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Class Inequality In The Shoemaker And The Tea Party

1894 Words8 Pages

I believe that the persistence of class inequality in America stood out the most about the Revolutionary era. In the book The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, George Robert Twelves Hewes, was one the many people who took part in revolutionary acts against British rule. He is also the person that The Shoemaker and the Tea party was mainly about in the first portion of the book. Most would think that someone who had taken part in something as significant as the first steps leading up the revolutionary war would be honored, respected, and even to a certain extent taken care of by his country. George took part in events such as the destruction of tea, Boston Massacre, along with other acts that mobs partaken in, in Boston. Hewes did receive these things …show more content…

The colonists did not like the way that the British controlled things after the French and Indian war. The British began passing Acts to make enough revenue to cover the debt of the war. Colonists rebelled all taxes which Britain didn’t like. This started to cause a great amount of tension between the Americans and British. Therefore, the reasoning behind majority of the elites in America was patriotic politics, which was also the reason for a few colonists in the working class. For example the Stamp act, the colonists felt as though the Stamp Act was …show more content…

For example, Hewes needed to support his growing family. Hewes was in and out of the Army to support his family. During the war he fought as an average sailor and soldier, shipping out on privateering voyages and enlisting multiple times. Hewes total amount of time spent in the military was twenty months. He even tried privateering as a way to get more money, or even just some type of acceptable pay to help him achieve financial independence. His attempt to increase his financial situation failed. Hewes stated in The Shoemaker and the Tea Party that “we received nothing of the government but paper money, of very little value, and continually depreciating.” He even lost his shoemaking shop that he had built in Boston. Georges shop was burned by British

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In Alfred F. Young’s book, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party, George Robert Twelves Hewes remembers how the Revolutionary War was about equality and recognition. Hewes remembers the Revolutionary war as being about equality when he remembers a moment when he met John Hancock. Hewes was one of the lower class, he was extremely poor as a shoemaker. Whereas, Hancock was one of the elitest in the country. Hancock sat down with Hewes as a young boy and thanked him with a coin.

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The Shoemaker and the Tea Party describes two different interesting points. Hughes is the main character who a is representative of the lower white male class who experienced the removal of deference in the region of the North. Hughes is thus symbolic of the heart of the American Revolution as the people at this time are seeking equality. The other important thesis to be noted in this book, is the Boston Tea Party.

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In dire need of paying off war debt, the British Parliament decided to tax the colonists due to the debt being their fault. Along with taxing the colonists, the East India Company boosted the income for the Parliament and benefited the George III by hurting the colonists economically by enacting the tea act. Blending “lethal politics, personalities, and economics”3 the American Revolution was bound to happen between the colonists and British, having little supporters of the idea of war. With the tension build up between the colonists and British Parliament, the Boston Tea Party occurred with the colonists rebelling against the Parliament’s political decision towards the colonists, symbolizing the starting point for a revolution and a step

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At first because the American people felt that they were part of Britain that they would be free of taxes with the goals of making revenue. The first of these taxes was the Stamp act causing direct tax on the colonies. Due to colonists not being represented and taxes becoming higher, the population began to try to reconcile with Britain peacefully however this led to a divide between those loyal to Britain called the loyalists and those who felt oppressed to the point of immediate action called the Patriots. In churches, ministers such as the Quaker leader tried to settle down their congregation by addressing the attitude that people were feeling and discussing in a candid tone how harmony would eventually be restored.(Doc 4) Patriots did not believe this publishing documents peacefully participated in boycotts against british goods in a silent revolving against the British government. However due to the taxes following the stamp act such as the tea acht and the cohesive acts tension grew to the point of revolts.

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Oppressive actions such as the Boston Massacre heavily shook the general public’s view of their British rulers. Unfair policies such as the Stamp Act, in which colonists were forced to pay taxes on almost all paper goods, further agitated unrest in the colonies. If it wasn’t for a mix of oppressive actions and overbearing policies, the Revolution likely would not have gained enough traction to sway the views of the general public, and likely Thomas Jefferson would not have had enough support to write the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson not only used the Declaration of Independence to announce the United States secession from the British Empire, but he also used it to express all of the injustices he saw against colonist’s natural

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The American Revolution is the ultimate story of an underdog. People from all over the world flocked to this country prior to independence for refuge, “this new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe” (Thomas Paine, Common Sense, pg. 20). The Revolution was fought by common people from humble beginnings, this in effect created a society of equals amongst white adult men. In England, white adult men are referred to as subjects. Citizens by definition are regarded as equal in a republic (Lecture #9) whereas a subject is subjected to the ideals and a hereditary-hierarchy put in place by someone who is deemed more powerful than you.

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You can tell these are different social classes because of some people wearing fancy wigs and others wearing no shoes. This proves that the American Revolution was revolutionary because after the revolution people are starting to disregard social classes and are starting to treat everyone equally. In modern day American people no longer care about the social class of one another, they just treat each other as equals. The War of Independence was indeed revolutionary because it’s ideas helped bring equality to women and African Americans, it paved the way for many great political changes and because it influenced many social changes.

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When looking at the social and political changes that took place during the early American colonies you can see a steady progression towards ideologies that would lead to the Revolution. When you have different levels of government being put in place by the states depending upon their needs, where rural areas had different court systems than more urban areas, you see a level of independence for governance that the colonists began to see the benefit of having, separate from the rule of the Crown. To counter this increase in independence. the Crown implemented ever changing political positions that could be assigned to those who were loyal to the Crown and the social hierarchy that was prevalent in Britain at the time. These actions of corruption

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Britain and European roots drive in the U.S having an economic interest over freedom. Layers of self-interest are threaded and lays as unnecessary compromises for the rights and liberties given to the excluded. Their self-interest could not be achieved without disrupting a correct and unbiased, balanced government from the beginning. This needs to keep the rich and the poor divided the country and the start of rebellions. These rebellions were merchants fighting the injustices.

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