Lives of Ordinary Americans during American Revolution

Lives of Ordinary Americans during American Revolution

Introduction

American Revolution (1775-1783) was the time when America transformed into a new society. It got independence from decades old Britain rule over the country. It became an independent country from being a colony of British. With such changes, it brought changes in the lives of common Americans as well. The drastic changes in economy, politics and society affected the lives of ordinary people (Greene, 1995). The revolution of America provided a greater chance of self-recognition to the people of America as they were living under the influence of external powers. Their freedom made them capable of growing in their lives, getting succeeded in their careers and leaving a productive impact on their country, which they had got after long and hard struggle.

Discussion

Freedom from the British rule or British parliament was the main factor that causes the American Revolution. Economic and political factors are the two main contributors that worked as a catalyst in the Revolution of America. Drastic, unfair and harsh measure of British parliament restricted the American colonies from having their freedom. The economic perspective of the American Revolution is that the parliament of British was imposing excessive taxes on the American colonist to maximize their own profit (Greene and Pole, 2008). It is believed that the argument of economic conflict is week because the American colonies were demanding freedom, and this adjective of freedom was their main motivation, whereas the economic conflict was a catalyst or contributor to the overall action taken by the American. Dream of freedom, discouraging parliament rules and the economical injustice were the main factors that gave American colonist to stand against the British rule, and revolt to achieve their independence (Boucher, 2009).

Independence from the British control greatly influenced the lives of ordinary Americans. The revolution brought changes in their thinking and they started evaluating their economy, politics and the society around them (Anderson, 2002). It was the ordinary segment of society which used to believe that the existing government was evil and corrupt, changed the way to govern the society in their own ways; however, in turn they ended up in more centralized form of government similar to that of the Britain. This segment of the society was seen as the uneducated masses by the elites, and they did not experience a lot of change, although the revolutions ideals guided them to search for better financial opportunities. Slaves, women, and loyalists went through significant amount of changes in society (Berkin, 2007). It is due to the fact that the women started experiencing much freedom, slaves were also set free and the loyalists flee the country.

It has been observed that children are the segment of society which suffers the most during any social upheaval or revolutions. They have to cope with the coming changes accept the realities of their society and have to go through painful experiences. The American Revolution also did not spare children from its ...