The subtitle of this book is “Why 1776 Matters”. Larson spends the entire book looking in detail at the year 1776. And it was a momentous year, not just because of July 4th.Season by season, Larson looks at how the mood shifted from late 1775, when, despite the battles at Lexington and Concord, many people still hoped for reconciliation with England, to the end of 1776, when we were actively fighting England, and many states had adopted their own, new, constitutions. While many people had accepted the fact that they would need to break from Great Britain, there were quite a few who still hoped for a reconciliation.
However, those who realized independence was necessary tried not to compel those who more hesitant. Basically, they let the actions of the King, his Parliament, and soldiers, do it for them. The fact that news took so long to get from one side of the Atlantic to the other complicated matters. One side may have made assumptions about the other side’s sentiment or intentions, and by the time they might have received information to the contrary, they had already acted based on those incorrect assumptions. Some things, like burning entire towns to the ground, can’t be taken back.
Interestingly, the fact that the autumn of 1776 was not good for the Patriots may have eventually worked in their favor. The term of enlistment was almost up for many recruits, and Larson describes some of the issues they had that compelled Washington to move the troops to the west side of the Delaware River. The British tried to garrison their troops in various towns in New Jersey, with predictably poor results, at least in the view of the locals who were robbed and assaulted. Ironically, two of the British generals still hoped to smooth things over, but the behavior of their troops turned some potential Loyalists against them. And then, Washington crossed the Delaware.
If this was your family, how would you research them? You probably already know if you have an ancestor who signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, along with John Hancock. But there were new constitutions and declarations in other states as well. If you know your ancestors were in one or more of those states, you should check the state archives for that information. And of course, many of us have ancestors who either fought or provided other service to the rebels. Both the Daughters (https://www.dar.org/) and the Sons (https://www.sar.org/) of the American Revolution have information about specific American Patriots.