The Colonial elites power was condensed and transformed by the American revolution and those who were decimated by the war. The government was almost solely controlled by Elites in the early 1800's, it was "dominated by rich men, linked together. By business and family connections." To be a revolution the American revolution required fundamental changes to society and its government, which was partially the case for the United States. Though the government was no longer supported by the British, it still held many of the core beliefs they used; this revolution lacked the change of their governmental roots, which will be understood by citizens in the near future. After the revolution ended the power gap between the elites and poor was becoming …show more content…
The singularly most important aspect of the American revolution was construction of the middle class and its functionality. Men could now become merchants, traders and other businessmen. Consequently, the middle class allowed men to rise in American’s ranks and potentially become and elite themselves: what the "revolution did was create space and opportunity". Reputation and money were the two most important factors in the 1800’s and prior to making a man legitimate as well as prosperous. Which can be seen formerly of the revolution, "money", not freedom is what motivated men to join the revolutionary war. Money that was furnished from men whom died in upper ranks, allowing subordinates to obtain their position. This projects the true feelings men had for money and reputation, as well as how dire their economic and social situation was. White male’s involvement in polities allowed their views and beliefs to become more publicized, often women's and slave's status were brought to the attention of the national government; a very important step for their society. On views such as the state’s and national power, representatives said "What right had they (the government) to say, "We, the people""; acts like this proved that the elites could no longer freely rule the government. Nevertheless, citizens still were "determined not to be free" with their roles in the government. White males became very influential after the revolution contrastingly from before. Formerly, white male 's political involvement was very little. But increased dramatically after the war, now white males are likely to vote, whom can legally and will have a direct effect on political affairs. It truly created a fight between the "new against the established". The middle class was an
Wood argues that the prosperity of the revolutionaries and the destruction of paternalism in America prove the radical nature of the revolution. In most revolutions, the bulk of the revolutionary force is comprised of disenfranchised poor people, but the American Revolution was bizarrely made up mostly of well-to-do colonists who made their fortune in British America. Wood proves this fact by noting the statistical lack of mass poverty in America, as compared with other nations in the western world. Wood also argues that the American Revolution was inherently radical because it destroyed the entire system of dependency in America inherited from Great Britain’s ancient feudal tradition. From the onset, Wood claims, British America lacked the titles of nobility that Great Britain possessed. As such, there was an unprecedented amount of equality within the colonies, which many Americans enjoyed. Regardless of their social status, with enough work, an American was capable of gaining great prosperity, a feat which Wood claims was impossible in Europe. In Europe, the only way a man of no status could rise above his birth was in securing the
At the time everyone was thinking of a way to climb up the ladder of society. One opportunity was to the join the military to gain some property in order to climb up the social ladder. However the elites where governing at this time had other things in mind. The elites wanted to make sure that no one could get richer than them ensuring stability amongst nobility. Even Zinn says that the elites did not want an equal balance between slaves and masters, propertyless and property holders, Indians and whites. They were all considered to be the early women of America (they were invisible (Zinn,
In the early twentieth century, scholars gain a deeper understanding of the ideology behind those who partook in the American Revolution. People’s motivations throughout the American Revolution are a result of their desire for a new society that is not based on the old world’s standards of monarchy, privilege, and social hierarchy. Likewise, people want a society in the new world to determine one’s status based on one’s abilities, efforts, and talents and to characterize equality. A meritocracy, not monarchy become prevalent in the new world’s society, and one’s family’s reputation, wealth, and titles are no longer important. Therefore, colonists rebuke the old world system, which was questioned throughout the American Revolution. Wood explains that “republic individuals were no longer destined to be what their fathers were” (Wood 99). His explanation shows that scholars treated the American Revolution as an extension of the development America’s meritocracy and as an innovation of America’s resulting society during the early twentieth
Between the years of 1776 and 1876, a key change came about in America over the women. Before these dates, women were not considered to be very important to the community. The only major role they played was raising children and bringing food to the table. Since the years of the Revolution and the Constitutional Convention, however, the nation nearly doubled its geographic boundaries and its population. When the Market Revolution hit America, many people felt isolated and cut off from traditional sources of comfort and community.
Gordon Wood’s Radicalism of the American Revolution is a book that extensively covers the origin and ideas preceding the American Revolution. Wood’s account of the Revolution goes beyond the history and timeline of the war and offers a new encompassing look inside the social ideology and economic forces of the war. Wood explains in his book that America went through a two-stage progression to break away from the Monarchical rule of the English. He believes the pioneering revolutionaries were rooted in the belief of an American Republic. However, it was the radical acceptance of democracy that was the final step toward independence. The transformation between becoming a Republic, to ultimately becoming a democracy, is where Wood’s evaluation of the revolution differs from other historians. He contributes such a transformation to the social and economic factors that faced the colonists. While Gordon Wood creates a persuasive argument in his book, he does however neglect to consider other contributing factors of the revolution. It is these neglected factors that provide opportunity for criticism of his book.
If you live in the United States, you probably are aware of the American Revolution. Most educated adults in America can name at least on hero of pre-Revolutionary America such as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere and Thomas Jefferson . But to what extent did these few men, credited with our freedom, actually participate in events that lead up to the revolution? How many countless men remained unnamed and unnoticed despite the work they put into the Revolution? These men have often been overlooked in textbooks, despite the fact most of the freedoms we have now are derived from their brave actions. But why did these men get the wheels of a revolution turning? What was the reason they had for their actions, the very ones that led America and Great Britain to begin a fight not only for freedom, but for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
This revolutionary system of politics that did not rely on a king was just one of the differences between the American colonies and Great Britain. The pragmatism and diversity necessary in the colonies emboldened the colonists to create a completely new culture. People who started out as citizens of their respective countries slowly created a new language and a new society that was complete with a self-regulated economy. This new society would, eventually, become the United States of America.
During the Revolution, there were social changes that affected several different races, classes and genders. The four groups that the Revolution had an effect on the social changes were: white men, White women, Black Americans, and Native Americas. With the Revolution effecting the white men by “wearing homespun clothing in support of boycotts of British goods (Boyer, “Defining Nationhood”, p. 128). When the Virginia planters organized militia companies in 1775, they wore plain hunting shirts so that they didn’t embarrass the poorest farmer for his clothes so that they could enlist” (Boyer, “Defining Nationhood”, p. 128). While men were out in the war the “women stayed home and managed families, households, farms and businesses on their own” (Boyer, “Defining Nationhood”, P. 129). For the Black Americans, it started to show others that slavery was not a good thing. “The war, nevertheless, presented new opportunities to African-Americans” (Boyer, “Defining Nationhood”, P. 130). “The slaves were even trying to escape as all the confusion that was going on and pose as a freeman” (Boyer, “Defining Nationhood”, p. 130). Even though the Revolution showed new opportunities to the African-Americans it “didn’t end slavery nor brought equality to free blacks, but it did begin a process by which slavery could be extinguished” (Boyer “Defining Nationhood”, p.
The revolution brought major changes in the system but if seeing from a larger view everything remained the same. The questions that the American Revolution went deeply through were the slavery question, the women emancipation and the system of politics. But at the end radical changes were very little and the lives lost were not worth the advantages for the country. The first issue the revolutionary war had to face was slavery. Social changes never touched the lives of white men since they already had rights and benefits but instead they touched slaves and women even though the scene remained unchanged after the end of the war.
In the essay written by Gary Nash, he argues that the reason for the American Revolution was not caused by the defense of constitutional rights and liberties, but that of “material conditions of life in America” were not very favorable and that social and economic factors should be considered as the driving factor that pushed many colonists to revolt. The popular ideology which can be defined as resonating “most strongly within the middle and lower strata of society and went far beyond constitutional rights to a discussion of the proper distribution of wealth and power in the social system” had a dynamic role in the decisions of many people to revolt. The masses ideas were not of constitutional rights, but the equal distribution of wealth in the colonies that many felt that the wealth was concentrated in a small percentage of the population in the colonies. The Whig ideology that was long established in English society had a main appeal towards the upper class citizens and “had little to say about changing social and economic conditions in America or the need for change in the future.” The popular ideologies consisted of new ways of changing the distribution of wealth. Nash in his essay continued to give good evidence to prove his point that the American Revolution was not caused by the defense of constitutional rights and liberties, but by improper distribution of wealth. During the pre-American Revolutionary times, the “top five percent of Boston’s taxpayers controlled 49 ...
They were the people who actively participated and sacrificed their lives. Therefore the side they chose to fight on was heavily influenced by their “local interests, grudges, and unfulfilled yearnings [Page 87].”In summary, poor farmers, wanted political rights and land. For slaves they yearned for freedom. Women wanted to have the same rights as men. Native Americans wanted the colonists to stop encroaching on their land. Many of these desires coincided while other clashed. Therein lay the chaos that drove the American Revolution. While many of the people did not succeed the ideas they fought for became deeply embedded into
A new era was dawning on the American colonies and its mother country Britain, an era of revolution. The American colonists were subjected to many cruel acts of the British Parliament in order to benefit England itself. These British policies were forcing the Americans to rebellious feelings as their rights were constantly being violated by the British Crown. The colonies wanted to have an independent government and economy so they could create their own laws and stipulations. The British imperial policies affected the colonies economic, political, and geographic situation which intensified colonists’ resistance to British rule and intensified commitment to their republican values.
How did the development of European colonies in the Americas alter the natural environment? (The Earth and Its Peoples, 474)
The American Revolution marked the divorce of the British Empire and its one of the most valued colonies. Behind the independence that America had fought so hard for, there emerged a diverging society that was eager to embrace new doctrines. The ideals in the revolution that motivated the people to fight for freedom continued to influence American society well beyond the colonial period. For example, the ideas borrowed from John Locke about the natural rights of man was extended in an unsuccessful effort to include women and slaves. The creation of state governments and the search for a national government were the first steps that Americans took to experiment with their own system. Expansion, postwar depression as well as the new distribution of land were all evidence that pointed to the gradual maturing of the economic system. Although America was fast on its way to becoming a strong and powerful nation, the underlying issues brought about by the Revolution remained an important part in the social, political and economical developments that in some instances contradicted revolutionary principles in the period from 1775-1800.
Life in the colonies was tough for many reasons, like they had hard chores on a farm, and in their homes, but when they didn’t work they had fun with neighbors.