American Revolution - Essay Example

Unity and solidarity of the population were the main factors which influenced outcomes of the Revolution. Patriotism was inspired by ideas of freedom and liberation, new social order and independence. When the break between the motherland and the colonies came, democratic spirit, characteristic of the frontier, seized a vast majority of the American people. It affected merchants and planters as well as farmers and mechanics. They all had grievances against the crown, which most of them believed could only be righted by national freedom.

In the main the questions that divided England and America were economic in character, having to do with property rather than personal rights, but the hurt of them was not the less keenly felt for all of that. National idea and political and economic pressure of the Crown inspired a new ideology and national idea (Middlekauff 83). Another important factor of success was that ideas of freedom and independence were supported by three political leaders, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, who led the Revolution.

In spite of the fact that Washington, Adams, and Jefferson had different views and vision of the new republic and freedom, they supplemented each other. For instance, Adams developed a masterful defense strategy. In the face of considerable opposition by the radical leadership, he first secured a postponement of the trial until autumn, a delaying tactic that permitted some of the popular. Jefferson also indicated that his revolutionary sentiments had been born out of his despair that the colonists were unable to shape their lives and destinies.

His arguments on this score were more persuasive. The autonomy of the colonists, he wrote, had been "circumscribed within narrow limits" (Middlekauff 36). Their role as provincials was merely "to direct all labors in subservience to her [Great Britain's] interests" (Middlekauff 34). The core of Jefferson's commitment to colonial protest did in fact arise from his belief that American subordination and dependency was unpalatable. Also, Washington subsequently agreed that the Stamp Act was "unconstitutional" but he viewed it more as an aggrieved businessman than an ideologue.

He labeled the act "ill judgd" predicting that taxation would further strip the colonists of precious cash, reducing their capability to satisfy their creditors in England or to import goods from the parent state. Yet while Adams distrusted the popular leadership, he did not doubt that the British policies which they attacked were illegal and threatened servility. In spite of some differences, sense of unity and cooperative spirit united these leaders and appealed to the population (Hibbert 64, 66).

Among the alternative arguments stilled by the early patriot curtain of silence were those expressed by the voices of the oppressed, both slave and free. Widespread distribution of the Massachusetts petitions for freedom, the essay by Caesar Sarter, the argument offered by Adam, the actions of Prince Hall, and the poetry of Phillis Wheatley would have offered counters to the role of myth, symbol, and difference and may have influenced the essays employed by the white antislavery adherents. The propaganda associated with national purpose can become fixed by the firmament of success as much as by the simmering resentments that accompany an unsuccessful coup.

The patriot call