Social Impacts of the American Revolution

A revolution of most any nation is going to have significant social impacts on the whole nation. The effect that the American Revolution made on the nation though was determined by how significant the desire for freedom was. It should also be taken into account how important the philosophies and beliefs of the revolutionists were leading up to the American Revolution. Esmond Wright could not have said it better himself when he wrote that “[the American Revolution] is the central event in American history” (Wright, 11). “[The American Revolution] marks the beginning of the distinctively modern period in world history” (Wright, 11). The years during and following the American Revolution had significant social impacts that would forever change the newly born colonial America for slaves, women, religion and Native Americans. The primary impacts involved freedom for slaves primarily in the Northern colonies, additional but limited equal rights for women, religious freedom and Native Americans being forced off their homelands.
The topic of slavery created a huge amount of frustration and disagreement among American society during and after the American Revolution. The Northern colonies saw that despite the color of their skin, that all men were created by the same creator. This was best described by Author J. Franklin Jameson when he said that “…when we consider our deliverance from the abhorrent condition to which Great Britain has tried to reduce us, we are called on to manifest the sincerity of our professions of freedom, and to give substantial proof of gratitude, by extending a portion of our freedom to others, who, though of a different color, are the work of the same Almighty hand” (Jameson, 25). During the American Revolution many slaves volunteered their help and this was not only for America to win freedom from Great Britain but the slaves hoped this would help abolish slavery. Many of the Northern slaves saw the effects of all their work shortly

Cited: Frank, Andrew K. American Revolution: People and Perspectives. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Web. 7 March 2012. Kidd, Thomas S. God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2010. Print. Jameson, J. Franklin. The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969. Print. Volo, Dorothy D, and James M. Volo. The American Revolution. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print. Wright, Esmond. Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution. Chicago, IL: Quadrangle Books, 1966. Print.