Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-427) and index. Originally published in hardcover: New York : Knopf, 2011.
Contents:
"To begin the world over again" / Alfred F. Young, Ray Raphael, and Gary B. Nash -- Revolutions. Ebenezer Mackintosh: Boston's Captain General of the Liberty Tree / Alfred F. Young ; Blacksmith Timothy Bigelow and the Massachusetts revolution of 1774 / Ray Raphael ; Samuel Thompson's war: the career of an American insurgent / T.H. Breen ; Philadelphia's radical caucus that propelled Pennsylvania to independence and democracy / Gary B. Nash ; A world of Paine / Jill Lepore ; Phillis Wheatley: the poet who challenged the American revolutionaries / David Waldstreicher -- Wars. "Adventures, dangers and sufferings": the betrayals of Private Joseph Plumb Martin, Continental soldier / Philip Mead ; "The spirit of levelling": James Cleveland, Edward Wright, and the militiamen's struggle for equality in revolutionary Virginia / Michael A. McDonnell ; Mary Perth, Harry Washington, and Moses Wilkinson: Black Methodists who escaped from slavery and founded a nation / Cassandra Pybus ; James Ireland, John Leland, John "Swearing Jack" Waller, and the Baptist campaign for religious freedom in revolutionary Virginia / Jon Butler ; Declaring independence and rebuilding a nation: dragging canoe and the Chickamauga revolution / Colin G. Galloway ; Forgotten heroes of the Revolution: Han Yerry and Tyona Doxtader of the Oneida Indian Nation / James Kirby Martin -- The Promise of the Revolution. "Satan, Smith, Shattuck, and Shays": the people's leaders in the Massachusetts regulation of 1786 / Gregory Nobles ; William Findley, David Bradford, and the Pennsylvania regulation of 1794 / Terry Bouton ; The new Jerusalem: Herman Husband's egalitarian alternative to the United States Constitution / Wythe Holt ; The battle against patriarchy that Abigail Adams won / Woody Holton ; America's Mary Wollstonecraft: Judith Sargent Murray's case for the equal rights of women / Sheila Skemp ; Prince Hall, Richard Allen, and Daniel Coker: revolutionary Black founders, revolutionary Black communities / Richard S. Newman ; Richard and Judith Randolph, St. George Tucker, George Wythe, Syphax Brown, and Hercules White: racial equality and the snares of prejudice / Melvin Patrick Ely ; "Every man should have property": Robert Coram and the American Revolution's legacy of economic populism / Seth Cotlar ; Thomas Greenleaf: printers and the struggle for democratic politics and freedom of the press / Jeffrey L. Pasley ; The plough-jogger: Jedediah Peck and the democratic revolution / Alan Taylor.
Summary:
In this volume consisting of twenty-two original essays, leading historians reveal the radical impulses at the founding of the American Republic. This is a new reading of the American Revolution that gives voice and recognition to a generation of radical thinkers and doers whose revolutionary ideals outstripped those of the founding fahters. It explores the founding fathers' more radical contemporaries, who advocated for true liberty for all at the United States' inception, including the abolition of slavery and equality despite race, class, or gender. While the founding fathers advocated a break from Britain and espoused ideals of republican government, none proposed significant changes to the fabric of colonial society. Yet during this revolutionary period some people did believe that "liberty" meant llibery for all and that equality should be applied to political, economic, and religious spheres. These essays are the stories of individuals and groups who exemplified the radical ideals of the American Revolution more in keeping with values of today. This volume helps us to understand the social conflicts unleashed by the struggle for independence, the Revolution's achievements, and the unfinished agenda it left to future generations to confront.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.