The War for

American Independence

By

Okey L. King

What we call the American Revolution was not a true revolution. We can be very thankful that it wasn’t. In a true revolution everything changes. In the French Revolution, all the people were involved whether they wanted to be involved or not. It was a bloody awful happening. Everything that was a major part of French society before the revolution was destroyed…including the church. Thousands of priests were drowned in the river on one day. There is a church in France today, but it is emasculated. That is why France is one of the most secular nations in the world today.

We would like to think that all Americans during the time leading up to the war with the mother country were red-hot patriots. But, they were not. In fact, probably only about a third, or less, were willing to fight for what they believed in. Without the writings of Thomas Paine, that number would have been a lot less.

Another third wanted to keep their relationship with England intact. These were loyal to the King either because of their noble connections or because of their business interests. Some felt that they were born English and that they would die English. After the War, many of these folks went back home to England or moved to Canada. Yet another group that was loyal to the King were the Scots Highlanders who had settled in the hill county of North Carolina. These remained after the war.

We can understand the motives and actions of the Loyalists, but the motives of the remaining third of Americans are harder to understand and are more disturbing. Some may have been apathetic. Some didn’t care who ruled as long as they were personally not interfered with. Some were setting on the fence waiting to see which side was going win so that they might join the winning side in time for the end of the conflict. It is safe to say that there were a lot more patriots when the issue was decided than when the ordeal began.

One of the main changes that were the result of the war was the opening of the frontier beyond the Alleghenies to settlement. Before the war, our ancestors who had settled beyond the mountains were illegal settlers.

But since most folks do not know this history, it would seem, at first glance, that the only thing that changed as the result of the War was to whom we paid taxes. There was very little change because, over the 150 years or so before the conflict, Americans had been developing the freedoms that their counterparts in Europe did not have. It was when the King began to restrict these freedoms that the rebellion began. There were a few, inflamed by the words of Thomas Paine, who said, “No!” The Patriots were not defending new freedoms. They were protecting the freedoms that they had won by coming to America.

In Europe, the poor man was not allowed to bear arms, to hunt, or to fish. In the old country, they were not trusted with a weapon. The rich few owned the land and the water refusing the poor man the right to feed his family by hunting and fishing. A poor man did not have the right to a lowly rabbit. They might even be hanged for poaching. It is not much better there today.

It was the rage and the willingness to stand up those who would take those freedoms away that continued these freedoms for us today. It has taken the same rage and willingness to preserve these freedoms that ensured these freedoms for us today. But, it will take the same rage and same willingness from us to preserve these freedoms for our grandchildren. Where are you? Are you in the middle just interested in what you have? Or are you numbered among those who have the rage and desire to face the enemy who would take what has been given to us through the blood and tears of those patriots who have gone before us. I would hope that you are not among the deluded that would take away our freedoms in the name of liberal progress that cannot even be defined because it is an empty lie of the Enemy.