The Revolution in America, 1754-1788: Documents and Commentaries

Instead of concentrating on the issues of the Colonies versus Britain, the editor has chosen sources which illustrate domestic American problems and changes over all the more important fields of political, economic, social and intellectual life. The collection is arranged in five parts. Part 1 deals with the great problem of continental government, from the Continental Congress to the Federal Constitution, and beginning with the Albany Plan of Union (1754). Part 2 uses statutes, economic statistics and contemporary analyses to show how the economy was affected by the war and how both Congress and the individual states attempted economic regulation. Part 3 which deals with public lands, reveals the struggles of private interest to influence Congress, and demonstrates the gradual development of an American policy, culminating in the famous Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Part 4 illustrates the making of state constitutions, with rich documentation from the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. Part 5 offers evidence of the state of the country in its material conditions, its prospects and its opinion. The latter reveal some sharply differing points of view among Americans of the new nation. The collection includes the Preface to Noah Webster's American Dictionary - the first of its kind - and closes with an extract from Dr. David Ramsay's History of the American Revolution, published in 1789.