Taming Democracy

The American Revolution, how did it effect America? How did it evolve if it did? Before we answer any of those questions we must first answer the question of what the American revolution really was. The American revolution was something that some believed was inevitable due to the fact that the British government tried to rule over the American colonies from a distance and not really trying to hear what the colonist had to say about the way they wanted to be ruled. This angered the colonist causing them to revolt against laws, and taxation. The final turning point that officially started the war between the colonies and Britain was the Boston Massacre. The Boston massacre was caused by a young boy being pushed to the ground of by a British soldier. A group of colonist began to revolt by joining to create a mob of people armed with sticks, bricks, and anything else they could get their hands on. Five colonists were eventually shot by a group of redcoats causing the American Revolution to fully form into an all-out war. x The vison of ’76. Bouton describes the vison as the colonist “attempting to instill the new idea of governance in which the government worked to make ordinary white men independent property owner and diminish power of the affluent.” (Bouton pg. 32) These economically and politically driven goals formed what the Pennsylvanians thought the revolution was about to them. This cause a ripple effect of ordinary Pennsylvanians calling for more powerful economic and political system stronger than ever before.

As more people called for this and adopted the ideology of the vision of ’76 it helped Pennsylvania’s Revolution become perhaps one of the most democratic revolutions in the new world. They believed that concentration of wealth and power lead to corruption and tyrannical rulers. This can be shown by the roman empire who became filled with greed of power and new land and eventually leading to corruption plus the downfall of their empire. Winning the war. Winning the war brought about a new coming for the colonist. It gave them the ability to create their own governments with their own laws and system of ways. Given the opportunity some states decided to use the British way of living as the base for their government and take out or add whatever they wanted. They changed things like taxation, finance, and trading laws. It also brought new voting rights in some ways. To vote you still had to own land but they reduced the amount of land needed to actually vote. They also gave the “common man” new powers and privileges. With those good changes came a spur devastating times for the colonist. The 1780’s is known as the “The Crisis of the 1780’s”. During this time period there was a lack of money causing panic among the colonist. But farmers had it the worst to me with the lack of property like cows, horses, or land. Some farmers had to live on cottages sometimes they would switch if another landlord offered better but would stay in the same position money wise overall. Their new government didn’t come easily there was a lot of petitions and arguing to figure out whose definition of democracy and whose vision of the revolution would be chosen for the new United States.

Cite this page