Patriots & Loyalists: Georgia on the Eve of the Revolution

Patriots & Loyalists: Georgia on the Eve of the Revolution

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to lime light the issues of the cornerstones of Georgia Revolution. For this purpose, chapter four o the cornerstones, Patriots & Loyalists: Georgia on the Eve of the Revolution is being discussed. The motive is to highlight that whether the documents provide a window into the past that complements the modern interpretations, and that the discussions can make you question the modern interpretations.

Introduction

In the early 1770s, Georgians opposed the trade regulations made by Britain and resulted in the Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783. Most of the people hesitated to join the movement of revolution that arose in the American colonies. The prosperity of these colonies was on its peak during the Royal Rule, and most of the Georgians believed that if they will not have the protection of British troops, they will be under an attack of Indians. There was a congress in 1774, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and known as First Continental Congress. In that congress, all the colonies decided to make a group called Association in order to ban all the trades of Britain. However, Georgia's representatives were not there in the congress. On the other hand, in January 1775, Georgian delegates arranged a provincial congress and gathered in Savannah. The motive of that provincial congress was to decide that whether Georgia should join the Association so that their representatives could be elected to the Second Continental Congress. Moreover, a number of Georgians joined the radical movement when the news of battle of Concord and Lexington spread in Massachusetts.

Discussion

There formed many groups after the revolution spread out in Georgia. Sons of Liberty was the name of a group that broke out in Savannah in 1775. Another group known as “Whigs” consisted of the people who resisted royal government, and “Tories” were the people who showed loyalty to the King. Patriot is the term also used for Whigs, and Loyalist for Tories. However, the British thought the patriots as “rebels” (Johnston, 1901).

Patriots

The colonists of thirteen colonies of the United British during the American Revolution, who resisted against the British control, were known as Patriots. They were also known as rebels, revolutionaries, congressmen, or the American Whigs. These colonies declared the United States as an independent state in July 1776. The pamphleteers such as, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton expressed republicanism as their political philosophy on which the rebellion of patriots was based. There were a number of people forming this group of patriots, who belonged to numerous social, ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds. They were students, lawyers, merchants, and plain farmers. These critics of British rule favored numerous colonial policies, and called themselves Whigs, divided into patriot Whigs and radical Whigs. Patriots refer to persons who actively oppose enemy forces to occupy his country, and so the American Whigs were doing. However, they received a negative connotation at that time in Britain (Johnston, ...