This reading provided a lot of new information about the American Revolution and the events leading up to it. Zinn describes the large economic divides within the colonies and the wealthy colonists’ deceptive manipulation of the lower classes. On page 65 Zinn explains that “colonist leaders had a divided white population”. He explains how leaders of the Independence movement were thoughfully instigating rebellion when they wanted to and made attempts to contain rebellion of certain things to avoid the risk of an uproar on them, the wealthy. He later explains that the colonies’ leaders s would bring the need for rebellion to the attention of the populations that could help them when they needed the manpower. For example, they would approach the mechanics “who had a stake in the fight against England, who faced competition from English manufacturers” and assure that they knew who the enemy was that was causing their economic struggle. One of the most eyeopening phrases from this piece was when Zinn mentions that one of the “biggest [problems] was to keep the propertyless people, who were unemployed and hungry in the crisis following the French war, under control” as the leaders of the Independence movement tried to aim the mob energy of the poor towards the British while also containing it so” it would not demand too much from them.”
Zinn displays that the motives and strategies of rebellion against English rule were not unified or equally distributed amongst the colonist population. There was a large push to “relieve tension between the upper and lower classes and [instead] form a bond against the British”. I was aware that not all colonists were equal in occupation or economic rank but it was never explained to me that there was such a conscious effort of the wealthy to guide the anger of the other classes towards the British and away from themselves.
It’s a little frightening to think of certain historical events that we’ve learned one way about (for our entire lives, may I add) to have actually been orchestrated. Perhaps it wasn’t so intentional as that, but the idea that some bigwigs noticed what was happening, put their heads (wigs) together and figured out how to make the lower class FEEL equal to them… pretty sinister. And it really makes you wonder how that’s happening today. I mean, it has to be.
I also hadn’t realized how great an effort the upper class made to push the anger of the lower classes towards the British. It really complicates the basis for the Revolution, because the wealthy were just trying to get the poor of off their backs. I wonder if the poor hadn’t started uprising agains the wealthy, would there even have been a revolution?