Summary Of Gerald Horne's The Counter-Revolution Of 1776

Imagine everything you learned about the origins of your own country as a child in school was false. Gerald Horne is an American historian and professor of History and African American studies at the University of Houston. In Horne’s 2014 novel, The Counter-Revolution of 1776, he argues that the American Revolution was a counter-revolution against England’s pursuit to put an end to slavery and restrict any western expansion by the American colonists. Horne believes the American Revolution was not a liberal movement that strived to achieve freedom and democracy in America, despite common American beliefs. Rather, the American Revolution was a conservative movement that strived not only to preserve and grow the business of slavery but also to

However, settlers grew to become outraged because they felt that the proclamation was meant to strip their rights of the ability to travel wherever they wanted. After all, the land was all new and completely undiscovered, so why wouldn’t the colonists want to explore the entirety of their new home? The proclamation prevented them from doing so and they felt like they were being controlled by the British. Many colonists believed that the proclamation was issued so that they can be under strict control and surveillance by the British in a confined area. The proclamation of 1763 laid the foundation of the American revolution as it was the first action by the British that infuriated the colonists and made them feel as if they were being oppressed by England’s

Colonists did not want to travel west just for the sake of exploring the new land, they wanted to make a profit in doing so. One easy way for the Colonists to make lots of money in 18th-century America was to participate in the slave trade. Colonists saw an opportunity to get rich by taking over Native land to expand their slave businesses and build new settlements in the west. However, the proclamation of 1763 prevented them from doing so which infuriated them. Horne argues that this was one of the primary causes of the American Revolution and that the famous taxes that the British later placed on the colonists, such as the stamp act, just added more fuel to the already existing fire. Many believe that it was the unfair taxes and events like the Boston Tea Party that primarily caused the revolution. However, those events were just the tip of the iceberg in a deeply rooted conflict between the colonists and the British government that dated back almost a century before the war. “Some settlers were beginning to see the revolt against British rule not only as a thrust toward “independency,” opening even more the growingly profitable trade with Hispaniola and France, but as a simple attempt at survival in the face of a perceived attempt at their liquidation propelled by London and Africans alike. The