American Revolution Dbq Analysis

After the American Revolution, Americans began to reexamine politics, the economy, and society. After breaking away from a “crooked” and “wicked” government, Americans altered their ideas on how they wanted to govern their new nation although they eventually degenerated to a more centralized government comparable to Britain. The uneducated masses, as viewed by the elite, didn’t experience a lot of change though the ideals from the revolution still guided some to seek better financial opportunities. Women, slaves, and loyalist experienced a considerable amount of change in society as women experienced more freedoms, some slaves were set free, and loyalist left America. Generally, America did not undergo an increased amount of economic change,

As a result of this desire, the Americans adopted the Articles of Confederation that had no national executive branch. However, due the government having no power under the Articles as it could not raise money through taxes, the leaders of the government understood that a more centralized government was required in order to survive. This resulted in the creation of the constitution to resolve this issue. As this constitution was being written, the federalist papers were also being written. In one paper by James Madison, he writes “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition” (Document I), which shows the underlying though of the checks and balances system and that it could be used to keep the national government in line and not get out of control in its ideas. In the end, the Constitution was similar to Britain’s centralized government but also different in the sense that the constitution had a more active system of checks and

Women, under the concept of Republican Motherhood, to implant values, justice, and liberty in their children had raised roles throughout the Revolutionary War. In a depiction of a patriot woman, she is shown holding a rifle and a packet of gunpowder (Document A). This represented how women played momentous positions in society by accompanying the fighting soldiers in the revolution. Nonetheless, women were not gratified to go back to their household routine after the revolution as shown by Molly Wallace who stated “if [taught] to read, why not speak?” (Document J), inferring how some women wanted to evolve their domestic roles in the household and play a larger role in society and politics. Unfortunately, the role of women would not change immediately until the twentieth century when granted the right to