Effects of the Revolution

[ashankles]

Wow! There are SO many effects to the Revolution! There were some I didn't know about. I didn't realize how many loyalists left and actually came back. I loved what Wood said about the Revolution..."The Revolutionary war itself was at once both a disruptive and a creative force...it destroyed familiar channels of trade and produced new sources of wealth". That is excactly what happened.

This was a pretty neat book.

[nicolesmith]

“For many Americans, living in a free country meant never having to tip one’s cap to anyone,” (pg. 121). With that said this idea that wealth was distributed more evenly post-Revolutionary America was not true. In fact, wealth was actually more unequally distributed after than it had before. Even with that in mind Americans felt more equal than ever before. No longer did wealth mean that you were superior to someone else. Relationships were now based more on money rather then social position. Towns no longer assigned seats at church based on age and status. Instead they were auctioned off to the highest bidder. The wealthy actually began to brag; which hadn’t gone on before.
Relationships in the family changed as well. Older English patterns of inheritance were abolished, and new laws recognized greater equality among sons and daughters. “Everywhere novelists and others writing in the post-Revolutionary years stressed the importance of raising children to become rational and independent citizens,”(pg. 125).
There was little change in the relationship of husbands and wives, however many women now objected to the word “obey” because they felt as if that turned them into their husband’s “slave”. Some laws did change, and they now recognized women’s rights to divorce and to make contracts and do business in the absence of their husbands. They no longer wanted to be looked at as inferior to men.
There was little change to slavery also. Nearly half a million blacks remained in slavery. With the Revolution, came freedom, liberty, and equality, but not to all people, and this was hypocritical. There were actually more slaves by the end of the Revolution than before. “Nevertheless the Revolution had a powerful effect in eventually bringing an end to slavery in America.