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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



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



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



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]



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]



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.



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



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



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.



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



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)



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



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]



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;



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.



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 ]



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 ]



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]



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:



"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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

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