[intro music] Would you have joined the American Revolution?

'Cause depending on who you were, there's a good chance that the answer would have been no.

Although I haven't taken an official survey, I'm pretty sure if you ask the average U.S. resident if they would have joined the American Revolution back in the 1770s, the answers of "America, heck yes!"

and "I dunno, maybe not" would be based on our current feelings about the U.S.

But before we dive into history, there are some important things to remember for this particular thought exercise.

First, in the 1770s, there was no way of knowing if this crazy revolution idea would work.

There were lots of ways you could end up dead, either from fighting, sickness, or being killed for treason.

And second, no one is American.

There is no United States, and you are a British colonist or an adjacent group.

And finally, although it's easy now to imagine that in our past lives, we were all George Washington or the folks living in the fancy, upstairs part of the house on "Downton Abbey," chances were we would have been just a part of the larger population.

So, you have to put yourself in the uncomfortable shoes of the average Josiah or Jacoba and ask, When the conflict broke out, who would you have been?

So, you could have been on a list that's not all-encompassing-- an enslaved African-American laborer, Native American, women from all backgrounds, a white land-owning man, or a non-property-owning white colonist, also a man.

So, let's start with imagining that you were an African American.

By 1775, approximately 500,000 Black people were living in the 13 colonies, and most of those people were enslaved.

As a result, there's a high probability that if you were in this position, you were also enslaved.

So, for many colonial African Americans, while they had little legal recourse for decision-making, they still exercised individual and collective autonomy and had to weigh their options.

In 1776, Lord Dunmore, a British military commander, offered enslaved Blacks their freedom if they would join his troops, and hundreds joined Dunmore's forces.

Plus, outside of fighting, as many as 100,000 escaped during the course of the conflict, often with the help of British forces.

George Washington, on the other hand, turned down official requests from African Americans looking to join the war, even though Black soldiers participated in some of the earliest battles of the revolution.

The reason being, in some counties, Black enslaved people were 25 to 50% of the population, so arming them was considered a huge threat to the white slave-owning population, which Washington himself was a part of.

But, as the war raged on, by 1778, the colonists removed the ban on Black soldiers, and, as a result, an estimated 5,000 Black soldiers joined their side.

So, for African Americans, the choice often came down to favoring the side that they felt would offer them the greatest potential for freedom, because, you know, that's what this whole war was about.

Okay, let's say you were Native American-- "American" here flagged for the continent and not for the country, folks.

So, if you were a Native-American person living within or near the 13 colonies, you were likely choosing where and how to participate in this conflict based on your own desire to maintain autonomy apart from the colonies.

Because, remember, there was no U.S.-- just independently or cooperatively functioning Native American nations and 13 kind of connected British colonies.

And often, white colonists' interactions with Native-American populations were not peaceful.

See Bacon's Rebellion if you want to learn more about how Native Americans were affected when colonists tried to rebel against the colonial government.

Plus, at the end of the French and Indian War, the British issued the Proclamation of 1763.

After a revolt led by Ottawa chief Pontiac, King George III issued this proclamation to prevent further expansion westward by white colonists.

He forbade all 13 colonies from buying land west of the Appalachian Divide, in effect creating a firm boundary on the wayward settlers who were increasing the number of raids.

So, because of these reasons, many nations decided to side with the British.

However, because of regional alliances, some Native-American nations did side with the colonists.

So, as with any group, this was a political decision related to personal freedom and bargaining.

Next, let's look at women of all backgrounds.

Although women were not officially recruited to join the armed parts of the revolution, they still played a crucial role.

For example, many Native, white-colonist, and Black women contributed to the war efforts on both sides through providing food, clothing, and upkeep for men who were fighting, although some of these decisions were made through choice and others through force and coercion.

But there were ladies who also joined the fray on the battlefield.

Take, for example, Prudence Cummings Wright of Pepperell, Massachusetts, who formed her own militia of 30 to 40 other kick-butt women to stand guard over their town and intercept suspected Torry spies.

So, for women, the decision to support or resist the revolution was also tied to individual autonomy and self-protection, and not just linked to whether or not their male family members decided to take up arms and chuck a bunch of tea leaves into the harbor.

Also, check out Professor Debra Newman and Professor Catherine Allgor's research in the works cited for more info on Black women's history during the Revolutionary Era and politically connected women's roles in helping to shape early U.S. politics.

Okay, now, let's say you were a free, white, land-owning male.

According to Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"-- you know, that big, heavy book a lot of high-school students lug around-- owning property was kind of a huge deal in the colonies.

Land-owning, white, free men were the only ones who could run for office or have certain rights, and this model continued into the formation of the early United States.

Zinn notes that in Maryland, under the 1776 Constitution, a white man--an important distinction here, as this wasn't extended to basically anyone else-- had to own £1,000 of property to run for state senator and £5,000 of property to run for governor.

And that's in money, not weight.

These restrictions effectively excluded 90% of the state's population from ever holding office.

Yet, if you were a super wealthy land-owner, it was more likely, though not guaranteed, that you considered siding with the British because you were already collecting taxes and at the top of society.

But some property owners weren't necessarily the uber wealthy.

Mid-level property owners, who were primarily small farmers, were concerned that they could lose their land as a result of joining this newfangled independence idea, either because their untended farms wouldn't produce enough to pay their taxes, or because if this whole uprising thing didn't pan out, that they could lose their land as a result and, you know, their lives.

So, for many land owners, it was a high risk/ high reward, but for many who were already land-owning colonial officials, it was potentially high risk and little reward.

And that leads us to a big portion of who was drawn into the fray-- white men who were poor or didn't already own property.

Although, as we mentioned above, many people of all backgrounds joined the fight both against and in support of the colonists, a lot of men in this particular category stood to gain a great deal, and, as a result, joined the war effort because the Continental Army offered money and, perhaps even more importantly, land to men who enlisted.

And land in the colonies essentially vaulted your political status.

According to historian John Ferling, although the initial call to arms was very popular, this dwindled as time went on.

He writes that, when the British Army marched from Boston on April 19, 1775, a bunch of messengers raised the alarm, including elementary-school favorite Paul Revere.

By the next day, Massachusetts had 12 regiments, Connecticut later drummed up 6,000 fighters, and within a week, there were 16,000 recruited fighters from four New England colonies.

Then, in June, the Continental Congress took over the New England army and made the Continental Army.

But over time, Ferling also notes that this enthusiasm waned, particularly when soldiers realized that joining the wartime effort was dangerous and challenging.

As a result, throughout 1776, many colonies had to offer enlisted troops cash, blankets, supplies, and short enlistments of less than one year, in order to get more men to join the war efforts.

But, over time, enlistments of three years became the standard.

In 1777, Congress recommended a draft of the states, and by 1778, most of the fighting states were conscripting men since voluntary enlistment quotas weren't being met.

So, even the potential to own land and receive payment for service wasn't enough to drive the large numbers of the colonies needed to fight the war.

So, if you were in this group, you could gain money and land or you could lose your life in a lot of different ways.

Heck of a choice.

So, how does it all add up?

It seems like the answer to whether or not you would have joined the American Revolution is a bit murky because the stakes were high and the outcomes unclear, especially before France allied with the colonists.

Although some people stood to gain a lot from colonial upheaval, others stood to lose a great deal, and these categories weren't always represented as discreet considerations.

And, trust me, I know I've probably left many sides out of this historical Rubik's Cube, but I wanted to ask you: Would you have joined?

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