A Rebellion of Symbols

1. A Rebellion of Symbols People, ideas and items that stirred the emotions and steeled the resolve to rebel against England

2. I. Symbols That Made a Difference

3. A. The King • George III’s Problems and Liabilities • Traditional colonial view of the King • A Parliament without sensitivity or creativity • Long travel time between England and America creates communication problems • Great Awakening further alienated colonists from their earthly king

4. B. American Political Language: Republican Metaphors • Strong moral component in these metaphors • John Locke’s social contract theory • “No Taxation without Representation” and the “rights” of Englishmen • The significance of Tom Paine’s Common Sense (1776) • Masonic influence on the thinking of the American revolutionaries

5. C. The British Army • Reason for British regiments left in America • Traditional British Fear of a “standing army” • Army seen as an obstacle to American expansion and economic development • Resistance to the Quartering Act (1765)

6. C. The British Army (cont) • The symbolic significance of the Boston Massacre (March, 1770) • Significance of killing a British regular during the War for Independence

7. D. Effigies, Homespun and “92” • Long English history of burning effigies • Colonial American history of attacking British officials • American view of British taxes: external vs. internal • The Stamp Act (1765) and the various levels of resistance to it • The Townshend Duties (1767) and the resistance to them • The symbolism of “92”

8. E. Tea and Indians • Relative quiet for 3 years following the partial repeal of the Townshend Duties --Committees of Correspondence • British love of tea • The threat of the Tea Act (1773)

9. E. Tea and Indians (cont) • Resistance to the Tea Act --Boston Tea Party (December, 1773) • British response to the Tea Party: the Coercive Acts • Colonial response to Coercive Acts

10. F. The “Minutemen” • Paul Revere’s “solitary ride” • The Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775) • Image of brave, yeoman farmer as volunteer soldier versus the reality of the Continental Line • Town militias did maintain control over large areas not directly controlled by the British regulars

11. G. The Continental Army • Counter-symbol to the minutemen and the strategy of guerilla warfare • Composition and conduct of these forces • Became the symbol of the American cause • Washington tried to avoid general actions at all costs • Lingering American suspicion of even their own standing army • 5000 African-Americans served in integrated units

12. II. The War the Symbols Made

13. A. “The Odds, But . . .” • American prospects were grim • British faced logistical problems • America was too vast to be conquered in the traditional way • British underestimated American fighting skill, spirit and will to resist • British targeted cities rather than Washington’s army

14. B. Three Theaters of War • Northern Theater (1775-1776) --Bunker Hill (1775) --Trenton (Christmas night, 1776) • Central Theater (1777-1779) --Valley Forge, (Winter of 1777-1778) --Saratoga (October, 1777)

15. B. Three Theaters of War (cont) • Southern Theater (1780-1781) --Yorktown (October, 1781) --Lord Cornwallis -- “The World Turned Upside Down”

16. C. Peace and the War’s Results • The Peace of Paris (1783) • American Casualty figures • Results and Consequences of the American Revolution • A Political, but not a Social Revolution • Wave of slave manumissions • Expanded, but temporary, female political influence • A “British Vietnam”?

17. III. The Real Victims of Revolutionary Symbols: Loyalists • 20% of White American Population—about 100,000 people • All ranks and sections of society • Their sacrifice • Very sad and lonely group • Their treatment • 40,000 Tories fought as a part of the British Army