Wartime Experiences and Constitutuional Convention Issues

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Question 1: Describe and analyze the wartime experiences of and the effects on women, slaves, and natives.

Slaves - One of the main issues Congress was faced with during the revolutionary war was the issue of slavery. At first, they declared that no Africans freed or not, could join the Continental army. But when George Washington pointed out that they might fight for the British army, Congress relented and allowed freed slaves to enlist. Southern states however, were not anxious about this, but the British were offering them freedom if they turned on their American masters. In the end, some slaves fought for the American cause, and some fled to aid the British. The issue of slavery meanwhile grew as a divisive issue between the North and the South with the slave trade in being outlawed in the North during the war. In the South, the number of slaves actually grew, mostly due to birthrates among existing slaves. And, slavery spread as Southerners moved west, into Kentucky and Tennessee. As mentioned above, many slaves fought with the British army for promises of being freed. Many, but not most, were helped out of the country when the war ended. "The black Loyalist Colonel Titus Tye became legendary for capturing supplies and patriots" (Velm, 2008). "Thousands of black people who had sought the king's freedom secured it by fleeing too, on the ships that left Savannah, Charleston, and New York late in 1783" (Britannica, 2010)

Women - Women made early gains as well. "New Jersey's Revolutionary constitution of 1776 even briefly granted women the right to vote, 100 years before the rest of the world" (Wiegand, 2009). Although this was eventually overturned, women played a great role in the fight for freedom. John Adam's wife, Abigail, warned him in her so-called "Remember-the Ladies letter before the Declaration of Independence that women were ready to start their own revolution" (Wiegand, 2009). During the war, some women dressed like men and fought in both the artillery and the infantry for the patriots. The idea of "republican motherhood (1780)" (Velm, 2008) elevated women to the role of keeper of the nation's conscience and first educator of future patriots. This resulted in increased educational opportunities for American women. By 1837, women had their own source of higher education: "Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, the predecessor of Mount Holyoke College" (Wiegand, 2009).
Although many of the Patriot women showed their support for the American forces from ...