Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances

by Liz CovartFebruary 28, 2017

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In December 1773, the Cape Cod Tea Crisis revealed that the people of “radical” Massachusetts were far from united in their support for the American Revolution. An observation that leads us to wonder: How many Americans supported the Patriot cause?

In this episode we speak with four scholars to explore the complexities of political allegiance during the American Revolution.

About the Series

The mission of episodes in the Doing History: To the Revolution series is to ask not just “what is the history of the American Revolution?” but “what are the histories of the American Revolution?”

Episodes in this series will air beginning in Fall 2017.

The Doing History series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklin’s World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

Be sure to check out Doing History season 1: Doing History: How Historians Work.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Episode Summary

In this episode, we speak with Sara Georgini, Maya Jasanoff, Vincent Carretta, and Kathleen DuVal to explore the complexities of political allegiance during the American Revolution.

During our exploration, these scholars reveal how contemporaries like John Adams viewed the American Revolution and what they had to say about patriots and loyalists; Why it’s so hard for us to know how many people supported the Revolution; And what the American Revolution meant for Native Americans and people of African descent and their political allegiances.

What You’ll Discover

John Adams and how he experienced the American Revolution
Adams’ view on the American Revolution
John and Abigail Adams’ views on Loyalists and loyalist ideology
The story of John Adams and Jonathan Sewell
Adams’ idea of dividing loyalties during the American Revolution into thirds
American Loyalists and why they chose to remain to Great Britain
Degrees of loyalist loyalty
Numbers of loyalists during the American Revolution
Whether we should look upon the Revolution as a civil war
Why loyalists left the United States after the war
How many loyalists left the United States after the war
What it was like for loyalists to leave and where they resettled
Experiences of African and African American loyalists
Why Americans have had a hard time reckoning with the Revolution’s loyalist past
Slavery as a cause of the American Revolution
Somerset vs. Stewart (1772)
Phillis Wheatley
Wheatley’s poems to the Earl of Dartmouth and George Washington
Phillis Wheatley’s revolutionary politics
Wheatley’s impact on the Revolution
Patriot reaction to people of African descent’s participation in the Revolution
The American Revolution in the Gulf Coast
Where Native Americans fit within colonial North America
Gulf Coast Native Americans’ views on the American Revolution
Reasons some native peoples wanted to join the fight against American independence
Why the British included the Gulf Coast in their military strategy