Modern Revolutions
in Comparative Perspective
Jan Plamper
Week 3:
The American Revolution I
• The big question
• A narrative of the American
Revolution
•Q&A
Once more: the big question
Was the American Revolution of 1775-82 a
revolution? If compared to the French and
Russian Revolutions?
Post-revolutionary snapshot:
around 1800
Elite change?
The Jeffersons, Jacksons, Washingtons et al.
were leading families – both in terms of wealth
and political clout – before and after the
revolution
1787: more than 4/5 of 100 wealthiest
Virginians (with more than 4,000 acres of land)
had inherited their wealth
Post-revolutionary snapshot:
around 1800
Social upheaval?
Little to no social upheaval or class warfare
during the American Revolution, esp. when
compared to French and Russian
Revolutions.
Post-revolutionary snapshot:
around 1800
Change in religion?
No major challenges to religious beliefs.
Same dissenting (= non-Church of England)
churches that prevailed before revolution
prevailed after revolution.
Post-revolutionary snapshot:
around 1800
Change in values, belief system?
No change. In fact, strengthening of prerevolutionary liberalism.
Post-revolutionary snapshot:
around 1800
Slavery?
Still in place. Ex. George
Washington: became
slave owner at age 11 in
1743 (inheritance), first
purchase of slaves
recorded when he was
young adult (8 slaves,
incl. carpenter Kitt for
£39.5). At death in
1799: owned 124 slaves
Life of George Washington/
The Farmer, lithograph by
Claude Regnier, after painting
by Junius Brutus Stearns, 1853
Post-revolutionary snapshot:
around 1800
Edmund Burke deliberately only used the
term ‘the American War’, never the term
‘American Revolution’. Many interpreters
apply his dictum re: the Glorious
Revolution of 1688 (‘a revolution, not
made, but prevented’) to the American
Revolution.
Answer to big question (once more)
American Revolution = modern
revolution. Significant change in
different spheres of social life, and...
Answer to big question (once more)
...first case of anticolonial revolution
that was to be an inspiration to many
anticolonial revolutions thereafter.
Outcomes
Socioeconomic
Significant change:
- overhaul of social relations; individual no
longer imagined as situated within bonds of
personal loyalty that were all hierarchically
arranged toward pinnacle of power, the King.
Instead ‘We the people’: by 1830s…
Outcomes
Socioeconomic cont’d
‘these insignificant borderland provinces had become a
giant, almost continent-wide republic of nearly ten
million egalitarian-minded, bustling citizens who not only
had thrust themselves into the vanguard of history but
had fundamentally altered their society and their social
relationships. Far from remaining monarchical, hierarchyridden subjects on the margin of civilization, Americans
had become, almost overnight, the most liberal, the most
democratic, the most commercially minded, and the most
modern people in the world’ (Gordon Wood, historian,
1992)
Outcomes
Socioeconomic cont’d
Significant change:
- some leading loyalist families left America
- formation of nobility made impossible; hereditary
office-holding banned
- increased social mobility in middle ranks of
society, esp. thanks to westward expansion. Ex.:
in Virginia (then on frontier) 2/3 of those who
had been landless in 1764 had acquired land by
1782
Outcomes
Religious
Ecclesiastical establishment (a clergy in the singular)
became virtually impossible, not least because of
loyalism of Anglican Church. Statutes of religious
liberty passed in various states: religious freedom.
 comparison with French Revolution: no
anticlericalism and secularism in America. On the
contrary, strengthening of religion. But of multiple
religions.
Outcomes
National identity
- USA: new federal nation forged that would be
example for others. E pluribus unum = out of
many one
- drafting of state constitutions = model for future
republics: first appoint a convention, then let
electorate vote on the draft constitutional
document
- 1787 (federal) Constitution = world’s oldest
functioning written constitution. Symbolic
enshrinement of constitutional documents
Outcomes
International
French, Haitian etc. revolutions interconnected
with American Revolution.
Outcomes
Slavery
Codification of human rights (e.g. Declaration of Independence) lent
conflict between human rights (‘…unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’) and property
rights (slaveowner’s ownership of slaves) new poignancy. Ex. of George
Washington:
- ‘I hope it will not be conceived from these observations, that it is
my wish to hold the unhappy people, who are the subject of this
letter, in slavery. I can only say that there is not a man living who
wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the
abolition of it’ (Washington in 1786 letter to his friend Robert
Morris)
- set his own slaves free in his will
The American Revolution:
A narrative
Pre-revolutionary snapshot, 1763:
colonists proud about British victory over France
in Seven Years’ War (1756-63). Nearly no
thoughts of independence
What led from there to Declaration of
Independence thirteen years later, in 1776?
The American Revolution:
A narrative
Long-term cause of Revolution: attempt to
reform British Empire, including raising of
greater revenues in colonies. Reform attempt
prompted by Seven Years’ War, which added
French territories (e.g. French Canada) to British
Empire, and these territories needed to be
governed. Also, British national debt had
exploded due to Seven Years’ War. Solution?
The American Revolution:
A narrative
Solution = tax colonies: new taxes on various colonial imports
introduced. AND: old tax acts were to be enforced, corruption
would be ended, colonies would finally stop being
‘undergoverned’
Consequences: seen as violation of colonist rights. This was
amplified by:
- end of Seven Years’ War  French menace removed, less
need of British protection
- British undergovernance had created interstitial spaces for
economic and political freedom
- influence of extreme British libertarian ideology (Whig
pamphleteers)  effect: ‘snuff the approach of Tyranny in
every tainted breeze’ (Edmund Burke, 1775)
The American Revolution:
A narrative
1765 Stamp Act: paid stamps to be attached to
newspapers, ships’ papers, marriage licences,
even playing cards (British attempt to raise
revenue). Boycott of British import products,
violent protests, mob action (but unity among
colonists = frail). Repealed in 1766. But in its
repeal British Parliament left proviso to make
laws ‘to bind the colonies and peoples of
America…in all cases whatsoever’.
The American Revolution:
A narrative
1773 Tea Act: in order to increase revenue for
East India Company it was to sell its tea directly
in such colonies as America, without American
middlemen earning anything. The price would
have been lower for the consumer but various
others would have stopped earning 
resistance: Boston Tea Party 1773: tea cargo
thrown into Boston harbour by colonists who
had entered East India Company ship.
The American Revolution:
A narrative
British gov’t changes from appeasement to
coercion. 1774: Parliament passes Coercive Acts
(called ‘Intolerable Acts’ in colonies) to increase
power of British colonial executive.  resistance
among colonists: first Continental Congress with
delegates from all 12 colonies meets in
Philadelphia. Agreements of nonimportation,
nonexportation and nonconsumption. However,
sentiment until 1776 still overwhelmingly
loyalist, no intention yet to break away
The American Revolution:
A narrative
Colonists form armed committees to ensure
observance of nonimportation etc. agreements.
April 1775: British governor of Massachusetts
sends 700 soldiers from Boston to neighbouring
Concord. First armed skirmish with casualities.
Paul Revere’s Ride, 18 April 1775
The American Revolution:
A narrative
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4hUMQG3MI8
(1860 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na3pq9wqJlA
(Liberty’s Kids cartoon)
http://www.history.com/topics/paul-revere/videos#betyou-didnt-know-revolutionary-war (History Channel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeQGWTBl2x8 (Fact
vs. Fiction)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dRqaDrhgb8 (Sarah
Palin, Republican candidate for Vice President in 2008)
The American Revolution:
A narrative
 all modern revolutions generate founding
myths of the political entity (e.g. nation) that
comes after them
 myths work according to their own logic, a
logic that differs from the logic of history as
currently practiced (with a premium placed on
‘objectivity’)
The American Revolution:
A narrative
Radical colonists use events of Boston to stir up
patriotic feeling. Second Congress meets in
Philadelphia and decides that colonies ‘be
immediately put into a state of defence’. Army
of 20,000 men formed, George Washington
appointed ‘general and commander-in-chief of
the army of the United Colonies’.
The American Revolution:
A narrative
And yet: loyalist sentiment still widespread. 6
July 1776: Congress disclaimed any intention of
‘separating from Great Britain and establishing
independent States’. Congress also professed
attachment to King George III.
Fighting with heavy casualties throughout 1775
and 1776.
The American
Revolution:
A narrative
January 1776: Thomas
Paine’s pamphlet Common
Sense (48 pp.). Sold 120,000
copies in first three months
after publication.
‘most incendiary and
popular pamphlet of the
entire revolutionary era’
(Gordon Wood, historian,
2002)
The American Revolution:
A narrative
Common Sense
- Attacked monarchy, including constitutional
monarchy
- demanded separation from British Empire on
various grounds: America = multinational
influences, not monocultural British; America =
Puritan, and God chose American as safe haven
from British persecution; Britain cannot govern
properly because of distance
- proposed elaborate scheme of adopting a
constitution and framework of governance
The American Revolution:
A narrative
4 July 1776:
Declaration of Independence
adopted