Social Education 71(2), pp 61–65 ©2007 National Council for the Social Studies Why Did the Colonists Fight When They Were Safe, Prosperous, and Free? Mark C. Schug Teaching U.S. history can be daunting. I remember wondering at the end of some high school class periods whether my history students had understood or even attended to a word I had said. I felt at times that I might as well have been telling them fairy tales. But despite my doubts about my own effectiveness, I never doubted the impor- tance of U.S. history as a school subject. An American really is not well educated unless he or she has developed some sense of the country’s past. Knowledge of the past really can help to develop a sense of national identify among our country’s diverse citizens. It seems appropriate, therefore, that U.S. history—taught, typically, over six semesters at grades five, eight and eleven—holds a prominent place in the K-12 curriculum. For all its prominence, however, young people tend to regard U.S. history as remote and uninteresting, and many of them learn little from the courses they British troops attacked Charles Town, South Carolina, in 1780, aiming to gain control are required to take. But you have heard of the colonies as they moved north. Instead, they were forced to evacuate Charles all this before. The history of complaint Town (now Charleston) in 1782. is long. What to do? Turn our students loose an interest in a different possibility. It has Call it the “economic way of thinking.” so that they can learn history on their to do with using economics in the teach- It involves formulating “mysteries” and own, when it suits their fancy? Staff our ing of U.S. history. Not economics as a reasoning about them by means of a classrooms with clones of Mr. Kotter? long list of concepts embalmed in huge small set of powerful principles from Wait for legislators to drive the student- textbooks written for use in Econ 101 and economics. teacher ratio down to one-to-one? Myself, 102. Instead, I suggest, history teachers I can’t waive mandatory attendance laws, can do much to improve their instruction Applying the Economic Way of or impart a knack for stand-up comedy, or by drawing upon a particular approach Thinking to History hold out for utopia, and so I have taken to inquiry as practiced by economists. Here is an example of how the economic M ARCH 2 0 0 7 61 way of thinking might be used to help and sold captive sailors into slavery. All Isles. Transportation and communica- students gain fresh insights into a com- this protection was provided at a rela- tions were slow. It took a long time for monly taught topic in U.S. history—the tively low cost to the colonists; in taxes anybody in London to learn of anything American Revolution. At first glance the per capita, they paid little—only 20 to that looked like wrongdoing in a colonial Revolution seems to have been inevitable. 25 percent of taxes paid by the average legislature or seaport, and a long time, A series of British initiatives—the Sugar English resident. again, to respond with efforts to inter- Act in 1764, the Stamp Act in 1765, the Second, on the eve of the Revolution, vene. English authorities, accordingly, Tea Act in 1773—touched off confronta- the colonists had become relatively pros- had been inclined to leave the colonists tions with England. With neither side perous. By today’s standards, colonial more or less alone, or to back away when willing to back down, the conflict pre- life was rough indeed. But by the stan- the colonists resisted an unpopular policy. dictably grew into a full-scale war. dards of their own time, the colonists When authorities did seek to intervene, But an inquisitive student of history, enjoyed a high quality of life and mate- the colonists often succeeded in using an perhaps one accustomed to using eco- rial well-being. Production had grown array of tactics including deception and nomic analysis, might wonder at the at high rates throughout the colonial bribery to carry on with their affairs as colonists’ decision to rebel. It was not period. The colonists lived longer and they saw fit. Moreover, the British sys- inevitable that the new American repub- better than most of their contemporaries tem of colonial administration was loose- lic would survive to become a nation. At in other places. Their incomes on aver- jointed, favoring local control. Colonial the war’s onset, nobody knew how things age were apparently as high as, or higher legislatures, acting with a measure of would turn out. The war occurred in the than, average incomes for people living democratic legitimacy, made most policy colonists’ “present,” and in pursuing the in England. Referring to data from 1774, decisions in the colonies. In these bodies, war, the colonists took enormous per- economic historians Gary M. Walton members of the upper legislative houses sonal, economic, and political risks. They and Hugh Rockhoff write, “Even today, were appointed by the Crown (as were could easily have been defeated and lost relatively few countries generate average colonial governors), but members of the their independence several times before income levels that approach the earn- lower legislative houses were elected. their victory in 1783. ings of free Americans on the eve of the It is by no means obvious, moreover, Revolution.”1 The Mystery why the Revolutionary War was fought at Third, in large measure, the colonists These three considerations raise a serious all. At least until 1775, radical separatists lived as free citizens. In the words of question. Economists assume that people in the colonies had failed to gain majority Samuel Eliot Morison, strive to act in their own best interest. But support among their countrymen for the how could this generalization apply in revolutionary cause. This isn’t much of a British subjects in America, the case of the American colonists? As surprise. As the colonists looked toward excepting of course the Negroes, they approached 1776, the colonists were the last quarter of the eighteenth century, were then [ca. 1763] the freest well off in nearly every way. They were they might have given serious thought people in the world….They protected by the English armed forces. to at least three powerful reasons not to argued and then they fought, not They were prosperous. They enjoyed a fight: they were safe, prosperous, and free. to obtain freedom but to confirm measure of political freedom envied by Let’s examine each of these points. the freedom they already had others throughout the Western world. First, except in remote areas, the colo- or claimed. They were… more Under these favorable circumstances, nists lived and worked in relative safety advanced in the practice of self- why would the colonists—English by about 1763, thanks to protection government than the mother citizens themselves—fight a revolution provided by England’s Royal Navy and country. There was slight pressure against Great Britain, one of the world’s ground troops. This was no small mat- from ancient custom, and few most powerful nations and, in many ter. Throughout the earlier colonial era, relics of feudalism….[After] respects, the wellspring of their freedom imperial rivals and Native Americans the Zenger libel case…in 1735, and prosperity? often posed serious threats to the colo- almost complete freedom of nists’ lives and property. The British speech, press, and assembly was The Guide to Economic spent heavily to protect the colonies from enjoyed. Trades and professions Reasoning French forces and their Indian allies dur- were open to the talented….The Having posed the mystery, how might ing the French and Indian War (1755- hand of government rested lightly we go about solving it? We could sim- 1763). And the Royal Navy protected on Americans.2 ply sift through various accounts of American shipping along the North the Revolutionary period, looking for American coast, in the Caribbean, and In part, this climate of freedom observations that seem to be relevant. in the Mediterranean, where Barbary reflected simple practicalities. The col- Searching about in that way might turn pirates conducted raids, stole cargoes, onies were a long way from the British up important bits and pieces of infor- S OCIAL E DUCATION 62 mation as well as interesting opinions. making choices. They were not acting out consumers in England. Second, England But an unguided, open-ended search of necessity or blindly, without regard provided the colonists with direct subsi- would amount to a weak search, lack- for consequences. They decided that dies for certain products. Bounties, for ing focus and direction. To gain the fighting the Revolution offered the best example, were paid to colonial producers advantages that come with focus and combination of benefits and costs they of indigo and also paid for several forest direction, scholars investigate problems could attain. To learn more, therefore, we products including tar, pitch, turpentine, from particular points of view, based should inquire further into the choices and lumber. And third, as mentioned on the assumptions and research tech- the colonists faced. earlier, the colonists received valuable niques of their disciplines. Historians military protection from British naval try to describe and explain events by 2. People’s choices involve costs. and land forces, paid for largely by tax- establishing accurate, well elaborated Decisions come with costs. Always. The payers in Britain. chronologies; geographers emphasize costs are obvious enough in the case of In thinking about costs, therefore, the importance of place.