Motley Crew Essay

608 Words2 Pages

America had a successful revolution due to the motley crew, despite the lack of recognition and amenities they received for their contributions. “A Motley Crew in the American Revolution” by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker highlighted the motley crew for their influence on the American Revolution, and provided information and background generally not given in a standard textbook. The motley crew, comprised of sailors and slaves in a literal sense, and the urban mob in a political sense, paved the way for the American Revolution and the founding documents through rebellions, uprisings, conflicts, protests, and violence. This group of men changed the world in the opposition of forced labor, press-gangs and slavery in particular, through influencing …show more content…

Samuel Adams Jr. used the Knowles Riot to form the conclusion that it is a natural right to form a mob and justified the violent acts as a means to end oppression. This led to the profound change that all men are created equal, not just the British. This concept is so significant that it became part of Declaration of Independance. Later, John Adams, future president of the United States, acknowledged that the motley crew had made a revolutionary movement, despite his dread of them. Thomas Jefferson, another future president, briefly mentioned the mob in the Declaration of Independence, although he focused on the strife between nations rather than the power struggle between the classes. The motley crew received very little recognition in the end, but they did have a dramatic impact on the politics and founding of America. Linebaugh and Rediker’s essay on the motley crew addresses a subject glazed over by textbooks and pushed under the rug by politicians in the eighteenth-century. The uniting of the lowest classes, sailors and slaves into a unified group fighting for the liberties and freedom of their fellow man led to the American Revolution and altered the perceptions of race and ethnicity within the mob. The violent and forgotten unsung heroes of the impoverished in the eighteenth-century are the motley

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