Compare the Impact that the American Revolution had on Women and African Americans - Research Paper Example

However, the number of slaves was relatively small, and they worked and lived in every colony. States in the North had begun implementing laws that abolished slavery outright or promoted gradual emancipation even before the ratification of the Constitution. Among the legislations was the 1787 Northwest ordinance barring slavery form new territories during that period, therefore slavery existed effectively in the southern states and became the peculiar institutions of that region. Between the eve of the civil war and the federal census of 1790, the slave population rose to four million from approximately seven hundred thousand2.

The revolution brought radical changes in sentiments, opinions, and principles to the American people. Ideas and issues that had an impact on the political, social customs, racial and gender roles in the thirteen states colonies had to be addressed as they united to form the United States. Despite the fact that the concept of an autonomous was not new, calls to design and implement a democratic republic was of major concern to a relatively large number of colonists. At the end of the eighteenth century, majority of towns (especially Massachusetts) began experiencing firsthand republicanism through town elections and meetings.

This promoted termination of British monarchy authority and limitation of the governing powers of elected public leaders, which subsequently appealed to individuals of all social status in all the colonies. Nonetheless, some key individuals in the society did not embrace the idea of a complete overhaul of the political system3. Majority of the high-class colonists ideally wanted an end to the hereditary aristocracy without essentially dismantling the existing social hierarchy. They were against the idea of a government that would consider everyone equal, from rich business people and property owners, to poor farmers and tenants, a well as slaves and women.

Their conservative argument was that equality of all social classes would lead to illegal outbursts similar t those of the Boston Tea Party and Stamp Act crisis. The fight for independence from the Great Britain by the leaders of the colonies led to a broad concern for wider focus on social reforms, including slavery, religion, women’s rights, and voting rights4. The Declaration of Independence upheld the equality of all men, though the state leaders did not fully support these sentiments. The right to vote was strictly the business of white males who owned property with a certain value.

The legislatures had the general assumption that individuals in society who lacked property did not a significant stake in the government, the moral prerequisite, and the proper work ethic to vote intelligently. Nonetheless, American leaders often highlighted the morel wrong of slavery, complaining on the attempts of the parliament to make them slaves, though majorities of the founding fathers were slaveholders. Of particular note was in 1775 when the royal governor of Virginia announced freedom to slaves who were willing to rebel against their masters, a move that received enormous outrage from the southern states.

Similar attacks on the slavery institutions came under attack during the revolutionary era5. Early nineteenth century saw slavery ban in northern states and the prohibition of further importation of slaves by the federal government. In the northern states, slavery had a negligible