Synthesis

The video we watched in class illustrated the characters and attitudes that were present in America before the Revolutionary War. For a long time, the colonists had an inferiority-complex toward the British. They believed that all of the sophistication, opportunity, riches, and knowledge were in mainland Britain. Therefore, most peoples in the colonies were proud to be British. But they wanted more than to just be British; they wanted to be specifically like those in Great Britain. The colonists desired to walk like them, talk like them, dress like them, and ultimately be them. And this mindset was abundant in the colonies just fifteen years before the revolution. But what happened during those fifteen years? Why did the colonies go from admiring Great Britain, to breaking away from them? Well, according to Jonathan Adams, “The war? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected, from 1760-1775, in the course of fifteen years before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.” Basically, Adams is saying that the war wasn’t the actual revolution. The real revolution was taken place in the minds of the colonists. As the years passed by, the colonists began to realize that they could become a force to be reckoned with. But before they could obtain this self-confidence within themselves, they had to first begin to despise those whom they had used to admire. Events like the passing of the Stamp Act and the blocking of the Boston port stirred up frustration and animosity toward Great Britain. A just like the great quote says, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” So the colonists united. The unity that was present in the colonies is vividly portrayed in primary source documents like The Circular Letter of the Boston Committee of Correspondence. In which Samuel Adams says to the colonists of New York, “Now therefore is the time when all should be united in opposition to this violation of the liberties of all.” In other words, Adams believed that it was time to rebel against Great Britain. He pushed for the unity of all the colonies of America so that, together, they could protect and promote their liberty. And it was through moments and dialogues like these in which the colonists could see the corruption of Great Britain. They could see the beauty of their American ways. They finally realized that they didn’t need Great Britain. They were ready to break apart and stand alone. And that’s where the revolution took place—in the minds of the colonists. The Revolutionary war was merely a result and byproduct of the revolution.