Was the American Revolution really Revolutionary?

The American Revolution depending on the viewer can be seen as a revolution or as an accelerated evolution. Compared to the French or Russian Revolution the American Revolution did not radically change much around the colonies. Some parts, of the Revolution though can be considered completely revolutionary while other parts were not so much. Politically, the American government was changed from the British ruling monarchy to a democracy within a totality of about 8 years (1775-1783). Eight years would be considered a swift transformation when looking at the age of the nation. Substantial local control though came into question after this transformation and America for a while had a weak central government under the Articles of Confederation. Independence from Britain led many individuals in the pursuit for equality and it took a totality of 89 years after the Battle of Yorktown until poor white men had a federal right to vote. This was mainly due to the property-holding requirements for voting. Once the proclamation of 1763 was revoked though, white men, rich and poor alike had an opportunity to gain land. Women, having no such opportunity such as this, had to wait 139 years until they obtained a federal right to vote. Looking at it from this aspect the revolution wasn’t very swift politically. Religiously a fight for the separation between church and state resulted in significant gains.

The Congregational Church was attached to the state in most New England colonies. The hardest “divorce” of the church from the state was in Virginia, 1786. Jefferson and his co-reformers, the Baptists, fought for this eventually won passing the Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom in 1786. The policy of “free exercise” of religion under the First Amendment was passed soon after, in 1791. This was a slight radical change in that there was no more dominance of the Anglican Church in the colonies, though a lot of colonies were somewhat already religiously tolerant. Economically, the most revolutionary change was the poor white men being able to move up the social/status ladder. This was rare and significant in that through this many more Americans were allowed to vote. Abolishment of slavery also affected the economy, though mainly only in the South. This human’s right revolution was not very revolutionary in that it took a long time in order to be passed. Most northern colonies abolished slavery quickly with the North West Ordinance. Southerners on the other hand though refused since the Southern economy was “controlled” by the slaves.

This means that all the Slavocrats invested a majority of their money in their slaves. A loss of slavery would be a loss of their wealth and for this reason the South opposed the human’s rights movement until slavery finally came to be abolished in the constitution 84 years after the war. The revolution was the most radical in the sense that it had a huge global impact, serving as a model for French, Latin American, and Haitian Revolution. This is a very tremendous and profound in that the American Revolution permanently impacted the world.