The End of, and Effects of, the American Revolution

1. The End of, and Effects of, the American Revolution

2. British North America’s Grows • In what is now known as Eastern Canada, between 80,000- 100,000 loyalists left the colonies to live in British North America. Modern day Quebec and Ontario. • Many Black loyalists left the colonies due to a chance to escape slavery. • The British promised freedom to the black, “slaves”. Their aim was to ruin the plantation economy in the colonies.

3. Consequences of Independence: Trade and Commerce • No longer part of the complex British mercantile system, key exports were lost. This included rice, indigo, and tobacco. • In Southern states, the loss of once profitable commodities forced planters to convert to cotton production, made even more lucrative through the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. • The war had also produced enormous national debt with millions owed to the French and Dutch governments. • London, financiers pressed pre war debts relative to the complex system of credit extensions and debentures. • Individual states maintained heavy debt loads while individuals that had invested in war bonds despaired of seeing those sums redeemed. • States developed their own currencies, rejected by European factors and merchants in favor of gold and silver, thus depriving the new nation of the financial stability built upon hard money. • Inter-state trade rivalries existed that featured retaliatory measures. New York, for example, as an entry port for imports, assessed taxes duties on goods entering New Jersey or Connecticut. • It is also worth noting that Britain closed the West Indies to United States trade

4. The “not-so-final” frontier • The new government was also unable to address the presence of British, Spanish, and Native Americans on the frontier. • In several cases, British soldiers still maintained garrisons within territorial boundaries, frequently supporting Native Americans that harassed frontier settlements. • The British government justified this position on the grounds that, per the 1783 treaty, the United States had not made good on its promise to compensate the losses of loyalists that had fled during the war. • the new nation was also surrounded by European powers. • Great Britain controlled Canada and still maintained their garrisons in forts along the frontiers of the United States. • Florida, New Orleans, and the lands beyond the Mississippi were Spanish. • As the new nation pressed westward, Spanish control of the vital New Orleans port would pose a serious threat to American farmers using the mighty river to freight goods south

5. Social Unrest and Rural Violence in New England • New England was particularly hard hit by post war economic changes. • The fisheries industry was in ruins and agricultural prices decreased to the point where many farmers stood to lose their homes and farms in foreclosure proceedings. • Led by Daniel Shays, these farmers in 1786 mounted a “rebellion” of sorts aimed at closing down the courts. • Eventually dissolved by a militia army paid for by Boston merchants, the rebellion forced national leaders to act.

6. Liberty for all**Exception: females and Africans • The revolution had been fought for independence and the ideological foundations of arguments for independence were frequently articulated in speeches and writings like the Declaration of Independence. • Yet the Revolution never altered the political or social inequalities of the new nation. • Despite pleas by women like Abigail Adams not to forget the women, written to her husband at the time of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, political rights did not change. As before the Revolution, only white men who were property owners (referring to land) could participate in the political process. • African Americans were also dismissed by the newly formed government. • Although several attempts at emancipation were discussed by leaders in the Continental Congress, southern delegates used every argument available to preserve slavery. • Many blacks had fought in the Revolution. It was a unit of predominantly black New England soldiers that made the escape of George Washington possible at the battle of Brooklyn Heights.

7. War Loses • Most historians estimate that about 7,200 Americans were killed in battle during the Revolutionary War. Approximately 8,200 more were wounded. About 10,000 others died in military camps from disease or exposure. Some 8,500 died in prison after being captured by the British. • American military deaths from all causes during the war thus numbered about 25,700. • In addition, approximately 1,400 soldiers were missing. British military deaths during the war totaled about 10,000. • Many soldiers in the Continental Army came out of the war penniless, as they had received little or no pay while they served. • Soldiers who had enlisted for the entire war received certificates for Western land. But many veterans had to sell the certificates because they needed money before • Western lands became available. In 1818, Congress agreed to pay pensions to needy veterans