The American Revolution was carried out in the name of the people, and it was supposedly 'We, the people,' who created the government that Americans still live under.
Edmund MorganRead
The British government had not engaged in any serious actual oppression of the colonies before 1774, but it had claimed powers not granted by the governed, powers that made oppression possible, powers that it began to exercise in 1774 in response to colonial denial of them. The Revolution came about not to overthrow tyranny, but to prevent it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses the roots of the American Revolution, emphasizing that it aimed to prevent tyranny rather than solely to escape oppression.
Edmund Morgan highlights a critical view of the American Revolution, suggesting that the colonies were not faced with outright oppression until after 1774. Instead, the revolution was sparked by the threat of government overreach and the assertion of powers that had not been consented to by the governed. The aim was to safeguard the colonies' rights and prevent the emergence of tyranny, showing that the desire for freedom was motivated by a proactive stance against potential injustice.
Themes
TyrannyRevolutionGovernmentOppressionFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of civil rights, this quote can highlight the necessity of vigilance against government overreach.
More from Edmund Morgan
All quotes →Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the Ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.
Edmund MorganRead
By 1892, enlightenment had progressed to the point where the Salem trials were simply an embarrassing blot on the history of New England. They were a part of the past that was best forgotten: a reminder of how far the human race had come in two centuries.
Edmund MorganRead
Apart from the intrinsic interest of the complex system of beliefs the Puritans carried with them, their lives give a clue to what it meant at the beginning to be American. And the level of scholarship dealing with them has reached a point where it can address the human condition itself.
Edmund MorganRead
The men who founded and governed Massachusetts and Connecticut took themselves so seriously that they kept track of everything they did for the benefit of posterity and hoarded their papers so carefully that the whole history of the United States, recounted mainly by their descendants, has often appeared to be the history of New England writ large.
Edmund MorganRead
The colonial period has been the proving ground in America for the new social history, which concentrates on the ordinary doings of ordinary people rather than on high culture and high politics. Unfortunately ordinary people, almost by definition, leave behind only faint traces of their existence.
Edmund MorganRead
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