American Hisotry

American History

Prior to the American Revolution, the majority of immigrants were in some state of "unfreedom," Fogelman notes. As many as three-fourths of the immigrants from Europe arrived as indentured servants, creating a complex system of intricate social hierarchies in the New World. Ideals of freedom and liberty were not as prevalent prior to the war as during and after. The Revolutionary period did indeed alter the structure of American society, and reduced the instances of indentured servitude for whites gradually. For African-Americans the gradual demise of slavery occurred with less enthusiasm, especially as the South's economy became essential to the survival of the new nation following independence.

Prior to the war, trade flowed freely across the Atlantic. Immigrants propped up the colonial labor pool too, adding substantial numbers of indentured servants to the population. Throughout the colonies but especially in the central and southern colonies, indentured servitude created and solidified social strata. However, a war transformed the colonies' biggest trading partners in the Old World into temporary enemies. Old World nations were no more the dependable, viable sources of income and labor they once were. Thus, the American Revolution changed social realities in the New World for practical as well as ideological reasons.

Moreover, the war helped to dissemble the hierarchies that had been built throughout the century preceding the Revolution. Young white male apprentices who were the source of cheap labor extricated themselves from the contracts binding them to their masters by either serving in the war or running away. The ideals of freedom and liberty that fomented the Revolution helped spur apprentices away from their social contracts. American ideals therefore reflected a burgeoning spirit, and did not echo the character of the colonies at all.

For both African and European immigrants, the social stratifications prior to the Revolution were similar. Both European indentured servants and African slaves were deprived of the freedoms and liberties championed by Americans after the Revolution. After independence, though, slavery proliferated profoundly in the South. In spite of the lip service paid to "liberty and justice for all," the Black populace in the newly formed union suffered social setbacks and did not enjoy the fruits of freedom.

Conditions for both African and European servants before the War were deplorable and harsh, Fogelman points out. The state of "unfreedom" persisted well into the late 18th century. Convicts, kidnapping victims, and redemptioners added to the overall pool of people at the lowest rungs of the colonial social ladder. The more immigrants flooded into the colonies in search of opportunity, the fewer actual opportunities for economic and social advancement existed. Thus, the latest influxes of immigrants from Europe prior to the war may have been the worst off. The Revolution shifted the social realities for all indentured servants in the colonies, and only less so for Blacks.

Only war could undermine the social structure that enabled the restrictive hierarchies to exist. The war led to forced migrations of people, the disruption of established avenues and systems of trade, and political upheavals (Fogelman 58). Fewer whites would be employed as servants following the war, even though for Blacks in the new America slavery remained a way of life. Indeed, the Revolution meant freedom and justice for some but not all. Fogelman notes that after the war slave imports temporarily increased, at the same time that indentured servitude for whites became less acceptable (61). The irony would become quintessentially American.

Similarly, Zuckerman points out the tremendous impact that the war would have on shaping social norms in the former colonies. Mundane matters like manners characterized the spirit of the Revolution. Prior to the revolutionary era, social stability depended on a strict enforcement of Old World patterns but the budding spirit of independence and freedom emerged prior to the outbreak of war. The breakdown of Old World social hierarchies was possible for many reasons: the fact that immigrants were actively forming new communities with new values; the fact that many immigrants were in fact able, willing, and ready to forge new identities; and the fact that many immigrants successfully broke the chain of servitude before they called themselves "American."