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Date published: 7/7/2001
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION was a peculiar sort of revolution, and not least because it was led by men we find it hard to imagine as revolutionaries. George Washington, George Mason and John Hancock were respected and wealthy members of the gentry. They had everything to lose, and apparently little to gain, from revolution. They were certainly nothing like the revolutionary leaders of the last century.
As a consequence, we tend to underestimate the revolutionary implications of their ideas and the revolutionary consequences of their actions. We conclude that there was nothing very revolutionary about their revolution, and look elsewhere for the fundamental, transforming events of American history--to the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the civil rights movement.
Perhaps it is a testament to the overwhelming impact of their revolution that we can scarcely imagine what the country was like before it, and conclude erroneously that their revolution was simply a Colonial rebellion that shifted political power from London to America, trading one group of political grandees for another. No conclusion could be more wrong. The American Revolution swept away the social hierarchies and class distinctions of the old order. It transferred sovereignty to the people at large, launching an era of increasingly democratic politics. It accelerated the economic transformation of the former colonies and led to the creation of a continental nation unlike any the world had seen. Few Americans embodied the unique revolutionary character of the period more completely than Richard Henry Lee. He was a member of one of Virginia's first families. The Lee name was synonymous with wealth, land ownership, and influence. Like his forebears, he dedicated much of his life to public service.
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