Chapter 5

1. Chapter 5 A Kind Of Revolution

2. No one wanted to fight in the war No one really wanted to fight in the Revolutionary war. Estimates by John Adams proved that a 3rd opposed, a 3rdsupported and a 3rd were neutral about the war. Slaves and Indians had no interest in helping the Americans fight.

3. Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures In order to get people to join the militia, the military accepted anyone willing to join. All though the usual standard for someone joining the militia “were generally hallmarks of respectability or at least a full citizenship” they had no choice but to accept Vagrants (people who doesn’t have a home or job, that wonders from place to place) (p.77-78).

4. Great Place For The Poor Poor people were able to improve their lives by joining the militia It became a “place of promise for the poor, who might rise in rank, acquire some money, change their social status”(p.78). They didn’t really care much about the fight for freedom as they did for the rewards they would gain socially and financially

5. Rich vs. Poor The war had caused a overshadowing of issues that were going on, however they would not remain quiet The war was “a time of immense profits for some colonists and terrible hardships for others”(p.80). Inflation had caused princes to increase by 45 % in only one month The First Company of Philadelphia Artillery petitioned about the troubles of the poor and threatened the use of violence against “those who are avariciously intent upon amassing wealth by the destruction of the more virtuous part of the community”(p.80).

6. The Advantages Of Being Wealthy The Continental Congress, ruled by rich men, governed the colonies during the time of war This lead to a linkage of business and family stemming from the North to the South and the East to the West Robert Morris, from Pennsylvania, was the superintendent of finance. He decided to devise a plan to help those who loaned money to the Continental Congress to receive more in return Unfortunately the return would be at the cost of unpaid common soldiers, who were dying during the war

7. Mutiny! Having reached their threshold of anger from the fraudulent system, Pennsylvania troops near Morristown, NJ, marched toward the Continental Congress, fully armed and with cannons on New Years Day in 1781 George Washington advised General Anthony Wayne to not use force against the troops and to “get a list of the soldiers’ grievances”(p.81). A negotiation was made with three months worth of payments for the soldiers, but at the cost of some being discharged and told to leave

8. Mutiny! Continued Another uprising took place in the NJ Line, that involved 200 men disobeying their officers and charging toward the state capital in Trenton. However, Washington was prepared for it this time and sent 600 men to surround the mutineers and disarm them. 3 leaders of the revolt had been identified. 1 was pardoned and the other 2 were shot by a firing squad made up of their friends. Washington had done this so it would prove as a “example” of the consequences of their revolting.

9. False Freedom- Post-War After the war, the new constitution of 1776, stated that in order to be able to run for governor, “one had to own 5,000 pounds of property; to run for state senator, 1,000 pounds. This requirement caused an exclusion of 90% of the population, which means only the rich would have power The advantages of the war had proven beneficial for only the rich Inequality was still present and disguised by elaborate sayings like “We the people of the United States,” which ignored many of its “people”

10. False-Freedom- Post-War Carl Degler states, “No New social class came to power through the door of the American revolution. The men who engineered the revolt were largely members of the colonial ruling class”(p.85) It was no coincidence that the people who wanted the war to happen were the ones to benefit so much after the war The deceit of the revolution was becoming aparent Soldiers who had enlisted in the war found out their pay difference from privates to colonels

11. What Will Happen with the Indians and The Blacks? The Native Americans and Indians were clearly not the “people” the constitution was talking about It was time for them to be forced out by newly controlled America 800,000 acres were taken fom the Mohawk lands in New York by land agents After the war blacks were given some opportunities of freedom, however there were still areas in the North tha t had thousands of slaves. There was a formation of small black elites in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, and Savannah (p.88).

12. What Will Happen with the Indians and The Blacks? Blacks proceeded with fighting for rights such as, abolishment of slavery, equal rights and receiving city money to educate their children Benjamin Banneker, a self taught black man, urged Jefferson to “wean yourselves from the narrow prejudices which you have imbibed”(p.89). However, Jefferson remained a slave owner for the rest of his life due to the difficulties of America changing their ways, from “the power of the cotton plantation, the slave trade, the politics of unity between northern and southern elites, and the long culture of race prejudice in the colonies”(p.89).

13. Problems With The Constitution Historian George Bancroft states that the Constitution creates nothing that has to do with equality and individuality. Historian Charles Beard explains that the “rich must, in their own interest, either control the government directly or control the laws by which government operates”(p.90). He came to that conclusion after researching the backgrounds of the men who drafted the Constitution and that they had “economic interests in establishing a strong federal government”(p.90). He felt that they did not write the Constitution simply for themselves but that they wrote down laws that benefited their representation of life.

14. The American System The Constitution “illustrates the complexity of the American System: that it serves the interests of a wealthy elite, but also does enough for small property owners, for middle-income mechanics and farmers, to build a broad base of support This stable support for the minimal representation that the Constitution gives to everyone else is what allowed the public to accept these rules. The Founding Fathers achieved their goal of gaining total control of power on the backs of the “people” that they purpousley exclude

15. Reference Zinn, Howard. A People.s History of the United States: 1942-present. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005. Print.