Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City, 1775-1776

Bill Offutt

Description

Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City, 1775–1776 draws students into the chaos of a revolutionary New York City, where Patriot and Loyalist forces fight for advantage among a divided populace. Confronted with issues like bribery, the loss of privacy, and collapsing economic opportunity, along with ideological concerns like natural rights, the philosophical foundations of government, and differing definitions of tyranny, students witness how discontent can lead to outright revolt.

Sujets

• Revolutionary Periode
• Histoire
• United States
• History

Informations

• Publié par: The University of North Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781469672359
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

PATRIOTS, LOYALISTS, AND REVOLUTION IN NEW YORK CITY, 1775-1776
REACTING TO THE PAST is an award-winning series of immersive role-playing games that actively engage students in their own learning. Students assume the roles of historical characters and practice critical thinking, primary source analysis, and argument, both written and spoken. Reacting games are flexible enough to be used across the curriculum, from first-year general education classes and discussion sections of lecture classes to capstone experiences, intersession courses, and honors programs.
Reacting to the Past was originally developed under the auspices of Barnard College and is sustained by the Reacting Consortium of colleges and universities. The Consortium hosts a regular series of conferences and events to support faculty and administrators.
Note to instructors: Before beginning the game you must download the Gamemaster s Materials, including an instructor s guide containing a detailed schedule of class sessions, role sheets for students, and handouts.
To download this essential resource, visit https://reactingconsortium.org/games , click on the page for this title, then click Instructors Guide.
PATRIOTS, LOYALISTS, AND REVOLUTION IN NEW YORK CITY, 1775-1776
SECOND EDITION
Bill Offutt

The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill
2022 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Cover illustration: Johannes Adam Simon Oertel, Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C ., ca. 1852. Wikimedia Commons.
ISBN 978-1-4696-7067-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4696-7235-9 (e-book)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BILL OFFUTT is Professor of History and Faculty Advisor for the Pforzheimer Honors College at Pace University. He received his AB from Stanford University and his J.D. from Stanford Law School. Abandoning the law, he then went to graduate school and earned a Ph.D. in Early American History at Johns Hopkins University under Professor Jack P. Greene. His first book, Of Good Laws and Good Men: Law and Society in the Delaware Valley 1680-1710 , was published by Illinois University Press. His academic interests focus on the relationship between law and society, particularly the methods by which legal systems obtain and keep their legitimacy. He has taught classes on colonial America, revolutionary America, the Civil War, Constitutional history, and American women s history. In addition to his own Reacting game, he has taught eight other Reacting games to students at Pace, and he has participated in numerous Reacting conferences as gamemaster and/or player.
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
Brief Overview of the Game
Prologue
New York City, February 9, 1775: An Evening in a Tavern
March 31, 1775: A Walk Through the City
Map of New York City, 1775-1776
How to React
Game Setup
Game Play
Game Requirements
Counterfactuals
2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Chronology
Crisis in the Colonies, 1763-1775
Social Discontent, the Fertile Soil of the Revolutionary Crisis
Overview
Growth in the Colonies, 1700-1770
The Elite: Merchants and Large Landlords
Farmers
Artisans and Workingmen
Slaves
Women
The Economic Crisis Facing the Colonies
Origins of the Colonial Economic System
British Challenges
Political Ideologies in the Revolutionary Crisis
Overview
British Perspectives on Politics and the Empire
American Perspectives on Politics and the Empire
Colonial Resistance
New York, Spring 1775
3. THE GAME
Major Issues for Debate
Principal Questions
Specific Issues Expected to Arise
Rules and Procedures
Proceedings of the Provincial Congress
Layout of Congress
The Speaker
Respect the Podium
Procedures
The Crowd: Mob Actions
Mob Procedures
Forming a Mob: Number, Physical Presence, Demand, Threat
Mob Victim s Options
Mob Action Outcomes
Smuggler
Personal Deals
Victory Objectives
Outline of Game Sessions
Preparatory Sessions
Context Session 1
Context Session 2
Context Session 3
Game Sessions
Game Session One
The Continental Association: A Proposal for the Provincial Congress of New York, 1775
Subsequent Game Sessions
Debriefing and Post-Mortem
Assignments
Written Papers
Oral Participation
Grades
4. ROLES AND FACTIONS
The Provincial Congress
Voting in the Provincial Congress
Factions in the Provincial Congress
The Crowd
5. CORE TEXTS
Note on the Texts
Introduction to Locke s Second Treatise
John Locke From Second Treatise of Government , 1689
Daniel Dulany Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies for the Purpose of Raising a Revenue, by Act of Parliament, 1765
Soame Jenyns The Objections to the Taxation of our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain, briefly consider d, 1765
Samuel Johnson Taxation No Tyranny, 1775
Samuel Seabury Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress in a Letter to the Farmer, 1774
Thomas Paine From Common Sense , 1776
James Chalmers From Plain Truth , 1776
Selected Bibliography
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
PATRIOTS, LOYALISTS, AND REVOLUTION IN NEW YORK CITY, 1775-1776
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE GAME
It is April 1, 1775. The residents of the British colony of New York are involved in a political and social struggle of enormous intensity, in which the future of millions of people on a continental scale seems contingent on the actions and reactions of every member of that society. For ten years, the actions of the British government (levying taxes, instituting regulations, sending in military troops) have led to many colonial responses of defiance, which have produced repeated political crises and escalating confrontations involving violence and intimidation. The legitimacy of the existing political and economic system of the British empire is now under attack, following Boston s infamous tea party of 1773, the stunning punishments the British government leveled on Massachusetts in response, and the subsequent intercolonial economic retaliation against the British proposed by the first ever Continental Congress in 1774. The British North American colonies now teeter on the brink of political chaos, economic catastrophe, social upheaval, and possibly war-incomprehensible possibilities just a few years before.
The vast majority of New Yorkers, formerly lacking much political enthusiasm or principles beyond self-interest, now face a choice of two factions within a political elite that happily prospered from and cooperated with British rule. The Patriots are now passionately opposed to the existing British government, believing that the British have spent the previous decade plotting to destroy colonial rights and liberties. The Loyalists are just as passionately committed to the British government s defense, claiming it ensures the rule of law and provides prosperity, protection, and justice amid chaos and disorder. Many if not most New Yorkers are waiting for the next crisis before picking a side. Those New Yorkers-moderate undecided elite and disfranchised men, women, and slaves-will be swayed to the Patriot or Loyalist side by a combination of principle, self-interest, and opportunistic desire to join the side whose success is most assured.
When the game begins, you have just been called-either by election or by personal interest-to attend a Provincial Congress for the entire New York colony held in New York City Hall. New York s regular colonial assembly has been dissolved by the royal governor, who then fled the scene in fear for his safety. The Provincial Congress thus is not a regular governing body but an extraordinary new institution, erected to meet the needs of an ongoing crisis of political power and authority. This Congress must deal with the collapse of the existing order and government under the pressure of events in Massachusetts and the divisions between Patriots and Loyalists in the elite. Without the power to command any regular institutions of government-power enjoyed by tax collectors, bureaucrats, or an army-the Provincial Congress will have to enforce its own decisions about New York s role in the British Empire, about the necessity of revolution, and about who should make these decisions for society in the first place.
Some of the players in this episode of Reacting to the Past have the power to vote in this Congress, having been elected by their neighbors; some are from the city, others are from nearby counties, and still others are from regions more than one hundred miles away. Other players, including laborers, slaves, and women, sit in the gallery of the Congress without votes, but they are hardly spectators-they make comments and ask questions from the balcony or at the podium, add petitions to the agenda, and engage in street actions to influence the course of events. All will draw on their knowledge of history, on the writings of great philosophers and lowly pamphleteers, and on their own personal views on culture, economy, and society to advance their own interests as well as the interests of New York.
Now, in early April 1775, no one knows there will be a war; no one knows that a Declaration of Independence will be produced; and no one knows who will be victorious. The game asks you to determine the fate of New York in 1775-76, and the outcome depends on your collective actions and choices during the sixteen months of historical time covered by the game. The choices made in the game may (and in fact often do) deviate from what really happened, but all choices available in the game were real possibilities at the time. The game requires you to understand and internalize the choices and contingencies of that time; it allows you to feel the anxieties and triumphs of those alive in that moment, and thus make the history of Patriots, Loyalists, and all colonial Americans y