Analysis Of Forced Founders By Woody Holton

Woody Holton’s book “Forced Founders” gives a look on how enslaved Africans and Native Americans were compelled toward independence against their will and own interest. Holton’s account of the forced founders are the Virginia gentry: “ In complex ways and without intending to, Indians, merchants and slaves helped drive gentlemen…into the rebellion against Britain”(xvii). This story tells of three primary causes propelling and compelling the Virginia gentry. One of the causes involved the gentry’s political failures: “free Virginians’ efforts to influence imperial policy were contested by Native American, British merchants and enslaved Virginians. The elimination of the government as an instrument or ally of merchants, Indians, and slaves