The Revolution Within
This chapter concentrates on the political and social changes resulting from the American Revolution. It
focuses on how the concepts of liberty and freedom continued to evolve during the Revolution and how
they transformed society and politics in the 1770s and 1780s. The chapter begins with a look at a
remarkable American woman, Abigail Adams. Her memorable plea to her husband to “Remember the
Ladies” can be heard in “Voices of Freedom.” The democratization of freedom in the public sphere is
explored through an examination of how new state constitutions dealt with suffrage requirements. The
chapter also explores how the Revolution affected religious liberty, religious toleration, and the separation
of church and state. The next topic is economic freedom. Here the text contrasts the idea that
government should regulate for the public good with a newer idea, which gained support from Adam
Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, that individual self-interest acting in a free market should be the rule.
Limitations on freedom—with emphasis on the experiences of Loyalists, Indians, slaves, and women—
are then discussed. Those who remained loyal to the British found some of their liberties stripped away,
but mostly they were able to reintegrate into society. Indians lost much of their freedom as a result of the
war. Slaves believed that they could rely on the American rhetoric of freedom and liberty to press for
emancipation. Some slaves presented petitions for freedom to New England courts; “Voices of Freedom”
includes excerpts from two such petitions from Massachusetts. The Revolution did result in gradual
emancipation in the North and some voluntary manumissions in the Upper South, but not in the complete
elimination of slavery. The chapter concludes with a look at women and their various roles in the war and
its aftermath, including serving as soldiers and as “republican mothers,” charged with the serious task of
raising the next generation of republican leaders.
•To what extent did equality become a stronger component of American freedom after the Revolution?
•What were the most important features of the new state constitutions?
• How did the struggle for American liberty embolden various groups of colonists (women, the
underclasses, African-Americans) to demand more liberty for themselves? To what extent was each
group successful?
• How fully did Revolutionary-era Americans embrace the concept of religious freedom? What evidence
can you cite that indicates the young republic was committed to religious freedom? What evidence is
there that there were limitations to religious freedom?
• Discuss the irony in the American calls for freedom at a time when America was a slave society.
• How did the idea of “Republican motherhood” elevate a woman’s position? What limitations on freedom
did women in the new nation encounter?
• Why is the title of the chapter The Revolution Within?
•What impact did the Revolution have on Loyalists?
• Discuss the Indians’ Revolution, comparing white freedom to Indian freedom. How did the removal of
the British and the newly formed United States affect the Indians?
•Colonial society was based on inequality and obedience to authority. How did the American Revolution
challenge the existed order of society?
Key terms
Unicameral legislature
balanced government
Republican motherhood
Abigail Adams
Universal male suffrage
popery
VA Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom
Entail
The Wealth of Nations
Freedom petitions
Phillis Wheatley
James Madison
coverture
General John Sullivan
free labor
Loyalists
Thoughts on Government
Notes on the State of VA
virtue
primogeniture
Adam Smith
Robert Morris
Robert Carter Thomas Jefferson
Stockbridge Indians