tv American Revolutions CSPAN September 18, 2016 7:30pm-8:31pm EDT
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fifth because of 1832 which was also commended for the national book award unbidden -- and was in concert with visiting professor with impressive success shin now his book today is like no other of the american revolution but does so very well reflect the current scholarship and direction of the american revolution so please join me to welcome alan taylor. [applause] >> 84 that very kind introduction and also chris
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the forepart and there was a lot involve setting up an event like that i want to thank my a editor who was an immense help to shape the book and so let me begin by saying i was trying to think , hydride justify the book of the american revolution? i did say nobody ever writes on it and realized that would not fly and three of my friends told me in the course of recent years that they were writing their own book on the american revolution and this is impressive because i don't have that many friends of laugh and all three of them are writing books on the revolution. so instead want to say yes mind is an effort to
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synthesize the more specialized works into the interpretation that i hope reflect the trend and the scholarship over the past generation. a classic image of the american revolution is an orderly ee event and be alternative so it is what you see that painting that represents a community presenting uh declaration of independence july 1776. or images of battles. this is also a trouble painting and remarkably orderly because it shows a surrender as americans particularly like the british surrender. [laughter] there are not any paintings that i know of of the american surrendering
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although this did happen with frequency during the revolution. macon's themselves were a veteran, commissioned by congress and part of an effort to tidy up the revolution as a success as order having been restored as it was never lost sight according to these images but there are others that suggest the war was a very nasty experience. certain me this battle along south and north carolina border can give them much more realistic fear it feel of that chaos of the people experience and you never know how that will play out a lot of times it is if uh
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and generals have serene control over the battle but that is not usually the case. or hear it is another image john andrea was the british officer benedict arnold and while he managed to get away while trying to betray his cause, andrea was left behind and caught and was honed as a spy. or this image. a lot was bought in the west that was the appellation mountains like central in your northwester pennsylvania of what is now ohio kentucky tennessee and especially gramm warfare that native people tend to be the allies of the british empire to rollback the settlements that had invaded into their country and they
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felt siding with the british was the best opportunity to will back those settlements. this is another postwar painting and it represents the notorious episode from the revolution during the saratoga and campaign with the indian allies captured this woman and the two warriors argued over whose captain she was in a settlement by killing her. it is with the patriot efforts to rally support to their cause. that actually she was a loyalist and gauge will loyalist officer trying to reach the army when she was killed but this postwar painting if say that the racial politics are not solid as they are presented as dark and muscular
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emphasizing they are more like animals and humans. gene is presented as passive and week as a victim and about widest woman you'll ever see. [laughter] also want you to notice the color is of her dress, red, white, and blue so the suggestion issue represents america and its dense in peril by the savage indians on the frontier as an invitation for american men to protect women. and this at those very clearly the sort of appeal that was made by the patriots to rally support not to simply against the british but also the native allies of the british here is one of those allies that has been painted in london and -- in 1775 by george
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romney and you can see his attire is a mix of culture to where cough and metals but arranged any native american in combination. so it makes the point many people were and mashed in trading relations with non native peoples. and it is that interdependence on the form of trade that will shape the many political decisions they need to have access and they make it quite reasonable conclusion not only will they will back the settlements but to supply them with the goods that they need federal produced faugh -- that are produced versus those that are in the
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lack of any capacity of significance. the revolution requires participation of almost everyone you can onstage evolutionary war to save nine of the. the home front house to be maintained also attached to george washington's army very essential as nurses and orderlies to do the laundry of the soldiers some of them were thrust into combat roles there is an aisle legendary case where the has been goes down so she operates the cannon. that may or may not have happened but there are other cases we do know that it did. before the revolution, there is an effort to involve women in the boycott its
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move before the pages declared independence the primary goal was not independence but to persuade us british parliament to raise the taxes imposed on the colony's. the argument was they lacked representation therefore parliament was not a legitimate legislature to tax the of colonist. and the chief instrument used were boycotts of british manufacturers which is a considerable sacrifice because the american colonists were very much themselves dependent upon british consumer goods that they could not produce themselves. by case in north carolina where with then where particularly conspicuous to sign an association that they would not import or consume british goods so this is not celebrating the denigrating that it is a
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cartoon produced from a loyalist perspective and suggesting that the patriots are disrupting all of social order. encouraging to rethink traditional relationships with women who have been active public voice that is somehow disturbing the very foundation of society. and if you look at the details you will see what the cartoonist is trying to mop that there is a disturbingly french looking fellow taking advantage of this woman here and a suggestion that the racial hierarchy is disrupted even black women are invited. to clinch the case someone support child is neglected
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so certainly this is exaggerating the degree that the patriot movement is rearranging social order. but the patriot cause, because of the demands of support from society is creating opportunities for all sorts of people to suggest there could be social changes to benefit society to move more in line with the republican ideals of the patriot movement. but yet this occurs in a society where one-fifth of the people were held in slavery. especially in the southern colonies in slavery was legal in every single british colony new hampshire and connecticut it just as there were in virginia and north carolina and south carolina just happens to be a lot more and of population
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was 40% in slaved at the time of the revolution and in south carolina it was 60% enslaved sodium slave population cannot be left out of the story. indeed there often involved as they seek opportunities now in those northern colonies they will come from enlisting in patriot forces as an effort to force the hand of their masters to freedom but in the south and most of the time all of the colonies and the new states were not comfortable with enlisting blacks even when invaded and occupied by british forces. >> but there was approximately 500 enslaved
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virginians to did obtain their freedom by serving as substitutes for the white masters during the revolution. that many more enslaved people bought their best opportunity for freedom came by escaping to the british to help them in the war. so it is not always a need to boundary where the patriots are always clearly off the side of freedom for everybody. but it is a great to rupture in society that there is an ongoing contest that they want this to be as minimal as possible and short-lived as possible and others try to exploit that rupture to rearrange society off -- to create some better place for themselves. this was done by a german officer in the french
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service as the allies of the united states and this was intrigued by the diversity of uniforms worn in the continental army so the man in the far right is be artillery officer but the man next to him as wearing a hunting shirt this is a rifleman and the next man to the left is the infantryman and they were armed with muskets that did not have the same range as a rifle but to be fired much more quickly so most of the infantrymen are armed with muskets and not rifles. i am sure that you note that man on the far left is african-american. and george washington's army was 10 percent african-american which is far higher than the proportion of
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african-americans in the northern population were all the soldiers came from. so they serve better rate of twice that of the civilian population in the northern states. and one in rhode island regiment was two-thirds black. if you recall those paintings at the start to show the surrender at cornwallis it shown exclusively as a revolution involving white people. princess benjamin franklin you are wondering how he would fly that kite in a thunderstorm be he was assisted by cherubs. [laughter] pdf decided to stay loyal to
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the empire is most conspicuous example of a family is being divided by the revolution and then the book i tend to avoid a referring to the patriots as americans because there are americans of all sides loyalists were americans as well and from that perspective probably peaked at 20% in did decline over the course of the award the dishabille the patriots were 80% at the start because there were at least equal number of people who wanted to stay out of the war and
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they are the group that had received a the least attention despite the great numbers the great numbers of wavering people who would shift to sides depending on the current of water -- war and there is a quotation from nathaniel greene of rampant desertion where they would end up with the continental army and the continental soldiers desert than they fight on the british side so green said at the close of the four we fought the enemy and they thought us -- bottles with americans that this exaggeration but it was important germ of truth there are people switching sides as the war goes a long . it is not as we imagine that in 1775, people made hard and fast decisions. some did. particularly at the
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leadership level. the official chaplain for congress decided when congress declared independence that he wanted out to penn made it clear he thought independence was a mistake. this is not such a bad looking guy? fancy dresser good family man. this is warming andrews heart. [laughter] and to make the case he was not that bad he is not the tyrant he was made out to be but his real problem he was to a conscientious he wanted to be a constitutional monarchs like others in his line that were rested that excepting superiority in he did his best to do parliaments of bidding and
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it was parliament that brought on the crisis that led to the american revolution and george the of third three fusil to interfere with his understanding of the british constitution that ends up making a bad guy in the eyes of the patriots been very late in the game. wealth through 1775 congress is still hoping the key may intervene and some how overrule parliament on behalf of the colonial resistance for go then the patriots feel betrayed. and he hopes to lead the way , thomas paid here right i would write the most influential book and american politics politics, common-sense published j. you very 1776 agreed to best seller no other book other than the bible was read by more americans many illiterate people heard their bed in
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taverns or courthouses and by universal account, it is galvanizing because it puts into very vivid phrase a lot of people were stumbling to find words for the need to declare independence, uh the possibility the independent states could have a new form of government, a republic, but then they must unite to win the award to preserve their own peace in the future and all three of the ideas, none of them are new but none of them are stated as forcefully and clearly and as a package as thomas paine that is. he is the one who starts the attack as the royal albert of the very face, not of the union of a territory that
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the colonists must escape and then the case it is clinched by thomas jefferson. we almost never read beyond the first paragraph which is that ringing statement of the mike meant principles but if you get into the body of the text as a great indictment as a tyrant listening to everything everything that has gone wrong is the king's fault but this is necessary because they can smash the sovereignty of which the king is the great symbol. so the target of attack can no longer be parliament but it must become the king. for the revolution to succeed for those people that were wavering or speaking out against the revolution become targets of
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violence. this is a loyalist cartoon depicting uh treatment he is tarred and feathered and forced down his throat throat, mobbed it was on the outskirts of boston include gain those that were deemed to be enemies of american liberty and one was john malcolm. this is daniel and famous for a particular quotation that it that much of the persuasion and not just the slave loyalty to the king dirty union they favor all of those but they also feared what the patriots
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represented which was mob rule and felt the patriots were breaking out of constitutional structures and substituting a government by committees and congress and put pressure on local people to serve been their militias to their allegiance and those that were very legalistic back care about order this was more disturbing to them they and texans. so part of the quotation you can see is chopped off that if we must be enslaved to be by a key and not by a parcel of upstart wallace committee been if i must be devoured let me be devoured by the jaws of alliance and not gnawed on to death by rats and vermin so here is a
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suggestion that the revolution is stirring up society into was on the bottom may come to the top in what was on the top may be driven to the bottom of that is the fear of a lot of people. >> loyalists that end up in this place is newgate prison and connecticut one of the inmates there was william franklin benjamin franklin's son, and what you see here that it is not so bad but this is the entry way that was underground. it was a mine so the prisoners were put to work and for most of the day they would see no light. playlist not simply victims victims, this is a representation of a particular loyalist units raised in connecticut it called the queen's rangers
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they're not wearing red coats so not all of the soldiers were british and not all wearing red coats. many were loyalist and by the year 1780 there were as many men in loyalist units as there were and the washington regular army. the patriots had many more men in their ear regular units than the of loyalist loyalist, but i want to convey the scale by the end of the war and how essential it was to the british when they were no longer able to send reinforcements and indeed . that time they are drawing down the forces to send troops to the west indies. so the british wall drawing back are building up of
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loyalist to replace. many of you are my age or older remembering americanization of the vietnam war with an effort of the nixon did ministrations that the troops can say that the vietnamese would take over. and much smaller scale is the same phenomenon on the british forces. this is a loyalist officer on the right was very proud of his service we had that painting made after the war was over he knows they lost the war be he is not ashamed of his service or the loyalist to regiment. he is so proud he had a special uniform made for his son who was not even born at the time of the revolution. and this conveys it isn't
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just on the east coast but throughout the temperate and tropical zones of the of world energy rather british forces were involved say you can see west africa over hearer in india was a war zone and east indian islands which is now indonesia and us caribbean. that is the key theater of the award -- more of the battle states that are contested. . .
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where you're supposed to hiss. this is -- a dashing cavalry officer. paint it by joshua leanord in washington, and charlton was capable officer but hyper aggressive and ruthless. and so he didn't like to take prisoners and he becomes a great villain of the southern campaigns of the war in eye's of the patriots. many of you may hey seen the movie "the pate troll," melody mel gibson. the villain is father,ed after lord charlton, the american commander who ultimately will re sore sore in south, the greaters
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number of civilians lost their lives and at the great destruction of civilian property, and in which most of this killing and burning and plundering -- some done by regular armies but mostly done by irregulars and also a lot of equal tint bandits who will pretend to be patriots and then loyalists to steal and inflight misery. nathaniel green was shocked and had seen some from time to grime forth but not what he saw in north carolina and south carolina and he referred to the pate trolls trolls and loyalists fighting each other, like, quote , beast as prey but thees the morse resourceful commander and the inflicts heavier casualties in each battle on the british, casualties the british
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cannot replace, and he is very good at distracting british forces so that the patriot irregulars can be mopping up the loyalists. and so that the longer the battle goes on, in the south, the more and more territory the british lose despite winning these battles. technically in terms of driving green off on a particular day. ultimately the battle -- the war is going to be won at a place called yorktown, here in virginia, when a french fleet will come all the way up from the west indies and will block the entrance to chesapeake bay. i assure you the french warships were large but not as large as the scale of this would suggest. it looks like you could walk from the deck of one to the other, all the way over the eastern shore but this is
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conveying the point. the effective of the french fleet block the entrance to chesapeake bay and the scattered ships are the british threat trying too break in and fail to do. so so by the scale of many naval battle you would say not that impressive. not that many ships sunk, not many men killed, but in strategic terms this is of immense importance because by keeping the british fleet out evacuation cannot be provided to cornwallis and without see siege line of a joint french and patriot force and force his century renter. this is a french painting and shows the french army commander, and here he is side-by-side witch washington, very effective partnership and a war in which there are lots of examples of
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generals officially on the same side, but unofficially at each other's throats. as was the case with cornwallis and his superior court, sir henry clinton and the enact to cooperate contributed to cornwallis' ability to be trapped. and the french officer was a politic man and was a much more experienced officer than washington, who came from a much better organized army, he understand he needed to defer to washington. that what's most important political statement he could make. and by deferring to them and cooperating with washington so closely-it means that your yorktown is almost the perfect operation. in this operation, the french soldiers are about equal in number to the patriot soldiers, and if we add in some 19,000
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french sailors on the french fleet, then the battle of yorktown is really primarily a french victory, but the great beneficiaries of this victory will be the united states. now, as i wrap up, a few potential points i want to make, as the war is extremely destructive. rampages over most of what is now the united states at one time oar the other. a much so shorter list, the county not directly featured in the violence of the revolution and the revolution isn't simply that of the main battle armies but it's also all of these irregulars, raging and ranging across the countryside. and so this is economically devastating. economists who have looked at the colonial economy of 1774 and compared it to 1790, at the
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other end of this period of turmoil that will last into the 1780s after the formal way, say the american economy declined by 0%. there is an economic de -- isn't an economic decline on that order until the great depression so this is economically devastating to come pack from. thousands of people are refugees. the patriots arable to go back home again, many loyalist are not. some 75,000 loyalist becomes refugee, as a proportion of the overall population there's larger number who are turn into permanent refugees by the american revolution than is the case for at the french revolution. so the revolution -- another image of destruction, the stat tut of william pitt, a former british prime minister, it was in charleston, south carolina, but it is -- by -- hit by cannon fire and badly damaged. this represents in the upper register here, loyalist activities.
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it shows military corps where they were organized. you can see every sea port at were time or another was under british occupation and becomes a place to recruit loyalist troops and places for loyalist newspapers which are indicated by the reddish brown dots which you can see in almost all the sea ports in the middle register here, these higher red lines indicate larger numbers of refugees. so where you see the lines especially tall, that's where a lot of loyalists refugees win after the war. some of them do go down into the west indies and the bahamas and some end up in britain about the largest cluster of refugee are in at the maritime provinceses of british north america nova scotia, st. john, and another cruster in what we now call ontario.
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so the american revolution isn't just generating in the united states. it's also generating a english speaking canada because before the american revolution almost all of the people living in canada were frankophile-philes who had been con at thed be the british empire in a previous war and now we're getting a comparable number of inning speaking people that go into canada and will become the great majority in the -- both here in marry types and also over in the future ontario. so, canada as a bilingual society and one quite different from the united states, in many ways, believe it another nor -- i know americans don't believe that -- is generated out of the american revolution. and canadians particularly in these regions are quite proud of it. they don't think their cause was a bad one. and this is a painting that was done in the 1930s.
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very similar to style of historic paymentings you see hanging in american post offices from then 1930s. only what is being celebritied here are loyalist refugees who are landing in st. john's, new brunswick, and you can see just how well dressed they are, how orderly. it's this kind of image of the loyalist americans good americans came into canada, is the message of this art. and then this is the final image i want to leave you with. this is toppling of the statue of george iii in new york citying are right at -- shortly after the announcement of the declaration of independence. it leads to an orgy of destroying symbols of royalty, and of the union of the empire. and the most conspicuities of those symbols was this eequestrian statute of george iii and it is largely made out
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of lead and melted down and the bullets that were made out of it were then shot at the british. but it's also a complicate moment because some of the people who are employed to pull down the statue, even though they're not represented in this painting, were enslaved people of new york. so, the american revolution involves not just the leadership class, and it doesn't just involve the people who usually are featured in the paintings. it involves the entire society caught up in the war, and that will affect everybody, including enslave people and native peoples who don't want to be incorporated in the united states. it includes women. it includes children. thousands of children are caught up in the war. some of them as soldiers, many more as refugees. and so this is a war and an era of transformation in many ways,
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and the most conspicuous forms of those transformations, on an enduring basis are the up in run institutions premised on the sovereignty of the people. they will continue to be coming out of the revolution a great deal of debate as to what is the meaning of the term "the people." and it is something that we are still arguing over today. thank you. [applause] >> i'm just going to repeat your questions because this is being filmed by c-span and i know you'll probably want to conduct his open q & a, but i mwai might just ask the first -- >> die have to repeat your question, too? >> yes. >> okay.
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>> take a crack at it. tom -- thomas baio wrote an article arguing that the american revolution was just a traditional colonial war of independence. like vietnam and anticolonial wars of the type that and is not a revolution. now, is this just a semantical play as too how we define revolutions? all revolutions usually involve rebellion, a political revolution, or is it? is there a rope -- reason why the word "revolution" is valid. >> the question is, was the american revolution just a war for colonial liberation? wail, just a war that? that's a pretty big thing, anybody who has through a war for colonial liberation, it's massive in its dislocation of society and consequences if even
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if were just that, would not be extraordinary. but it's more than that. this is the first war for colonial liberation. somebody has to go first. somebody has to set the press tent, and setting the precedent then makes i easier for people later to imagine they could do it and it could succeed. but imagine if you don't have that precedent? what an emotorhome mose set of risks and that's one of the reasons why there were so many loyalist, people saying we don't want to do this, this i damn dangerous, and they were apt in predicting the destruction this war would unleash, but the patriot response was, we know that. we hope to minimize it. but even if we can't minimize it, it's worth it. and ultimately the patriots will persuade most americans that's a political path to follow. and having followed it they're
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going to establish political institutions which in my view are very different. there's carryover. certainly the british constitution is influential, but just let's look at one particular colony, new york. before the revolution the only elected people in the entire colony is one house of the legislature. and there are two representatives per county. no matter the size of the county. so there were these huge counties being rapidly settled up on the frontier. they have two seats, and then there are two in new york city, and then two in smaller places. so it's not one man, one vote. and certainly rich landlords had their own seats in the say assembly. they didn't haven't to stand for election.
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the higher house, the council, appointed to life terms. the royal governor, appointed, and serves at the will of the imperial bureaucracy, yanked out thereof opportunity do what he is told. so you can say theres some popular government in colonial america but the reality is that electoral turnout in new york or in virginia, if it goods to 40% othe eligible voters that was considered up usual. most people didn't bother to vote and it's just one of the political institutions, the sheriff's are appointed, county clerks are aopinioned. judges all appointed, by a system that has very little say for popular participation. now, there are some examples that work at bit against that. massachusetts has more of a participation. it elected assembly is much more
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powerful than the coup but it's an abrasion and that's why the british pick on massachusetts so much. they blame massachusetts as a especially democratic constitution for the troubles that seem to be especially conspicuities there. now, let's look at new york, going back to my new york example, after the revolution, both houses of the legislature elected. there's a preliminary that the county wiz larger populations have nor seats. landlords no longer have guaranteed seats. the governor is elected. and now you get to elect something to this supra state institution, congress, and you even get to elect at the elector toes for somebody called the president. so there is a thorough republicanizing of the political structures which i think we have underplayed, and i think the primary reason why this all happened -- the logic of it
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continues to up fold over time because anybody thereafter who wants to argue to hem in popular sankty can the build an aristocrat and wants to bring monarch okay back in and that's a loser in pollacks. one of the one who was best at wielding this was thomas jefferson who managed to cast his federalis opponentses in the politics of the 1790s as people who were out to restore eric stockcracy and monarchy in theup i. they were not but he could applause blue present them as so and that's was quite devastating their political prospected. i promise the rest of my'ses will be shorter. >> among everybody and all these institutions -- [inaudible question] -- what did you say about the church, the clergy -- >> i can't say too much because
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i'll give another talk, which is very much on that topic. so i give the concise version. is that in some ways religious life anticipates this republican culture, i argue, in that there is a major movement within protestant denominations, beginning back in the 1730s, which argues in fav of individual choice. that every believer is individually responsible at the end of days, and therefore no individual can be bound by some sort of parish commitment by the community. if an individual believes, i'm not a congregationalist or epepsico pail yap. whoa shy be forced to pay tacks or forced to hear this minister whose words do not convey true grace to me. want to hear my open preferred person.
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that logic was crosssive of these church establishments and when the revolution comes along, it greatly accelerate that's erosion, particularly in the south, and virginia is the chief example of that. new england bill be much low soloer to debt rid of the establish. s but i think the revolution is right in the middle of a story of religious cultural change that begins before the revolution and will continue after it, and which is accelerated by the revolution. yes? >> can you tell me the numbers of populations of patriots vs. the loyalist and give me a better definition of the irregulars irregulars and how they were defined. >> irregulars can take many different forms but almost everyone who is male and over the age of 16, up until at least the age of 45 but could be 60, is supposed to enroll in a militia.
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and as you can imagine the training is nonexistent. their arms are often nonexistent or broken, and they're going to vary greatly in quality. so you don't want to put these buys out into a field with british relations with bayonets coming at them because they're going to do the sensible thing and run away. but a lot of times george washington is dependent on these guys because he can't get other people to come into the continental army, the regular army of the patriots. being in the regular army is a set of miseries. food is bad. officers are not polite. they treat you really bad. they tell you to do things yaw don't want to do, dig latrines, whippure back and threat you next words of she soldiers, like slaves, and then you're not
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really paid most of the time. and you are stodge the diseases of the camp and so there are a lot of common american whose say, really want at the patriots to win but i don't want to serve in the continental army, and so that's why george washington often had to use -- has to supplement with these militia men. some of these militia men in these very chaotic regions like the carolinas, there really is no higher command over them. they're operating on their own, people like francis marion and thomas sumpter, and nath thannal broken will make suggestions but they're wage aring their own war ask their soldiers are not paid. they're being paid in what they can steal from the other side which creates all the insend different in the world to define waiverring people as loyalists. whose horses and cattle have to be taken to make a political point and to keep your own force going. so, one of the consequences is
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it doesn't really pay to be a waiverring person toward the end of war. you have to pick a side and make a case toot least half of them they shouldn't minute at the you, reactor that both sides blundering you. yes? >> i'll get you in the back in just a moment. >> could you please speak more to the economic consequences of the war? did it affect so regions more than others or certain sectors more than others and how was that used to the advantage of one side versus the other. >> okay. i can speak more about the economic -- the question was what were the economic consequences of the revolution. can speak more about the subsequent effects. certainly during the war, to have armies rampaging through, there is the violence they literally do also the fact that they need forage for horses, food for the men, fireword. the easiest place to get firewood are fences, so almost
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every fence in a county affect bid the revolution gets burn up at one point or another during the war because the soldiers pull the rails out and build fires. these guys are hungry. they go and help. thes to all the chickens and pigs they can get their hands on. so green put it, he said, the visitation by an armia no matter which side, is a disaster to the civilian population, so this is going to be affecting both sides. now, when the war is over and the british have gone home, good the loyalists, thousands, have had to leave, other loyalists come back and try to lay low, everybody's got to try to pick up the pieces of all this devastation. the other thing that contradicted to negative economic trends is that trade is disrupted. this -- we often assume that the british empire was a bad deal
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for the colonists. economically, for midnight colonists, it offered a very good deal. the largest protected trading community in the world. and lots of americanes benefited from that, and this is also something that giving loyalists pause. why too we want to give this up? do we really want to be independent operator in a world of empires rather than being part of this protect tisch empire that is the most successful empire on earth? so, when you get frozen out, then, at the end of the war, from access to british colonies, and you are frozen out of the protection that at the royal navy provided in places leak the mediterranean, this is going to shrink american commerce pretty dramatically during the 1780s and contributes to this lingering depression of the 1780s, which is essential
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backdrop to decision that the political leadership makes they have to have a stronger union than provide by the first constitution, the article of confederation. now, mary, did you have a question? >> a questly most about the sources. you talk about the enslaved persons and the american revolution and how it was often underacknowledged and not acknowledged at all. when -- about their contributions. what did you come across that illustrated their role in the revolution, how were you able to discuss that in your book? >> okay, the question is how can i document the experience of enslaved people who were drawn into this war, who are underrepresented in the traditional accounts of the revolution. there are several formerly
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enslaved people who live memoirs and of their experiences, and so those are primary sources. there are the records of the british military of their efforts to entice enslaved people to run away, and to organize some of them into military units and more of them into logistical support groups, and then documentation of their refugee experience. there's also very interesting documentation for the refugee experience in nova scotia and then several thousands of them relocate in the 1790s and good to sierra leone in west africa. and this provides a very interesting echo effect to their experience in the revolution in that they find that the british empire is not fulfilling its promises that it had made to them and they will good to sierraee loney new promises are made to them which also with not
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be fulfilled. yes, sir? >> my question.the population -- >> i'm sorry. i -- joe number piston population between at the patriots and loyalists. >> this is tough to do because people swing back and forth between sides. there's the famous john adams state. he said a third of americans were patriots, third were loyalists and a third were in the middle. i think that's almost certainly too high on the loyalists. and probably too low on the patriots, and too low on he people in the middle. so my best sense -- we're talking about the very start, '75, '76, i would say a fifth of the american people are will tolling make a pretty strong commitment to the union of the empire. -fifths are will tolling make a strong commitment to military resistance to the empire and ultimately to independence.
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and that leaves another two-fifths of the population in the middle. those proportions will ebb and know over the course of the war, but what i think clearly happens it that loyalist fifth will keep shrinking over time, because they're so frustrated with british treatment, and they are so often experienced being subject to severe punishment when the british failed to protect them. that they make the quite rational decision that if order is ever going to be restored in is chaotic war it's going to one guy the patriots and not the british. that what most people decide. so the loyalist proportion shrinks. the patriot proportion grows and then you still have a lot of waiverring people mostly going along with the operate tots by then of the war. >> how their numbers. >> we're talk bath population of
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2.5 million people. 500,000 of home are enslaved. and most of those 500,000, if they get a choice to express themselves, will support the british. that's a lot of people. but a lot of enslaved people are in situations where they can't escape, and they can't express themselves. so not all 500,000 of them run away to the british. it's just not possible. the highest estimates will say maybe 30,000 of them did so. and i think it's probably even lower than that. in large part family pins you down. all these cousins and so forth, and you can't get everybody out at once. so you stay put. >> thank you. i will have to estimate this is the last question. >> the title of your poock is "american evolutions" period. >> you get extra -- >> theat
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