In light of the EU Referendum vote in the United Kingdom, it made me think; what if the American Revolutionary War was a vote and not a war? What would have been the results?
In England only white male adult property owners were allowed to vote, I
can only assume what the white male adult property owners would have been the voters
in each colony. According to historian Robert Calhoon, 40–45% of the white
population in the Thirteen Colonies supported the Patriots' cause (supported independence), 15–20% supported
the Loyalists (supported the British), and the remainder were neutral or kept a low profile. So the
question is how would the remainder (35-45%) vote, especially since this was a
large portion of the colonies populations?
Historian Leonard Woods Labaree found Loyalists were more likely to be
conservative, older, and more established. Loyalists tended to have
longstanding social and economic connections to British merchants and
government, as did men involved with the fur trade along the northern frontier.
There were rich and poor Loyalists, many in New England. The revolution divided
families, the most well known example was when William Franklin, son of Benjamin
Franklin and Governor of New Jersey, remained loyal to
the King throughout the war. Recent immigrants who had not been fully
Americanized were also inclined to support the King. I found out recently that
I had some German ancestors settle in South Carolina that supported the British
and when the war ended they moved to Nova Scotia, Canada.
Patriots viewed independence as a means to gain freedom from British
oppression and taxation. Mark Lender discussed how ordinary folks became
insurgents because they held a strong opinion that the British were violating their
rights, local autonomy, fair dealings, government by consent, and were highly
sensitive to tyranny after the British response to the Boston Tea Party. The
Patriots were also mix of rich and poor, with the richer and better educated
more likely to become officers in the Army. Many of the Patriots tended to be
yeomen farmers, craftsmen, and small merchants in the frontier areas of New
York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and down the Appalachian Mountains.
The Patriots also included many prominent men of the planter class from
Virginia and South Carolina. Newspapers were the Patriots strongholds and printed many pamphlets, announcements, patriotic letters, and pronouncements.
Since Massachusetts was a leader in the resistance (i.e. remember the
first shots were at Lexington and Concord), even with some Loyalists within the colony, I would assume those Patriot colonists would vote to Leave. It would be hard to figure out as a whole state what the majority vote to Leave or Remain would have been. For example, the frontiers of New York would have voted to Leave, but the colonists of New York City (or old New Amsterdam) would have voted to Remain, so which side would have had the most votes?
Voting was the real problem, “No taxation without representation”. The
Colonists didn’t have a way to vote, there was no precedent in allowing
everyday men and especially women or non-whites to vote. Once Independence
occurred most states only allowed white male adult property owners to vote,
with freed slaves in four states, women property owners in New Jersey, and
non-white property owners in several northern states.
Before 1776 when a people rebelled against its’ oppressors
they went to war. When George Washington left office other countries thought
there would be violence when the transfer of power to John Adams occurred. When
did diplomacy or peace work before Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience influenced Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr?
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