Essay On The Radical American Revolution

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The Radical American Revolution
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the US’s colonists were growing tired of Britain’s taxes and leadership, and slowly came to rebel against Britain. The colonists’ small rebellions eventually lead to the American Revolution (1775-1783), where the colonists fought to be in charge of themselves. The Revolution provided a great change in American from 1607 to 1800. Although the white elite still stayed in power, the American Revolution was truly revolutionary as shown by a new political system, more opportunities to improve the rights of slaves and women, and a new republican and enlightenment ideological basis.
The new political system that developed as a result of the war was drastically different than the …show more content…

Neither group had many rights in the pre-Revolutionary era, but their situation kept improving after the Revolutionary war. Slavery was prohibited in the Northwest Ordinace of 1787 in the new Northwest territories (Faragher 222). This was one of the first shifts towards greater rights and the majority of Americans realizing that slavery was ethically wrong. Furthermore, the American Revolution provided a “growth of the free African American population”(Faragher 228). A bigger freed slave population showed slaves that they could receive better rights, and also caused less suspicion that blacks were escaped slaves. Women after the war found their place in society as Republican Mothers, who raised Republican sons which “linked [women] to the state and gave [them] some degree of power of its future”(Evans 57). Women were receiving greater political influence after the Revolution. And the idea of Repulican Motherhood also lead to “a debate on women’s education and provoked the founding of female academies”(Evans 58). This new focus on education increased the literacy rate, and was eventually able to better allow women to speak out for their rights through written documents and educated