American Cities and the Revolution

       In Benjamin Carp's article "Rebels Rising" he provides his readers with a good summary of the importance of cities in colonial America.  He writes,

"From the eastern side of the Atlantic, the cities may have seemed insignificant, but in America the cities had a disproportionately large influence on the surrounding countryside.  War, economic shifts, new legislation, and news from around the globe flowed into the urban seaports before they reached upriver to rural places.  As a result, American cities became the first places to feel the effects of imperial policies. As another historian of hate the colonial cities argued half a century ago, these five cities played a crucial "preparatory" role in the coming of the Revolution as population centers where leaders, crowds, and events conjoined. These cities were often the generators of revolutionary thought and action - they nurtured the Enlightenment in the New World, they helped unleash the dynamic forces of republicanism, they developed a burgeoning sense of American nationality, and they succeeded in spreading their views to the rural hinterlands.  Later historians added the idea that the cities also sparked internal upheaval, including religious revivals, economic disorder, and class conflict.  Whether we argue that the American Revolution was radical in its overthrow of British government or radical in its inflammation of internal struggle, the American cities were undeniably important as sites of radical change" (9).

     Americans recognized the need for cities early on. They were a way to keep the people contained, safe, and civilized.  These cities also provided more benefits thought - the cultivated the ideas of the revolution and provided places for rebellions and meetings to take place.  I think that part of the idea of an "American" is that Americans know how to take initiative for themselves and act upon what they want to.  This is obvious in these cities -- they knew that they could use these cities to develop the ideas of the rebellion and they could use the cities as a sort of "home base" for all the action.  The big cities also helped Americans develop a sense of place.  Since they were not their own country, they identified themselves by which city they lived in.  These cities allowed them to have pride of their American homeland and encouraged them to be involved in the revolution.