Private Joseph Martin's War: Lessons Learned Of The American Revolution

Growing up, we all learned of the infamous American Revolution and how the brave American soldiers had won the war, throughout some hardships and trials. However, we never learned the nitty-gritty truth; we learned of the fairytale version. Most of these men were slaves and very young; they were both starving, and in need of clothing. Our American government wanted to feed us this illusion of American patriotism to invoke a strong love for our nation, and it worked! But at what cost? We all grew up thinking what we had learned was true. Now do not misunderstand—we were taught history, just often from specific angles, so some truths are diluted or misleading. Private Joseph Martin was an American soldier who gave us first-hand accounts of this series of events within his

The United States of America had just been through several wars and battles before the Revolutionary War, and they were in desperate need for soldiers. The government then thought it would be best if they offered an incentive to help persuade men to come and fight for their country. They offered every man who agreed to stay and fight until the end of the war an extra 100 acres of land. When this method did not work, they decided to start a draft, which worked in their favor. The American Revolution is considered to be, “a rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight,” reasoning being that it was funded by the Founding Fathers and any rich man who did not want to fight, who instead sent to their slaves to fight. The draft also allowed them to recruit any man at least of 16 years of age. Private Martin was one of the men drafted at 16, and it seems that he joined not for love of country, but because of the profit he could gain. However, he was one of the few men who ended staying until the end. Nearing the end of this war, his feelings had changed, and he ended up staying because of the brotherhood present with his fellow soldiers. Later on, our country had trouble