Textbook: Mba Mbulu's Introduction to White History: The History of White America. Click here for purchase information.

Click Here and read the extract from Mba Mbulu's Introduction to White History: The History of White America for this class. Also read pages 78 through 80 of the textbook, Mba Mbulu's An Introduction to White History. Think about what you read and be able to respond to the following questions.

(1) How do you think the everyday person in the colonies would be affected by the Revolutionary War?
(2) Do governments, businesses and business persons put their lives on the line when they have little or nothing to gain or lose?
(3) What explains the tendency of everyday people who have little or nothing to gain or lose fight in a war?
(4) Was the American Revolutionary War really a revolution?
(5) What is the difference between a revolution and a coup d'etat?
(6) What does the phrase "the burden of war" suggest to you? Who stands to gain or lose when everyday people take on "the burden of war"?

A revolutionary war would affect the day to day activities of all of the colonists, but the condition of most of the colonists would not be affected at all by the outcome of such a war. The everyday colonist was well aware of this. If the British won, most of the colonists would continue to live a life of relative mediocrity. If the colonials won, most of the colonists would continue to live a life of relative mediocrity. In New England, they would continue to work on their small farms and in their small shops, eke out a living in a variety of other menial and disgusting ways, pray in their small churches, wear the barest of clothes, eat the slightest of meals, sleep in drafty lean-tos and cabins, identify with the white elites, dehumanize all people of color and acknowledge the right of white people to rob Black men, women and children of the fruit of their labor. In the middle colonies, they would continue to work on their small farms and in their small shops, eke out a living in a variety of other menial and disgusting ways, pray in their small churches, wear the barest of clothes, eat the slightest of meals, sleep in drafty lean-tos and cabins, identify with the white elites, dehumanize all people of color and acknowledge the right of white people to rob Black men, women and children of the fruit of their labor. And in the south, the everyday colonists would continue to work their small plots of land, eke out a living in a variety of other menial and disgusting ways, pray in their small churches, wear the barest of clothes, eat the slightest of meals, sleep in drafty lean-tos and cabins, dehumanize all people of color and acknowledge the right of white people to rob Black men, women and children of the fruit of their labor. The war would not improve their standard of living, enable them to patch their leaking roof or drafty cabin, add some needed pieces to their wardrobe, reduce the nature of their debts, increase the size of their congregation or change their attitude about anything of significance. Indeed, the war was not the business of the everyday man and woman, and only involved them because the elites had everything to gain or lose from their participation.

Governments, businesses and business persons rarely put their lives on the line when they have little or nothing to gain or lose. Why, then, do everyday people who have nothing to gain or lose fight in a war? That would be the million dollar question if it were not answered so often. At one turn, they fight because they identify with and are influenced by the propaganda of the elites in their locality. At another turn, they fight because they believe in the propaganda of patriotism more than the individuals and governments that generate that propaganda. At a third turn, they fight because they are more idealistic and less self-centered than the elites. Individuals who have little or nothing to gain or lose also fight because they are convinced they will be punished if they don't fight. And, all too often, they fight because they expect to be paid. Yes, for far too many individuals, the only opportunity they get to work and receive a paycheck on a regular basis is during a war. This was certainly the case in the American colonies on the eve of the revolutionary war period.
Because of all of the above reasons, the everyday man and woman in the American colonies would bear the burden of the Revolutionary War. While most of those who would benefit from the war held meetings in obscure buildings in obscure towns and debated obscure issues, everyday people met on the battlefields, where they terrorized, bludgeoned, maimed and killed each other. They marched countless miles, exposed themselves to the harsh elements on countless days and nights, heard cannons and guns explode on countless occasions, felt their flesh rip and blood rush out during countless battles--- and were left to face the wrath of the enemy alone when they suffered a countless number of ill-timed injuries. They left parents, spouses, siblings and offspring alone and unprotected during the most dangerous of times; left them to shed tears that should not have been shed, suffer levels of privation that should not have been suffered, and endure life draining degrees of stress that should never have been endured. And, after all was said and done, after the war had been fought and insanely reached its end, those who had not been killed returned to the same inadequate plot of land, the same inadequate food, clothing and shelter, the same unjust system of indebtedness, the same mediocrity and the same utterly hopeless existence that they had left at the beginning of the war. But it was not all for nought, their elites assured them, because a new, better nation had emerged. The everyday American man and woman should rejoice, their elites assured them, because they were no longer at the beck and call of the British king or unjust British rule. That was true. They were no longer at the beck and call of the British king, but they were at the beck and call of an American elite. Should they rejoice, or was it all for nought indeed?
It was called the American Revolutionary War, but it was not a revolution at all. At best, it was an offshore coup d'etat, a long distance shake up of the political status quo. At worst, it was a bloody way to close the books on a business transaction gone bad.