This reading changed the way that I looked at the events leading up to the American Revolution completely. This I think is partially due to the very strategic way that American made textbooks want us to think of the revolution as this very precise and united action to break off from a tyrannical England; the true underdog story. However, after this reading that it was largely based on wealthy colonist’s desire for an even larger fortune, there was a lot of individual interest, not this united interest like it is always made out to be.
There was certainly a fair share of riots prior to the revolution; however, not only in protest to England but much smaller scale riots against individual wealthy colonists as well. It appears that severe economic equality has always been a problem in the US. I did think it was interesting that the author pointed out the hypocrisy in Thomas Jefferson’s proposal of eliminating slavery in the Declaration of Independence, for all the same reasons that we previously discussed earlier in the semester. I didn’t realize just how influential Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was at the time. One of the reasons it was so particularly effective in promoting independence is because of its ability to appeal to multiple economic demographics. In order to win a war, you need people to fight in it. And because the wealthy simply bought their way out of fighting, they needed the support of the middle class and poor. Though I am still just as glad the Revolution happened for the sake of my own existence, this reading opened my eyes to a new perspective and way to view the events leading up to the shot that was heard around the world.
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