Summary Of Breen's American Patriots

In American Insurgents, American Patriots, Breen attempts to shed light on a new perspective in the American Revolution. Through his methodology of creative adaptation of history, he shows how the “middling” or ordinary people of the day had a significant role in propelling the force of the American Revolution. Breen uses a combination of newspaper articles, journal entries and excerpts from sermons to accurately illustrate the atmosphere surrounding the common people of the time and explain how they were able to undertake actions that would eventually lead to the revolution. Although, is difficult to completely grasp the passion of the farmers towards this cause, Breen is able to successfully explain how the American Revolution was more of
His goal is to provide readers with a new perspective in which to look at this revolution, the perspective of the “middling men and women” and how they worked to “reject imperial rule” (35). In the first chapter of American Insurgents, American Patriots, Breen uses the example of Hannah Leighton and her husband Isaac Davis, captain of the Acton Minutemen. He uses the example of this family to show that ordinary people with ordinary lives were the ones to take up arms and fight against the British rule. Breen states:
Without tens of thousands of ordinary people willing to set aside their work, homes, and families to take up arms in expectation of killing and possibly being killed, a handful of elite gentlemen arguing about political theory makes for a debating society, not a revolution.
The ideas of the Great Awakening and the resulting changes in religious ideas were spreading throughout the colonies at an exceptional rate. “The central element in popular political thought was a set of rights that God gave every man and woman long before they established civil government. These rights were universal” to all free people in the colonies (242). Because these rights were viewed as God-given, they were worth fighting for, and therefore brought unity between the people. Also, the spread of Christianity was a significant unifying force among the colonists. Reverend George Whitefield, a “leading figure in the awakening” appeals to a greater audience when he states, “Don’t tell me you are Baptist, an Independent, a Presbyterian, a Dissenter, tell me you are a Christian, that is all I want.” (32). It can be seen that unification is being furthered by combining these different schools of thought into one blanket religion,