Narrative of American Revolution

During the Revolutionary War, white men held most of the power and controlled the decisions. White women primarily stayed at home but helped with supplies and caring for injured soldiers. The patriots, mostly white men, fought for American independence and benefited the most from the war. Loyalists fought for the British but faced difficulties after the war. Native Americans sided with the British due to encroachment on their land and suffered heavy losses. African Americans fought on the American side, with some being recruited and others joining the Navy. There was talk of abolition after the war, but it would take another century for black men to gain their freedom. Native Americans were not mentioned in the Treaty of Paris, leading to further displacement. Hello, my name is Jack Haines-Hahn and I'm going to be talking about different people and their experiences during the Revolutionary War. To start, we're going to talk about white men. White men, obviously at the time and unfortunately not changed very much, were the primary and overwhelming people in power during this time in Europe and in the New World for the most part. This was true for both sides of this war. Most of the men in power were white men. They controlled most of the decisions. They were also the main fighting force for both sides of the war. Also they were the main benefactors. I mean, the men on the British side suffered the least, even as losers, and the white men in the colonies were the ones who benefited the most, were the ones who were able to create a system that kept white men in power. For the most part, they looked down, at least in some sense, on even white women, definitely native people and black people as well, as they were enslaved. Then we move to white women. White women at this time were primarily the ones in the home, raising families. They had their social groups of women and things like that. During the war, there were also occurrences where they were helping with supplying the soldiers and mending injured soldiers during the war as well. Something the English definitely tried to do and did was officers and soldiers were marrying women, definitely in Boston and in lots of the colonies, to have children that would probably be more loyal to the British cause. This would create more of a connection for the ones fighting in the war to the actual land and the people itself. Women in any war face much violence and uncertainty. This is definitely the case now as well. There were some ideas that were circulating around this time of all people being treated equally, even women. It didn't gain very much ground, as we know. Women didn't get the vote until the early 1900s, but these were circulating around. In times like this, some of those ideas, women are able to experience different things out of the home. It can be beneficial. Next we get to the patriots. The patriots were the fighting force on the American side to get independence from the British. Mostly white men, however, black men, both enslaved and freed men, fought on this side and native people, generally towards the end, fought on this side as well. The British fought hard. They sabotaged when they could. The patriots were a much smaller fighting force. They were undermanned, outgunned, but they did have a few advantages, such as being on their home turf. They knew the land better. Also, the French played a very important role in supplying and helping the Americans beat their rival, being the English. The patriots benefited the most from the war, especially in the Americas. Most of them were able to take great positions of power, whether it being the supreme power of president or even just raising their ranks from what wartime can bring, such as George Washington becoming president or Alexander Hamilton being an immigrant who was able to rise up and be the secretary of the treasury. Next, we have the loyalists, both British and American men, but they fought for the British side. They felt that the crown would bring wealth and stability to areas. They were also mostly, overwhelmingly white men. At the beginning of the war, although the first Indians to actually fight in the war, Native Americans fight in the war, fought for George Washington, but mostly at the beginning of the war, the English controlled many of the natives and they fought on their side. The English, though, and the loyalists had many other problems. Being an empire, they were worried about things abroad, things at home. The war became very expensive and devastating for families back in London and they no longer wanted to support it, which was a big reason why, after Yorktown fell to the patriots, the English really weren't able to send more forces back for quite some time. After the war, many loyalists weren't treated very well. As you can imagine, they were prisoners of war, had war crimes, they were executed, and the ones that weren't fled back to London or otherwise abroad, for the most part. Next, Native Americans. Native Americans were hesitant to get involved at first. There's really no benefit for either side winning as much as they didn't want to lose people fighting this war among other people. But encroaching on their land, it became pretty obvious that they had to join a side. Most natives sided with the English. They were pretty upset with many of the patriots and the Americans for encroaching on their land more and more and more. Most battles that natives were involved in, they just suffered horrible losses. They did not receive the best equipment. They weren't part of military strategies or talks. They usually saw pretty heavy losses. And then, of course, at the end of the war, during the Treaty of Paris, there wasn't even a mention of Native Americans. The British gave all the land up to the Mississippi to the Americans, although it wasn't theirs to give, as it was the natives. They were very upset about that, and this is really the beginning of the end for Native Americans really being swept out of their land and pushed into smaller and smaller areas over the next couple centuries. And lastly, I had the African Americans. So black men mainly fought on the American side, even with the British forces promising freedom. By then, especially up north, a lot of slavery had already lessened so much that there was already a better feeling for fighting for the American side. But at the beginning of the war, George Washington did ban black men from being recruited, although black men who were already in the Continental Army were able to stay. But recruiting became illegal until 1778, I believe, and I mean, he did that to appease southern men who he needed support for the war. Later on, though, he reversed that, and black men were able to join, although the Navy needed sailors throughout the war, and they were recruiting both freed and enslaved men to come and fight. At different parts of the war, black men compromised like 15% of the fighting force at different times. I mean, thousands and thousands of men. You start to hear, I mean, there obviously had already been abolitionists, but like really some talk even among higher ranking officials after the war of abolition, and we even see the state of Vermont, although slavery was basically non-existent, they outlawed slavery. But as we know, black men were not included in our Constitution, other than the fact that they were slaves, and they would have to fight that battle for at least another hundred years just to get out of slavery. Thank you very much.