The American Revolution
The book in context is one referred to as The American Revolution: a non fictional companion to Revolutionary War and was written in the year 2005 by renowned author, Mary Pope Johnson. The book explores the period of the American Revolution and the effect that it had on the American people. Mary brings out the various aspects of the revolution in a clear manner that defines the state that the country went through. There are aspects of the revolution such as the ideological part and the revolutionary part. The aspect of the period to pay attention to is the revolutionary part rather than the ideological part as the revolutionary part is the one that was most effective due to the use of actions.
Mary starts her book by stating the meaning of the American Revolution which she states to be a political outburst that the 13 colonies united to defeat the force of the British and eventually form the United States of America. The revolution was caused by different diverse political and social misunderstandings between the colonizers and the people of the 13 colonies. The book states that the Americans at the time who was the colonized ones did not support many of the laws that the British government implicated on them and were more often taking their grievances to the governor. However, their wails were not listened to and they had continued suffering over the many years before the revolution.
After the United States, through the 13 colonies, felt that it had had enough of the suppression, it decided to break free. This statement carried the foundation of the second chapter of the book. It goes further to state that the revolutionary aspect started peacefully bearing in mind the various acts that the country had the ability of creating. These acts came as a form of political opposition for the country. The stamp act congress of 1754 was created to assist curb the effect of the British rule. However, the act did not fully work because the British were resistant and stubborn in their greed for power. This led to the colonies getting dissatisfied with the country and led to the 1965 creation of the Sons of Liberty.
Mary states that the sons of liberty were created and were completely opposite to the concept of having acts and legislation procedures for ensuring that the country got its independence. The sons of liberty rather used a different approach to face the British. Rather than peace, they used violence and more often demonstrations in a bid of catching the attention of the British. This was very imperative as they had lost all hopes in getting the British on their side. They further went on to impose threats on the British. This however did not provide enough bases for the Americans in their effort to evade the taxes and legislation that had been implied on them by the British.
The third chapter of the book states that 1772 saw the greatest leap in the revolution and the efforts of having the 13 colonies independent of the British. This was done by one Samuel Adams. Samuel Adams had developed and grown up during the time of the revolution and had not supported the idea of outward violence as it would not help achieve the goals of the people. He advocated for the use of an inside type of force to help break the slavery chains that the British had tied them to. With this, he went forward to form Committees of Correspondence.
Committees of Correspondence as described by Mary in the book were networks of committees formed in the different 13 colonies to help reduce the effect of the British rule. This was to be done by ensuring that the colonies could share ideas and provide each other with the required morale to get over the system of ruling that the British had enforced. The committees were the representation of the people both at the local and the state level. They also had the responsibility of ensuring that the people could manage to maintain their stand against the British. One way in which the people could show their ignorance to the loyalty that the British demanded was by refusing or not accepting their products. The book further states that the British were known to be very cunning and more often than not could provide the colonies with luxurious products as a form of blinding them from the reality of their state. The committees took over the task of advising them against the luxurious products as they were a way of ensuring the people’s allegiance. Rather than this, the people were advised to embrace their native products for the greater common good. The committees played a big role in the revolution and were partly attributed to its success.
Women were other people who played a big role in the American Revolution, states the forth chapter of the book. They were very hard working and ensured that the United States received its independence as soon as possible. One way through which the women participated in ensuring that the British stopped their rule of the country was by participating in the theft of the British products. The theft of the goods ensured that they could not be transported to the Americans and hence the trust that they had for the British reduced significantly. Women according to the chapter were also taken up as some slaves and were forced to carry out strenuous activities by the British. The activities involved, cooking, cleaning, looking after the soldiers’ children, nursing the soldiers after war among other details. This led to them having a strong bond with some of the soldiers deceiving them and to some extent earning their trust. For the soldiers who trusted the women, they would offer some information that was classified and the women on the other hand could continue with their spying and passed on information to their people in the colonies.
During the time of the revolution there were other people referred to as Loyalists. These people remained loyal to the British government and comprised around 17% of the entire population. The loyalties were known to be calm and did not offer any sort of violence to the Americans throughout the revolution. Rather than this, they always ensured that they kept their distance from the American soldiers and all they did was to occupy the territories that the British had managed to take over. These people remained in the United States even after the revolution was over and the British had gone to their own countries.
There were also the people named as the Neutrals in the revolution. The book refers them as people who were known to lay low and were not outspoken. They did not have a role in the revolution and just remained calm. For the few that had a role to play in the revolution, they tried to participate on both sides without seeming biased to any. The Quakers were known to be the largest group with neutrals. Rather than participating in the war, all they did was pay attention to the business side of the revolution. All that they engaged in is the following of orders from their leaders and were instructed to act just as middlemen in the business dealings without swaying their attention to any side. The neutrals are further described by Mary as to play a revolutionary role by making the rest of the people gain the concept and morale of freeing the country from bondage so as to have a life like that of the Quakers. It was the ideal group of people.
As Mary culminates the book, she claims that in 1775, the revolutionary part of the struggle took on a new phase. This was at the battle of Lexington and Concord. The battle involved armed British personnel brutally invading the Americans in Massachusetts. They invaded them and beat them making sure that they took all their arms and weapons. The news about the invasion spread fast within the other 13 colonies and created some form of anger and tension. Subsequently, the people decided to match up and fight physically also for their rights. This led to a series of battles including the Battle of Bunker Hill. In the wars, the Americans were consequently defeated most of the times. This was due to the lack of enough weapons to fight the more powerful and larger army of Britain. However, as time went by, the United States was able to receive military and financial support from other countries that did not support the British way of ruling. This was also in line with the increased activism from within the British Empire inciting the effects of colonialism of the United States of America. Eventually, the United States received the much craved freedom and on the 5th of January 1776, created its first constitution.
The American Revolution was one of the most significant eras that the United States went through in its time. Due to this, the period is treated with much honor and respect due to the undying struggle that all the people of the country, Men and Women offered in a bid to end colonialism. The revolution set a foundation for the development of the United States politically, socially and economically.
