The Revolution
"Give me liberty, or give me death"
Many times have I made fun of the founding fathers' strong convictions about how the revolution was absolutely necessary. Compared to the rise of the fascist dictators in Europe during the 1930s and 40s (which will be discussed in part in the next section), it feels almost comical to start a war (mostly) over some taxes. Doubly so, when considering other parts of the world had it worse in terms of bad leaders in other parts of the world at the time. However funny these jokes are intended to be, they still fall victim to a rather presentistic view. After all, it assumes both knowledge of future events, and ready knowledge of events across the entire world.
But in an age where duels were commonplace ways of settling disputes between individuals (such as the one between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, an artist's rendition of which can be seen on the left), over personal disputes much smaller than how a government should be run, is this war really all that surprising? In the aforementioned podcast we listened to for class, they described those living in an honor culture as being utterly intolerant of anything perceived to be disrespect. As such, rather minor seeming disputes can become matters of life and death under the right circumstances. I would argue, that the circumstances preceding the revolution, were perceived as disrespect by the Patriots.
After all, the British were trying to make up for losses from a war the American colonists had no part in. Most of all, they were in no way impeding the war against the French, nor were they siding with them. As such, it seemed utterly disrespectful to ask them, the colonists, to fund the project. It should seem to those living in the American colonies, that the British were saying that they were less important than other colonies. After all, why shouldn't it be up to the citizens on the British island, the only ones with any kind of significant say in what wars were fought, that should have to pay for the war? This is what led to the protests (like the one pictured on the right), in which the Patriots would disparage the new stamp, tea, and sugar acts. Then, escalation. Rather than actually paying attention to the concerns of their citizens, the British took the protests as an insult, and began to try quelling these protests. This led to things like the Boston Massacre, soldier quartering in houses believed to hold meetings supporting the anti-british movements. As is typical of these kinds of escalations, this pushed both sides further into their loyalties. Honor Cultures pride themselves on the strength of an individual's displays of loyaly and bravery. This is how you get quotes like Patick Henry's famous "Give me liberty, or give me death." A display of principles loyal to the Patriots. While I agree with many of the principles that align with that of the Patriots, it is in no small way that I also see the point of Benjiman Franklin, who remained a loyalist until practically the very start of the revolution. Believing for a long time that, through determination, he could break through the pride of both the crown and the Crown and the Patriots to negotiate a compromise. Were more heads as cool as his, perhaps the war and death could have been avoided.