The Revolution Impacts Society

Once the war ended, those that had been in the British side, loyalist, found themselves under great danger. Even though Britain tried to protect them by setting conditions in the treaty of Paris, state laws and mob violence prevented most of them from returning home. About 90,000 of those that had been in the British side, including 20,000 former slaves, became refugees. Some of them resettled in Britain's northern colonies, others were slaved again. This, caused the spawn of two new nations: The American Republic and The Future Dominion of Canada. Loyalists and slaves were not the only ones affected, several other minority groups found themselves affected, mostly for the worse, after the Revolution.

A good example is the Native Americans, who had join the British side during the war, under the promise the British wouldn't allow Americans to take more land from them. They were stunned when their allies abandon them in 1783, and they were not even mention in the Treaty of Paris. They were left vulnerable to the American hunger for revenge and land. They forced the Indians to give up massive tracts of land, moving westward. By 1796 more than 100,000 Americans lived in Tennessee and Kentucky. The Revolution was a disaster for the Indians, just like for the African Americans. Even though by 1776 one of every five americans had african ancestry, the majority were slaves. Slavery was specially hard in the southern states, were at least 50,000 slaves had escape to join the British. The northern states, on the other hand, freed slaves by laws. However, emancipation did not come to the Southern States for a long while.

Other minority group that was somewhat affected by the war, were the women. Women gained few political or legal rights as a result of the war. What they did gain was respect, based on the new conception of women as "Republican Mothers". Wives were not allow to own property or make contracts, nor vote. The only place were women could vote, and not any, just widows, was New Jersey. Abigail Adams, John Adam's wife, wrote to her husband to "remember the ladies"  in the drafting of the new nation's constitution. She urged him specially for legal protection for those women whom their husbands beated. John, however, simply dismissed her request.

Even though the Revolutionary War freed Americans from their oppressors, Britain, it didn't solve every problem, especially for minority groups. The idea of liberty, "all men are created equal" had clearly only been intended for white men, according to Patriots. Women, african americans, indians, and others had yet more wars to fight to achieve their own liberty and rights.