The American Revolution Period (1775-1784)

This essay will consider some crucial questions about the essence of the American Revolution between 1775 and 1784. Scholars admit that the revolution was one of the most improbable events in the 18th century because of quite stable relationships between Britain and the colonies.¹ In addition, there were many controversies and paradoxes that embodied the revolutionary changes. The integral role in the American revolution was played by patriots who established the grounds of furthering the American state through the engagement of the civic population in politics, incorporating moral grounds, and constructing proper federal-state relations.

The patriots played a fundamental role in the American Revolution, that is, the English colonists who rejected colonial domination and desired to build a new state on Republican principles. The proceedings of the Congress in New York display the essence of patriots’ ideology: dutiful representation of conditions, opposition to taxes on colonies, and equal treatment as the British.² Besides legislative and economic pressure on British authorities, patriots organized civic engagement through popular riots, most notably in Boston.³ This extensive participation of the colonial population in the resistance movement was the key factor in forming a distinct American identity.

The struggle for independence was covered with a great emphasis on ethical considerations based on the principles of equality and liberty. The especially known notion from the Declaration that determined the whole further development of the newly born state was the right to “the pursuit of Happiness”.⁴ However, severe criticism of patriots’ hypocrisy is expressed by historians because of the chattel slavery that was present even in the North at that time.⁵ Thus, it may be stated that they used unique methods to address their grievances, but the ultimate aims of their activity were non-inclusive and racist.

Considering the revolutionaries’ struggle for independence, it is clear that their first attempt to form the first federal government failed. The Articles of Confederation were, in fact, the first attempts to adopt the American constitution and federal authority over states.⁶ But the Articles did not allow Congress to control state governments because of the scarcity of mechanisms to force states to comply with Congress’ rulings and the impossibility of collecting taxes from subnational units.⁷ One of the possible factors may be the clear faith of patriots in the values of limited government and fiscal autonomy. Nevertheless, the second attempt to codify legal ground for the government was more successful and resulted in the production of the Constitution during the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787.⁸ The State legislatures definitely were something more than a pure replacement for British rule because they reestablished justice and blessings of liberty.⁹ If this constitution had been a replacement for the British rulers, it would not have been so focused on the freedom of the states and the limited power of the federal center.

To conclude, this essay focused on the major events of the American revolution by analyzing primary and secondary sources. It showed that the patriots were revolutionaries that desired to address grievances of British colonial rule. As a strategy of their struggle, they used extensive political mobilization of the American population through total opposition to British conditions. Ethical grounds for patriots’ fight against Britain are based on equality and liberty but contested by modern scholars for its justification of slavery and the slave trade. As a result of the American Revolution, the new Constitution attached the major rules of new institutions that were strikingly different from those suggested by British colonizers.

Bibliography

Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2017.

Jefferson, Thomas. Declaration of Independence. Jackson, MS: Applewood Books, 1776.

Locke, Joseph L., and Ben Wright. The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open US History Textbook, Vol. 1: To 1877. Stanford University Press, 2019.

Proceedings of the Congress at New-York. Annapolis, MD: Jonas Green, 1766.

Reid, John Phillip. Constitutional history of the American Revolution: The authority to legislate. Vol. 3. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1986.

U.S. Constitution, Preamble.

Footnotes

1. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright, The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open US History Textbook, Vol. 1: To 1877 (Stanford University Press, 2019), 109
2. Proceedings of the Congress at New-York (Annapolis, MD: Jonas Green, 1766).
3. Locke and Wright, “The American Yawp,” 114.
4. Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence (Jackson, MS: Applewood Books, 1776), 4.
5. Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. (Harvard University Press, 2017), 239.
6. Locke and Wright, “The American Yawp,” 134.
7. John Phillip Reid. Constitutional History of the American Revolution: The Authority to Legislate (Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1986), 189.
8. Locke and Wright, “The American Yawp,” 185.
9. U.S. Constitution, Preamble.