Essay On The American Revolution

544 Words3 Pages

There was more to the American Revolution than most Americans are aware of. It was political, violent, and strategic in many aspects. However, there is a larger theme in the American Revolution leading up to, during, and after the revolution, of authority struggle. More specifically, home rule. The colonies eventually adopted the idea that they wanted to secede from Britain, but did they ever think of who would rule among the colonies should they achieve independence? As they grew closer to independence, this realization became more of an issue among the colonies. In a way, many aspects of the American Revolution were struggles over authority and control and not in just the empire but among the colonies as well. These struggles for authority …show more content…

Problems in America only grew worse when democracy was being added to the mixture of already complicated politics. In Woody Holton’s book, Unruly American and the Origins of the Constitution, he stated that, “many Americans. . . were growing ‘tired of an excess of democracy,’ a ‘prevailing rage of excessive democracy. . .’ [or] ‘democratical tyranny.’” Democracy was an attempt at home rule among the colonies, but not everyone was happy with this extreme excess of colonial citizens contribution to the government. This excess application of democracy caused contention among colonists. In his article, Holton supports this by stating, “From the complex struggle of the 1780’s, the Founding Fathers extracted a simple lesson: that the uneducated farmers who seized the ship of state during the American Revolution had damn near driven it aground.” He continues to say that most ordinary Americans during this time were not yet ready or capable to rule themselves. This negative portrayal of democracy created a struggle of who should rule at home among the colonies. Barbarism was another problem that contributed to the struggle for authority among the colonies and with British control as well. With Loyalty to Britain waning, the colonist looked for excuses to justify a revolutionary war. In Peter Silvers article, Barbarism and the American Revolution, he argues that the colonist used the discourse of “savagery”