Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
From what I have read about the American Revolution, about 30% of the American colonists actively supported it, an approximately equal number (ie another 30%) actively opposed it, and the other 40% just didn't want to get involved, so it's perhaps untrue to say that it was a "popular" uprising.
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Yeah, that's what I've read, too. But it depends on the time frame, and also on the part of the country (or, at the time, colonies) we look at. Certainly, up to 1776, the percentages you quote might well have been accurate. Up to that point, in fact, the idea behind the rebellion was not so much "revolution" as it was "armed resistance to the suppression of the rights of Englishmen in America."
But after "Common Sense" was published (you can get the ebook at Gutenberg) things changed quite swiftly and dramatically, and the 40 percent shifted from "not involved" to "hey, hope you rebel guys win." Not that the 40 percent took up arms themselves, but the sentiments evidently shifted.