Young Patriots: Inspiring Stories of the American Revolution
FOREWORD Historians now know a great deal about the American Revolutionary era They know about the protests that learned colonists wrote to object to British taxation and other measures They know about the street demonstrations of common people designed not only to object to British policies but also to vent their frustrations at their colonial betters They know about the boycotts of British goods how they were enforced and who obeyed or disobeyed them They know about the politically active patriots those men who met in colonial legislatures and in intercolonial meetings such as the Stamp Act Congress and the Continental Congress and almost everything they said or wrote Historians also know almost everything about fighting the war what the engagements were who fought on each side their fighting techniques their weapons even the casualties they suffered They know how the common soldiers and their officers in each army and the militia dressed ate marched camped how they felt about each other and how orders were transmitted They know these things about the British French and American
In recent years historians have come to know more about the home front during the war They know what women experienced when their fathers husbands or brothers went off to fight and what happened to them if their men did not return They know what the marching armies or marauding naval forces did to the countryside the occupied cities and the raided seacoast towns They know how the tumult caused by the war affected farming and trading how it affected religion and education how it affected local politics how it affected the settlement of the frontier and the Indians who lived there and who generally had to choose to fight either for the British or the Americans They know how the war changed slavery setting it on the road to extinction in the North but not in the South They even know the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention that then secret meeting that transformed the national government setting many of the precedents by which it operates today Yet one area historians know little about is what young boys and girls did during the Revolutionary era For all these other events and groups there survives written evidence to tell us what happened and how people participated But for young people there is very little They themselves did not provide it Some could not read or write Most had not the time the resources nor the inclination to keep a diary or write letters Their parents and other adults preoccupied
with the war and survival rarely recorded the doings or feelings of the young In order to tell the stories of young people during the Revolution the authors of this book have immersed themselves in what historians know have relied on documents and family legends when they could and from that knowledge have very skillfully imagined young people into many of the key incidents of the era Through these stories as well as the introductions sidebars and illustrations young readers can learn about pre war protests the major events and military engagements and the intriguing aftermath of the American Revolution Best of all they will experience the sensations of being as John Adams once put it in the midst of a revolution the most complete unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations David W Robson Professor of History John Carroll University From a letter to William Cushing June 9 1776 Paul H Smith et al eds Letters of the Delegates of Congress 1774 1789 26 vols Washington D C Library of
