A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped…

Sometimes books that purport to tell the “whole story” or “the real history” turn out to be nothing but debunking books, snidely stating that what everyone knows to be is true is in fact false. Well, thankfully this isn’t one of those books. Researched as thoroughly as possible from the limited resources, Raphael tells the interesting stories of the common people in the war for independence. From hungry and underpaid soldiers, to women, to Indians caught up in the middle of a civil war, to loyalists and many who switched sides numerous times to gain the best advantage. Everyone who participated in the war had their own reasons beyond mere “taxation without representation.” In fact, in some ways the revolution became more tyrannical than the parliament they sought to replace.

“’The Rascally Stupidity which now prevails in the Country at large is beyond all description … I despise my Countrymen, I wish I could say I was not born in America, I once gloried in it but am now ashamed of it…’” Lieutenant Colonel Ebenezer Huntington after suffering from economic collapse and war profiteering while in the Continental Army (p. 91)

“By treating all residents as American rebels, the occupying army made a false assumption come true. “Instead of destroying the Revolution,” states historian Joseph Tiedemann, “the British army became one of its agents.” (p. 174)

“The harsh treatment of loyalists during the Revolutionary period was never formally repudiated, but at least some Americans tried to prevent it from happening again. Freedom of speech, trial by jury, the right of cross-examination, prohibition against bills of attainder – these and other civil liberties, once denied to people called Tories, were guaranteed to everyone under the new federal government. American schoolchildren have always been taught that the Bill of Rights was meant to insure against the tyrannical abuses of Old World governments, but the new American states had also been abusive to basic civil liberties. Many of the Revolutionaries, once the war had ended, recoiled at the consequence of popular fury, the ‘tyranny of the majority’ they had witnessed firsthand. The War for Independence had proven that Americans needed protection – not just from kings, but from themselves.” (p. 185)

“But is not our modern vision skewed as well as we rewrite our texts to include the ‘contributions’ which African Americans made to the Revolutionary cause? This too reveals and egocentric orientation. Black patriots were not fighting in support of national independence or opposition to Parliament, and black loyalists were not endangering their lives on behalf of the king. First and foremost, African Americans of the Revolutionary era ‘contributed’ to their own quests for freedom. Everything else pales by comparison.” (p. 298).
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