American RevolutionEssay Preview: American RevolutionReport this essayIn terms of the social change that happened, American Revolution is a truly radical one. The true radicalism of the American Revolution is evident from the book “Conceived in Liberty” written by6 Murray Rothbard. American Revolution was considered to be the greatest revolutions in the history. “Thomas Paine, the great democratic, and supporter of the both the American Revolution as well as the French Revolutions, believed that the American Revolution is more radical than the French, and he enthusiastically participated in both the nations.” (The Jefforsonian Libertarian)
The American Revolution was evolved out of the radicalism of the English Levelers of the English Revolution that took place during the mid 17th century. “Radical thinkers like John Milton, James Harrington, Henry Marten, Richard Rumbold, and John Liliburne led the way for libertarian philosophy. Later, freethinkers like John Locke, John Toland, Matthew Tindal and other freethinkers and deists led the battle in Britain against state-sponsored religion, and led the fight for civil liberty.” (Roark, Johnson and Cohen)
The experiences of Colonial America seem to be a secluded past which has very diminutive association with the daily lives of the people in the 21st century. “Though the various groups of the Colonial America like the Pennsylvanian German Pietists, New England Puritans, Virginia planters, indentured, slaves of Native Americans, Quakers, Anglicans, Methodists, Swedish farmers, Dutch traders or French Huguenots are not immediately identified by todays individuals, the fact that needs to be accepted is that these groups have very highly contributed to the tradition and inheritance. (Oates)
Yet, social change and the political Revolution are so inherently entwined that it is next to unfeasible not to connect the two. While it is perhaps true that social change would have taken place even without the Revolution, there is no assurance that this would be so, and basing a historical theory on assumptions is an uncertain attempt. On the contrary, it is more than fair to state that the American Revolution acted as a gigantic catalyst of social changes in the colonies.
One of the more fascinating areas of studying the American Revolution concerning its radicalism is the impact it had on slavery. Slavery and Black oppression are some of the most significant aspects of American history, and it was this Revolution which had initially placed these issues in the forefront of the American society. In the wave of democratic feeling which flounced the colonies as an outcome of the revolution, the call for the liberation of the slaves justly found its influence. The number of African-Americans enjoying liberty increased enormously under the pressure of the revolutionary transformation. The number of liberated African-Americans grew from a few thousand in the late 1760s to approximately 200,000 by the end of
the 19th century, and then by much higher numbers in the 20th. The increase of white and black slaves, even more than blacks, was due in part to the emancipation of a large number of American emancipated slaves; and as slaves were permitted to move freely to the colonies, they were able to secure a substantial share of their land and have their own homes. In short, the emancipation of slaves enabled the colonists to set the stage for their future, and for the American state to develop a greater degree of the social justice system of American history.
The revolution was certainly not without its problems. Among them, of course, were the many difficulties in its development, and its social development: the first was that it, too, has been subject to several forms of segregation. This was the subject of a recent study, The Origins of Utopia and the Origin of Government. In it, the great social thinkers of the last century, including Thomas Jefferson, had put forward a strong argument, that slavery was the main reason why the American social and economic system was under its sudden or long duration collapse, and that government should be abolished at some future date. As an example of the difficulty of this, they pointed to the passage of a single law in 1781, the “War Powers Bill”, which provided for the punishment of those who did not fight “at least two or three times”. Although a large majority (70 per cent), of the legislators who drafted it and others who were executed, wrote down a number of its provisions and ratified it in the final vote. These provisions made abolition far more difficult than it might have been through other means of securing for the American people the right to live at home in a free society. The legislation was passed for less than half a century, and in its place legislation for all other issues of civil affairs, including the national debt, was enacted. The other important part of legislation was provided of course for the poor, as there was no guarantee of compensation for the poor. These measures, along with legislation to strengthen property rights, made an impression on the citizens of the colonies, who came to the conclusion that they were in much better need of money than their own and the state, and consequently had to pass legislation to take the place of compensation for their poor conditions and to provide for their subsistence. The great political problems of the 1820s-1910s period became especially severe. In 1789, in regard to the war in Egypt, Sir John Maynard Keynes, at the same time advocating the abolition of slavery, advocated that the colonies should be set up as an independent state. In the midst of the general popular movement for government abolition of slavery, which is the theme of this paper, a second and greater question arose concerning the constitutionality of the war in Egypt. The constitution was, quite unexpectedly, passed: but for a limited time the war law was repealed. This changed the situation in Egypt as a whole, as the civil