This article gave me a really different perspective of the events leading up to the American Revolution. At least from what I remember, I never learned a lot about the class tension between the colonists. It was interesting to read that a lot of the poor colonists were willing to side with England just because they were so upset with the rich people. Their arguments were valid, as they were not being treated fairly and being taxed more even though they had less money.
Zinn states that Patrick Henry was able to settle down tension between the upper and lower classes and get them to also be against the British. He used a lot of patriotic remarks and a lack of talking about class conflict. It was odd to see how some people saw the Declaration of Independence as a way to get enough people to fight and beat the British, but also keep the wealth and power relationship. I never really saw the Declaration in this way, but it is easy to see how people could perceive it like that. There is obviously still class conflict in the US, and it is possible that it will never get solved.
I agree, I have never read about the American Revolution in this fashion before. I also was very taken by the point about Patrick Henry in the way that he was able to communicate to both classes, which greatly reminded me of MLK and how he was able to talk to two very different groups.
I never really took a look into how some of the poor people during the revolution had not been siding with their own country. They would side with Great Britain because they would be receiving more taxation than the rich people and being treated extremely poorly.
I agree with how this article provided a different perspective of the early United States that I have never learned before. I also find it interesting how they utilized the Declaration of Independence to band together .
I never made the connection that the dissent between classes was disguised by putting them both against the British. This was like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound, and we still feel the effects today.