Delete comment from: Boston 1775
Thanks for your kind words! I hope the blog is truly a resource.
Indeed, in a world without communication faster than a horse could gallop or a ship could sail, local communities were used to governing themselves. They did so according to people’s understanding of proper laws and customs, and in the British Empire a lot of those actions were taken in the name of the king. Even after Parliament became the highest authority, it was said to act on behalf of the king.
But what happens when the community and its neighbors decide to reject that traditional authority? Does acting in the name of the people, or the state, or the United States, carry the same weight? Is that a chance for society to recognize new rights and relationships? Or, given that there was a war on, does society have to be more strict and controlling than usual? I think those were the questions that local committees and magistrates had to deal with during the Revolutionary War.
By and large, historians have noted, America's Revolution didn't upend or reshape society the way some other revolutions have, or tried to. Individual officeholders deemed too deferential to the Crown were removed from power or driven out, but the offices and the structure they formed remained largely intact. There were some significant changes, such as the end of legal slavery in some states and single women having the vote in New Jersey for a few years. But most law codes, property lines, and class structure stayed the same.
That probably made the local committees' and officials' work easier. Since those committees tended to draw white men from the top social and economic tier, the lack of fundamental change made their lives easier as well.
Oct 2, 2019, 3:57:21 PM
Posted to Breen on “Revolutionary Communities” in Worcester, 3 Oct.