Search -
The Radicals Behind the American Revolution
The Radicals Behind the American Revolution Author:Richard Horton The settling of British America was a unique event in modern history.For the first time an entire continent was available to those from many cultures and religions who wished for new opportunities to create free from the feudal remnants and rigid class distinctions of Europe that still existed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Enlight... more »enment ideas and new challenges combined to create documents of government that allowed a degree of freedom and social mobility that led to a proto-democratic society , despite the differences between the thirteen colonies. A group of radical politicians and writers, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, and young Thomas Jefferson by the mid 17C. increasingly spoke out against the London government. The British attempted to reassert control of the colonies and then sent troops to support new taxes. This book weaves into the story the events of the pre-revolutionary period, the lives of the six patriot radicals and after the war, the conflicts in writing new state and federal constitutions. However, after the war, a new generation of leaders was required. Our radicals remained supporters of their states and the Article of Confederation and were hostile to giving powers to a central government and the power of taxation. Only Jefferson, born a generation later contributed in this period. The reputation of the others were diminished by their resistence to the 1787 Constitution. Nevertheless they played key roles in our freedom and independence.« less