AHC: Make the the American Revolution more Radical

The reason the American Revolution was much less bloody than the other revolutions is that all the social classes had opposition to the British. The Enemies of the American Revolution was the British Government rather than a Native issue, and all classes could do was break away, as there was little chance they could attack them.
The French and Russian revolutions were fed by Social inequality, and the enemies where within the country.

What you need is one class of Oppressed citizens. All the classes felt oppressed in America, (even if they really weren't) save loyalists.

Perhaps if you made Indentured servitude much more like chattel slavery, there would be a large oppressed population like the Serfs in France and Russia. Or increase the number of chattel slaves and up the incentives the British are offering for the slaves.
 
Yeah because there was a common "white pride" in this era especially with hunting down slaves :(

That began after The Constitutional Convention, due to the fact the colonies' individual rules about slavery were enforced prior to it, and after Britain abolished slavery, due to the fact, there was some where the escaped slaves could feasibly escape to.
 
I think any attempt would slide into ASB... like a possible civil war between Republicans and Monarchists.


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Maybe this is a little too radical.
 
We would also do well to remember that the American Revolution wasn't a white-tie dinner. Loyalists got suppressed hard, during and after the revolution. There were campaigns of terror on both sides, and after the war was over, the loyalists were disenfranchised and stripped of their property by the states.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Indeed. The Revolution actually was a civil war, it wasn't just "Colonists vs. Brits." It was a conflict as divisive to American society as the Civil War.
 
And yet still relatively clean as these things go, a lot of the time.

Although that has more to do with the fact most of these things are all ugly all the time.
 
And yet still relatively clean as these things go, a lot of the time.

Although that has more to do with the fact most of these things are all ugly all the time.

There are some things you can't do in a colonial environment. Both the ready availability of resources and the presence of hostile natives (and, in much of British America, hostile slaves) limit your ability to fight internecine wars.

Of course, you could always ask the Iroquois how clean the Americans fought them.
 
The reason the American Revolution was much less bloody than the other revolutions is that all the social classes had opposition to the British. The Enemies of the American Revolution was the British Government rather than a Native issue, and all classes could do was break away, as there was little chance they could attack them.

This simply isn't true. About 20% of the population was loyalist, compared to about 40% being patriots.The Revolution set recent immigrants against longer settled ones, old against young, military families against merchants and Anglicans against non-conformists. Some 70,000 people left the American colonies due to loyalty to the crown.

The reason the war wasn't nastier is that both sides considered each other gentlemen, and previous good governance meant there wasn't the bitter hatred between different groups that France, Russia had.
 
There are some things you can't do in a colonial environment. Both the ready availability of resources and the presence of hostile natives (and, in much of British America, hostile slaves) limit your ability to fight internecine wars.

Of course, you could always ask the Iroquois how clean the Americans fought them.

Yeah. The Iroquois part of things was . . .

I wouldn't say ethnic cleansing (at least what little I know seems to be short of it), but it was about as close as you can get without stepping over the line.

It was certainly not "basically clean, as these things go" except by virtue of not finding enough targets to kill.
 
Probably something with the Newburgh Conspiracy would work.

you beat me to it! :mad: :p
I was about to post something related to the Newburgh affair. Say Washington doesn't give his famous Address, and the troops mutiny and march on the Continental Congress... which then disperses and flees to another city, which means the Treaty of Paris isn't signed, and the US remains technically at war with the British. Not sure what it means - but if French actions in India restart upon news that the treaty failed, maybe the war gets re-ignited?

Just some random thoughts.
 
Thinking about this further, you could probably have something to do with slave escapes. There's nothing like a bit of racial moral panic to stir up fear and loathing.
 
Thinking about this further, you could probably have something to do with slave escapes. There's nothing like a bit of racial moral panic to stir up fear and loathing.

Or go the other way, and have Hamilton's ideas for using slaves as troops to end up happening.

It's worth noting that by 1779, 1780, there was a lot of thought that the US was losing the war because of rich profiteers insufficiently devoted to the cause. Even Washington complained about it.

But hey, it was the first colonial state to expel its European masters in the America, establishing a nation dedicated to the principal that all men are endowed by their creators with certain inalienable rights, and proved that a democracy could work.

Pretty damn radical.
 
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