A Rebellion of Symbols

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A Rebellion of Symbols

• People, ideas and items that stirred the emotions
  and steeled the resolve to rebel against England

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I. Symbols That Made a Difference
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A. The King

• George IIIs 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

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B. American Political Language Republican
Metaphors

• Strong moral component in these metaphors
• John Lockes social contract theory
• No Taxation without Representation and the
  rights of Englishmen
• The significance of Tom Paines Common Sense
  (1776)
• Masonic influence on the thinking of the American
  revolutionaries

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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)

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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F. The Minutemen

• Paul Reveres 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

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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

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II. The War the Symbols Made
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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 Washingtons
  army

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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)

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B. Three Theaters of War (cont)

• Southern Theater (1780-1781)
• --Yorktown (October, 1781)
• --Lord Cornwallis
• -- The World Turned Upside Down

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C. Peace and the Wars 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?

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III. The Real Victims of Revolutionary Symbols
Loyalists

• 20 of White American Populationabout 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