By Mary O’KEEFE

We will soon be celebrating the 250th year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. From now until July 4, CVW will be highlighting some stories about this period. 

It is surprising how many letters, pamphlets and news accounts there are that give us a glimpse of what it was like to live during the times of the Revolutionary War. 

As stated before not all Colonists were in favor of leaving Britain and the King. There were many times that Colonists, including those who were fighting on the side of the Patriots, were just ready to give up; however, there were those who wrote inspiring words that returned the spirit of patriotism. 

No one was more rousing than Thomas Paine. He was called the “most important radical writer” at the time of the Revolution. Although he was not one of the five members who wrote the Declaration of Independence [the committee of five were: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R Livingston] his writings did influence the committee of five. 

He seemed to be able to write exactly what was needed at the time it was needed.

“By January 1776, the American colonies were in open rebellion against Britain. Their soldiers had captured Fort Ticonderoga, besieged Boston, fortified New York City and invaded Canada. Yet few dared voice what most knew was true – they were no longer fighting for their rights as British subjects. They weren’t fighting for self-defense, or protection of their property, or to force Britain to the negotiating table. They were fighting for independence,” according to America in Class, from the National Humanities Center. 

The colonies were anything but united and the idea they would actually split from British control was still terrifying, and even unthinkable, to many. And then Paine’s “Common Sense” was published. 

His writing touched the everyday person so that all could read and relate. Colonists were literate; 80% to 90% of white men read. Woman lagged behind, according to the National Women’s History Museum; 47% of women were literate in rural Massachusetts but Boston saw a rise to 88% by the 1770s. Enslaved, and free, black American literacy rates were low as they were kept from a formal education. 

When the “Common Sense” pamphlet was first published it was published anonymously, but after multiple reprints it was soon discovered that Thomas Paine was the author. 

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which their affections are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of which class, regardless of party censure, isThe Author,” Paine wrote in the introduction of “Common Sense.”

The Revolutionary War was tough, as are all wars, but during this time there was not a real army. Many of the fighters who served in George Washington’s Continental Army were just farmers, blacksmiths, immigrants, local militiamen and both free and enslaved African Americans. Many learned how to be a soldier while in the battlefield. 

In December 1776, the Continental Army was facing freezing temperatures, starving due to a lack of supplies, facing defeat by British troops, struggling with dysentery and smallpox. Many of the men just wanted to go home; they no longer felt like Patriots. And then came another writing from Paine in a pamphlet titled, “The American Crisis” [also known as “The Crisis”] that had another uplifting patriotic message. 

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph,” he wrote.

He wrote of timing and how it would have been better to have started earlier the push for independence. 

“We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet,” he wrote. 

He shared the frustration felt by the army and the Colonists but continued to raise to greatness the victories of the Continental Army. He spoke of battles won and of the strength of General Washington. This writing did, once again, rally the troops. 

But there were also letters from those who lived through the war outside of the Continental Army. 

Eliza Yonge Wilkinson was a planter’s daughter in South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War. She wrote letters in 1782 of her experiences in the spring of 1780.

She had been widowed while in her early 20s when the British army launched a campaign against Charleston. She wrote about how the British entered her home.

“They then began to plunder the house of everything they thought valuable or worth taking. Our trunks were split to pieces, and each mean, pitiful wretch cram’d his bosom with the Contents, which were our apparel, &c. &c. &c. [etc.] I ventured to speak to the inhuman monster who had my Clothes. I represented to him that the times were such we could not replace what they’d taken from us and beg’d him to spare me only a suit or two, but I got nothing but a hearty curse for my pains. Nay, so far was his callous heart from relenting that casting his eyes towards my shoes, ‘I want them buckles’ said he, and immediately knelt at my feet to take them out, which, while he was busy about, a Brother Villain, whose enormous mouth extend’d from Ear to ear, bawl’d out ‘Shares there, I say, shares.’ So they divided my buckles between them. The other wretches were employ’d in the same manner. They took my Sister’s earrings from her ears, hers and Miss Samuells’s buckle. They demanded her ring from her finger; she pleaded for it, told them it was her wedding ring and beg’d they’d let her keep it; but they still demanded it and, presenting a Pistol at her, swore if she did not deliver it immediately, they’d fire,” she wrote. 

Again, when many of us think of the Revolutionary War many have the vision of the British in their “red coats” marching in a line and the “Americans” hiding behind trees, that Americans were so unconventional the Brits didn’t know how to fight them. But the fact is war, no matter what era, is fought by soldiers – but everyone pays a price. 

Wilkinson remained a strong pro-Patriot despite the loss of her husband, friends and home.