The Radicalism of the American Revolution

Common people were the lowest level of society in the colonies, people who existed just to “eat and sleep and die and be forgotten” (26). They were considered inconsequential to the national character. The aristocracy looked down on them, uninterested in anything they had to say due to their lack of education and significance to an aristocrat’s world. Aristocrats would occasionally be friendly with common people, but aristocrats thought they were inferior to them and therefore their opinions didn’t matter. When a common man disparaged a gentleman’s reputation in public, the gentleman did nothing about it because he couldn’t be disparaged by someone beneath him in class.

In the years leading up to the Revolution, opinions on labor began to change. The common man no longer appeared to be someone who worked only to provide for his basic needs. However, this change in opinion did little to alter the attitudes against the common man. When unrest developed against the monarchy, it was the common man who protested and rioted in the streets. However, they were easily controlled by the gentlemen who served as their patrons. Still, the common man was seen as inconsequential to the character of the nation.

After the Revolution, things began to change. The founding fathers told the common man that everyone was equal and that each man had a right to pursue his own happiness. Common men took these ideas and ran with them, altering the commerce of the country through inland trading, moving to new lands, and breaking the bonds of the paternalistic society all the way down to the structure of the family unit. The common man took on the aristocrats, calling out their continued links to the traditions of the monarchy and pushing their way into politics. As time passed, the common man’s pursuit of happiness blurred the lines between them and the aristocrats. Over time, common men were in many cases as wealthy, as educated, and as engaged in civic virtue as the aristocrats.

The rise of the common man changed the social structures in America. Not only did they break the bonds of paternalism and embrace republican ideals, they also forced the older generations to redefine themselves and to let go of the old traditions that they continued to cling to. By embracing the idea of equality so fiercely, the common man took to a new level the republic Jefferson and the other founding fathers envisioned. If not for the actions of the common man, the United States would not have become what it did.

The American aristocratic class system has its roots in the English monarchy. In England, the aristocrats were often titled people with close connections to the king. In America, true aristocrats were only a small part of the population. However, there developed a class between the true aristocrats and the common people that was a class of men called gentlemen. This class was defined as men who were well-educated, well-mannered, and uninhibited by the need to labor. During the Enlightenment, these men were also expected to be disinterested and to devote their time and money to public service. Most of the founding fathers were members of this class.

Gentlemen were often officers in the army and given preferential treatment over common soldiers. They were lawyers and doctors who no longer practiced, men from families of good reputation. These men maintained their own reputations to a degree that required legal action whenever a false word was uttered against them. Gentlemen were leaders, patrons to the less fortunate, and the heart of American society before the Revolution.

Gentlemen are a product of the paternalistic society that developed early in the history of the colonies. They served a role in society as father-figures, caring for those who couldn’t always care for themselves. In this way, gentlemen were like small monarchs in their communities, governing everything society required. These men were also the revolutionaries who introduced ideas of republicanism into the American society and authored the Revolution.

After the Revolution, the common man ran with the ideas of equality and freedom that the founding fathers taught them and changed the basic fabric of society. In doing this, they redefined what it meant to be a gentleman and began calling themselves gentlemen. Common men held political office, engaged in trade without the help of a partisan, and lifted themselves up from humble beginnings to enter into the upper classes of society that were traditionally reserved for gentlemen. Aristocrats of the old order, such as Jefferson and Franklin, were threatened by this changing hierarchy and saw it as a failure of their republic. Despite their disillusionment, gentlemen like Jefferson made this new society possible.