Editing American Revolution (section)

==Effects of the revolution==
{{main|American nationalism|American civil religion}}
After the Revolution, genuinely democratic politics became possible in the former American colonies.<ref>Gordon Wood. ''The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992) pp. 278–279</ref> The rights of the people were incorporated into state constitutions. Concepts of liberty, individual rights, equality among men and hostility toward corruption became incorporated as core values of liberal republicanism. The new United States government was empowered to undertake its own project of [[Expansionism|territorial expansion]] and [[settler colonialism]]. The greatest challenge to the old order in Europe was the challenge to inherited political power and the democratic idea that government rests on the [[consent of the governed]]. The example of the first successful revolution against a European empire, and the first successful establishment of a republican form of democratically elected government, provided a model for many other colonial peoples who realized that they too could break away and become self-governing nations with directly elected representative government.<ref>Palmer, (1959)</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2024}}
[[File:Commonsense.jpg|thumb|left|The U.S. motto ''[[Novus ordo seclorum]]'', meaning "A New Age Now Begins", is paraphrased from [[Thomas Paine]]'s ''[[Common Sense]]'', published January 10, 1776. "We have it in our power to begin the world over again," Paine wrote.  The American Revolution ended an age—an age of monarchy.  And, it began a new age—an age of freedom.  As a result of the growing wave started by the Revolution, there are now more people around the world living in freedom than ever before, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the world's population.<ref name="McDonald, Forrest pp. 6-7">McDonald, Forrest. ''Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution'', pp. 6–7, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1985. {{ISBN|0700602844}}.</ref><ref>Smith, Duane E., general editor.  ''We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution'', pp. 204–207, Center for Civic Education, Calabasas, California, 1995.  {{ISBN|0-89818-177-1}}.</ref><ref name="Loon, Hendrik p. 333">van Loon, Hendrik. ''The Story of Mankind'', p. 333, Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1921.</ref><ref name="freedomhouse"/>]]

===Interpretations===
Interpretations vary concerning the effect of the Revolution. Historians such as [[Bernard Bailyn]], [[Gordon S. Wood|Gordon Wood]], and [[Edmund Morgan (historian)|Edmund Morgan]] view it as a unique and radical event which produced deep changes and had a profound effect on world affairs, such as an increasing belief in the principles of the Enlightenment. These were demonstrated by a leadership and government that espoused protection of natural rights, and a system of laws chosen by the people.<ref>Wood, ''The American Revolution: A History'' (2003)</ref> John Murrin, by contrast, argues that the definition of "the people" at that time was mostly restricted to free men who passed a property qualification.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murrin|first1=John M.|last2=Johnson|first2=Paul E.|last3=McPherson|first3=James M.|last4=Fahs|first4=Alice|last5=Gerstle|first5=Gary|title=Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People|date=2012|publisher=Wadsworth, Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0495904991|page=296|edition=6th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGSQOiy6uZUC&pg=PT337}}</ref><ref name="U.S. Voting Rights">{{cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/voting.html|title=U.S. Voting Rights|access-date=July 2, 2013}}</ref>

Gordon Wood states:
:The American Revolution was integral to the changes occurring in American society, politics and culture&nbsp;.... These changes were radical, and they were extensive&nbsp;.... The Revolution not only radically changed the personal and social relationships of people, including the position of women, but also destroyed aristocracy as it'd been understood in the Western world for at least two millennia.<ref>Gordon Wood, ''The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1993) pp. 7–8.{{ISBN|0679736883}}</ref>

Edmund Morgan has argued that, in terms of long-term impact on American society and values:
:The Revolution did revolutionize social relations. It did displace the deference, the patronage, the social divisions that had determined the way people viewed one another for centuries and still view one another in much of the world. It did give to ordinary people a pride and power, not to say an arrogance, that have continued to shock visitors from less favored lands. It may have left standing a host of inequalities that have troubled us ever since. But it generated the egalitarian view of human society that makes them troubling and makes our world so different from the one in which the revolutionists had grown up.<ref>{{cite book|author=Edmund S. Morgan|title=The Genuine Article: A Historian Looks at Early America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ve9u9pBeB0C&pg=PA246|year=2005|publisher=W. W. Norton|page=246|isbn=978-0393347845}}</ref>

===Inspiring other independence movements and revolutions===
{{main|Age of Revolution}}
{{Further|Atlantic Revolutions}}
[[File:Atlantic_Revolutions.png|thumb|The American Revolution was part of the first wave of the [[Atlantic Revolutions]], an 18th and 19th century [[revolutionary wave]] in the [[Atlantic World]].]]
The first shot of the American Revolution at the Battle of Lexington and Concord is referred to as the [[Shot heard round the world|"shot heard 'round the world"]]. The Revolutionary War victory not only established the United States as the first modern constitutional republic, but marked the transition from an age of monarchy to a new age of freedom by inspiring similar movements worldwide.<ref name="Bailyn, Bernard pp. 35, 134">Bailyn, Bernard. ''To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders'', pp. 35, 134–149, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2003. {{ISBN|0375413774}}.</ref> The American Revolution was the first of the "[[Atlantic Revolutions]]": followed most notably by the [[French Revolution]], the [[Haitian Revolution]], and the [[Spanish American wars of independence|Latin American wars of independence]]. Aftershocks contributed to [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|rebellions in Ireland]], the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], and the Netherlands.<ref>Greene and Pole (1994) ch. 53–55</ref><ref>Wim Klooster, ''Revolutions in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History'' (2009)</ref><ref name="Bailyn, Bernard pp. 35, 134" />

The [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]], drafted shortly after independence, remains the world's oldest written constitution, and has been emulated by other countries, in some cases verbatim.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/on-using-the-us-constitution-as-model/|title=Taylor, Steven L. "On Using the US Constitution as a Model," Outside the Beltway, February 3, 2012, Retrieved October 13, 2020.|date=February 4, 2012}}</ref> Some historians and scholars argue that the subsequent wave of independence and revolutionary movements has contributed to the continued expansion of democratic government; 144 countries, representing two-third of the world's population, are full or partially democracies of same form.<ref>Smith, Duane E., general editor. ''We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution'', pp. 204–207, Center for Civic Education, Calabasas, California, 1995. {{ISBN|0898181771}}.</ref><ref name="Loon, Hendrik p. 333"/><ref>Wells, H. G. ''The Outline of History'', pp. 840–842, Garden City Publishing Co., Inc., Garden City, NY, 1920.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://mashable.com/2015/02/14/world-freedom/|title=Petronzio, Matt. "Only 40% of the World's Population Live in Free Countries", Mashable.com, February 14, 2015, Retrieved October 13, 2020.|website=[[Mashable]]|date=February 15, 2015}}</ref><ref name="freedomhouse">{{cite web|url=https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores|title=Countries and Territories|website=Freedom House|access-date=October 13, 2020}}</ref><ref name="McDonald, Forrest pp. 6-7"/>

The Dutch Republic, also at war with Britain, was the next country after France to sign a treaty with the United States, on October 8, 1782.<ref name="Hamilton, 1974 p. 28" /> On April 3, 1783, Ambassador Extraordinary [[Gustaf Philip Creutz]], representing King [[Gustav III of Sweden]], and Benjamin Franklin, signed a [[Treaty of Amity and Commerce (USA–Sweden)|Treaty of Amity and Commerce]] with the U.S.<ref name="Hamilton, 1974 p. 28" />

The Revolution had a strong, immediate influence in Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and France. Many British and Irish [[British Whig Party|Whigs]] in Parliament spoke glowingly in favor of the American cause. In Ireland, the Protestant minority [[Protestant Ascendancy|who controlled Ireland]] demanded [[Irish Home Rule|self-rule]]. Under the leadership of [[Henry Grattan]], the [[Irish Patriot Party#Grattan's Patriots|Irish Patriot Party]] forced the reversal of mercantilist prohibitions against trade with other British colonies. The King and his cabinet in London could not risk another rebellion, and so made a series of concessions to the Patriot faction in Dublin. Armed volunteer units of the ''Protestant Ascendancy'' were set up ostensibly to protect against an invasion from France. As had been in colonial America, so too in Ireland now the King no longer had a [[Monopoly on violence|monopoly of lethal force]].<ref>R. B. McDowell, ''Ireland in the Age of Imperialism and Revolution, 1760–1801'' (1979)</ref><ref name="Bailyn, Bernard pp. 35, 134"/><ref>Bailyn, Bernard. ''To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders'', pp. 134–137, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2003. {{ISBN|0375413774}}.</ref>

For many Europeans, such as the [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Marquis de Lafayette]], who later were active during the era of the [[French Revolution]], the American case along with the [[Dutch Revolt]] (end of the 16th century) and the 17th century [[English Civil War]], was among the examples of overthrowing an old regime. The American Declaration of Independence influenced the French [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] of 1789.<ref>Palmer, (1959); Greene and Pole (1994) chapters 49–52</ref><ref>Center for History and New Media, ''Liberty, equality, fraternity'' (2010)</ref> The spirit of the Declaration of Independence led to laws ending slavery in all the Northern states and the Northwest Territory, with New Jersey the last in 1804. States such as New Jersey and New York adopted gradual emancipation, which kept some people as slaves for more than two decades longer.<ref>Greene and Pole pp. 409, 453–454</ref><ref name="Bailyn, Bernard pp. 35, 134"/><ref>Bailyn, Bernard. ''To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders'', pp. 134–137, 141–142, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2003. {{ISBN|0375413774}}.</ref>

===Status of African Americans===
{{main|African-American history}}
[[File:Prince_Estabrook_memorial_close_up.jpg|thumb|A [[Lexington, Massachusetts]] memorial to [[Prince Estabrook]], who was wounded in the [[Battle of Lexington and Concord]] and was the first Black casualty of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]]]]
[[File:00SalemPoor.jpg|thumb|A postage stamp, created at the time of the bicentennial, honors [[Salem Poor]], who was an enslaved African American man who purchased his freedom, became a soldier, and rose to fame as a war hero during the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]].<ref>Hubbard, Robert Ernest. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XwPFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 Major General Israel Putnam: Hero of the American Revolution]'', p. 98, McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina, 2017. {{ISBN|978-1476664538}}.</ref>]]
During the revolution, the contradiction between the Patriots' professed ideals of liberty and the institution of slavery generated increased scrutiny of the latter.<ref name="Ideological-Origins-Bailyn">{{cite book|first=Bernard|last=Bailyn|title=The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|edition=3rd|isbn=978-0674975651|year=2017|orig-date=1967}}</ref>{{rp|235}}<ref name="Moral-Capital">{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Christopher Leslie|title=Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|year=2006|isbn=978-0807830345}}</ref>{{rp|105–106}}<ref name="Radicalism-Wood">{{cite book|last=Wood|first=Gordon S.|title=The Radicalism of the American Revolution|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|year=1992|isbn=0679404937}}</ref>{{rp|186}} As early as 1764, the Boston Patriot leader [[James Otis, Jr.]] declared that all men, "white or black", were "by the law of nature" born free.<ref name="Ideological-Origins-Bailyn"/>{{rp|237}} Anti-slavery calls became more common in the early 1770s. In 1773, [[Benjamin Rush]], the future signer of the Declaration of Independence, called on "advocates for American liberty" to oppose slavery.<ref name="Ideological-Origins-Bailyn"/>{{rp|239}} Slavery became an issue that had to be addressed.  As historian Christopher L. Brown put it, slavery "had never been on the agenda in a serious way before," but the Revolution "forced it to be a public question from there forward."<ref>Brown, Christopher. PBS Video "Liberty! The American Revolution," Episode 6, "Are We to be a Nation?," Twin Cities Television, Inc. 1997.</ref><ref>Brown, Christopher Leslie. ''Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism'', pp. 105–106. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2006. [[ISBN|978-0-8078-3034-5]].</ref>

In the late 1760s and early 1770s, several colonies, including Massachusetts and Virginia, attempted to restrict the slave trade, but were prevented from doing so by royally appointed governors.<ref name="Ideological-Origins-Bailyn"/>{{rp|245}} In 1774, as part of a broader non-importation movement aimed at Britain, the Continental Congress called on all the colonies to ban the importation of slaves, and the colonies passed acts doing so.<ref name="Ideological-Origins-Bailyn"/>{{rp|245}}

In the first two decades after the American Revolution, state legislatures and individuals took actions to free slaves, in part based on revolutionary ideals. Northern states passed new constitutions that contained language about equal rights or specifically abolished slavery; some states, such as New York and New Jersey, where slavery was more widespread, passed laws by the end of the 18th century to abolish slavery by a gradual method. By 1804, all the northern states had passed laws outlawing slavery, either immediately or over time.<ref>Arthur Zilversmit, ''The First Emancipation: The Abolition of Slavery in the North'' (1967) pp. 201-230</ref>

No southern state abolished slavery. However, individual owners could free their slaves by personal decision. Numerous slaveholders who freed their slaves cited revolutionary ideals in their documents; others freed slaves as a reward for service. Records also suggest that some slaveholders were freeing their own mixed-race children, born into slavery to slave mothers. The number of free Blacks as a proportion of the Black population in the upper South increased from less than 1 percent to nearly 10 percent between 1790 and 1810 as a result of these actions.<ref>Ketcham, Ralph. ''James Madison: A Biography'', pp. 625–626, American Political Biography Press, Newtown, Connecticut, 1971. {{ISBN|0945707339}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/franklin/|title=Benjamin Franklin Petitions Congress|date=August 15, 2016|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery|url=http://www.ushistory.org:80/documents/antislavery.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060521035446/http://www.ushistory.org/documents/antislavery.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 21, 2006|date=February 3, 1790|access-date=May 21, 2006|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=John Paul Kaminski|title=A Necessary Evil?: Slavery and the Debate Over the Constitution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t3SDQgfxsCIC&pg=PA256|year=1995|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=256|isbn=978-0945612339}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Painter|first=Nell Irvin|title=Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present|year=2007|page=72}}</ref><ref>Wood, Gordon S. ''Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson'', pp. 19, 132, 348, 416, Penguin Press, New York, 2017. {{ISBN|978-0735224711}}.</ref><ref name="wsws.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/28/wood-n28.html|title=Mackaman, Tom. "An Interview with Historian Gordon Wood on the New York Times 1619 Project,"|website=wsws.org|access-date=October 10, 2020|date=November 28, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Mackaman, Tom 2015">{{cite web|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/03/wood-m03.html|title=Mackaman, Tom. "Interview with Gordon Wood on the American Revolution: Part One", World Socialist Web Site, wsws.org, March 3, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2020.|date=March 3, 2015}}</ref><ref>Wood, Gordon S. ''The Radicalism of the American Revolution'', pp. 3–8, 186–187, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1992. {{ISBN|0679404937}}.</ref><ref name="Bailyn, Bernard pp. 221-4">Bailyn, Bernard. ''Faces of Revolution: Personalities and Themes in the Struggle for American Independence'', pp. 221–224, Vintage Books, New York, 1992. {{ISBN|0679736239}}.</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=May 2024}} Nevertheless, slavery continued in the South, where it became a "peculiar institution", setting the stage for future sectional conflict between North and South over the issue.<ref name="Radicalism-Wood"/>{{rp|186–187}}

Thousands of free Blacks in the northern states fought in the state militias and Continental Army. In the south, both sides offered freedom to slaves who would perform military service. Roughly 20,000 slaves fought in the American Revolution.<ref>Hubbard, Robert Ernest. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XwPFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 Major General Israel Putnam: Hero of the American Revolution]'', p. 98, McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC, 2017. {{ISBN|978-1476664538}}; Hoock, Holger. ''Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth'', pp. 95, 300–303, 305, 308–310, Crown Publishing Group, New York, 2017. {{ISBN|978-0804137287}}; O'Reilly, Bill and Dugard, Martin. ''Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence'', pp. 96, 308, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2017. {{ISBN|978-1627790642}}; {{cite web|url=https://www.historyisfun.org/learn/learning-center/african-americans-and-the-american-revolution-2/|title=Ayres, Edward. "African Americans and the American Revolution," Jamestown Settlement and American Revolution Museum at Yorktown website, Retrieved October 21, 2020.}}; {{cite web|url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/revolution/revolution_slavery.cfm#:~:text=Slavery%2C%20the%20American%20Revolution%2C%20and%20the%20Constitution%20African,sensitivity%20to%20the%20opinion%20of%20southern%20slave%20holders|title="Slavery, the American Revolution, and the Constitution", University of Houston Digital History website, Retrieved October 21, 2020}}</ref>

===Status of American women===
{{main|History of women in the United States}}
The status of women during the Revolutionary War can be illustrated by the interchange of gender, sexuality, citizenship, and class. While women were entering a period in which they found themselves gaining more identity within society, it was clear that they were still very much considered under men as their role in society remained being a good wife and mother. Their clothes, the way they responded to their husband, and listened to their husband, was incredibly important in the social sphere. Having a woman who was dressed well for her role as a good wife and mother as well as fitting the social role, was a symbol of not only status, but a family devoted to the republic. As they continued to nurture social and political partnerships, their role in enabling the success of the revolution emphasized their changing role in society – leading to the post-revolutionary reconstruction of gender ideology.

In addition, the democratic ideals of the Revolution inspired changes in the roles of women.<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=1922356|title=Beyond Roles, Beyond Spheres: Thinking about Gender in the Early Republic|journal=The William and Mary Quarterly|volume=46|issue=3|pages=565–585|last1=Kerber|first1=Linda K.|last2=Cott|first2=Nancy F.|last3=Gross|first3=Robert|last4=Hunt|first4=Lynn|last5=Smith-Rosenberg|first5=Carroll|last6=Stansell|first6=Christine M.|author6-link=Christine Stansell|year=1989|doi=10.2307/1922356}}</ref> Patriot women married to Loyalists who left the state could get a divorce and obtain control of the ex-husband's property.<ref>Mary Beth Norton, ''Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750–1800'' (3rd ed. 1996)</ref> [[Abigail Adams]] expressed to her husband, the president, the desire of women to have a place in the new republic: {{blockquote|I desire you would remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands.<ref>{{cite book|author=Woody Holton|title=Abigail Adams|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ltgyHkFGF3EC&pg=PA172|year=2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=172|isbn=978-1451607369}}</ref>
}}

As discussions rose regarding the rights of man post Revolutionary war, women began pushing a debate for the rights of women as well. One particular woman, Mary Wallstonecraft, would pioneer the discussion regarding women’s rights, and push those like Abigail Adams to begin expressing the desire to want a larger place in society. Wollstonecraft was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate for women’s rights, and would publish the ''Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' (1792) – challenging the idea that rights should only be granted to men. As one of the first major advocates and foundational figures for women’s rights and gender equality in a time where women were considered inferior to men, Wollstonecraft focused on equal education and social opportunities for women – believing that if women were educated the same as men, they would gain autonomy over their own lives and better contribute to society. Her radical ideas would give ground to the conversation in allowing women to be bearers of rights alongside men – that while the rights of man were taking on a new meaning post-revolutionary America, it was time for the rights of women too. Inspired by the radical feminism in her work, women in the early republic would change their views on marriage, education, participation in public life, and autonomy – pushing them to lay the groundwork for the later women’s suffrage movement, education opportunities, property rights, and more.

However, this new sense of independence and dignity did not come with ease, as a gender hierarchy would continue to bind what it meant for women to have rights during the post-revolutionary era. Women in the early republic had many limitations – they could not vote, hold political office, earn fair wages, lacked opportunities for higher education and certain professions, and most importantly, own property independently of their husbands. In addition, they held little legal powers in subjects such as divorce, property rights, and child custody. A central legal concept that reinforced these restrictions was ''coverture'', a central legal doctrine that limited women’s lives in all aspects – making a woman’s legal identity a part of their husband’s and essentially making them subordinates. The denial of things like property rights to women through coverture would play an important role in why they were denied many other rights, as property was a symbol of individual liberty and empowerment during the post-revolutionary era.

So while women would eventually begin gaining new rights such as increased access to education and limited property and voting rights – much of their lives still depended on men.  This stark contrast of men’s versus women’s rights comes from the deeply established gender roles from philosophical theories like the Scottish Theory –  stating that the rights of women were simply benefits in life. The emphasis of women’s rights was on duty and obligation, instead of liberty and choice – confining women to the traditional role of wife and mother. On the other hand, men’s rights were heavily inspired by Locke, as it emphasized equality, individual autonomy, and the expansion of personal freedoms. This is evident in their rights to property, participation in government, and autonomy. So while women were becoming bearers of rights, the foundation and philosophy of those given rights differed vastly and continued to stay limited.

The early national period of America would continue to struggle with the concept of rights and equality, as women also faced the notion that women should be under the dominance of men – carried by a resurgence of Christian beliefs. Women were blamed for the “Fall of Man”, in reference to Eve and Adam in the Bible.  So while women were beginning to bear rights, the type of language that was being used when talking about the rights of women was done with care and hesitance. This Christian worldview has viewed women as inferior to men long before the early republic, however it is important to note the influence it would continue to place onto their rights as they began to oppose traditional gender roles. 

It is also important to note that for more than thirty years, however, the 1776 [[New Jersey State Constitution]] gave the vote to "all inhabitants" who had a certain level of wealth, including unmarried women and blacks (not married women because they could not own property separately from their husbands), until in 1807, when that state legislature passed a bill interpreting the constitution to mean universal ''white male'' [[suffrage]], excluding paupers.<ref>Klinghoffer and Elkis ("The Petticoat Electors: W omen's Suffrage in New Jersey, 1776–1807", ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 12, no. 2 (1992): 159–193.)</ref>

===Loyalist expatriation===
{{Main|United Empire Loyalist}}
{{see also|Expulsion of the Loyalists}}
[[File:Tory Refugees by Howard Pyle.jpg|thumb|British Loyalists fleeing to [[British Canada]] as depicted in this early 20th century drawing]]
Tens of thousands of Loyalists left the United States following the [[American Revolutionary War|war]]; Philip Ranlet estimates 20,000, while [[Maya Jasanoff]] estimates as many as 70,000.<ref>Maya Jasanoff, ''Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World'' (2011). Philip Ranlet, however, estimates that only 20,000 adult white Loyalists went to Canada. "How Many American Loyalists Left the United States?." ''Historian'' 76.2 (2014): 278–307.</ref> Some migrated to Britain, but the great majority received land and subsidies for resettlement in British colonies in North America, especially [[Province of Quebec (1763-1791)|Quebec]] (concentrating in the [[Eastern Townships]]), [[Prince Edward Island]], and [[Nova Scotia]].<ref>W. Stewart Wallace, ''The United Empire Loyalists: A Chronicle of the Great Migration'' (Toronto, 1914) [http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/1/9/7/11977/11977.htm online edition] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120329042740/http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/1/9/7/11977/11977.htm |date=March 29, 2012 }}</ref> Britain created the colonies of Upper Canada ([[Ontario]]) and [[New Brunswick]] expressly for their benefit, and the Crown awarded land to Loyalists as compensation for losses in the United States. Nevertheless, approximately eighty-five percent of the Loyalists stayed in the United States as American citizens, and some of the exiles later returned to the U.S.<ref>Van Tine, ''American Loyalists'' (1902) p. 307</ref> Patrick Henry spoke of the issue of allowing Loyalists to return as such: "Shall we, who have laid the proud British lion at our feet, be frightened of its whelps?" His actions helped secure return of the Loyalists to American soil.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=265–268}}

===Commemorations===
{{Main|Commemoration of the American Revolution|United States Bicentennial}}
{{further|American Revolution Statuary||Independence Day (United States)}}
{{see also|Minor American Revolution holidays}}
The American Revolution has a central place in the American memory<ref>Michael Kammen, ''A Season of Youth: The American Revolution and the Historical Imagination'' (1978); Kammen, ''Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture'' (1991)</ref> as the story of the nation's founding. It is covered in the schools, memorialized by two national holidays, [[President's Day|Washington's Birthday]] in February and [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]] in July, and commemorated in innumerable monuments. George Washington's estate at [[Mount Vernon]] was one of the first national pilgrimages for tourists and attracted 10,000 visitors a year by the 1850s.<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor=4249931|title=Historical Memory, Sectional Strife, and the American Mecca: Mount Vernon, 1783–1853|journal=The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography|volume=109|issue=3|pages=255–300|last1=Lee|first1=Jean B.|year=2001}}</ref>

The Revolution became a matter of contention in the 1850s in the debates leading to the [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865), as spokesmen of both the [[Northern United States]] and the [[Southern United States]] claimed that their region was the true custodian of the legacy of 1776.<ref>Jonathan B. Crider, "De Bow's Revolution: The Memory of the American Revolution in the Politics of the Sectional Crisis, 1850–1861," ''American Nineteenth Century History'' (2009) 10#3 pp. 317–332</ref> The [[United States Bicentennial]] in 1976 came a year after the American withdrawal from the [[Vietnam War]], and speakers stressed the themes of renewal and rebirth based on a restoration of traditional values.<ref>David Ryan, "Re-enacting Independence through Nostalgia – The 1976 US Bicentennial after the Vietnam War", ''Forum for Inter-American Research'' (2012) 5#3 pp. 26–48.</ref>

Today, more than 100 [[:Category:American Revolutionary War sites|battlefields and historic sites of the American Revolution]] are protected and maintained by the government. The [[National Park Service]] alone manages and maintains more than 50 battlefield parks and many other sites such as [[Independence Hall]] that are related to the Revolution.<ref>[https://www.nps.gov/revwar/contact/park_info.html National Park Service Revolutionary War Sites.] Accessed January 4, 2018.</ref> The private [[American Battlefield Trust]] uses government grants and other funds to preserve almost 700 acres of battlefield land in six states, and the ambitious private recreation/restoration/preservation/interpretation of over 300 acres of pre-1790 [[Colonial Williamsburg]] was created in the first half of the 20th century for public visitation.<ref>[https://www.battlefields.org/preserve/saved-land] [[American Battlefield Trust]] "Saved Land" webpage. Accessed May 30, 2018.</ref>
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