Key Points, Choosing Revolution

The “Choosing Revolution&4dquo; story line traces the beginnings of the new nation by exploring the complex decisions every Virginian faced as the colony moved toward independence.

Background

The “Choosing Revolution&4dquo; story line focuses primarily on choice, but choice must be defined more broadly than just the single choice for or against armed rebellion. An individual’s decision to choose, or not choose, revolution was based on a series of choices over the fifteen to twenty years before the battle of Yorktown. During those years, Virginians reacted to issues arising from the Seven Years’ War, the Stamp Act, internal crises like the Robinson Affair in 1766, the Townshend Duties, nonimportation associations, the Gunpowder Incident, the forming of a new government, and the mobilization and support of the American army. As they considered their ideas about natural rights and government, as well as their life circumstances and the events around them, many Virginians made a commitment to freedom, liberty, and popular sovereignty.

The Contenders

Backed by Parliament, the British ministry sought active management of a widespread empire in the aftermath of the Seven Years’ War. At the same time, Virginia’s political leaders in the General Assembly determined to protect their prerogative to draft legislation for the colony.

The British Constitution

Under the British constitutional settlement of 1688, supreme authority rested with Parliament, where royalty, nobility, and the commons were all represented. Liberty was the power to act freely within laws enacted fairly by a balance of these three interests.

Unfair Legislation

By the 1760s, many Americans and Britons perceived that ministerial corruption and the buying of Parliamentary elections breached the integrity of the commons and resulted in unfairly enacted laws that were a threat to traditional British liberty. Americans began to doubt whether the British constitution could adequately protect their natural rights, including personal security, personal liberty, and private property.

Virginia Politics

The younger, more aggressive leaders urged a forceful protest against British policies, but this was possible only with the support of the yeomanry. Increasingly diverse in ethnicity and religion, the yeomanry responded when the gentry leadership invoked property ownership as a common economic interest between the two groups and became increasingly active politically.

Choosing Sides

Whites of all social ranks, free blacks, slaves, and Native Americans considered both ideology and self-interest as they chose, or did not choose, revolution.