Social History Review: The American Revolution

NOTE: Several AP Essays (DBQ and FRQ) have addressed these topics!

The Continental Army

· Often had to worry about family back home (thus, desertion)

· Inadequate arms and ammunition

· Paid in worthless paper money

· Not well fed or clothed

· “Army of rags”

· But opportunity? Many relatively poor and young, honored as “veterans” in later years

Role of Civic Virtue

· Concept of Republican Motherhood – mothers were to raise their sons to be virtuous citizens of the young republic

· Civic responsibility seen as the only way a republican form of government could survive

Changes during war, especially as seen in new state constitutions:

· Abolition of aristocratic titles, everyone: Mr., Mrs., Miss

· Separation of church and state (most states end “establishment” for churches, or tax support). New England states keep establishment (will create protest from other denominations, i.e. Baptists from Danbury, Connecticut who write to President Jefferson in 1802 arguing for a separation of church and state)

o Best example in the post-Revolutionary period: Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1786

· Legislative branch usually has the most power in new state governments (reactionary?)

o Jefferson’s warning about this: “173 despots would surely be as oppressive as one”

· Exodus of Loyalists – more revolutionary changes can take place with the exodus of this group

o Many Loyalists came from the Middle/Southern regions, most were Anglican

o Patriots start to break off “old world” traditions

o Any hints at primogeniture will certainly now be removed

· States start to reduce, but not eliminate, property requirements for voting (in the 1820s & 1830s, states will eventually eliminate these requirements)

o Concerted effort to enfranchise the “backcountry”

o Some states even move their capitals, examples:

§ Virginia: Williamsburg à Richmond

§ North Carolina: New Bern à Raleigh

§ South Carolina: Charles Town à Columbia (will return to Charleston)

§ Georgia: Savannah à Augusta, then back and forth a few times (Louisburg in 1796, Milledgeville in 1807)

· Many state constitutions included bills of rights (why would they desire specific protections of liberty? What liberties might they want to protect?)

· Many state constitutions required a vote to ratify (seen again with the United States Constitution of 1787); Massachusetts will hold a constitutional convention

· Most states had a clear separation of powers into branches: Executive, Legislative, Judicial

Slavery

· Some slave owners free their slaves and importation from Africa ends during war; however, this is only a temporary change (slavery in the lower southern states will get worse)

· A few anti-slavery societies will be born

· Egalitarian ideas of the American Revolution will inspire the slave revolt in San Dominique (Haiti) in 1803

· Some New England states will abolish slavery (Vermont the first, 1777)

New Roles for Women:

· During the war, women keep the economy going at home

· Some rare examples: women who fought in battle; outspokenness of Abigail Adams

· Some women serve as cooks or nurses in the army or local militia

· Women’s role as primary educators and caretakers becomes more important, even glorified (republican motherhood and civic virtue)

· Despite these enhancements, men and women still had “separate spheres”

The Economy

· Kennedy’s section on “Economic Democracy”: cutting off trees, rather than heads

· Since manufactured goods were cut off during boycotts and later war, Americans start manufacturing goods normally imported (mostly northern colonies – this will plant the seeds for an industrial era)

· Economic Problem: Britain was America’s most loyal customer, this will have to be addressed…

· Mercantilism ended – free market capitalism begins (remember the arguments of Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations, 1776?)

· Another Problem: Runaway inflation and people are worse off after the war (personal debt increases and Capital One is not there to save!)

· New class of profiteers and speculators emerge (land sales in the new western territories will become an issue for the new national government)

· Trade organizations grew

Revolutionary Ideas: The Declaration of Independence in a Global Context

· The last paragraph of the Declaration places the new United States in equal station with the rest of the world (also makes a treaty of alliance with a foreign nation possible)

· All countries in Europe received copies; future revolutions?

· Ideas and words still present today

· How are today’s politics shaped by some of the same words penned by Jefferson over two hundred years ago?

M. Broach
Created 9/12/09