“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.”

—John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756

General Introduction

The Age of the American Revolution begins with the growing alienation between the American colonies and the mother country, takes us through the revolutionary war and the struggle for independence, and ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1783 which gave America independence.

We Americans tend to take our American Revolution for granted.  We assume that it was inevitable, in more ways than one: we assume that it had to happen, and that the outcome was more or less foreordained.  Both those assumptions have been challenged and are still worthy of discussion.  We also assume that the event was truly revolutionary, a radical break with the old order and old ideas. That assumption also bears close scrutiny, for the American Revolution was in some ways conservative in that it did preserve much that was old, much that the colonists feared losing.  Yet historians like Gordon Wood have argued that the American Revolution was as radical as any in history, an event that has had repercussions well into this century in corners of the world that few would connect with the events of 1776. Our great revolution is in some ways still going on, in some ways still unfinished, but in many ways still an event which has the power to capture our imaginations.

Questions with which we will concern ourselves include:

• The years of discontent: How, when and why did the Revolution really begin?
• Was the American revolutionary war inevitable?
• Were the colonists justified in taking up arms against the Crown?
• The war for independence: How glorious was the cause?
• How revolutionary was the American Revolution?
  • What changed?
  • What remained the same, if anything?

At the end of this section students should have a clear understanding of how the United States were created and have an appreciation for the courage of those who fought and died to gain freedom for America.

American Revolution resources

• Readings on the American Revolution

• A Companion Site to go with the PBS Series on the Revolution

• Early America Review has Articles on the Revolutionary Period

• A Site Devoted to the Collaborative Learning of History

• History Reviews On-Line is a DePauw University Site

• The University of Kansas Library has Many Links to American History Sites

• This American Revolution Site is at Michigan State University

• The University of Groningen (Netherlands) has a collection of American History Sources

• The Independence Hall Association Focuses on Events at that Place

GENERAL:

• The American Revolution is generally dated 1763-1789, from the opening of resistance to the launching of government under the Constitution. Those dates are significant, but the revolution actually began before that, and continued long after.
• The American Revolution can still teach us much about ourselves as a nation.
• We can also understand subsequent historic events more clearly:
• During the American Civil War both sides felt they were fighting for the legacy of the Revolution;
• The American experience in Vietnam had similarities with that older conflict.
• The American Revolution stretched far beyond our shores—it was an event that touched the world.
• It is interesting to compare our Revolution with the French Revolution—Some of the same players were involved.

SUMMARY OF CONDITIONS IN 1763:

• The French are out of North America—Great Britain stands “astride the world like a colossus.”
• The British government is deeply in debt, although Great Britain is a wealthy nation.
• The colonies are now prosperous and large enough in population to begin to attract more attention from Parliament.
• The idea of different-ness from Great Britain has been around for some time, but few if any Americans are thinking about formal separation (independence) from Great Britain.
• The idea of republicanism (democracy) is not highly developed. On the contrary, it is considered a highly radical concept that is not well received, especially among the ruling classes. Republicans are seen as wild-eyed fanatics who favor mob rule. Americans are likely much more progressive than their European cousins on this issue.
• Americans are well versed in political philosophy from reading John Locke and others. American ideology also heavily emphasizes the idea of “virtue” as a necessary component of political structure—an idea from the Enlightenment.
• Between 1763 and 1775, Americans increasingly rebel against tightening English rule and struggle to maintain the status quo which had existed before the French and Indian War.
• The Americans assume that their own colonial legislatures are equivalents of Parliament. They believe that since they are not represented in Parliament, only their own assemblies can tax them. These ideas are sorely tried by the British.
• Americans still believe in the British Constitution, though they see it somewhat differently from many British.
• Bottom Line: There is no thought of independence yet, but Americans do perceive a different-ness between themselves and their British cousins.

Many theories of revolution exist, but they do not always explain what happened in America.  For example, one assumed necessary ingredient of revolution is widespread discontent, yet the average American was in general as well off as anyone in the world at that time.  Yet revolutions do tend to have certain things in common. Of necessity they start with discontent of some sort, but it is not always clear to what extent wrongs are real or perceived. In the end, it probably does not matter.  It is interesting to note that four major revolutions (the English, American, French & Russian) all began with government trying to get more money out of the people.

Points to keep in mind on the American Revolution:

• The American Revolution is not over until 1787—without a stable system of government it could easily have come unraveled.
• In the Civil War both sides will lay claim to the “Spirit of ‘76.”
• The revolutionary leader as “wild-eyed radical” is a cliché. Many have been sober, mild individuals. Some American leaders were almost boring in their lack of revolutionary passion.  Washington was a very non-revolutionary figure who was one of the least radical Americans, yet he was technically guilty of treason.
• The rank and file (soldiers) often come from the working classes.
• Do not underestimate the power of revolutionary rhetoric (though the sting goes out after a while.)
• American leaders were the American aristocracy, men of "striking respectability and social standing." The 56 signers of the Constitution were educated men (22 lawyers, 5 doctors, 11 merchants, 12 ministers or ministers’ sons.)
• The “establishment” provides the leadership. There were moderates and extremists among them, but most eventually embraced independence.
• Important question is whether revolutions change anything substantial.  “Permanent” change is assumed to be part of the result of any revolution and generally will include:
• Transfer of property from one group to another;
• Changes in the ruling class;
• Changes in attitudes about institutions;
• Changes in the institutions themselves;
• None of the above seem to have been major outcomes of the American revolution ....
• .... Which is not to say that no new ideas took hold—they did.
• Where a tradition of rebellion exists, it is generally easier to get things started

What were the real causes of the American Revolution?

• A sense of national identity—the isolation of the colonial period evolved into a spirit of common interest. “We had best hang together, or we shall surely hang separately” (franklin). The Colonies had a good postal service, etc., which eased communication.
• Patrick Henry's “Liberty or Death” speech showed unity of purpose. Evidence existed that people felt bound to each other.
• The Revolution began in the early 1760s with Otis’s protest against Writs of Assistance. John Adams claimed it began in the “Hearts and Minds” with the Stamp Act of 1765. The seeds had actually been planted when the colonial settlements became established.
• There were in fact many reasons for discontent, and no avenues for redress of grievances. Yet it was an anti-colonial war for independence.
• Americans believed thaT, “We had always governed ourselves”—dissenting tradition
• The American Revolution has been called conservative, but it was truly revolutionary if you include events through 1787. Whatever else, the Revolution produced the most profound political document ever conceived by man.
• Was the Revolution really justified? Was it treason? Civil War? Were there really moral imperatives?
• In many ways the British had no one to blame but themselves; their governance of the colonies was an unending stream of insensitivity and inflexibility: the real cause of the war was “imperial mismanagement”—they failed to consult the colonists on almost all major policy issues, feeling that what was good for the Empire was good for all its parts, all the while treating the colonies as "dependent children."
• Connected to this failure was the British idea of “virtual representation,” which the colonists rejected.
• Bottom line: the American Revolution was not inevitable, though eventual independence probably was.

Americans have much in their history that prepares them for rebellion:

• An "experienced and self-confident group of political leaders" has control and support of the major segments of the population.
• A prospering commercial and agricultural economy exists.
• Decades of changes in social, family, religious, and ethnic conditions have undermined traditional deference to authority.
• During French and Indian War legislatures had become in their own eyes “Little Parliaments.”

The Nature of the American Revolution.  Gordon Wood, in The Radicalism of the American Revolution, a relatively recent book (and a Pulitzer Prize winner), makes a number of interesting points about the American Revolution:

• Woods's introduction reinforces the idea that has persisted that the American Revolution was “conservative.”
• But when viewed in terms of social change, it was “as radical as any in history.”
• Life in the 18^th century was oppressive everywhere, and by comparison Americans were quite free.
• Yet significant social change was not likely to happen without a revolution, and the American revolution did that—it destroyed the concept of an aristocracy, gave status to the working classes and brought respectability to ordinary people.
• The real key to the idea of revolution (in the opinion of this web author) is that prior to the American revolution, the responsibility for honest, virtuous, or just plain good government, resided in the hands of the power structure—the aristocracy. From 1776 onward, that responsibility lies in the hands of the people. Tom Paine made that point most eloquently in Common Sense.
• Bottom line: it was “The most radical and far-reaching event in American history.”

Other historians see the American Revolution in different ways.  Norman Gelb, in Less than Glory, takes on some of the “myths” surrounding the events of 1776.  For example:

• The revolution was not inevitable. America probably would have become independent sooner or later anyway.
• All things considered, and compared with the rest of the world, American colonists had it pretty good.
• The British handled things badly, but they had their own problems at home.
• Americans read the worst possible motives into everything the British did, and exaggerated their complaints, even in the Great Declaration (which has been called by another historian the “defense brief for the treason trial.”)

On the other hand, principles were involved, and perhaps Americans saw those principles more clearly than most in 1770. Bottom line: it could have been avoided, but sooner or later America was bound to become independent.

History 121 Part 1 | History 121 Assignments