The War For Independence and Its Conflicts

How did class conflict shape the war for independence? And for independence I am talking about the war in the colonial colonies. Simple. Class conflict shaped the war for independence because of motivation and incentive. The reason why the poor were signing up for the military was a goal that could not be attained in the past by them because the British did not announce a high pay in the military. The reason why so many poor people signed up in the draft was the little ray of light at the end of the tunnel, the “light” being money. For the poor, they were told if you could rise in the ranks of the new military, fortune could be attained which would ultimately change their social status. However, during the war, riots were still breaking out among the poor and the wealthy classes in America. One riot that was brought to attention was the Fort Wilson riot, which a militia team marched to the house of James Wilson, a wealthy lawyer who opposed price controls. The reason why riots were still happening was because of the presence of the Continental Congress which the majority that made up this group was wealthy. A big uprising was led when Congress voted to pass a law that stated all officers who stayed in the military until the end would only give them half-pay, but it still ignored the common soldier.Pysnelvaynia troops soon marched to the Continental Congress and on its way, killed a captain, wounded many others and dispersed of their officers. George Washington then stepped in and cautiously made a compromise, leading to half the men in that army discharged but the other half received furloughs. At the New Jersey Line shortly after the last riot that took place, another militia was marching to the state capital of Trenton. However, Washington was ready with six hundred troops and nearly disarmed all of the militia on the spot. Three leaders of the militia were put on trial and one was pardoned. Two years after this riot came the next one at the Pennsylvania Line. The army disbanded but eighty soldiers still stuck around because they wanted their pay from the army and invaded the Continental Congress on an attempt to get their pay. Nearly half of the population of the states were black, but Washington would turn them down in a hope for freedom. After the Revolution, land was distributed to middle class and lower class farmers to help change and shape the independence of America. The main reason that class conflict shaped the war was the motivation of a wealthier lifestyle, but in the end as you see, most of it was lied upon which upset the colonists overtime with more riots breaking out.

How did the war change the situation for African Americans and Native Americans? I believe this topic is important because what were they going to do since they were apart of this war BOTH in England at the time and The New World. The war changed the situation Native Americans by pushing the “Indians” (I quote the word Indian because it was a name given from the Europeas. Indians did not call themselves "Indians") off of their land as well as killing them if there was any resistance. There was no statement in the Declaration of Independence that helped the cause for Native Americans and African Americans. Over eight hundred thousand acres were basically taken from the Mohawk tribe which ended the period of friendship. On the British side, the Indians could not be resisted because of constant Guerilla Warfare in their lands. Since this could not be established, the British gave in and set up a proposal to the Indians to give land from a line through the Appalachian mountains and was called the Royal Proclamation which angered Americans and which was the cause of Indians in favor of the British side during the revolution. For the African Americans, it is harder to describe because they fought on both sides, the British and Americans. Stated by Zinn “What the Revolution did was to create space and opportunity for blacks to begin making demands of white society.” Later on, blacks started to protest against Congress and state legislatures to finally end slavery in the states and give blacks the equal rights as the white population. Basically, before the Revolution, the Native Americans and the African Americans were in the same position as what they were after the war. But with the English out of the way, the Americans had come up with the same plan as the British did. That was to flee Indians from their land and continue to use African Americans as slaves in today’s America at the time.