INTRODUCTION
The authors believe one important way to interpret the events, decisions and actions of the American Revolution is in light of ideas and perceptions that seemed to have guided people's thinking, feelings and judgments. For example, people did not terrorize, fight and kill their fellow citizens; tar and feather them; hang them and documents in effigy; declare independence from the most powerful nation in the world; or throw 342 boxes of tea overboard while dressed as Indians for no reason. People did these things because there were ideas that were very important to them as they interpreted these from their personal perspectives. The importance of these concepts and ideas in shaping decisions and actions is elaborated briefly below.
Liberty is but a word. No person in the American Revolution fought or died for the word liberty. Each fought or died because of what it meant to him or her. The meanings that many colonists understood about liberty were important enough to them that they willingly broke laws, openly and repeatedly resisted the authority of an empire, declared independence, fought an eight-year war and framed and reframed a government that they believed was aligned with their meanings. The same can be said for words such as sovereignty, freedom, property, inalienable rights and each word that was crucial to this period. This is no less true in every war we have fought, in every courtroom where the rights of citizens and of human beings are considered and in every action that we take in light of liberty in our everyday lives. Back then as now, Americans were concerned about liberty and their liberties in light of what these meant to them. It is the meanings and not the word itself that guided their decisions and actions. Words such as authority, tyranny, freedom, rights, representation, enslavement, rebellion and revolution were also frequently and widely used to justify, defend, label, promote, motivate and shape the actions of men and women on both sides of the Atlantic. In every instance, it was the meanings of these words that ignited the actions and motivated people to continue to act. Because the definitions of liberty and other concepts were so important to the people on both sides of the Atlantic from the 1750s through the 1790s, no history of the American Revolution can be complete or adequate without viewing the events that took place through the lenses of liberty, tyranny, authority, natural rights, sovereignty, etc.
Being British contributed significantly to the disagreements that dominated the thinking and actions of people on both sides of the Atlantic after 1763. For instance, the colonists based nearly all of their opposition to events in England and in the colonies on their interpretations of the British Constitution and their rights as citizens of Britain. Throughout much of the period between 1765 through 1776, there were public protests, disobedience of the law and legal authorities, destruction of property, lawlessness and petitions to royal officials. Those involved in these actions claimed they were exercising as well as protecting their rights as British citizens. Many claimed that they were protecting the natural rights endowed to them by their Creator. They also claimed that these natural rights had higher authority than the British constitution. Meanwhile, members of Parliament and eventually King George III challenged the colonists' views of the Constitution and their views of the rights of colonists as citizens in the empire.
One of the strongest points of disagreement between them concerned authority. In this era in British citizens' minds, authority was directly connected to liberty and the exercise of one's rights as a citizen: Lawful and appropriate use of authority would protect and expand personal liberty. The two sides disagreed on what or who had the highest authority in the Empire and in the individual colonies to govern the affairs of citizens within the colonies. By 1776, many colonists accepted that there was a higher authority than the king, Parliament and the British Constitution--as these were defined and defended by King George III and most members of Parliament. This higher authority came in the form of natural laws--and natural rights. Colonial leaders of the protesters claimed these natural rights preceded humans forming groups, societies and governments. So while the liberties and rights under Britain's system were the best in the world, to these colonists there existed greater liberties and more rights in the system provided by natural laws. It was these unalienable rights and what these meant to the colonists that Jefferson and his associates in Congress justified their decision for independence from Britain.
In the midst of the disagreements between the government officials representing Britain and those who opposed their actions, hundreds of thousands of colonists remained intensely loyal to King George III and the ideals, traditions and laws of Britain. These people are among the forgotten ones of this era. They obeyed the law; defended the king, Parliament and others; accepted the traditional views of rights and authority and believed Parliament had the right and authority to act as it did. Many of these people would be terrorized, attacked, intimidated or even killed for their loyalty in doing what was right according to Parliament's perceptions of governing the empire and the colonies within it. The views of these people are represented throughout the video.
This series is not a war story of battles, soldiers and troop movements, although some of these are included. The writers, directors and producers intentionally stayed away from refighting every important battle and reconstructing the lives of the leading politicians and generals. People in politics and those in the military, in their daily lives, are never totally isolated from one another or from the public opinion that oftentimes profoundly shapes events, decisions and actions. Much of what makes this period so revolutionary and important is the involvement of so many common people who were not politicians--or at least did not start out as politicians--and who did not become soldiers.
The viewer of the series and the user of the materials in this Curriculum Package are encouraged to view the events, series and consequences of the American Revolution in the light of what the critical ideas and concepts, such as liberty, freedom, rights, even rebellion and revolution, meant to those of the era. In addition, perhaps these meanings may shed light on the meanings of these concepts in today's society as well as at different moments in our nation's history after the American Revolutionary War. These meanings are important because they shaped the decisions made by the Founding Fathers in creating a new system of government. They continue to shape our own lives as we make decisions and act in a nation that continually has to negotiate contemporary meanings of laws, of Amendments, of actions, of rights and normative concepts such as liberty, freedom and happiness. In one real sense, because the concepts and ideas that became the American Revolution are still alive in our minds, beliefs and dialogues, the American Revolution has not ended. Indeed, it is likely the American Revolution will never end.
Ultimately the LIBERTY! video series hopes that your experiences during your hours of viewing will influence your thoughts and feelings about what occurred during the revolutionary era. The hope is that viewers will leave the series with a greater appreciation of the American Revolution, not merely as a war, but as events centering on conflicting and bold new ideas about politics, liberty and rights and the boldness of a few citizens to propose a new system of government described within the U.S. Constitution. More important, the series hopes that viewers will reconsider and perhaps revise their conceptions of this era, the events, the individuals and the issues that have become part of the legends and myths about the founding of this nation. In addition, the content of the series and the resources in this educational package will stimulate a new appreciation of the ideas and actions of the American Revolution and a reflection on the meanings of the key concepts to those living during the revolutionary era and to people in present-day America.
In July 1815, more than thirty years after the signing of the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson asked John Adams these three questions: "Who shall write the history of the American revolution? Who can write it? Who will ever be able to write it?" Historians have been answering these questions ever since--and often with quite different answers. But historians know that there can never be an ultimate history of any event, much less of events and a period as extensive as what we call the American Revolution and the American Revolutionary War. There can only be histories of these--histories as stories told from particular perspectives in particular years and for particular reasons. Each story is a unique reconstructed version of past events. Each leaves out far more than it reveals. Each offers but a glimpse of a small portion of the events, people, ideas, feelings, experiences and actions that years afterward still warrant the interests of those who never were there and can never be there.
LIBERTY! THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, the video series, is one story of the events and the era known as the American Revolution. The story weaves in important concepts and ideas that were invented by the people of the time and in the many places included within the American Revolution. These concepts included liberty, freedom, power, democracy, sovereignty, self-government, representative government and rights. Many of these concepts meant something very different to those who lived in the eighteenth century than they mean to most of us today. Even the concepts of rebellion and revolution warrant definition and reflection in terms of their meaning to British citizens in the late 1700s. These concepts served as justifications for the actions of individuals on both sides of the Atlantic; as the bases for major issues and disagreements that sharply divided families, entire communities, colonies and an empire; and, for some, as causes for which people risked their lives and property, fought and died--and built an entirely new form of government. Many of the most important issues, perceptions and ideas of the American Revolution were linked to key concepts that Americans still cherish today.
At the same time no story of the American Revolution can be complete or adequate without accepting how deeply proud the colonists of 1763-1776 were of being British. The colonists realized that being British allowed them the most civil rights and liberty, the most freedom, the lowest taxes, the most representation and the fewest problems with arbitrary authority (which they called tyranny) than any people in any nation in the Western world. The colonists appreciated these while enjoying the most prosperous economic system in the world. The colonists toasted King George III and the British Constitution. They boasted of the quality of life under both. The colonists so much wanted to remain British that two months after the Continental Congress voted on July 2, 1776, to sever all political ties with Britain, even Thomas Jefferson wanted Americans to reconcile their differences with Britain. People today have forgotten the intensity of the colonists' loyalty to and pride in Britain and what it stood for in the 1760s and 1770s in the areas of political and civil liberty, freedom and rights. Nearly all the colonists loved being British. Until very late in the war, most wanted to remain British.
LIBERTY! emphasizes the thoughts, feelings, actions, desires, ambitions, hopes and experiences of people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The series invites one to view the American Revolution as a human experience and to sense how humans from different nations, walks of life, social positions, ages, occupations and genders reacted to and coped with the political and constitutional issues that dominated the times and with what was occurring in their lives.