Cooper and the American Revolution: The Non-Fiction

1977 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Mike Ewart
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
General Idea ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Non Fiction ◽  
Revolutionary Period ◽  
The Revolution

Revolution — both the American Revolution and the general idea of revolutionary change — is an important theme in Cooper's work. Several novels are set in, and deal with, the Revolutionary period; others approach the Revolution by indirection, offering redefinitions of the period and its significance as it were by analogy (I am thinking of novels such as The Waterwitch and The Red Rover which, while they are not set in the Revolutionary period, offer their subjects as images and judgments of the Revolution); still other novels treat the problem of revolution in Europe. The conditions for, and likely results of, revolutionary change in Europe are also discussed in the non-fiction; the American Revolution is continually redefined; and in the incomplete New York the desirability and possibility of a new Revolution are considered.

Entrepreneurial Activity in New York during the American Revolution

1966 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Mason
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
War Economy ◽  
The Revolution

The ability of some New York businessmen to exploit the war economy of the Revolution is suggested in this study of their pursuits and profits.

Plays and Amusements Offered for and By the American Military During the Revolutionary War

1978 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-24
Author(s):  
Jared A. Brown
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Revolutionary War ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
American Military ◽  
Continental Congress ◽  
British Military ◽  
The Revolution

In October, 1774, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, passed a resolution designed to ‘discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation’, including the ‘exhibition of shews, plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments’. The Revolution would begin within six months, and Congress was clearly attempting to prepare Americans for a period of austerity. But if Congress intended to eliminate all theatrical activities for the duration of the hostilities, it could not have failed more completely. Indeed, the American Revolution saw more theatrical activity on American soil than had ever taken place there before. British military officers – who brought with them a strong theatre-going tradition – sponsored lavish performances of plays in New York, Philadelphia, and elsewhere between 1775 and 1783. In turn, the remarkable number of British theatrical productions stimulated certain American military officials to countenance performances given by American officers for audiences of soldiers and civilians. This may have been illegal, but it boosted morale and it was intended to demonstrate that Americans could compete with the British on any level, including the theatrical.

The American Revolution as a Social Movement Revisited

1986 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Bonwick
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
Major Elements ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Revolutionary Era ◽  
American Society ◽  
Growth Economic ◽  
The Revolution

Discussion of the American Revolution began at the beginning. Contemporaries identified two interactive, though not interlocked, major elements by boasting of the attainment of independence and the founding of a new republic; as Enos Hitchcock insisted in 1788, “A revolution can never be considered as complete till government is firmly established — and without this independency would be a curse instead of a blessing. — These jointly were the great object of the American Revolution.” A third component of the Revolutionary experience was a network of social changes that affected many aspects of American life. Some processes — demographic growth, economic expansion, and western settlement, all of which contributed materially to the context of Revolutionary change — were essentially secular and developmental in effect. Others, such as the emancipation of blacks and women, had barely begun during the Revolutionary era; a few, for example, the disestablishment of religion, were largely complete by the end of the century. Among these many social processes was one that interacted with both other components of the Revolution, was central in function, and had both immediate and long-term effects. Elites were forced to share their power.By 1800 a critical change had taken place in the fabric of American society. The Revolution had transformed ideological expectations, behaviour patterns and social relationships as well as institutions, and had drastically altered the basis on which social and political authority could be exercised in a manner that transcended the departure of British officials and Loyalist exiles.

Lemuel Haynes and the Revolutionary Origins of Black Theology, 1776-1801

1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-102
Author(s):  
John Saillant
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New England ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Black Theology ◽  
Universal Salvation ◽  
Black Man ◽  
The Revolution

Lemuel Haynes was a black Congregationalist minister to mostly white churches in New England and New York between 1788 and his death in 1833. Abandoned as an infant, Haynes was reared as an indentured servant in a pious white Massachusetts family. He served in the American Revolution in 1774 and 1775 as a Minute Man and in 1776 as a soldier in the march to Fort Ticonderoga. In 1776, Haynes composed an essay, “Liberty Further Extended: Or Free Thoughts on the Illegality of Slave-keeping.” After the Revolution, he acquired a reputation among his white contemporaries as an inspiring preacher. In 1788, Haynes accepted a call to minister in Rutland, Vermont, where he served for thirty years before being dismissed, perhaps because he was a black man. While at Rutland, he published a number of essays and sermons, including in 1801The Nature and Importance of True Republicanismand in 1806Universal Salvation. Universal Salvationultimately appeared in seventy editions, fifty-four of them within Haynes's lifetime.

Presbyterianism and the American Revolution in the Middle Colonies

2005 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 306-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Tiedemann
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Middle Colonies ◽  
Existing Form ◽  
William Livingston ◽  
Established Church ◽  
The Revolution

After the Revolution, Thomas Jones, an embittered loyalist exile, identified the culprits he deemed responsible for the rebellion in New York: the Whig “triumvirate” of Presbyterians—William Livingston, William Smith, and John Morin Scott. Jones averred that in theIndependent Reflector(1752–53) andWatch Tower(1754–55), which they authored, “the established Church was abused, Monarchy derided, Episcopacy reprobated, and republicanism held up, as the best existing form of government.” The three wrote “with a rancor, a malevolence, and an acrimony, not to be equaled but by the descendants of those presbyterian and repulblican fanatics, whose ancestors had in the preceding century brought their Sovereign to the block, subverted the best constitution in the world, and upon its ruins erected presbyterianism, republicanism, and hypocrisy.”

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