Home court advantage

Despite the forces against them, how why was the american army able to defeat a world super power? how was a group of ragged militia led by a general who's war resume contained defeats and mishaps leading his troops able to turn the war around and give the americans hope? Was it because of the colonist's motivation (the fact they had something to fight for; their freedom) . I believe it was a culmination of the following.

for one, the establishment of a continental congress (first and second) unified patriots by making them feel like there was a promising future. they were finally able to get together and discuss how they believe the country should be ran after the British were drove out. the men who were educated by leaders of the enlightenment were able to put their knowledge to the test by trying to form a provisional government. even though the first congressional congress didn't work out, they were confident they could get it right a second time.

i also feel that the national was in turmoil at the time, being forced to declare loyalty to the crown or loyalty to the patriots. this was driven by authors such as Thomas Paine who called for an independence and a nonmonarchial form of government. either you were with the country or you were against it in the eyes of the patriots. there was no room for being neutral. such skirmishes forced British loyalists to either take up arms or flee to the mother country.

there was a certain appeal to supporting the patriots. people who were used to being ruled, finally had a chance to dictate how their lives were run. patriots encouraged all citizens to become active in the decisions that affect how their lives were run. from taxes to laws, people now were given the opportunity to dictate their life and the way the direction they wanted to take it.

the most important factor in the American revolution i believe was the home turf advantage. the patriots were fighting for their land, their people and their freedom. such desperations made hero's out of ordinary men. the British troops however, lacked moral. having to be away from their families and fighting people who they considered their own citizens, must have taken a toll. the American people had spoken out, either by paying local taxes and supporting the patriot movement , or taking up arms and defending their natural rights. this home court advantage, i believe, directly led to the defeat of the British in colonial America.

David Littman's Blog

As tensions grew increasing, the odds of a war seemed more and more likely. One of the turning points in peoples minds whom were still respecting their loyalty to the crown was the pulication of Thomas Paine's article entitled "Common Sense". This pamphlet pursuaded the minds of loyalists to reject the king and that America had far more to offer people than Britain. This appeal to the loyalists to drop their loyalty to England was in perfect timing, for tensions were so high, that people were now willing to fight to defend the country. This tension was created from the diminishing freedoms colonists had been experiencing and the taxes that unified the colonists of all classes, geographic location, and gender. Loyalists were beginning to feel threatened by the patriots extreme belief in freedom, and neighbors were killing their fellow neighbors that were not revolutionists. With British loss of New Jersey, loyalists were unprotected by the kings army and were forced to flee the country.
With the alliance of the French army, the momentum of the war shifted with the Continental Army gaining much needed financial and military support. The Britains suffered greatly from the brutal winters, disease, and low morale. The Continental Army was able to succeed in defeating the British because of soldiers strong belief in what they were fighting for. Washington's brilliant and leadership were the key for America's eventual final victory at Yorktown, winning the war and gaining the Independence the patriots so strongly believed in. America now faced the difficult process of establishing themselves as an independent country, developing a system of law that would comply with the beliefs stated in the declaration of independence. The aristocrats took the natural belief that they would become the governing body, yet those whom actually suffered through war and risked their lives thought otherwise. The next several years following the war brought many conflicts as issues such as slavery and government were challenged and brought people apart as they would eventually go to divide the country in half.

Henretta6, Skemp I7-8,II6-8

Chapter 6 of Henretta describes the eventual declaration of independence by the American colonies and Revolutionary War itself. Thomas Paine was an important player in the persuasion of the American colonists towards separation from Britain through his writing called "Common Sense." This writing attacked King George III, and finally persuaded many colonists that both Parliament and the king were tyrannical. One might wonder if the American colonists might have been less united if "Common Sense" had never been written. Other important concepts from this particular reading include the alliance of the French with the American colonists in order to get back at England for the last war, and also the status of African-American slaves at this time: slavery was still allowed in the final draft of the Declaration of Independence, many thousands fled with British soldiers, and still thousands of others fought on the colonists' side.
Skemp readings discuss the same time period from the personal perspectives of the two Franklins who are this time started to differ considerably and also present documents written by them during this time period. Particularly moving was the letter from the elder Franklin to William in 1784 after the war was over. The two Franklins seem the perfect example of the civil war that occurred along with the Revolutionary War that split families apart, but at least the Franklins were not shooting at each other. In these chapters we view William Franklin condemning the Boston Tea Party and believing that the colonists should pay for the damages and reporting on his own father to Britain, and Benjamin Franklin on the other side refusing to send William's own son Temple to a "corrupt English school." How ironic that the position that Skemp says Benjamin probably helped William to obtain, the governorship of New Jersey would in later years create the largest chasm between them.