American Revolution Revisitied

• The bloody massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt. Creator(s): Revere, Paul, 1735-1818, engraver

A DIFFERENT LENS: The kids are involved in a social studies club that meets weekly. It's a group of kids interested in history (as well as the present and future), and each week we have different broad topics to explore. Students prepare reports on topics of interest to themselves, and others. 

Case in point: This week, the topic was the Revolutionary War. I think way more often than not, this war's soldiers are probably envisioned as white men vs. other white men. However, that wasn't the extent of the event, for sure.  

There are so many aspects to choose from. Annabelle chose to look at the role of women in the Revolutionary War effort, while CJ wondered what Native Americans did during the war effort. 

Here's CJ telling you a bit more about his topic

The American Revolution was a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies maintained by force of arms their refusal to submit to the authority of the King and Parliament of Great Britain, and founded the independent United States. On 4 July 1776, the Declaration of Independence was ratified, forming the present-day United States.
While the vast majority of soldiers in the American Revolution, both British and American, were white, people rarely think about the involvement of Native Americans in the revolution.

For starters, the Declaration of Independence has a passage that reads as follows:“[King George III] has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured [sic] to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

As seen in the quote above, the Declaration of Independence characterized Native Americans as being savages bent around the destruction of all other humans. According to the National Park Service, there were primarily 3 different groups of Native Americans, in terms of how they reacted to the conflict:

A.     Native Americans who chose to stay out of the American Revolution (for example: White Eyes, a leader of the Delaware nation, attempted to remain neutral in the conflict before his murder by the American government).B.     Native Americans who chose to fight on the side of the 13 Colonies.C.     Native Americans who chose to fight on the side of the British Government (primarily due to the British government’s attempts to stop the United States from advancing into Native American territory, such as the Royal Proclamation of 1763).

After the end of the Revolution, the British government stopped their attempts from preventing US invasions into Native American territory. The majority of the white inhabitants of the United States perceived Native Americans as being anti-liberty savages, which would partially serve as the basis for anti-Native American racism 

Sources:       "American Revolution." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Apr. 2017. Web. 7 Apr. 2017. .

·        Jefferson, Thomas. "The Declaration of Independence." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, 2 Nov. 2002. Web. 7 Apr. 2017. .

·        Calloway, Collin Gordon. "The American Revolution." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 4 Dec. 2008. Web. 7 Apr. 2017. .in the following centuries.

Yikes. A very not happy ending. And double yikes - the description of Native Americans in the Declaration of Independence. Horrible and deplorable.

Annabelle researched what roles women played in the American Revolution. Here's what she found out. ... 

The contributions of the men who drafted the documents of the Revolution, commanded the forces, fought in the war, and offered support have been well documented. The Revolution was not a one-gender war, however. Many women contributed to the effort, and it is time their stories are told.

Today, women who followed the army are known as “camp followers.” This term was not used in the 18^th century. The females who followed Washington’s army were usually poor and looking for safety, warmth, and food. They would usually do the laundry for the army as their “service”. Many people believed they shouldn’t tag along, being a “distraction” to the soldiers, but George Washington allowed them to as he believed if they left, their husbands would leave with them. A different example, Private Ralph Morgan sought a furlough in December 1775 because his wife and children had no roof over their heads. Morgan received a discharge. Since the Continental Army could not afford to discharge a soldier every time he needed to assist his family, Washington was obliged to permit some women to follow the camps. He wrote to Superintendent of Finance, Robert Morris, "I was obliged to give Provisions to the extra Women in these regiments, or lose by Desertion, perhaps to the enemy, some of the oldest and best Soldiers in the Service.”

Many women also masqueraded as men during the war. Deborah Sampson, who called herself “Robert Shirtliff”, got her own army suit in 1780 and decided to join the war.

 

She was eventually chosen for an elite unit, where her disguise would go unseen as no-one would look for a woman in a squad specifically chosen for their large size and strength. She was injured twice and was honorably discharged in 1783. In short, women played many parts in the revolutionary war, whether it be washing clothes or fighting on the front lines and I feel that they should be recognized and celebrated just as much as the men in the war.Sourceshttp://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume7/nov08/women_revarmy.cfmDeborah Sampson