Friday Book Review: The True History of the American Revolution Part I

 

Sydney George Fisher is an historian I never heard of, and now I intend to read as many of his books as I can find in Unlimited and hope more to become available. I can't afford collectors editions as he died in 1927. This book was written in 1902.

I will be reviewing only the causes of the war today. Next week I'll cover the war under the command of General Howe and tackle the war under General Clinton the following week.

I took a course in college on the American Revolution and taught it many times over 27 years of teaching history. I found a wealth of information in this book sorely lacking in understanding what made our country free from England.

Before getting into particulars, what struck me was the difference between England and the colonies on how a colony is defined. 

England used the Roman model of a colony. After taking over an area they let retired legionnaires start farming and building a colony totally dependent on Rome and trading only with Rome and under Roman Law.

The colonies defined a colony under the Greek model. The mother city-state like Athen would send people becoming a colony like Neapolis (Naples) or Syracuse and once they started to thrive became trading partners, but independent of the mother colony.

Aside, it took from 1776 to the end of WWII for England to switch from the Roman idea of a colony to the Greek idea by creating the Commonwealth.

What I learned concerning the lead up to the war from 1763 to 1775:

1. Colonies like Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts were from the start self-governing. Others were Royal colonies under the Crown had Governors and royal bureaucrats overseeing the colony. The colonials exercised power by controlling his salary other officials like judges and constables. They found a way to then compromise on different laws.

  2. After Massachusetts started hanging witches, Quakers and Baptists, King James II revoked their independence appointed a governor without the colony controlling his salary. This explains why Boston was the focal point of insurrection.

3. The main reason why England didn't enforce the Navigation Acts and limit smuggling of goods from other countries like France and Holland, was they needed colonial support against French Canada.

4. The French and Indian War was over, and Canada was now in English hands. The Seven Years War, as it was called in England, created a huge national debt, Parliament decided to enforce the navigation laws and make the colonies only trade with the mother country.

Personal point of view. There's a reason why teachers are told not to smile in class before Christman. It's easier to lighten control than to tighten it.

5. As early as 1737, John Wesley when returning from his disastrous appointment as minister in the colonies mentioned that there was strong sentiment for independence. This idea of independence didn't happen overnight. The fear of France kept the colonies close to the mother country for protection. With that removed the lower classes began agitating for independence, and Parliament made matters worse.

6. Most importantly, Parliament was divided between two polar opposite parties. Tories and Whigs, both wanting power at all costs. The Tories took control under Lord North and William Pitt, the elder, was in his dotage. 

7. The Whigs wanted conciliation, and to keep the status quo. The Tories wanted them to help pay off the national debt they helped create and treat the thirteen colonies like all other colonies the controlled. The Whigs had enough power to handcuff the Tories in the first three years of the war and to appease them appointed a Whig commander in General Howe, who as member of parliament said before fighting started that he would refuse to fight. More to be said about this next week.

 8. From 1763 to 1774 and the Boston Tea Party, there was mob rule in the colonies. It was a state of anarchy similar to the Reign of Terror in France a few years later.

9. Governors and royal officers had their homes ransacked, tax collectors were stripped and covered with hot tar then covered with feathers and run out of town on a long wooden pole called a rail. Two brothers who founded Lynchburg, Virginia led riots in which loyalists, meaning wealthy were attacked. The word we refer to as a lynch mob comes from here. The mob enforced the populace to not buy English goods. 

10. The majority of the population was intimidated by these mobs and feared being called a loyalist or working for the Crown, judges, tax collectors, constables, etc.

These ugly facts are mentioned, but not explained even in college textbooks. I leave this week with the one man most responsible for starting this war, Samuel Adams, and the Boston Tea Party.

When the ships arrived on all the ports with the British East India Company tea, and since the warehouses were full of tea they couldn't sell, they lowered the price to undercut the smuggled tea in the colonies that came from Holland and the Dutch East India Company.

By law if a ship came into harbor and didn't offload its cargo, the ship was impounded, and the cargo sold at auction after 20 days. Before that time was up the ship could request to leave the harbor, but the governor had to approve it leaving.

Most of the colonies if the governor was loyalist allowed the ships to leave, if they favored the rabble they confiscated the tea, either way England did not collect the tax and the Company lost its cargo.

Governor Hutchenson of Massachusetts refused to let the ships leave. Adams waited until the 18th day and staged what became known as the Boston Tea Party.

Parliament played right into his hands by quarantining, or virtually laying siege to Boston until the city paid the damages. This is what led to Lexington and Concorde. From that point on Sam Adams fades from history and his cousin John Adams come to the fore.