One of the most hotly debated topics of the American Revolution is to what extent it changed the lives of ordinary people. On many levels, the revolution seemed to benefit only those who had already enjoyed significant status, such as the colonial elites. Its main achievements were political and economic: the transference of sovereignty from a British king to Americans, the maturation of colonial assemblies into state legislatures, the release of merchants from the chains of British trade laws and duties, and the opening up of westward territories for exploration. This political impact is obvious because it is reflected in constitutions, systems of government and public records – however the social impact is more difficult to define. On the surface, the revolution did little for ordinary people because it had never initially promised to: it had been sparked by opposition to unfair taxation, standing armies and oppressive government – not the mistreatment or the rights of the poor, women, slaves or ‘Indians’. If there were social changes then they were subtle, complex and incidental, rather than being an explicit aim of the revolution.
“Social changes were interwoven with political processes and took longer to mature. Each state moved at its own pace and advances were slower in some places than others. Claims to continuing social hegemony and political supremacy made by the established and often conservative patriot elites were challenged by men of lower social status, who argued that they were entitled to share in the direction of a nation they were helping to create. The outcome was a significant realignment of relations between elites and their social inferiors at state level. New men were enable to enter public life, both as voters and as elected officials. They demanded that their interests be considered, even if they conflicted with those of the rich. Elites were forced to share their power.”
Colin Bonwick, historian
The revolution had an almost entirely negative impact on native Americans. Most tribes had fought alongside the British, pinning their hopes to an English victory which would restrict expansion of the 13 colonies and provide some protection for their own land rights. The tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy participated in devastating raids on colonial settlements in the north-east, prompting Congress and Washington to undertake retaliatory campaigns such as the Sullivan Expeditions, which wiped out native villages and farmland. The increased movement generated by the Revolutionary War brought more natives into contact with more whites – and therefore with ‘white diseases’. With no immunity to European diseases many tribal populations were decimated by these diseases, particularly the smallpox which was ravaging the eastern side of the continent during the 1770s. When the British signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783 to formally end the conflict, they also signed over vast regions of tribal lands to the new United States. Americans had never much recognised native claims to land ownership and the treaty simply formalised this perspective: they were now viewed as a conquered race, living illegally on American land. Over the next century waves of settlers would move westward, claiming and occupying native territories, displacing tribal groups and engaging in several ‘Indian wars’. Though the national government usually sought to obtain this land legitimately through treaties, settlers and state governments instead preferred to drive off the natives through intimidation and violence. The American Revolution therefore unleashed a wave of expansion and resettlement that would drive most Native Americans from their homeland and into a century of dispossession, disorder and death.
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