17761783. The peace in 1783 left France
financially prostrate, while the British economy boomed thanks to the return of
American business. The crisis ended after 1784 thanks to the King's
shrewdness in outwitting Charles James Fox (the leader of the Fox-North
Coalition), and renewed confidence in the system engendered by the
leadership of the new Prime Minister, William Pitt. Historians conclude that loss
of the American colonies enabled Britain to deal with the French
Revolution with more unity and better organization than would otherwise have
been the case.[47][48]
Finance
Britain's war against the Americans, French and Spanish cost about 100
million. The Treasury borrowed 40% of the money it needed.[49] Heavy
spending brought France to the verge of bankruptcy and revolution, while the
British had relatively little difficulty financing their war, keeping their suppliers
and soldiers paid, and hiring tens of thousands of German soldiers.[50]
Britain had a sophisticated financial system based on the wealth of thousands
of landowners, who supported the government, together with banks and
financiers in London. The efficient British tax system collected about 12
percent of the GDP in taxes during the 1770s.[50]
In sharp contrast, Congress and the American states had no end of difficulty
financing the war.[51] In 1775 there was at most 12 million dollars in gold in the
colonies, not nearly enough to cover current transactions, let alone finance a
major war. The British made the situation much worse by imposing a tight
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blockade on every American port, which cut off almost all imports and exports.
One partial solution was to rely on volunteer support from militiamen, and
donations from patriotic citizens.[52]
Another was to delay actual payments, pay soldiers and suppliers in
depreciated currency, and promise it would be made good after the war.
Indeed, in 1783 the soldiers and officers were given land grants to cover the
wages they had earned but had not been paid during the war. Not until 1781,
when Robert Morris was named Superintendent of Finance of the United
States, did the national government have a strong leader in financial
matters.[52]
Morris used a French loan in 1782 to set up the private Bank of North
America to finance the war. Seeking greater efficiency, Morris reduced the civil
list, saved money by using competitive bidding for contracts, tightened
accounting procedures, and demanded the national government's full share of
money and supplies from the confederated states.[52]
Congress used four main methods to cover the cost of the war, which cost
about 66 million dollars in specie (gold and silver).[53] Congress made two
issues of paper money, in 17751780, and in 178081. The first issue
amounted to 242 million dollars. This paper money would supposedly be
redeemed for state taxes, but the holders were eventually paid off in 1791 at
the rate of one cent on the dollar. By 1780, the paper money was "not worth a
Continental", as people said.[54]
The skyrocketing inflation was a hardship on the few people who had fixed
incomesbut 90 percent of the people were farmers, and were not directly
affected by that inflation. Debtors benefited by paying off their debts with
depreciated paper.The greatest burden was borne by the soldiers of the
Continental Army, whose wagesusually in arrearsdeclined in value every
month, weakening their morale and adding to the hardships suffered by their
families.[55]
Beginning in 1777, Congress repeatedly asked the states to provide money.
But the states had no system of taxation either, and were little help. By 1780
Congress was making requisitions for specific supplies of corn, beef, pork and
other necessitiesan inefficient system that kept the army barely alive.[56][57]
Starting in 1776, the Congress sought to raise money by loans from wealthy
individuals, promising to redeem the bonds after the war. The bonds were in
fact redeemed in 1791 at face value, but the scheme raised little money
because Americans had little specie, and many of the rich merchants were
supporters of the Crown. Starting in 1776, the French secretly supplied the
Americans with money, gunpowder, and munitions in order to weaken its arch
enemy, Great Britain. When France officially entered the war in 1778, the
subsidies continued, and the French government, as well as bankers in Paris
and Amsterdam loaned large sums to the American war effort. These loans
were repaid in full in the 1790s.[58]
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Creating new state constitutions
Following the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, the Patriots had control of
most of Massachusetts; the Loyalists suddenly found themselves on the
defensive. In all 13 colonies, Patriots had overthrown their existing
governments, closing courts and driving British governors, agents and
supporters from their homes. They had elected conventions and "legislatures"
that existed outside any legal framework; new constitutions were used in each
state to supersede royal charters. They declared they were states now, not
colonies.[59]
On January 5, 1776, New Hampshire ratified the first state constitution, six
months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Then, in May
1776, Congress voted to suppress all forms of crown authority, to be replaced
by locally created authority. Virginia, South Carolina, and New Jersey created
their constitutions before July 4. Rhode Island and Connecticut simply took
their existingroyal charters and deleted all references to the crown.[60]
The new states had to decide not only what form of government to create, they
first had to decide how to select those who would craft the constitutions and
how the resulting document would be ratified. In states where the wealthy
exerted firm control over the process, such as Maryland, Virginia, Delaware,
New York andMassachusetts - the last-mentioned of these state's constitutions
still being in force in the 21st century, continuously since its ratification on June
15, 1780 - the results were constitutions that featured:
Substantial property qualifications for voting and even more substantial
requirements for elected positions (though New York and Maryland lowered
property qualifications);[59]
Bicameral legislatures, with the upper house as a check on the lower;
Strong governors, with veto power over the legislature and substantial
appointment authority;
Few or no restraints on individuals holding multiple positions in
government;
The continuation of state-established religion.
In states where the less affluent had
organized sufficiently to have
significant powerespecially
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New
Hampshirethe resulting constitutions
embodied
universal white manhood suffrage,
or minimal property requirements
for voting or holding office (New
Jersey enfranchised some property
owning widows, a step that it
retracted 25 years later);
strong, unicameral legislatures;
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Benjamin Rush, 1783.relatively weak governors, without
veto powers, and little appointing
authority;
prohibition against individuals holding multiple government posts;
Whether conservatives or radicals held sway in a state did not mean that the
side with less power accepted the result quietly. The radical provisions of
Pennsylvania's constitution lasted only 14 years. In 1790, conservatives
gained power in the state legislature, called a new constitutional convention,
and rewrote the constitution. The new constitution substantially reduced
universal white-male suffrage, gave the governor veto power and patronage
appointment authority, and added an upper house with substantial wealth
qualifications to the unicameral legislature. Thomas Paine called it a
constitution unworthy of America.[1]
Concluding the Revolution
Main articles: Philadelphia Convention and United States Bill of Rights
See also: Annapolis Convention (1786) and Federalist Papers
Creating a "more perfect union" and guaranteeing rights
See also: Federalist Party
After the war finally ended in 1783, there was a period of prosperity, with the
entire world at peace. The national government, still operating under the
Articles of Confederation, was able to settle the issue of the western territories,
which were ceded by the states to Congress. American settlers moved rapidly
into those areas, with Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee becoming states in
the 1790s.[61]
However, the national government had no money to pay either the war debts
owed to European nations and the private banks, or to pay Americans who had
been given millions of dollars of promissory notes for supplies during the war.
Nationalists, led by Washington, Alexander Hamilton and other veterans,
feared that the new nation was too fragile to withstand an international war, or
even internal revolts such as the Shays' Rebellion of 1786 in Massachusetts.
Calling themselves "Federalists," the nationalists convinced Congress to call
thePhiladelphia Convention in 1787.[62] It adopted a new Constitution that
provided for a much stronger federal government, including an effective
executive in acheck-and-balance system with the judiciary and
legislature.[63] After a fierce debate in the states over the nature of the
proposed new government, the Constitution was ratified in 1788. The new
government under President George Washington took office in New York in
March 1789.[64] As assurances to those who were cautious about federal
power, amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing many of the inalienable
rights that formed a foundation for the revolution were spearheaded in
Congress by James Madison, and later ratified by the states in 1791.
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Part of the Politics series on
Republicanism
National debt
Further information: United States public debt and Alexander Hamilton
The national debt after the American Revolution fell into three categories. The
first was the $12 million owed to foreignersmostly money borrowed from
France. There was general agreement to pay the foreign debts at full value.
The national government owed $40 million and state governments owed $25
million to Americans who had sold food, horses, and supplies to the
revolutionary forces. There were also other debts that consisted of promissory
notes issued during the Revolutionary War to soldiers, merchants, and farmers
who accepted these payments on the premise that the new Constitution would
create a government that would pay these debts eventually.
The war expenses of the individual states added up to $114 million compared
to $37 million by the central government.[65] In 1790, at the recommendation of
first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Congress combined the
remaining state debts with the foreign and domestic debts into one national
debt totaling $80 million. Everyone received face value for wartime certificates,
so that the national honor would be sustained and the national credit
established.[66]
Ideology and Factions
The population of the 13 Colonies was far from homogeneous, particularly in
their political views and attitudes. Loyalties and allegiances varied widely not
only within regions and communities, but also within families and sometimes
shifted during the course of the Revolution.
Ideology behind the Revolution
Main articles: American Enlightenment, Liberalism in the United
States andRepublicanism in the United States
The ideological movement known as the American Enlightenment was a critical
precursor to the American Revolution. Chief among the ideas of the American
Enlightenment were the concepts of liberalism, republicanism and fear of
corruption. Collectively, the acceptance of these concepts by a growing
number of American colonists began to foster an intellectual environment
which would lead to a new sense of political and social identity.
Natural rights and republicanism
Main articles: John Locke and Republicanism in the United States
This section may be unbalanced towardscertain viewpoints. Please improve thearticle by adding information on neglectedviewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talkpage. (January 2013)
John Locke's (16321704) ideas on liberty
greatly influenced the political thinking
behind the revolution, especially through Central concepts [show ]
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Politics portal
VTE
In this c.1772 portrait by John
Singleton Copley, Samuel Adams
points at the Massachusetts Charter,
which he viewed as a constitution that
protected the people's rights.[67]
his
indirect influence on English
writers.[clarification needed] He is often
referred to as "the philosopher of the
American Revolution," and is credited
with leading Americans to the critical
concepts of social contract, natural
rights, and "born free and
equal."[68] Locke's Two Treatises of
Government, published in 1689, was
especially influential; Locke in turn was
influenced by Protestant
theology.[69] He argued that, as all
humans were created equally free, governments needed the consent of the
governed.[70] Both Lockean concepts were central to the United States
Declaration of Independence, which deduced human equality, "life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness" from the biblical belief in
creation:[original research?][citation needed] "All men are created equal, ... they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.
The Declaration also referred to the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" as
justification for the Americans' separation from the British monarchy. Most
eighteenth-century Americans believed that nature, the entire universe, was
God's creation.[citation needed] Therefore he was "Nature's God." Everything,
including man, was part of the "universal order of things", which began with
God and was pervaded and directed by his providence.[71] Accordingly, the
signers of the Declaration professed their "firm reliance on the Protection of
divine Providence." And they appealed to "the Supreme Judge [God] for the
rectitude of [their] intentions." Like most of his countrymen, George
Washington was firmly convinced that he was an instrument of providence, to
the benefit not only of the American people but of all of humanity.[72]
The theory of the "social contract" influenced the belief among many of the
Founders that among the "natural rights" of man was the right of the people to
overthrow their leaders, should those leaders betray the historic rights of
Englishmen.[73][74] In terms of writing state and national constitutions, the
Americans heavily used Montesquieu's analysis of the wisdom of the
"balanced" British Constitution.
A motivating force behind the revolution was the American embrace of a
political ideology called "republicanism", which was dominant in the colonies by
1775, but of minor importance back in Britain. The republicanism was inspired
by the "country party" in Britain, whose critique of British government
History [show ]
By country [show ]
List [show ]
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emphasized thatcorruption was a terrible reality in Britain.[75] Americans feared
the corruption was crossing the Atlantic; the commitment of most Americans to
republican values and to their rights, energized the revolution, as Britain was
increasingly seen as hopelessly corrupt and hostile to American interests.
Britain seemed to threaten the established liberties that Americans
enjoyed.[76] The greatest threat to liberty was depicted as corruptionnot just
in London but at home as well. The colonists associated it with luxury and,
especially, inherited aristocracy, which they condemned.[77]
The Founding Fathers were strong advocates of republican values,
particularlySamuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,Thomas Paine, George Washington, James
Madison and Alexander Hamilton,[78]which required men to put civic duty
ahead of their personal desires. Men had a civic duty to be prepared and
willing to fight for the rights and liberties of their countrymen and
countrywomen. John Adams, writing to Mercy Otis Warren in 1776, agreed with
some classical Greek and Roman thinkers in that "Public Virtue cannot exist
without private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics." He
continued:
"There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public
Interest, Honour, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of
the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any
real Liberty. And this public Passion must be Superior to all
private Passions. Men must be ready, they must pride themselves,
and be happy to sacrifice their private Pleasures, Passions, and
Interests, nay their private Friendships and dearest connections,
when they Stand in Competition with the Rights of society."[79]
For women, "republican motherhood" became the ideal, exemplified by Abigail
Adams and Mercy Otis Warren; the first duty of the republican woman was to
instill republican values in her children and to avoid luxury and ostentation.
Fusing republicanism and liberalism
While some republics had emerged throughout history, such as the Roman
Republic of the ancient world, one based on liberal principles had never
existed. Thomas Paine's best-seller pamphletCommon Sense appeared in
January 1776, after the Revolution had started. It was widely distributed and
loaned, and often read aloud in taverns, contributing significantly to spreading
the ideas of republicanism and liberalism together, bolstering enthusiasm for
separation from Britain, and encouraging recruitment for the Continental
Army.[80]
Paine provided a new and widely accepted argument for independence, by
advocating a complete break with history. Common Sense is oriented to the
future in a way that compels the reader to make an immediate choice. It offered
a solution for Americans disgusted and alarmed at the threat of tyranny.[80]
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Thomas Paine's pamphletCommon
Sense, published in 1776.
Impact of Great Awakening
Main article: First Great Awakening
Dissenting (i.e. Protestant, non-Church of England) churches of the day were
the "school of democracy."[81] President John Witherspoon of the College of
New Jersey (now Princeton University) wrote widely circulated sermons linking
the American Revolution to the teachings of the Hebrew Bible. Throughout the
colonies, dissenting Protestant ministers (Congregationalist, Baptist,
andPresbyterian) preached Revolutionary themes in their sermons, while most
Church of England clergymen preached loyalty to the King.[82] Religious
motivation for fighting tyranny reached across socioeconomic lines to
encompass rich and poor, men and women, frontiersmen and townsmen,
farmers and merchants.[81]
Historian Bernard Bailyn argues that the evangelicalism of the era challenged
traditional notions of natural hierarchy by preaching that the Bible taught all
men are equal, so that the true value of a man lies in his moral behavior, not
his class.[83] Kidd argues that religious disestablishment, belief in a God as the
guarantor of human rights, and shared convictions about sin, virtue, and divine
providence worked together to unite rationalists and evangelicals and thus
encouraged American defiance of the Empire, whereas Bailyn denied that
religion played such a critical role.[84] Alan Heimert argued, however, that New
Light antiauthoritarianism was essential to the further democratization of
colonial American society, and set the stage for a confrontation with British
monarchical and aristocratic rule.[85]
Class and psychology of the factions
Looking back, John Adams concluded in 1818:
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"The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution
was in the minds and hearts of the people ... This radical change in the
principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real
American Revolution."[86]
In terms of class, Loyalists tended to have longstanding social and economic
connections to British merchants and government; for instance, prominent
merchants in major port cities such as New York, Boston and Charleston
tended to be Loyalists, as did men involved with the fur trade along the
northern frontier.[citation needed] In addition, officials of colonial government and
their staffs, those who had established positions and status to maintain,
favored maintaining relations with Great Britain. They often were linked to
British families in England by marriage as well.[citation needed]
By contrast, Patriots by number tended to be yeomen farmers, especially in the
frontier areas of New York and the backcountry of Pennsylvania, Virginia and
down the Appalachian mountains.[citation needed] They were craftsmen and
small merchants. Leaders of both the Patriots and the Loyalists were men of
educated, propertied classes. The Patriots included many prominent men of
the planter class from Virginia and South Carolina, for instance, who became
leaders during the Revolution, and formed the new government at the national
and state levels.[citation needed]
To understand the opposing groups, historians have assessed evidence of
their hearts and minds. In the mid-20th century, historian Leonard Woods
Labareeidentified eight characteristics of the Loyalists that made them
essentially conservative; traits to those characteristic of the Patriots.[87] Older
and better established men, Loyalists tended to resist innovation. They
thought resistance to the Crownwhich they insisted was the only legitimate
governmentwas morally wrong, while the Patriots thought morality was on
their side.[88][89]
Loyalists were alienated when the Patriots resorted to violence, such as
burning houses and tarring and feathering. Loyalists wanted to take a centrist
position and resisted the Patriots' demand to declare their opposition to the
Crown. Many Loyalists, especially merchants in the port cities, had maintained
strong and long-standing relations with Britain (often with business and family
links to other parts of the British Empire).[88][89]
Many Loyalists realized that independence was bound to come eventually, but
they were fearful that revolution might lead to anarchy, tyranny or mob rule. In
contrast, the prevailing attitude among Patriots, who made systematic efforts to
use mob violence in a controlled manner, was a desire to seize the
initiative.[88][89] Labaree also wrote that Loyalists were pessimists who lacked
the confidence in the future displayed by the Patriots.[87]
Historians in the early 20th century, such as J. Franklin Jameson, examined the
class composition of the Patriot cause, looking for evidence of a class war
inside the revolution.[90] In the last 50 years, historians have largely
abandoned that interpretation, emphasizing instead the high level of
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ideological unity.[91] Just as there were rich and poor Loyalists, the Patriots
were a 'mixed lot', with the richer and better educated more likely to become
officers in the Army.[92][93]
Ideological demands always came first: the Patriots viewed independence as a
means to gain freedom from British oppression and taxation and, above all, to
reassert what they considered to be their rights as English subjects. Most
yeomen farmers, craftsmen, and small merchants joined the Patriot cause to
demand more political equality. They were especially successful in
Pennsylvania but less so in New England, where John Adams attacked Thomas
Paine's Common Sense for the "absurd democratical notions" it
proposed.[92][93]
King George III
Main article: George III of Great Britain
The war became a personal issue for the king, fueled by his growing belief that
British leniency would be taken as weakness by the Americans. The king also
sincerely believed he was defending Britain's constitution against usurpers,
rather than opposing patriots fighting for their natural rights.[94]
Patriots
Main article: Patriot (American Revolution)
Further information: Sons of Liberty
At the time, revolutionaries were called "Patriots", "Whigs", "Congress-men", or
"Americans". They included a full range of social and economic classes, but
were unanimous regarding the need to defend the rights of Americans and
uphold the principles of republicanism in terms of rejecting monarchy and
aristocracy, while emphasizing civic virtue on the part of the citizens.
Newspapers were strongholds of patriotism (although there were a few Loyalist
papers), and printed many pamphlets, announcements, patriotic letters and
pronouncements.[95]
Mark Lender explores why ordinary folk became insurgents against the British
even though they were unfamiliar with the ideological rationales being offered.
They held very strongly a sense of "rights" that they felt the British were
violating rights that stressed local autonomy, fair dealing, and government by
consent. They were highly sensitive to the issue of tyranny, which they saw
manifested in the British response to the Boston Tea Party. The arrival in
Boston of the British Army heightened their sense of violated rights, leading to
rage and demands for revenge. They had faith that God was on their side.[96]
Loyalists
Main article: Loyalist (American Revolution)
While there is no way of knowing the numbers, historians have estimated that
about 1520% of the population remained loyal to the British Crown; these
were known at the time as "Loyalists", "Tories", or "King's men". The Loyalists
never controlled territory unless
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Mobbing the Loyalist by American Patriots
in 177576.
the British Army occupied
it.[97] Loyalists were typically
older, less willing to break with old
loyalties, often connected to
theChurch of England, and
included many established
merchants with strong business
connections across the Empire, as
well as royal officials such as
Thomas Hutchinson of Boston.[97]
The revolution sometimes divided
families; for example, the
Franklins.William Franklin, son of
Benjamin Franklin and governor
of the Province of New Jersey,
remained Loyal to the Crown
throughout the war; he never
spoke to his father again. Recent
immigrants who had not been fully Americanized were also inclined to support
the King, such as recent Scottish settlers in the back country; among the more
striking examples of this, see Flora MacDonald.[97]
After the war, the great majority of the 450,000500,000 Loyalists remained in
America and resumed normal lives. Some, such as Samuel Seabury, became
prominent American leaders. Estimates vary, but about 62,000 Loyalists
relocated to Canada, and others to Britain (7,000) or to Florida or the West
Indies (9,000). The exiles represented approximately 2% of the total population
of the colonies.[98]
When Loyalists left the South in 1783, they took thousands of their slaves with
them to the British West Indies.[98] Before that, tens of thousands of slaves
had escaped, disrupting agriculture particularly in South Carolina and Georgia.
The British freed slaves of rebels who joined them.
Neutrals
A minority of uncertain size tried to stay neutral in the war. Most kept a low
profile, but the Quakers, especially in Pennsylvania, were the most important
group to speak out for neutrality. As Patriots declared independence, the
Quakers, who continued to do business with the British, were attacked as
supporters of British rule, "contrivers and authors of seditious publications"
critical of the revolutionary cause.[99]
Role of women
Main article: Women in the American Revolution
Women contributed to the American Revolution in many ways, and were
involved on both sides. While formal Revolutionary politics did not include
women, ordinary domestic behaviors became charged with political significance
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Abigail Adams
as Patriot women confronted a war that
permeated all aspects of political, civil,
and domestic life. They participated by
boycotting British goods, spying on the
British, following armies as they
marched, washing, cooking, and
tending for soldiers, delivering secret
messages, and in a few cases
like Deborah Samson, fighting
disguised as men. Also, Mercy Otis
Warren held meetings in her house
and cleverly attacked Loyalists with her
creative plays and histories.[100] Above
all, they continued the agricultural work
at home to feed their families and the
armies. They maintained their families
during their husbands' absences and sometimes after their deaths.[101]
American women were integral to the success of the boycott of British
goods,[102]as the boycotted items were largely household items such as tea
and cloth. Women had to return to knitting goods, and to spinning and weaving
their own cloth skills that had fallen into disuse. In 1769, the women of
Boston produced 40,000 skeins of yarn, and 180 women in Middletown,
Massachusetts wove 20,522 yards (18,765 m) of cloth.[101]
A crisis of political loyalties could disrupt the fabric of colonial America women's
social worlds: whether a man did or did not renounce his allegiance to the King
could dissolve ties of class, family, and friendship, isolating women from former
connections. A woman's loyalty to her husband, once a private commitment,
could become a political act, especially for women in America committed to
men who remained loyal to the King. Legal divorce, usually rare, was granted
to Patriot women whose husbands supported the King.[103][104]
Other participants
Further information: Diplomacy in the American Revolutionary War
France
Main article: France in the American Revolutionary War
In early 1776, France set up a major program of aid to the Americans, and the
Spanish secretly added funds. Each country spent one million "livres
tournaises" to buy munitions. A dummy corporation run by Pierre
Beaumarchais concealed their activities. American rebels obtained some
munitions through the Dutch Republic as well as French and Spanish ports in
the West Indies.[105]
Spain
Main article: Spain in the American Revolutionary War
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Spain did not officially recognize the U.S. but became an informal ally when it
declared war on Britain on June 21, 1779. Bernardo de Glvez y Madrid,
general of the Spanish forces in New Spain, also served as governor of
Louisiana. He led an expedition of colonial troops to force the British out of
Florida and keep open a vital conduit for supplies.[106]
Native Americans
Main article: Native Americans in the United States
Further information: Western theater of the American Revolutionary War
Most Native Americans rejected pleas that they remain neutral and supported
the British Crown, both because of trading relationships and its efforts to
prohibit colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. The great
majority of the 200,000 Native Americans east of the Mississippi distrusted the
colonists and supported the British cause, hoping to forestall continued
colonial encroachment on their territories.[107] Those tribes that were more
closely involved in colonial trade tended to side with the revolutionaries,
although political factors were important as well.
Although there was limited participation by Native American warriors except for
those associated with four of the Iroquois nations in New York and
Pennsylvania, the British provided Indians with funding and weapons to attack
American outposts. Some Indians tried to remain neutral, seeing little value in
joining a European conflict and fearing reprisals from whichever side they
opposed. The Oneida andTuscarora peoples of western New York supported
the American cause.[108]
The British provided arms to Indians, who were led by Loyalists in war parties
to raid frontier settlements from the Carolinas to New York. They killed many
scattered settlers, especially in Pennsylvania. In 1776 Cherokee war parties
attacked American colonists all along the southern frontier of the
uplands.[109]While the Chickamauga Cherokee could launch raids numbering
a couple hundred warriors, as seen in the Chickamauga Wars, they could not
mobilize enough forces to fight a major invasion without the help of allies, most
often the Creek.
Joseph Brant of the powerful Mohawk nation, part of the Iroquois Confederacy
based in New York, was the most prominent Native American leader against
the rebel forces. In 1778 and 1780, he led 300 Iroquois warriors and 100 white
Loyalists in multiple attacks on small frontier settlements in New York and
Pennsylvania, killing many settlers and destroying villages, crops and
stores.[110]The Seneca, Onondaga and Cayuga of the Iroquois Confederacy
also allied with the British against the Americans.[111]
In 1779 the Continentals retaliated with an American army under John Sullivan,
which raided and destroyed 40 empty Iroquois villages in central and western
New York.[111] Sullivan's forces systematically burned the villages and
destroyed about 160,000 bushels of corn that comprised the winter food
supply. Facing starvation and homeless for the winter, the Iroquois fled to the
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Niagara Falls area and to Canada, mostly to what became Ontario. The British
resettled them there after the war, providing land grants as compensation for
some of their losses.[112]
At the peace conference following the war, the British ceded lands which they
did not really control, and did not consult their Indian allies. They "transferred"
control to the Americans of all the land east of the Mississippi and north of
Florida. The historian Calloway concludes:
Burned villages and crops, murdered chiefs, divided councils and civil wars,
migrations, towns and forts choked with refugees, economic disruption,
breaking of ancient traditions, losses in battle and to disease and hunger,
betrayal to their enemies, all made the American Revolution one of the
darkest periods in American Indian history.[113]
The British did not give up their forts in the West (what is now the Ohio to
Wisconsin) until 1796; they kept alive the dream of forming a satellite Indian
nation there, which they called a Neutral Indian Zone. That goal was one of the
causes of the War of 1812.[114][115]
African Americans
Further information: Slavery in the United States
Free blacks in the North and South fought on both sides of the Revolution,
butmost fought for the colonial rebels.[citation needed] Crispus Attucks, who died
in a conflict in Boston in 1770, is considered the first martyr of the American
Revolution. Both sides offered freedom and re-settlement to slaves who were
willing to fight for them, especially targeting slaves whose owners supported
the opposing cause.
Many African-American slaves became politically active during these years in
support of the King, as they thought Great Britain might abolish slavery in the
colonies. Tens of thousands used the turmoil of war to escape, and the
southern plantation economies of South Carolina and Georgia especially were
disrupted. During the Revolution, the British tried to turn slavery against the
Americans,[116]but historian David Brion Davis explains the difficulties with a
policy of wholesale arming of the slaves:
But England greatly feared the effects of any such move on its
ownWest Indies, where Americans had already aroused alarm
over a possible threat to incite slave insurrections. The British
elites also understood that an all-out attack on one form of
property could easily lead to an assault on all boundaries of
privilege and social order, as envisioned by radical religious sects
in Britain's seventeenth-century civil wars.[117]
Davis underscored the British dilemma: "Britain, when confronted by the
rebellious American colonists, hoped to exploit their fear of slave revolts while
also reassuring the large number of slave-holding Loyalists and wealthy
Caribbean planters and merchants that their slave property would be
secure".[118] The colonists accused the British of encouraging slave
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revolts.[119]
American advocates of independence were commonly lampooned in Britain for
what was termed their hypocritical calls for freedom, at the same time that
many of their leaders were planters who held hundreds of slaves. Samuel
Johnsonsnapped, "how is it we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the
[slave] drivers of the Negroes?"[120] Benjamin Franklin countered by criticizing
the British self-congratulation about "the freeing of one Negro" (Somersett)
while they continued to permit the Slave Trade.[121]
Phyllis Wheatley, a black poet who popularized the image of Columbia to
represent America, came to public attention when her Poems on Various
Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared in 1773.[122]
During the war, slaves escaped from across New England and the mid-Atlantic
area to British-occupied cities, such as New York. The effects of the war were
more dramatic in the South. In Virginia the royal governor
Lord Dunmore recruited black men into the British forces with the promise of
freedom, protection for their families, and land grants. Tens of thousands of
slaves escaped to British lines throughout the South, causing dramatic losses
to slaveholders and disrupting cultivation and harvesting of crops. For
instance, South Carolina was estimated to lose about 25,000 slaves, or one
third of its slave population, to flight, migration or death. From 1770 to 1790,
the black proportion of the population (mostly slaves) in South Carolina
dropped from 60.5 percent to 43.8 percent; and in Georgia from 45.2 percent
to 36.1 percent.[123]
When the British evacuated its forces from Savannah and Charleston, it also
gave transportation to 10,000 slaves, carrying through on its commitment to
them.[124]They evacuated and resettled more than 3,000 "Black Loyalists"
from New York toNova Scotia, Upper and Lower Canada. Others sailed with the
British to England or were resettled in the West Indies of the Caribbean. More
than 1200 of the Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia later resettled in the British
colony of Sierra Leone, where they became leaders of the Krio ethnic group of
Freetown and the later national government. Many of their descendants still
live in Sierra Leone, as well as other African countries.[125]
Some slaves understood Revolutionary rhetoric as promising freedom and
equality. Both British and American governments made promises of freedom
for service, and many slaves fought in one army or the other. Starting in 1777,
northern states started to abolish slavery, beginning with Vermont, which
ended it under its new state constitution. By court cases, Massachusetts
effectively ended slavery before the end of the century. Usually states
instituted abolition on a gradual schedule with no government compensation of
the owners, and many states, such as New York, New Jersey and Connecticut,
required long apprenticeships of former slave children before they gained
freedom and came of age as adults.
In the first two decades after the war, the legislatures of Virginia, Maryland and
Delaware made it easier for slaveholders to manumit their
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slaves.[126] Numerous slaveholders in the Upper South took advantage of the
changes: the proportion of free blacks went from less than one percent before
the war to more than 10 percent overall by 1810.[127] In Virginia alone, the
number of free blacks climbed: from less than one percent in 1782, to 4.2
percent in 1790, and 13.5 percent in 1810.[127] In Delaware, three-quarters of
blacks were free by 1810.[128]
After this time, few slaves were freed in the South, except those who were
favorites or the master's children. The demand for slaves rose with the growth
of cotton as a commodity crop, especially after the invention of the cotton gin,
which enabled the widespread cultivation of short-staple cotton in the upland
regions. Although the international slave trade was prohibited, the slave
population in the United States increased by the formation of families and
survival of children throughout the South. As the demand for slave labor in the
Upper South decreased due to changes in crops, planters began selling their
slaves to traders and markets to theDeep South in an internal slave trade; it
would cause the forced migration of an estimated one million slaves during the
following decades, breaking up countless families, as young males were most
in demand.
Effects of the Revolution
Loyalist expatriation
About 60,000 to 70,000 Loyalists left the newly founded republic; some left for
Britain and the remainder, called United Empire Loyalists, received British
subsidies to resettle in British colonies in North America,
especially Quebec(concentrating in the Eastern Townships), Prince Edward
Island, and Nova Scotia.[129] The new colonies of Upper Canada (now Ontario)
and New Brunswickwere created by Britain for their benefit. However, about
80% of the Loyalists stayed and became loyal citizens of the United States,
and some of the exiles later returned to the U.S.[130]
Interpretations
Interpretations about the effect of the Revolution vary. Contemporary
participants referred to the events as "the revolution."[131] Greene argues that
the events were not "revolutionary," as the colonial society was not
transformed but replaced a distant government with a local one.[132] Historians
such as Bernard Bailyn,Gordon Wood, and Edmund Morgan accept the
contemporary view of the participants that the American Revolution was a
unique and radical event that produced deep changes and had a profound
effect on world affairs, based on an increasing belief in the principles of the
Enlightenment as reflected in how liberalism was understood during the period,
and republicanism. These were demonstrated by a leadership and government
that espoused protection of natural rights, and a system of laws chosen by the
people.[133] However, what was then considered the people was still restricted
to free white males who were able to pass a property-qualification, about 1/9 of
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the population.[134] Such a restriction made a significant gain of the revolution
irrelevant to women, African-Americansand slaves, poor white men, young
adults, and Native Americans.[135][136] Only with the development of the
American system over the following centuries would a government by the
people promised by the revolution be won for a greater inclusion of the
population.[134]
As an example or inspiration
Further information: Atlantic Revolutions
After the Revolution, genuinely democratic politics became possible.[137] The
rights of the people were incorporated into state constitutions. Concepts of
liberty, individual rights, equality among men and hostility toward corruption
became incorporated as core values of liberal republicanism. The greatest
challenge to the old order in Europe was the challenge to inherited political
power and the democratic idea that government rests on the consent of the
governed. The example of the first successful revolution against a European
empire, and the first successful establishment of a republican form
of democratically elected government, provided a model for many other
colonial peoples who realized that they too could break away and become self-
governing nations with directly electedrepresentative government.[138]
The Dutch Republic, also at war with Britain at that time, was the next country
after France to sign a treaty with the United States, on October 8, 1782.[34] On
April 3, 1783, Ambassador Extraordinary Gustaf Philip Creutz, representing
King Gustav III of Sweden, and Benjamin Franklin, Minister Plenipotentiary of
the United States of America, signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the
U.S.[34]
The American Revolution was the first wave of the Atlantic Revolutions:
the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the Latin American wars of
independence. Aftershocks reached Ireland in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, in
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and in the Netherlands.[139]
The Revolution had a strong, immediate influence in Great Britain, Ireland, the
Netherlands, and France. Ma