American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political and military action of the American colonists who overthrew British control, and created a new nation in 1776, the "United States of America."

This article deals with political issues, especially the national politics conducted in the name of the Articles of Confederation. For the military history see American Revolution, military history and American Revolution, naval history

Tensions rise after 1763

After the Seven Years War the French threat ended. London decided to start taxing the colonies to pay for past and future wars, and imposed new controls on the colonial economy and on westward expansion. London insisted that the colonists pay a share of the cost of empire through new taxes, but refused to allow representation in Parliament. The Americans rallied around the idea that no Englishman could be taxed without his consent, that is, "No taxation without representation."

Ominously London sent thousands of regular army troops--was this to protect the colonists from nonexistent threats, or to protect the Royal officials from the anger of the people? Nothing seemed more dangerous to the precious political liberties of the Americans than the sort of standing army Britain was forcing upon them. The colonists responded by setting up their own shadow government, including local committees and (beginning in 1774) a Continental Congress. The Empire thought it knew how to suppress rebellions--in 1715 and 1745 it had ruthlessly crushed the Highlanders in Scotland; in the 17th century it had taken control of Ireland in campaigns that killed thousands of Catholic rebels and left the Protestants in total domination.

In Search of Independence: 1774-1776

The revolution occurred in the hearts and minds of Americans in 1774-1776 as they realized that continued subservience to the British Empire was impossible. Tensions came to a head in Massachusetts. In late 1773 the Boston radicals disguised as Indians dumped a shipment of tea into the harbor in protest. This Boston Tea Party angered the British leadership and next spring Parliament passed the Coercive Acts that imposed near martial law and suspended traditional civil liberties and economic freedom. Congress denounced the Acts, called for boycotts of British goods, and recommended that the militias ready their weapons. Georgia became the 13th colony represented in the Congress.

Canada and 16 smaller British colonies in North America remained loyal. The French Catholics in Canada much preferred the tolerance of London to the anti-Catholic Yankees; they stayed loyal, as did the wealthy sugar planters who controlled the numerous West Indian colonies. East Florida, West Florida and Newfoundland were so small, so new, and so dominated by the British army and navy that they stayed loyal. Nova Scotia (just north of Maine) was the curious case. It had been settled largely by New Englanders, who favored Congress. Yet it was an isolated island, easily controlled by the Royal Navy from its powerful base in Halifax. Protests were put down, and the people stayed neutral, pouring their emotions into religious revival rather than revolution.

The 13 revolting colonies were the largest, richest, and most developed in the Empire. London had no intention of letting them go free. General Thomas Gage fortified Boston and raided nearby towns where rebels had stored munitions. The people of Massachusetts responded by setting up a provisional government, training militia units, and detecting and suppressing Loyalists and spies. A system of "minute men" was established, so that any alarm would be answered immediately.

The Americans had sympathizers in Britain, but not enough. Parliament rejected conciliation by a 3 to 1 margin, and Gage was ordered to aggressively enforce the Coercion laws. More troops arrived, along with the generals who would later replace Gage and command the main British armies during the war, Sir William Howe (fall 1775 to spring 1778), Sir Henry Clinton (1778 to 1782) and John Burgoyne. All of them failed at their mission--perhaps because political considerations in London made it impossible to remove careless generals who repeatedly lost tactical opportunities, quarreled or failed to coordinate with one another, and muffled the strategic designs that London drew up.

Washington took charge of the siege of Boston, June 1775-March 1776, and as Ellis (2005) shows this was the formative event in his development as a military and political leader. The siege revealed the enormous logistical problems the army had to overcome. Washington met the challenge with his trademark determination, leadership ability, and sound decisionmaking. He also, however, exhibited a stubborn, aloof, severe personality that "virtually precluded intimacy." Washington, dubbed "His Excellency" by the adoring American public, also came to know and evaluate many of his future staff members and lieutenants during the siege.

New Nation 1776-1781

American rattlesnake captures British army at Saratoga, 1777. Published when peace negotiations had begun, this British cartoon warns of the futility of further efforts to defeat the Americans. The rattlesnake boasts: "Two British Armies I have thus Burgoyn'd, And room for more I've got behind." A sign is posted over a vacant third coil:"An Apartment to Lett for Military Gentlemen." Rattesnakes were found only in the Americas and were often used to symbolize American determination to fight back.

Gender, race, class

Pybus (2005) estimates that about 20,000 slaves defected to the British, of whom about 8,000 died from disease or wounds or were recaptured by the Patriots, and 12,000 left the country at the end of the war, for freedom in Canada or slavery in the West Indies.

Baller (2006) examines family dynamics and mobilization for the Revolution in central Massachusetts. He reports that warfare and the farming culture were sometimes incompatible. Some militiamen found that farming life failed to prepare them for wartime stresses and the rigors of camp life. Rugged individualism and military regimentation did not always mesh. Birth order shaped military recruitment, reagring older and younger sons. Family responsibilities and a suffocating patriarchy sometimes impeded mobilization. Harvesting duties and family emergencies forced some to have to choose between home and the Patriot cause. Family ties sometimes involved tensions between patriots and their loyalist relatives. The Revolution's impact on patriarchy and inheritance patterns was toward more equalitarianism.

McDonnell, (2006) shows the major complicating factor in Virginia's efforts to raise forces for the war, the conflicting interests of several distinct social classes among whites in the colony more strongly militated against a "unified" commitment to military service. The Assembly had to weight and balance the competing demands of elite slaveowning planters, slaveholding and nonslaveholding "middling sorts," yeoman farmers, and indentured servants, among others. Its solution involved deferments, taxes, military service substitute, and conscription legislation. Unresolved class conflict, however, rendered these laws ineffective. Violent protests, conscript evasion, and large-scale desertion left Virginia's contributions to the war effort at embarassingly low levels. As late as the 1781 Battle of Yorktown, Virginia continued to be mired in class divisiveness as its native son, George Washington, made desperate appeals for troops.

Loyalists

See Loyalists

See also

• American Revolution, military history
• American Revolution, naval history
• Articles of Confederation
• Declaration of Independence

Further reading

• Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole, eds. A Companion to the American Revolution. (2000). 778pp.
• Fremont-Barnes, Gregory, and Richard A. Ryerson, eds. The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History (ABC-CLIO, 2006) 5 volume paper and online editions; 1000 entries by 150 experts, covering all topics
• Boatner III, Mark M. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (1966); excellent guide to details; expanded 3 vol edition (2006)
• Barnes, Ian and Charles Royster. The Historical Atlas of the American Revolution (2000)
• Alden, John R. A History of the American Revolution (1989), general survey; strong on military (ISBN: 0306803666)
• Brown, Richard D. ed. Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution 1992, excerpts from primary and secondary sources
• Ferling; John. Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution Oxford University Press, 2002 online edition
• Ferling, John ed., The World Turned Upside Down: The American

Victory in the War of Independence (1988).

• Higginbotham, Don. The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763–1789 (1971, 1983). an analytical history of the war online via ACLS Humanities E-Book.
• Lancaster, Bruce. The American Revolution (American Heritage Library) (ISBN: 0828102813) (1985), heavily illustrated
• Martin, James Kirby. In the Course of Human Events: An Interpretive Exploration of the American Revolution (1979), short survey (ISBN: 0882957953)
• Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (2nd ed 2007) online edition
• Miller, John C. Triumph of Freedom, 1775-1783. (1946) online edition