第五章 美国革命

Source / 原文：https://www.americanyawp.com/text/05-the-american-revolution/

I. Introduction

一、引言

In the 1760s, Benjamin Rush, a native of Philadelphia, recounted a visit to Parliament. Upon seeing the king’s throne in the House of Lords, Rush said he “felt as if he walked on sacred ground” with “emotions that I cannot describe.” Throughout the eighteenth century, colonists had developed significant emotional ties with both the British monarchy and the British constitution. The British North American colonists had just helped to win a world war and most, like Rush, had never been more proud to be British. And yet, in a little over a decade, those same colonists would declare their independence and break away from the British Empire. Seen from 1763, nothing would have seemed as improbable as the American Revolution.

1760年代，费城本地人本杰明·拉什曾回忆起他对英国议会的一次拜访。当他看到上议院的王座时，拉什表示自己“感到仿佛行走在圣地之上”，内心充满了“难以描述的情感”。在整个十八世纪，北美的殖民者与英国君主制和英国宪法建立了深厚的情感联系。北美的殖民者刚刚帮助赢得了一场世界性战争，大多数人，包括拉什在内，从未像现在这样为自己是英国人而感到自豪。然而，在短短十多年后，这些殖民者便宣布独立，脱离了大英帝国。从1763年的视角来看，美国革命的发生几乎难以想象。

The Revolution built institutions and codified the language and ideas that still define Americans’ image of themselves. Moreover, revolutionaries justified their new nation with radical new ideals that changed the course of history and sparked a global “age of revolution.” But the Revolution was as paradoxical as it was unpredictable. A revolution fought in the name of liberty allowed slavery to persist. Resistance to centralized authority tied disparate colonies ever closer together under new governments. The revolution created politicians eager to foster republican selflessness and protect the public good but also encouraged individual self-interest and personal gain. The “founding fathers” instigated and fought a revolution to secure independence from Britain, but they did not fight that revolution to create a “democracy.” To successfully rebel against Britain, however, required more than a few dozen “founding fathers.” Common colonists joined the fight, unleashing popular forces that shaped the Revolution itself, often in ways not welcomed by elite leaders. But once unleashed, these popular forces continued to shape the new nation and indeed the rest of American history.

这场革命建立了制度，规范了语言，并提出了一系列理念，这些都深刻塑造了美国人对自我形象的认知。此外，革命者用激进的新理想为其新国家辩护，这些理想不仅改变了历史进程，还引发了一场全球性的“革命时代”。然而，这场革命既矛盾又不可预测。为了争取自由而进行的革命却让奴隶制得以延续。对中央权力的抵抗使得分散的殖民地在新政府之下更加紧密地团结在一起。革命培养了一批热衷于促进共和主义的无私精神并保护公众利益的政治家，但也鼓励了个人私利和自我追求。这些“开国元勋”发动并参与了革命，以此获得脱离英国的独立，但他们的斗争目标并不是建立“民主”。然而，成功反抗英国所需的不仅仅是几十位“开国元勋”的力量。普通的殖民者也加入了战斗，激发了一股影响革命本身的民众力量，这种力量往往是精英领导人所未曾预料的。而一旦被激发，这股民众力量继续塑造着新生的国家，乃至整个美国历史的进程。

II. The Origins of the American Revolution

二、美国革命的起源

The American Revolution had both long-term origins and short-term causes. In this section, we will look broadly at some of the long-term political, intellectual, cultural, and economic developments in the eighteenth century that set the context for the crisis of the 1760s and 1770s.

美国革命有着长期的根源和短期的原因。在本节中，我们将广泛探讨十八世纪的一些长期政治、思想、文化和经济发展，这些因素为1760年代和1770年代的危机奠定了背景。

Between the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the middle of the eighteenth century, Britain had largely failed to define the colonies’ relationship to the empire and institute a coherent program of imperial reform. Two factors contributed to these failures. First, Britain was at war from the War of the Spanish Succession at the start of the century through the Seven Years’ War in 1763. Constant war was politically consuming and economically expensive. Second, competing visions of empire divided British officials. Old Whigs and their Tory supporters envisioned an authoritarian empire, based on conquering territory and extracting resources. They sought to eliminate Britain’s growing national debt by raising taxes and cutting spending on the colonies. The radical (or patriot) Whigs based their imperial vision on trade and manufacturing instead of land and resources. They argued that economic growth, not raising taxes, would solve the national debt. Instead of an authoritarian empire, “patriot Whigs” argued that the colonies should have equal status with the mother country. There were occasional attempts to reform the administration of the colonies, but debate between the two sides prevented coherent reform.

从1688年的光荣革命到十八世纪中叶，英国基本上未能明确殖民地与帝国的关系，也未能实施连贯的帝国改革计划。造成这一失败的原因有两个。首先，自十八世纪初的西班牙王位继承战争开始到1763年的七年战争，英国几乎一直处于战争状态。持续的战争在政治上消耗巨大，经济上代价高昂。其次，英国官员之间存在着对帝国不同的愿景。旧辉格党及其托利党支持者设想了一个威权帝国，其基础是占领土地和提取资源。他们试图通过增加税收和削减对殖民地的开支来减少英国日益增长的国债。而激进的（或称爱国的）辉格党人则基于贸易和制造业，而非土地和资源，提出他们的帝国愿景。他们认为，经济增长而不是增加税收才能解决国债问题。“爱国辉格党”主张殖民地应与宗主国享有平等地位，而非属于威权帝国。虽然偶尔有对殖民地管理进行改革的尝试，但两派之间的争论阻碍了连贯的改革。

Colonists developed their own understanding of how they fit into the empire. They saw themselves as British subjects “entitled to all the natural, essential, inherent, and inseparable rights of our fellow subjects in Great-Britain.” The eighteenth century brought significant economic and demographic growth in the colonies. This success, they believed, resulted partly from Britain’s hands-off approach to the colonies, an approach that has been called salutary neglect. By midcentury, colonists believed that they held a special place in the empire, which justified Britain’s hands-off policy. In 1764, James Otis Jr. wrote, “The colonists are entitled to as ample rights, liberties, and privileges as the subjects of the mother country are, and in some respects to more.”

殖民者发展出了他们对自身在帝国中地位的理解。他们认为自己是“享有与英国本土臣民相同自然的、基本的、固有的和不可分割的权利”的英国臣民。十八世纪为殖民地带来了显著的经济和人口增长。他们认为，这种成功部分得益于英国对殖民地的不干涉政策，这一政策被称为有益的忽视。到十八世纪中叶，殖民者认为他们在帝国中拥有特殊地位，这种地位也使得英国对他们采取不干涉的政策是正当的。1764年，詹姆斯·奥蒂斯（James Otis Jr.）写道：“殖民地臣民有权享有与母国臣民一样的广泛的权利、自由和特权，甚至在某些方面更多。”

In this same period, the colonies developed their own local political institutions. Samuel Adams, in the Boston Gazette, described the colonies as each being a “separate body politic” from Britain. Almost immediately upon each colony’s settlement, they created a colonial assembly. These assemblies assumed many of the same duties as the Commons exercised in Britain, including taxing residents, managing the spending of the colonies’ revenue, and granting salaries to royal officials. In the early 1700s, colonial leaders unsuccessfully lobbied the British government to define their assemblies’ legal prerogatives, but Britain was too occupied with European wars. In the first half of the eighteenth century, royal governors tasked by the Board of Trade attempted to limit the power of the assemblies, but the assemblies’ power only grew. Many colonists came to see their assemblies as having the same jurisdiction over them that Parliament exercised over those in England. They interpreted British inaction as justifying their tradition of local governance. The Crown and Parliament, however, disagreed.

在同一时期，殖民地发展出了自己的地方政治机构。塞缪尔·亚当斯在《波士顿公报》上将殖民地描述为与英国“独立的政治实体”。几乎每个殖民地在建立之初就创建了自己的殖民地议会。这些议会承担了许多与英国下议院相似的职能，包括向居民征税、管理殖民地的财政支出，并向皇家官员发放薪水。十八世纪早期，殖民地领导人试图游说英国政府界定议会的法律特权，但英国忙于欧洲战争，无暇顾及。十八世纪上半叶，受英国贸易委员会任命的皇家总督试图限制议会的权力，然而议会的权力却不断扩大。许多殖民者认为，他们的议会在他们之上拥有与议会在英国本土臣民之上相同的管辖权。他们将英国的放任不管解读为对地方治理传统的默认。然而，英国王室和议会对此持不同意见。

Political culture in the colonies also developed differently than that of the mother country. In both Britain and the colonies, land was the key to political participation, but because land was more easily obtained in the colonies, a higher proportion of male colonists participated in politics. Colonial political culture drew inspiration from the “country” party in Britain. These ideas—generally referred to as the ideology of republicanism—stressed the corrupting nature of power and the need for those involved in self-governing to be virtuous (i.e., putting the “public good” over their own self-interest). Patriots would need to be ever vigilant against the rise of conspiracies, centralized control, and tyranny. Only a small fringe in Britain held these ideas, but in the colonies, they were widely accepted.

殖民地的政治文化也与宗主国的文化有所不同。在英国和殖民地，土地是参与政治的关键，但由于在殖民地更易获得土地，更多男性殖民者参与了政治。殖民地的政治文化受到英国“乡党”派系的启发。这些思想——通常称为共和主义——强调权力的腐化本质，以及参与自我治理的人们需要具备的美德（即将“公共利益”置于个人利益之上）。爱国者必须时刻警惕阴谋、集中控制和暴政的兴起。在英国，只有少数边缘群体支持这些思想，而在殖民地，这些思想却被广泛接受。

In the 1740s, two seemingly conflicting bodies of thought—the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening—began to combine in the colonies and challenge older ideas about authority. Perhaps no single philosopher had a greater impact on colonial thinking than John Locke. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke argued that the mind was originally a tabula rasa (or blank slate) and that individuals were formed primarily by their environment. The aristocracy then were wealthy or successful because they had greater access to wealth, education, and patronage and not because they were innately superior. Locke followed this essay with Some Thoughts Concerning Education, which introduced radical new ideas about the importance of education. Education would produce rational human beings capable of thinking for themselves and questioning authority rather than tacitly accepting tradition. These ideas slowly came to have far-reaching effects in the colonies and, later, the new nation.

1740年代，启蒙运动与大觉醒这两种看似矛盾的思想在殖民地开始融合，挑战了旧有的权威观念。或许没有哪个哲学家比约翰·洛克对殖民地的思想产生了更大的影响。在他的《人类理解论》中，洛克提出人类的心灵最初是白板，个体主要受环境的影响而形成。因此，贵族之所以富有或成功，是因为他们有更多的财富、教育和赞助的机会，而非天生优越。洛克随后在《教育漫话》中提出了有关教育重要性的激进新观点。他认为，教育会造就能够独立思考并质疑权威的人，而非盲目接受传统。这些思想逐渐在殖民地以及后来的新国家中产生了深远影响。

At the same time that Locke’s ideas about knowledge and education spread in North America, the colonies also experienced an unprecedented wave of evangelical Protestant revivalism. Between 1739 and 1740, the Rev. George Whitefield, an enigmatic, itinerant preacher, traveled the colonies preaching Calvinist sermons to huge crowds. Unlike the rationalism of Locke, his sermons were designed to appeal to his listeners’ emotions. Whitefield told his listeners that salvation could only be found by taking personal responsibility for one’s own unmediated relationship with God, a process that came to be known as a “conversion” experience. He also argued that the current Church hierarchies populated by “unconverted” ministers only stood as a barrier between the individual and God. In his wake, new traveling preachers picked up his message and many congregations split. Both Locke and Whitefield had empowered individuals to question authority and to take their lives into their own hands.

与此同时，洛克关于知识与教育的思想在北美传播，殖民地也经历了一场前所未有的福音派新教复兴浪潮。1739年至1740年间，神秘而流动的传教士乔治·怀特菲尔德牧师在各殖民地宣讲加尔文主义布道，吸引了大量听众。与洛克的理性主义不同，他的布道旨在触动听众的情感。怀特菲尔德告诉听众，只有通过承担个人责任，与上帝建立直接的关系，才能获得救赎，这个过程被称为“皈依”经历。他还认为，那些由“未皈依”的牧师主导的现有教会等级制度只是在个体与上帝之间设置了障碍。在他之后，新的流动传教士继承了他的教义，许多会众因此分裂。洛克和怀特菲尔德的思想都鼓励个体质疑权威，掌控自己的生活。

In other ways, eighteenth-century colonists were becoming more culturally similar to Britons, a process often referred to as Anglicization. As colonial economies grew, they quickly became an important market for British manufacturing exports. Colonists with disposable income and access to British markets attempted to mimic British culture. By the middle of the eighteenth century, middling-class colonists could also afford items previously thought of as luxuries like British fashions, dining wares, and more. The desire to purchase British goods meshed with the desire to enjoy British liberties. These political, intellectual, cultural, and economic developments built tensions that rose to the surface when, after the Seven Years’ War, Britain finally began to implement a program of imperial reform that conflicted with colonists’ understanding of the empire and their place in it.

在其他方面，十八世纪的殖民者在文化上越来越像英国人，这一过程常被称为英国化。随着殖民地经济的增长，它们迅速成为英国制造品出口的重要市场。拥有可支配收入和获取英国市场途径的殖民者试图模仿英国文化。到十八世纪中叶，中产阶级殖民者也能负担过去被视为奢侈品的物品，如英式服装、餐具等。购买英国商品的欲望与享有英国自由的愿望相契合。七年战争后，英国最终开始实施一套帝国改革计划，与殖民者对帝国及其自身地位的理解相冲突。这些政治、思想、文化和经济的发展积聚了紧张局势，在改革推行之时爆发出来。

III. The Causes of the American Revolution

三、美国革命的起因

Most immediately, the American Revolution resulted directly from attempts to reform the British Empire after the Seven Years’ War. The Seven Years’ War culminated nearly a half century of war between Europe’s imperial powers. It was truly a world war, fought between multiple empires on multiple continents. At its conclusion, the British Empire had never been larger. Britain now controlled the North American continent east of the Mississippi River, including French Canada. It had also consolidated its control over India. But the realities and responsibilities of the postwar empire were daunting. War (let alone victory) on such a scale was costly. Britain doubled the national debt to 13.5 times its annual revenue. Britain faced significant new costs required to secure and defend its far-flung empire, especially the western frontiers of the North American colonies. These factors led Britain in the 1760s to attempt to consolidate control over its North American colonies, which, in turn, led to resistance.

美国革命最直接的起因源于七年战争后英国试图改革其帝国。七年战争结束了欧洲列强近半个世纪的战争。这是一场真正的世界大战，各大帝国在多个大陆上交战。战争结束时，大英帝国达到了前所未有的规模，控制了密西西比河以东的北美大陆，包括法属加拿大，同时巩固了对印度的控制。然而，战后的帝国带来了艰巨的现实和责任。如此规模的战争（更不用说胜利）代价高昂，英国的国债翻倍，达到了年收入的13.5倍。此外，英国面临着新殖民地的安全和防御需求，尤其是北美殖民地西部边境的保护。这些因素促使英国在1760年代试图加强对北美殖民地的控制，结果引发了抵抗。

King George III took the crown in 1760 and brought Tories into his government after three decades of Whig rule. They represented an authoritarian vision of empire in which colonies would be subordinate. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was Britain’s first major postwar imperial action targeting North America. The king forbade settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in an attempt to limit costly wars with Native Americans. Colonists, however, protested and demanded access to the territory for which they had fought alongside the British.

乔治三世于1760年登基，结束了三十年的辉格党统治，引入托利党。托利党代表着一种威权的帝国愿景，主张殖民地应当服从宗主国。1763年，英国发布了《1763年皇家宣言》，这是战后针对北美的第一项重要举措。国王禁止在阿巴拉契亚山脉以西定居，试图限制与印第安人之间的高成本冲突。然而，殖民者抗议并要求获得他们曾与英国并肩作战所得的土地。

In 1764, Parliament passed two more reforms. The Sugar Act sought to combat widespread smuggling of molasses in New England by cutting the duty in half but increasing enforcement. Also, smugglers would be tried by vice-admiralty courts and not juries. Parliament also passed the Currency Act, which restricted colonies from producing paper money. Hard money, such as gold and silver coins, was scarce in the colonies. The lack of currency impeded the colonies’ increasingly sophisticated transatlantic economies, but it was especially damaging in 1764 because a postwar recession had already begun. Between the restrictions of the Proclamation of 1763, the Currency Act, and the Sugar Act’s canceling of trials-by-jury for smugglers, some colonists began to fear a pattern of increased taxation and restricted liberties.

1764年，议会通过了另外两项改革。首先是《糖法》，其目的是通过将税率减半并加强执法以打击新英格兰地区广泛存在的糖蜜走私行为。走私者将由海事法院而非陪审团进行审判。此外，议会还通过了《货币法》，限制殖民地发行纸币。硬通货如金银币在殖民地十分稀缺，货币短缺阻碍了殖民地日益复杂的跨大西洋经济，尤其是在1764年战后经济衰退已经开始的背景下。《1763年宣言》、《货币法》及《糖法》取消走私者的陪审团审判，促使一些殖民者开始担心英国将进一步加重税负和限制自由。

In March 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. The act required that many documents be printed on paper that had been stamped to show the duty had been paid, including newspapers, pamphlets, diplomas, legal documents, and even playing cards. The Sugar Act of 1764 was an attempt to get merchants to pay an already existing duty, but the Stamp Act created a new, direct (or “internal”) tax. Parliament had never before directly taxed the colonists. Instead, colonies contributed to the empire through the payment of indirect, “external” taxes, such as customs duties. In 1765, Daniel Dulany of Maryland wrote, “A right to impose an internal tax on the colonies, without their consent for the single purpose of revenue, is denied, a right to regulate their trade without their consent is, admitted.” Also, unlike the Sugar Act, which primarily affected merchants, the Stamp Act directly affected numerous groups throughout colonial society, including printers, lawyers, college graduates, and even sailors who played cards. This led, in part, to broader, more popular resistance.

1765年3月，《印花税法》由议会通过。该法案规定，许多文件需使用已经缴纳印花税的纸张，如报纸、小册子、文凭、法律文件，甚至扑克牌。1764年的《糖法》试图促使商人支付已有的关税，而《印花税法》则创立了一种全新的、直接（或“内部”）税种。议会此前从未直接对殖民地征税。殖民地通过支付关税等间接“外部”税款为帝国做出贡献。1765年，马里兰的丹尼尔·杜拉尼（Daniel Dulany）写道：“在未经同意的情况下，对殖民地征收内部税用于财政收入的权利不被认可，而在未经同意的情况下对其贸易进行管理的权利是被认可的。”此外，与主要影响商人的《糖法》不同，《印花税法》直接影响到殖民地社会中的多个群体，包括印刷工、律师、大学毕业生，甚至玩扑克牌的水手。这在一定程度上促成了更广泛的、受欢迎的抵制运动。

Resistance to the Stamp Act took three forms, distinguished largely by class: legislative resistance by elites, economic resistance by merchants, and popular protest by common colonists. Colonial elites responded by passing resolutions in their assemblies. The most famous of the anti-Stamp Act resolutions were the Virginia Resolves, passed by the House of Burgesses on May 30, 1765, which declared that the colonists were entitled to “all the liberties, privileges, franchises, and immunities . . . possessed by the people of Great Britain.” When the Virginia Resolves were printed throughout the colonies, however, they often included a few extra, far more radical resolutions not passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses, the last of which asserted that only “the general assembly of this colony have any right or power to impose or lay any taxation” and that anyone who argued differently “shall be deemed an enemy to this his majesty’s colony.” These additional items spread throughout the colonies and helped radicalize subsequent responses in other colonial assemblies. These responses eventually led to the calling of the Stamp Act Congress in New York City in October 1765. Nine colonies sent delegates, who included Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Thomas Hutchinson, Philip Livingston, and James Otis.

对《印花税法》的抵抗分为三种形式，主要按阶级区分：精英阶层的立法抵抗、商人的经济抵制，以及普通殖民者的民众抗议。殖民地精英通过其议会通过决议来回应，最著名的反《印花税法》决议是《弗吉尼亚决议》。该决议由弗吉尼亚议会于1765年5月30日通过，宣布殖民地居民有权享有“所有大不列颠人民所拥有的自由、特权、特许权和豁免权”。然而，当《弗吉尼亚决议》在殖民地广泛印发时，通常还会包含一些激进的条款，尽管这些条款未被弗吉尼亚议会通过。最激进的一项主张，只有“本殖民地的议会有权力对其征税”，并认为任何提出异议者“应被视为陛下殖民地的敌人”。这些额外内容在殖民地间传播，激化了其他殖民地议会的反应。这些反应最终促成了1765年10月在纽约市召开的《印花税法》会议，九个殖民地派代表参会，其中包括本杰明·富兰克林、约翰·迪金森、托马斯·哈钦森、菲利普·利文斯顿和詹姆斯·奥蒂斯。

The Stamp Act Congress issued a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances,” which, like the Virginia Resolves, declared allegiance to the king and “all due subordination” to Parliament but also reasserted the idea that colonists were entitled to the same rights as Britons. Those rights included trial by jury, which had been abridged by the Sugar Act, and the right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. As Daniel Dulany wrote in 1765, “It is an essential principle of the English constitution, that the subject shall not be taxed without his consent.” Benjamin Franklin called it the “prime Maxim of all free Government.” Because the colonies did not elect members to Parliament, they believed that they were not represented and could not be taxed by that body. In response, Parliament and the Crown argued that the colonists were “virtually represented,” just like the residents of those boroughs or counties in England that did not elect members to Parliament. However, the colonists rejected the notion of virtual representation, with one pamphleteer calling it a “monstrous idea.”

《印花税法》会议发布了《权利与不满声明》，该声明与《弗吉尼亚决议》类似，宣称对国王的忠诚以及对议会的“应有服从”，但也重申了殖民地居民应享有与英国公民同等的权利。这些权利包括经陪审团审判的权利（该权利因《糖法》而被削弱）以及仅由自己选举的代表对其征税的权利。正如丹尼尔·杜拉尼在1765年所写：“未经当事人同意不得对其征税，这是英国宪法的一项基本原则。”本杰明·富兰克林称之为“所有自由政府的首要准则”。由于殖民地没有选举议会成员，他们认为自己没有被代表，因此议会无权对他们征税。对此，议会和王室辩称，殖民地居民是“虚拟代表”的，类似于英格兰某些不选举议会成员的自治市或郡的居民。然而，殖民地拒绝了虚拟代表的概念，一位小册子作家称其为“荒诞的想法”。

The second type of resistance to the Stamp Act was economic. While the Stamp Act Congress deliberated, merchants in major port cities were preparing nonimportation agreements, hoping that their refusal to import British goods would lead British merchants to lobby for the repeal of the Stamp Act. In New York City, “upwards of two hundred principal merchants” agreed not to import, sell, or buy “any goods, wares, or merchandises” from Great Britain. In Philadelphia, merchants gathered at “a general meeting” to agree that “they would not Import any Goods from Great-Britain until the Stamp-Act was Repealed.” The plan worked. By January 1766, London merchants sent a letter to Parliament arguing that they had been “reduced to the necessity of pending ruin” by the Stamp Act and the subsequent boycotts.

第二种对《印花税法》的抵制形式是经济抵制。当《印花税法》会议进行讨论时，主要港口城市的商人们正在制定非进口协议，希望他们拒绝进口英国商品的行为会促使英国商人游说废除《印花税法》。在纽约市，“超过200名主要商人”同意不进口、销售或购买“任何来自英国的商品、货物或商品”。在费城，商人们在“全体大会”上达成一致，承诺“在印花税法废除之前不从英国进口任何商品”。该计划取得了成效。到1766年1月，伦敦商人向议会递交了一封信，声称《印花税法》和随之而来的抵制运动使他们“被迫面临迫在眉睫的破产”。

The third, and perhaps, most crucial type of resistance was popular protest. Riots broke out in Boston. Crowds burned the appointed stamp distributor for Massachusetts, Andrew Oliver, in effigy and pulled a building he owned “down to the Ground in five minutes.” Oliver resigned the position the next day. The following week, a crowd also set upon the home of his brother-in-law, Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, who had publicly argued for submission to the stamp tax. Before the evening was over, much of Hutchinson’s home and belongings had been destroyed.

第三种，也许是最关键的抵制形式即民众抗议。波士顿爆发了骚乱。群众焚烧了马萨诸塞指定的印花税分销官安德鲁·奥利弗的肖像，还在五分钟内将他的一栋建筑物“彻底拆除”。第二天，奥利弗辞去了这一职务。接下来的一周，一群人还袭击了其妹夫托马斯·哈钦森中尉的住所，哈钦森曾公开主张服从印花税。在夜晚结束前，哈钦森的家和财物已被大部分摧毁。

Popular violence and intimidation spread quickly throughout the colonies. In New York City, posted notices read:

暴力和恐吓迅速在各殖民地蔓延开来。纽约市张贴的告示上写道：

PRO PATRIA,
The first Man that either
distributes or makes use of Stampt Paper,
let him take care of his House, Person, & Effects.
Vox Populi;
We dare.”
为了国家
任何分发或使用印花纸的人，
最好留心他的房屋、性命和财物。
人民之声；
我们敢于行动。

By November 16, all of the original twelve stamp distributors had resigned, and by 1766, groups calling themselves the Sons of Liberty were formed in most colonies to direct and organize further resistance. These tactics had the dual effect of sending a message to Parliament and discouraging colonists from accepting appointments as stamp collectors. With no one to distribute the stamps, the act became unenforceable.

到11月16日，最初的十二名印花税分发员全部辞职。到1766年，大多数殖民地成立了自称“自由之子”的组织，负责进一步抵抗的指导和组织。这些策略既向议会传达了明确的信息，又让殖民地居民望而却步，不愿接受印花税分发员的任命。由于无人分发印花纸，该法案无法实施。

Pressure on Parliament grew until, in February 1766, it repealed the Stamp Act. But to save face and to try to avoid this kind of problem in the future, Parliament also passed the Declaratory Act, asserting that Parliament had the “full power and authority to make laws . . . to bind the colonies and people of America . . . in all cases whatsoever.” However, colonists were too busy celebrating the repeal of the Stamp Act to take much notice of the Declaratory Act. In New York City, the inhabitants raised a huge lead statue of King George III in honor of the Stamp Act’s repeal. It could be argued that there was no moment at which colonists felt more proud to be members of the free British Empire than 1766. But Britain still needed revenue from the colonies.

议会面临的压力越来越大，最终于 1766 年 2 月废除了《印花税法》。但为了挽回面子，并尽量避免将来出现此类问题，议会还通过了《宣言法案》，宣称议会“拥有制定法律的充分权力和权威……在任何情况下约束美国殖民地和人民。”然而，殖民者忙于庆祝《印花税法》的废除，无暇顾及《宣言法案》。在纽约市，居民们竖立了乔治三世国王的巨大铅像，以纪念《印花税法》的废除。可以说，没有哪个时刻比 1766 年更让殖民者为自己是自由大英帝国的成员而感到自豪。但英国仍然需要来自殖民地的收入。

The colonies had resisted the implementation of direct taxes, but the Declaratory Act reserved Parliament’s right to impose them. And, in the colonists’ dispatches to Parliament and in numerous pamphlets, they had explicitly acknowledged the right of Parliament to regulate colonial trade. So Britain’s next attempt to draw revenues from the colonies, the Townshend Acts, were passed in June 1767, creating new customs duties on common items, like lead, glass, paint, and tea, instead of direct taxes. The acts also created and strengthened formal mechanisms to enforce compliance, including a new American Board of Customs Commissioners and more vice-admiralty courts to try smugglers. Revenues from customs seizures would be used to pay customs officers and other royal officials, including the governors, thereby incentivizing them to convict offenders. These acts increased the presence of the British government in the colonies and circumscribed the authority of the colonial assemblies, since paying the governor’s salary had long given the assemblies significant power over them. Unsurprisingly, colonists, once again, resisted.

殖民地抵制了实施直接税，但《宣言法案》保留了议会征收税款的权利。而且，在殖民者向议会发出的信函和许多小册子中，他们明确承认议会有权监管殖民地贸易。因此，英国下一次试图从殖民地获取收入的《汤森法案》于 1767 年 6 月通过，对铅、玻璃、油漆和茶叶等常见物品征收新的关税，而不是直接税。这些法案还创建并加强了强制遵守的正式机制，包括新的美国海关委员会和更多审判走私者的海事法庭。海关扣押的收入将用于支付海关官员和其他皇家官员，包括总督，从而激励他们定罪。这些法案增加了英国政府在殖民地的存在，并限制了殖民地议会的权力，由于长期以来支付总督的薪水赋予了议会对他们很大的权力。不出意料，殖民地居民再次发起了抵抗。

Even though these were duties, many colonial resistance authors still referred to them as “taxes,” because they were designed primarily to extract revenues from the colonies not to regulate trade. John Dickinson, in his “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,” wrote, “That we may legally be bound to pay any general duties on these commodities, relative to the regulation of trade, is granted; but we being obliged by her laws to take them from Great Britain, any special duties imposed on their exportation to us only, with intention to raise a revenue from us only, are as much taxes upon us, as those imposed by the Stamp Act.” Hence, many authors asked: once the colonists assented to a tax in any form, what would stop the British from imposing ever more and greater taxes on the colonists?

虽然这些是关税，但许多殖民地抵抗的作者仍然称之为“税”，因为这些关税主要是为了从殖民地提取收入，而不是为了规范贸易。约翰·迪金森在他的《来自宾夕法尼亚农场主的信件》中写道：“我们可能在法律上被要求支付与贸易调节相关的任何一般性关税，这是可以接受的；但是，我们根据法律被迫从英国进口这些商品，任何仅仅针对向我们出口的商品而征收的特殊关税，目的是单独从我们这里获取收入，跟《印花税法》所征收的税一样，都是对我们的税收。”因此，许多作者提出了一个问题：一旦殖民地同意以任何形式支付税款，英国人又有什么理由不再对殖民地征收更多、更高的税呢？

New forms of resistance emerged in which elite, middling, and working-class colonists participated together. Merchants reinstituted nonimportation agreements, and common colonists agreed not to consume these same products. Lists were circulated with signatories promising not to buy any British goods. These lists were often published in newspapers, bestowing recognition on those who had signed and led to pressure on those who had not.

新的抵抗形式逐渐出现，精英、中产和工人阶级的殖民者共同参与其中。商人重新实施非进口协议，而普通殖民者也同意不消费这些产品。签署承诺不购买任何英国商品的名单在各地流传。这些名单经常刊登在报纸上，签名者因而受到公众认可，而那些未签名的人则面临压力。

Women, too, became involved to an unprecedented degree in resistance to the Townshend Acts. They circulated subscription lists and gathered signatures. The first political commentaries in newspapers written by women appeared. Also, without new imports of British clothes, colonists took to wearing simple, homespun clothing. Spinning clubs were formed, in which local women would gather at one of their homes and spin cloth for homespun clothing for their families and even for the community.

女性也以前所未有的方式参与了抵抗《汤森法案》。她们传播签名名单并收集签名。报纸上出现了由女性撰写的第一批政治评论。此外，由于无法获得新的英国服装进口，殖民者开始穿着简单的家纺衣物。纺织俱乐部也应运而生，当地女性会聚集在其中一人的家中，为家庭甚至社区纺织家纺衣物。

Homespun clothing quickly became a marker of one’s virtue and patriotism, and women were an important part of this cultural shift. At the same time, British goods and luxuries previously desired now became symbols of tyranny. Nonimportation and, especially, nonconsumption agreements changed colonists’ cultural relationship with the mother country. Committees of Inspection monitored merchants and residents to make sure that no one broke the agreements. Offenders could expect to be shamed by having their names and offenses published in the newspaper and in broadsides.

家纺衣物迅速成为美德和爱国的标志，女性在这种文化转变中扮演了重要角色。同时，原本令人渴望的英国商品和奢侈品现在成了暴政的象征。非进口协议，尤其是非消费协议，改变了殖民者与宗主国的文化关系。监察委员会监督商人和居民，确保无人违反协议。违者会被公开羞辱，名字和过错会刊登在报纸和传单上。

Nonimportation and nonconsumption helped forge colonial unity. Colonies formed Committees of Correspondence to keep each other informed of the resistance efforts throughout the colonies. Newspapers reprinted exploits of resistance, giving colonists a sense that they were part of a broader political community. The best example of this new “continental conversation” came in the wake of the Boston Massacre. Britain sent regiments to Boston in 1768 to help enforce the new acts and quell the resistance. On the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered outside the Custom House and began hurling insults, snowballs, and perhaps more at the young sentry. When a small number of soldiers came to the sentry’s aid, the crowd grew increasingly hostile until the soldiers fired. After the smoke cleared, five Bostonians were dead, including one of the ringleaders, Crispus Attucks, a formerly enslaved man turned free dockworker. The soldiers were tried in Boston and won acquittal, thanks, in part, to their defense attorney, John Adams. News of the Boston Massacre spread quickly through the new resistance communication networks, aided by a famous engraving initially circulated by Paul Revere, which depicted bloodthirsty British soldiers with grins on their faces firing into a peaceful crowd. The engraving was quickly circulated and reprinted throughout the colonies, generating sympathy for Boston and anger with Britain.

非进口和非消费政策帮助促成了殖民地的团结。各殖民地成立了通讯委员会，彼此通报抗议活动的进展。报纸转载了各种抵抗事件，使殖民者感受到自己是更广泛政治共同体的一部分。此种新的“大陆对话”最好的例子出现在波士顿惨案之后。1768年，英国派遣部队前往波士顿，试图执行新的法案并平息抗议。1770年3月5日夜晚，人群聚集在海关大楼外，开始向年轻的哨兵投掷侮辱、雪球，甚至可能还有其他物品。当少数士兵前来支援哨兵时，情势愈加紧张，最终士兵们开了枪。烟雾散去后，五名波士顿人被射杀，其中包括领头人物之一克里斯普斯·阿塔克斯，他是曾经被奴役、后获得自由的码头工人。这些士兵在波士顿受审，并在部分归功于其辩护律师约翰·亚当斯的帮助下被判无罪。波士顿惨案的消息通过新的抵抗通信网络迅速传播开来，保罗·里维尔最早发行的一幅著名版画进一步助推了舆论。这幅版画描绘了一群面带笑容的英国士兵朝一群和平的人群开枪，仿佛嗜血成性。这幅版画被迅速传阅并在各殖民地广泛重印，引发了对波士顿的同情以及对英国的愤怒。

Resistance again led to repeal. In March 1770, Parliament repealed all of the new duties except the one on tea, which, like the Declaratory Act, was left, in part, to save face and assert that Parliament still retained the right to tax the colonies. The character of colonial resistance had changed between 1765 and 1770. During the Stamp Act resistance, elites wrote resolves and held congresses while violent, popular mobs burned effigies and tore down houses, with minimal coordination between colonies. But methods of resistance against the Townshend Acts became more inclusive and more coordinated. Colonists previously excluded from meaningful political participation now gathered signatures, and colonists of all ranks participated in the resistance by not buying British goods and monitoring and enforcing the boycotts.

抗议再次导致了废除。1770年3月，议会撤销了所有新的关税，唯独保留了茶税，这一举措与《宣言法案》类似，部分原因是为了挽回颜面，同时宣示议会仍保有对殖民地征税的权利。1765年至1770年间，殖民地的抵抗性质发生了变化。在抵抗《印花税法》期间，精英们起草决议、召开会议，而暴力的民众则焚烧人像、拆毁房屋，且各殖民地之间几乎没有协调。而在对《汤森法案》的抵抗中，抵抗方式变得更具包容性，也更为协调。以前被排除在政治参与之外的殖民者如今签署请愿，各阶层的殖民者通过拒绝购买英国产品、监督和执行抵制措施参与了抗议。

Britain’s failed attempts at imperial reform in the 1760s created an increasingly vigilant and resistant colonial population and, most importantly, an enlarged political sphere—both on the colonial and continental levels—far beyond anything anyone could have imagined a few years earlier. A new sense of shared grievances began to join the colonists in a shared American political identity.

英国在1760年代试图进行帝国改革的失败，催生了日益警觉且具有反抗精神的殖民地民众，更重要的是，拓展了殖民地及大陆层面的政治领域，这种扩展远超几年前人们的想象。共同的不满情绪使殖民者逐渐拥有了一种共同的“美洲人”政治身份。

IV. Independence

四、独立

In April 1773, Parliament passed two acts to aid the failing East India Company, which had fallen behind in the annual payments it owed Britain. But the company was not only drowning in debt; it was also drowning in tea, with almost fifteen million pounds of it stored in warehouses from India to England. In 1773, Parliament passed the Regulating Act, which effectively put the troubled company under government control. It then passed the Tea Act, which would allow the company to sell its tea in the colonies directly and without the company having to pay the usual export tax in London. Even though this would greatly lower the cost of tea for colonists, they resisted.

1773年4月，议会通过了两项法案以援助濒临破产的东印度公司，该公司已拖欠英国年度支付款。然而，公司不仅债台高筑，茶叶也积压如山，约有1500万磅的茶叶从印度到英格兰的仓库里堆积如山。1773年，议会通过了《监管法案》，实质上将这家陷入困境的公司置于政府控制之下。随后又通过了《茶税法案》，允许公司直接向殖民地销售茶叶，且无需支付伦敦的出口税。尽管这会大幅降低殖民者购买茶叶的成本，但他们仍然进行了抵制。

Merchants resisted the Tea Act because they resented the East India Company’s monopoly. But like the Sugar Act, the Tea Act affected only a small, specific group of people. The widespread support for resisting the Tea Act had more to do with principles. By buying tea, even though it was cheaper, colonists would be paying the duty and thereby implicitly acknowledging Parliament’s right to tax them. According to the Pennsylvania Chronicle, Prime Minister Lord North was a “great schemer” who sought “to out wit us, and to effectually establish that Act, which will forever after be pleaded as a precedent for every imposition the Parliament of Great-Britain shall think proper to saddle us with.”

商人们抵制《茶税法案》是因为他们不满东印度公司的垄断。然而，和《糖税法》一样，《茶税法案》仅影响了一小部分特定人群。对抵制《茶税法案》的广泛支持更多是出于原则。即便茶叶更便宜，殖民者购买它时也需支付关税，从而隐含承认议会的课税权利。《宾夕法尼亚纪事报》指出，首相诺斯勋爵是一个“伟大的策划者”，他企图“智胜我们，并有效地确立这项法案，以使它日后能成为英国议会认为合适向我们施加任何负担的先例。”

The Tea Act stipulated that the duty had to be paid when the ship unloaded. Newspaper essays and letters throughout the summer of 1773 in the major port cities debated what to do upon the ships’ arrival. In November, the Boston Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams and John Hancock, resolved to “prevent the landing and sale of the [tea], and the payment of any duty thereon” and to do so “at the risk of their lives and property.” The meeting appointed men to guard the wharfs and make sure the tea remained on the ships until they returned to London. This worked and the tea did not reach the shore, but by December 16, the ships were still there. Hence, another town meeting was held at the Old South Meeting House, at the end of which dozens of men disguised as Mohawks made their way to the wharf. The Boston Gazette reported what happened next:

《茶税法案》规定，关税必须在船只卸货时支付。1773年夏天，各主要港口城市的报纸文章和信件就船只到达后的应对措施展开了辩论。11月，由塞缪尔·亚当斯和约翰·汉考克领导的波士顿自由之子决定“阻止[茶叶]的卸货和销售，拒绝支付任何关税”，并誓言为此“不惜冒生命和财产的风险”。会议任命了一些人看守码头，确保茶叶留在船上，直到船只返回伦敦。此举奏效了，茶叶并未登岸，但到12月16日，船只仍停泊在那里。于是，另一场镇民会议在南集会所召开，会后数十人装扮成莫霍克人前往码头。《波士顿公报》报道了接下来发生的事情：

But, behold what followed! A number of brave & resolute men, determined to do all in their power to save their country from the ruin which their enemies had plotted, in less than four hours, emptied every chest of tea on board the three ships . . . amounting to 342 chests, into the sea ! ! without the least damage done to the ships or any other property.
“然而，看接下来发生了什么！一群勇敢而坚定的男子，决心尽其所能拯救国家免于敌人所策划的毁灭，在不到四小时内，将三艘船上所有的茶叶箱……共计342箱，全部倒入大海！！而船只及其他财产丝毫未受损害。”

As word spread throughout the colonies, patriots were emboldened to do the same to the tea sitting in their harbors. Tea was either dumped or seized in Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York, with numerous other smaller “tea parties” taking place throughout 1774.

随着消息在殖民地传播，爱国者们受到鼓舞，也在他们的港口采取了同样的行动。茶叶在查尔斯顿、费城和纽约被倾倒或查封，1774年全年还出现了许多其他规模较小的“茶会”。

Popular protest spread across the continent and down through all levels of colonial society. Fifty-one women in Edenton, North Carolina, for example, signed an agreement—published in numerous newspapers—in which they promised “to do every Thing as far as lies in our Power” to support the boycotts. The ladies of Edenton were not alone in their desire to support the war effort by what means they could. Women across the thirteen colonies could most readily express their political sentiments as consumers and producers. Because women often made decisions regarding household purchases, their participation in consumer boycotts held particular weight. Some women also took to the streets as part of more unruly mob actions, participating in grain riots, raids on the offices of royal officials, and demonstrations against the impressment of men into naval service. The agitation of so many helped elicit responses from both Britain and the colonial elites.

民众抗议遍及整个大陆，并蔓延到殖民社会的各个阶层。例如，北卡罗来纳州埃登顿的五十一位女性签署了一份协议——并在多家报纸上发表，承诺“尽己所能”支持抵制活动。埃登顿的女士们并非孤军奋战，其他殖民地的女性也希望以她们力所能及的方式支持战争。身为消费者和生产者的女性更容易表达她们的政治意愿。由于女性通常负责家庭采购，她们参与消费抵制具有特别的分量。一些女性甚至走上街头，参与更激进的暴动，参与粮食暴动、冲击皇家官员办公室以及反对强征水手的示威。如此多人的抗议引起了英国及殖民地精英的反应。

Britain’s response was swift. The following spring, Parliament passed four acts known collectively, by the British, as the Coercive Acts. Colonists, however, referred to them as the Intolerable Acts. First, the Boston Port Act shut down the harbor and cut off all trade to and from the city. The Massachusetts Government Act put the colonial government entirely under British control, dissolving the assembly and restricting town meetings. The Administration of Justice Act allowed any royal official accused of a crime to be tried in Britain rather than by Massachusetts courts and juries. Finally, the Quartering Act, passed for all colonies, allowed the British army to quarter newly arrived soldiers in colonists’ homes. Boston had been deemed in open rebellion, and the king, his advisors, and Parliament acted decisively to end the rebellion.

英国迅速作出回应。次年春天，议会通过了四项法案，英国人统称之为《强制法案》，而殖民者则称之为《不可容忍法案》。首先，《波士顿港口法》关闭了港口，切断了城市的进出口贸易。《马萨诸塞政府法》将殖民地政府完全置于英国控制之下，解散了议会并限制了镇会议的举行。《司法管理法》允许任何被控犯罪的皇家官员在英国而非马萨诸塞州的法庭和陪审团下接受审判。最后，《宿营法》适用于所有殖民地，允许英国军队驻扎在殖民者的家中。波士顿被视为公开叛乱，国王、顾问和议会果断采取行动以平息叛乱。

The Crown, however, did not anticipate the other colonies coming to the aid of Massachusetts. Colonists collected food to send to Boston. Virginia’s House of Burgesses called for a day of prayer and fasting to show their support. Rather than isolating Massachusetts, the Coercive Acts fostered the sense of shared identity created over the previous decade. After all, if the Crown and Parliament could dissolve Massachusetts’s government, nothing could stop them from doing the same to any of her sister colonies. In Massachusetts, patriots created the Provincial Congress, and, throughout 1774, they seized control of local and county governments and courts. In New York, citizens elected committees to direct the colonies’ response to the Coercive Acts, including a Mechanics’ Committee of middling colonists. By early 1774, Committees of Correspondence and/or extralegal assemblies were established in all of the colonies except Georgia. And throughout the year, they followed Massachusetts’s example by seizing the powers of the royal governments.

然而，英王并未预见到其他殖民地会援助马萨诸塞。殖民者们募集食物寄往波士顿。弗吉尼亚议会呼吁设立祷告和禁食日以表支持。《强制法案》不仅未能孤立马萨诸塞，反而加深了过去十年建立的共同身份意识。毕竟，如果英王和议会能解散马萨诸塞政府，那么没有什么能阻止他们对其他姐妹殖民地采取同样的措施。在马萨诸塞，爱国者们建立了省议会，并在1774年控制了地方和县政府及法院。在纽约，市民们选举了委员会来指导殖民地对《强制法案》的反应，其中包括由中层殖民者组成的技工委员会。到1774年初，除乔治亚外的所有殖民地都建立了通信委员会和/或非正式议会。全年内，各殖民地效仿马萨诸塞，逐渐接管了皇家政府的权力。

Committees of Correspondence agreed to send delegates to a Continental Congress to coordinate an intercolonial response. The First Continental Congress convened on September 5, 1774. Over the next six weeks, elite delegates from every colony but Georgia issued a number of documents, including a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.” This document repeated the arguments that colonists had been making since 1765: colonists retained all the rights of native Britons, including the right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives as well as the right to a trial by jury.

通信委员会同意派遣代表参加大陆会议，以协调跨殖民地的应对措施。第一届大陆会议于1774年9月5日召开。在接下来的六周里，除乔治亚外，每个殖民地的精英代表们发布了一系列文件，其中包括《权利与不满宣言》。该文件重申了殖民者自1765年以来所提出的论点：殖民者保留了所有英国本土人的权利，包括只能由自己选举的代表征税的权利以及由陪审团审判的权利。

Most importantly, the Congress issued a document known as the “Continental Association.” The Association declared that “the present unhappy situation of our affairs is occasioned by a ruinous system of colony administration adopted by the British Ministry about the year 1763, evidently calculated for enslaving these Colonies, and, with them, the British Empire.” The Association recommended “that a committee be chosen in every county, city, and town . . . whose business it shall be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching this association.” These Committees of Inspection would consist largely of common colonists. They were effectively deputized to police their communities and instructed to publish the names of anyone who violated the Association so they “may be publicly known, and universally condemned as the enemies of American liberty.” The delegates also agreed to a continental nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation agreement and to “wholly discontinue the slave trade.” In all, the Continental Association was perhaps the most radical document of the period. It sought to unite and direct twelve revolutionary governments, establish economic and moral policies, and empower common colonists by giving them an important and unprecedented degree of on-the-ground political power.

更为重要的是，大陆会议发布了一份被称为《大陆协会》的文件。协会宣称，“我们事务的当前不幸状况是由英国大臣在1763年左右采纳的一套殖民管理破坏性制度引起的，显然意在奴役这些殖民地，并随之奴役整个大英帝国。”协会建议“在每个县、市和镇都选出一个委员会……他们的职责是密切观察所有涉及该协会的人的行为。”这些检查委员会主要由普通殖民者组成，他们被授权在社区内执行监督，指示他们公开任何违反协会规定的人的姓名，使其“被公开知晓，并被普遍谴责为美国自由的敌人。”代表们还同意实施大陆范围内的非进口、非消费和非出口协议，并“完全停止奴隶贸易”。总体而言，《大陆协会》可能是该时期最为激进的文件。它试图联合并指导十二个革命政府，建立经济和道德政策，并通过赋予普通殖民者一项重要且前所未有的实际政治权力来赋能他们。

But not all colonists were patriots. Indeed, many remained faithful to the king and Parliament, while a good number took a neutral stance. As the situation intensified throughout 1774 and early 1775, factions emerged within the resistance movements in many colonies. Elite merchants who traded primarily with Britain, Anglican clergy, and colonists holding royal offices depended on and received privileges directly from their relationship with Britain. Initially, they sought to exert a moderating influence on the resistance committees, but, following the Association, a number of these colonists began to worry that the resistance was too radical and aimed at independence. They, like most colonists in this period, still expected a peaceful conciliation with Britain and grew increasingly suspicious of the resistance movement.

但并不是所有殖民者都是爱国者。实际上，许多人仍然忠于国王和议会，还有不少人采取中立立场。随着1774年和1775年初局势的加剧，各地的抵抗运动中出现了不同派系。主要与英国贸易的精英商人、英国国教的神职人员以及持有王室职务的殖民者，依赖于与英国的关系并直接从中获得特权。最初，他们试图对抵抗委员会施加温和的影响，但在协会成立后，一些殖民者开始担心抵抗运动过于激进，目标是独立。和大多数这个时期的殖民者一样，他们仍然期望与英国和平和解，并对抵抗运动变得越来越怀疑。

However, by the time the Continental Congress met again in May 1775, war had already broken out in Massachusetts. On April 19, 1775, British regiments set out to seize local militias’ arms and powder stores in Lexington and Concord. The town militia met them at the Lexington Green. The British ordered the militia to disperse when someone fired, setting off a volley from the British. The battle continued all the way to the next town, Concord. News of the events at Lexington spread rapidly throughout the countryside. Militia members, known as minutemen, responded quickly and inflicted significant casualties on the British regiments as they chased them back to Boston. Approximately twenty thousand colonial militiamen laid siege to Boston, effectively trapping the British. In June, the militia set up fortifications on Breed’s Hill overlooking the city. In the misnamed “Battle of Bunker Hill,” the British attempted to dislodge them from the position with a frontal assault, and, despite eventually taking the hill, they suffered severe casualties at the hands of the colonists.

然而，到1775年5月第二届大陆会议再次召开时，战争已经在马萨诸塞州爆发。1775年4月19日，英国军队出发去夺取当地民兵的武器和火药库，地点在列克星敦和康科德。镇民兵在列克星敦绿地与他们相遇。英国人命令民兵解散，但当有人开枪时，英国军队开火，导致一阵枪声。战斗一直持续到下一个城镇康科德。列克星敦的事件消息迅速传播到乡村。被称为“分钟兵”的民兵迅速响应，对英国军队造成了重大伤亡，并将他们赶回波士顿。大约两万名殖民地民兵围攻波士顿，有效地困住了英国军队。在6月，民兵在俯瞰城市的布里德山上建立了工事。在被误称为“邦克山战役”的战斗中，英国军队试图通过正面攻击将民兵从阵地上驱逐出去，尽管最终占领了这座山，但他们在殖民者手中遭受了严重伤亡。

While men in Boston fought and died, the Continental Congress struggled to organize a response. The radical Massachusetts delegates—including John Adams, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock—implored the Congress to support the Massachusetts militia, who without supplies were laying siege to Boston. Meanwhile, many delegates from the Middle Colonies—including New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia—took a more moderate position, calling for renewed attempts at reconciliation. In the South, the Virginia delegation contained radicals such as Richard Henry Lee and Thomas Jefferson, while South Carolina’s delegation included moderates like John and Edward Rutledge. The moderates worried that supporting the Massachusetts militia would be akin to declaring war.

当波士顿的男子在战斗中牺牲时，大陆会议却在努力组织应对措施。马萨诸塞州的激进代表——包括约翰·亚当斯、塞缪尔·亚当斯和约翰·汉考克——恳求会议支持马萨诸塞州的民兵，因为他们在没有补给的情况下围攻波士顿。与此同时，来自中部殖民地的许多代表——包括纽约、新泽西和费城——则采取了更温和的立场，呼吁重新尝试和解。在南方，弗吉尼亚州的代表团中有激进分子，如理查德·亨利·李和托马斯·杰斐逊，而南卡罗来纳州的代表团则包括像约翰·鲁特利奇和爱德华·鲁特利奇这样的温和派。温和派担心，支持马萨诸塞州的民兵将等同于宣布战争。

The Congress struck a compromise, agreeing to adopt the Massachusetts militia and form a Continental Army, naming Virginia delegate George Washington commander in chief. They also issued a “Declaration of the Causes of Necessity of Taking Up Arms” to justify the decision. At the same time, the moderates drafted an “Olive Branch Petition,” which assured the king that the colonists “most ardently desire[d] the former Harmony between [the mother country] and these Colonies.” Many understood that the opportunities for reconciliation were running out. After Congress had approved the document, Benjamin Franklin wrote to a friend saying, “The Congress will send one more Petition to the King which I suppose will be treated as the former was, and therefore will probably be the last.” Congress was in the strange position of attempting reconciliation while publicly raising an army.

会议达成了一项妥协，同意接纳马萨诸塞州的民兵，并组建一支大陆军，任命弗吉尼亚州代表乔治·华盛顿为总司令。他们还发布了一份“征兵必要原因的声明”以证明这一决定。同时，温和派起草了一份“橄榄枝请愿书”，向国王保证殖民者“最热切地渴望与[母国]之间恢复往日的和谐”。许多人意识到和解的机会正在减少。在会议批准了这份文件后，本杰明·富兰克林给朋友写信说：“会议将向国王发送一份最后的请愿，我想这份请愿会像之前那份一样被对待，因此这很可能是最后一次。”会议正处于一个奇怪的境地：在公开组建军队的同时试图实现和解。

The petition arrived in England on August 13, 1775, but before it was delivered, the king issued his own “Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition.” He believed his subjects in North America were being “misled by dangerous and ill-designing men,” who were “traitorously preparing, ordering, and levying war against us.” In an October speech to Parliament, he dismissed the colonists’ petition. The king had no doubt that the resistance was “manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent empire.” By the start of 1776, talk of independence was growing while the prospect of reconciliation dimmed.

请愿书于1775年8月13日抵达英国，但在送达之前，国王发布了自己的“镇压叛乱和煽动的公告”。他认为，北美的臣民正被“危险且别有用心的人误导”，这些人“叛国地准备、组织并发动战争。”在10月的国会演讲中，他驳回了殖民者的请愿。国王毫不怀疑，这场抵抗“显然是为了建立一个独立帝国而进行的。”到1776年初，关于独立的讨论越来越多，而和解的前景则变得黯淡。

In the opening months of 1776, independence, for the first time, became part of the popular debate. Town meetings approved resolutions in support of independence. Yet, with moderates still hanging on, it would take another seven months before the Continental Congress officially passed the independence resolution. A small forty-six-page pamphlet published in Philadelphia and written by a recent immigrant from England captured the American conversation. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense argued for independence by denouncing monarchy and challenging the logic behind the British Empire, saying, “There is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.” His combination of easy language, biblical references, and fiery rhetoric proved potent, and the pamphlet was quickly published and dispersed. Arguments over political philosophy and rumors of battlefield developments filled taverns throughout the colonies.

在1776年初，独立首次成为公众辩论的一部分。市镇会议批准了支持独立的决议。然而，由于温和派仍然存在，直到七个月后，大陆会议才正式通过独立决议。在费城出版的一本小型四十六页的小册子中，最近从英格兰移民过来的托马斯·潘恩捕捉了美国的对话。潘恩的《常识》通过谴责君主制和挑战英国帝国的逻辑来主张独立，称“假设一个大陆被一个岛屿永远统治是荒谬的。”他结合简单的语言、圣经引用和激昂的修辞，产生了强大的影响，这本小册子很快被出版和传播。关于政治哲学的争论和战场发展的传闻充斥着殖民地的酒馆。

George Washington had taken control of the army and after laying siege to Boston forced the British to retreat to Halifax. In Virginia, the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation declaring martial law and offering freedom to “all indentured servants, Negros, and others” if they would leave their enslavers and join the British. Though only about five hundred to a thousand enslaved people joined Lord Dunmore’s “Ethiopian regiment,” thousands more flocked to the British later in the war, risking capture and punishment for a chance at freedom. Formerly enslaved people occasionally fought, but primarily served in companies called Black Pioneers as laborers, skilled workers, and spies. British motives for offering freedom were practical rather than humanitarian, but the proclamation was the first mass emancipation of enslaved people in American history. Enslaved people could now choose to run and risk their lives for possible freedom with the British army or hope that the United States would live up to its ideals of liberty.

乔治·华盛顿接管了军队，在围攻波士顿后迫使英国撤退到哈利法克斯。在弗吉尼亚州，英国总督邓莫尔发布了一项公告，宣布戒严，并承诺给予“所有契约佣人、黑人和其他人”自由，只要他们离开他们的奴隶并加入英国军队。尽管只有大约五百到一千名被奴役的人加入了邓莫尔的“埃塞俄比亚团”，但在战争后期，更多的人冒着被捕和惩罚的风险涌向英国军队，渴望获得自由。曾经被奴役的人偶尔参战，但主要作为黑先锋公司中的劳动者、熟练工人和间谍。英国提供自由的动机更多是出于现实利益而非人道主义，但该公告成为美国历史上第一次大规模解放被奴役者。被奴役的人现在可以选择逃跑，冒着生命危险寻求可能的自由，或希望美国能兑现其自由的理想。

Dunmore’s proclamation unnerved white southerners already suspicious of rising antislavery sentiments in the mother country. Four years earlier, English courts dealt a serious blow to slavery in the empire. In Somerset v Stewart, James Somerset sued for his freedom, and the court not only granted it but also undercut the very legality of slavery on the British mainland. Somerset and now Dunmore began to convince some enslavers that a new independent nation might offer a surer protection for slavery. Indeed, the proclamation laid the groundwork for the very unrest that loyal southerners had hoped to avoid. Consequently, enslavers often used violence to prevent their enslaved laborers from joining the British or rising against them. Virginia enacted regulations to prevent freedom-seeking, threatening to ship rebellious enslaved people to the West Indies or execute them. Many enslavers transported their enslaved people inland, away from the coastal temptation to join the British armies, sometimes separating families in the process.

邓莫尔的公告使得白人南方人感到不安，他们已经对母国日益高涨的反奴隶制情绪产生怀疑。四年前，英国法庭对帝国中的奴隶制造成了严重打击。在《萨默塞特诉斯图尔特案》中，詹姆斯·萨默塞特为自己的自由提起诉讼，法院不仅判决支持他，还削弱了奴隶制在英国本土的合法性。萨默塞特和邓莫尔开始说服一些奴隶主，认为新的独立国家可能为奴隶制提供更可靠的保护。事实上，这项公告为忠诚的南方人希望避免的动乱奠定了基础。因此，奴隶主常常使用暴力来阻止他们的被奴役劳动者加入英国军队或反抗他们。弗吉尼亚州制定了规章制度，以防止寻求自由的人，威胁要将叛乱的被奴役者送往西印度群岛或处决他们。许多奴隶主将他们的被奴役者转移到内陆，以远离沿海加入英国军队的诱惑，有时在此过程中分开了家庭。

On May 10, 1776, nearly two months before the Declaration of Independence, the Congress voted on a resolution calling on all colonies that had not already established revolutionary governments to do so and to wrest control from royal officials. The Congress also recommended that the colonies should begin preparing new written constitutions. In many ways, this was the Congress’s first declaration of independence. A few weeks later, on June 7, Richard Henry Lee offered the following resolution:

在1776年5月10日，距离《独立宣言》发布还有近两个月，大陆会议对一项决议进行了投票，呼吁所有尚未建立革命政府的殖民地这样做，并夺取对皇家官员的控制。会议还建议殖民地开始准备新的书面宪法。在许多方面，这可以看作是会议的第一次独立宣言。几周后，6月7日，理查德·亨利·李提出了以下决议：

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
决议：这些联合殖民地是，理应成为，自由和独立的国家；它们已解除对英国王室的所有效忠，与大不列颠王国之间的所有政治联系已完全解除，并应当完全解除。

Delegates went scurrying back to their assemblies for new instructions and nearly a month later, on July 2, the resolution finally came to a vote. It passed 12–0, with New York, under imminent threat of British invasion, abstaining.

代表们匆忙返回各自的大会寻求新的指示，几乎一个月后，在7月2日，决议终于进行了投票。结果以12票赞成、0票反对通过，纽约因面临英国入侵的迫在眉睫的威胁而弃权。

The passage of Lee’s resolution was the official legal declaration of independence, but, between the proposal and vote, a committee had been named to draft a public declaration in case the resolution passed. Virginian Thomas Jefferson drafted the document, with edits being made by his fellow committee members John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and then again by the Congress as a whole. The famous preamble went beyond the arguments about the rights of British subjects under the British Constitution, instead referring to “natural law”:

李的决议通过标志着独立的正式法律宣言，但在提案和投票之间，委员会被任命负责起草一份公共宣言，以防决议通过。来自弗吉尼亚的托马斯·杰斐逊起草了这份文件，委员会成员约翰·亚当斯和本杰明·富兰克林进行了修改，国会整体又进行了审定。这段著名的序言超越了关于英国公民在英国宪法下权利的论述，而是提及了“自然法”

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.
我们认为这些真理是不言而喻的：所有人生而平等，他们的造物主赋予他们某些不可剥夺的权利，这些权利包括生命、自由和追求幸福的权利。为了保障这些权利，政府是在人民之间建立的，其正当权力来自被统治者的同意。每当任何形式的政府妨碍这些目标时，人民有权对其进行更改或废除，并建立新的政府。

The majority of the document outlined a list of specific grievances that the colonists had with British attempts to reform imperial administration during the 1760s and 1770s. An early draft blamed the British for the transatlantic slave trade and even for discouraging attempts by the colonists to promote abolition. Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia as well as those from northern states who profited from the trade all opposed this language, and it was removed.

该文档的大部分内容列出了殖民者对英国在1760年代和1770年代试图改革帝国管理的具体不满。早期草案中指责英国在跨大西洋奴隶贸易中扮演了负面角色，甚至阻碍殖民者推动废奴的尝试。来自南卡罗来纳州和乔治亚州的代表以及那些从贸易中获利的北方州代表均反对这一表述，因此这一内容被删除。

Neither the grievances nor the rhetoric of the preamble were new. Instead, they were the culmination of both a decade of popular resistance to imperial reform and decades more of long-term developments that saw both sides develop incompatible understandings of the British Empire and the colonies’ place within it. The Congress approved the document on July 4, 1776. However, it was one thing to declare independence; it was quite another to win it on the battlefield.

无论是指控还是前言的修辞都并不新颖。相反，这些都是对帝国改革的十年民众抵抗的顶点，反映了双方数十年来在对待英国帝国及殖民地在其中地位的理解上日益产生的矛盾。国会于1776年7月4日批准了这份文件。然而，宣告独立是一回事，而在战场上赢得独立则是另一回事。

V. The War for Independence

五、独立战争

The war began at Lexington and Concord, more than a year before Congress declared independence. In 1775, the British believed that the mere threat of war and a few minor incursions to seize supplies would be enough to cow the colonial rebellion. Those minor incursions, however, turned into a full-out military conflict. Despite an early American victory at Boston, the new states faced the daunting task of taking on the world’s largest military.

战争始于列克星敦和康科德，在国会宣告独立的整整一年之前。1775年，英国人认为仅凭战争的威胁和几次小规模的突袭以夺取物资就足以压制殖民地的叛乱。然而，这些小规模的突袭却演变成了一场全面的军事冲突。尽管在波士顿取得了初步的胜利，但新成立的各州面临着与世界上最大军事力量对抗的艰巨任务。

In the summer of 1776, the British forces that had abandoned Boston arrived at New York. The largest expeditionary force in British history, including tens of thousands of German mercenaries known as Hessians, followed soon after. New York was the perfect location to launch expeditions aimed at seizing control of the Hudson River and isolating New England from the rest of the continent. Also, New York contained many loyalists, particularly among its merchant and Anglican communities. In October, the British finally launched an attack on Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Continental Army took severe losses before retreating through New Jersey. With the onset of winter, Washington needed something to lift morale and encourage reenlistment. Therefore, he launched a successful surprise attack on the Hessian camp at Trenton on Christmas Day by ferrying the few thousand men he had left across the Delaware River under the cover of night. The victory won the Continental Army much-needed supplies and a morale boost following the disaster at New York.

1776年夏季，离开波士顿的英军抵达纽约。此时，英国历史上最大规模的远征军，包括成千上万的德国雇佣兵——黑森兵，也随之而来。纽约是发动攻势的理想地点，旨在控制哈德逊河，将新英格兰与大陆其他地区隔离。此外，纽约的忠诚派尤其集中在其商人和英国国教徒社区中。十月，英军终于对布鲁克林和曼哈顿发动了攻击。大陆军遭受了严重损失，在撤退至新泽西州时备受打击。随着冬季的来临，华盛顿需要一些措施来提振士气并鼓励士兵续约。因此，他在圣诞节当天发动了一次成功的突袭，攻击了黑森军营，带领他仅存的几千名士兵在夜间乘船渡过特伦顿河。这场胜利为大陆军赢得了急需的补给和在纽约惨败后的士气提升。

An even greater success followed in upstate New York. In 1777, British general John Burgoyne led an army from Canada to secure the Hudson River. In upstate New York, he was to meet up with a detachment of General William Howe’s forces marching north from Manhattan. However, Howe abandoned the plan without telling Burgoyne and instead sailed to Philadelphia to capture the new nation’s capital. The Continental Army defeated Burgoyne’s men at Saratoga, New York.This victory proved a major turning point in the war. Benjamin Franklin had been in Paris trying to secure a treaty of alliance with the French. However, the French were reluctant to back what seemed like an unlikely cause. News of the victory at Saratoga convinced the French that the cause might not have been as unlikely as they had thought. A Treaty of Amity and Commerce was signed on February 6, 1778. The treaty effectively turned a colonial rebellion into a global war as fighting between the British and French soon broke out in Europe and India.

在纽约州北部，发生了更大的胜利。1777年，英国将军约翰·伯戈因率领一支军队从加拿大出发，旨在控制哈德逊河。在纽约州北部，他计划与威廉·豪将军从曼哈顿北上所带领的部队会合。然而，豪在未告知伯戈因的情况下放弃了这一计划，而是驶往费城，企图夺取新国家的首都。大陆军在纽约萨拉托加击败了伯戈因的部队。这场胜利成为战争的重大转折点。本杰明·富兰克林当时正在巴黎试图与法国达成联盟条约。然而，法国对一个看似不太可能成功的事业持犹豫态度。萨拉托加胜利的消息让法国人相信，这个事业可能并不像他们想象的那么不可能。1778年2月6日，《友好与商业条约》签署。该条约将一场殖民地的叛乱转变为一场全球战争，因为不久后，英国与法国之间的战争在欧洲和印度爆发。

Howe had taken Philadelphia in 1777 but returned to New York once winter ended. He slowly realized that European military tactics would not work in North America. In Europe, armies fought head-on battles in attempt to seize major cities. However, in 1777, the British had held Philadelphia and New York and yet still weakened their position. Meanwhile, Washington realized after New York that the largely untrained Continental Army could not win head-on battles with the professional British army. So he developed his own logic of warfare that involved smaller, more frequent skirmishes and avoided major engagements that would risk his entire army. As long as he kept the army intact, the war would continue, no matter how many cities the British captured.

豪在1777年攻占了费城，但在冬季结束后返回纽约。他逐渐意识到，欧洲的军事战术在北美并不适用。在欧洲，军队进行正面交锋以夺取主要城市。然而，在1777年，英国虽然占据了费城和纽约，却依然削弱了自己的地位。与此同时，华盛顿在纽约之后意识到，大陆军大部分士兵未经训练，无法与职业军队的英国军队正面交锋。因此，他发展出自己的一套战争逻辑，涉及较小、频繁的冲突，避免重大交战，以免冒险让整个军队陷入危机。只要他保持军队的完整，战争就会继续，无论英国占领了多少城市。

In 1778, the British shifted their attentions to the South, where they believed they enjoyed more popular support. Campaigns from Virginia to South Carolina and Georgia captured major cities, but the British simply did not have the manpower to retain military control. And upon their departures, severe fighting ensued between local patriots and loyalists, often pitting family members against one another. The war in the South was truly a civil war.

1778年，英国将注意力转向南方，他们认为那里的民众支持更多。从弗吉尼亚到南卡罗来纳和乔治亚州的战役夺取了主要城市，但英国根本没有足够的兵力来保持军事控制。在他们撤离后，当地的爱国者和忠诚派之间发生了激烈的战斗，常常使家人对立。南方的战争实质上是一场内战。

By 1781, the British were also fighting France, Spain, and Holland. The British public’s support for the costly war in North America was quickly waning. The Americans took advantage of the British southern strategy with significant aid from the French army and navy. In October, Washington marched his troops from New York to Virginia in an effort to trap the British southern army under the command of General Charles Cornwallis. Cornwallis had dug his men in at Yorktown awaiting supplies and reinforcements from New York. However, the Continental and French armies arrived first, quickly followed by a French navy contingent, encircling Cornwallis’s forces and, after laying siege to the city, forcing his surrender. The capture of another army left the British without a new strategy and without public support to continue the war. Peace negotiations took place in France, and the war came to an official end on September 3, 1783.

到1781年，英国还在与法国、西班牙和荷兰作战。英国公众对在北美的高昂战争支持迅速减弱。美国人在法国陆军和海军的重大援助下，利用了英国的南方战略。10月，华盛顿率领军队从纽约行军到弗吉尼亚，试图包围指挥查尔斯·康沃利斯将军的英国南方军队。康沃利斯的部队在约克镇扎营，等待来自纽约的补给和增援。然而，大陆军和法国军队首先到达，随后是法国海军的增援，围住了康沃利斯的部队。在对城市进行围攻后，迫使其投降。另一支军队的被捕使英国失去了新的战略和继续战争的公众支持。和平谈判在法国进行，战争于1783年9月3日正式结束。

Americans celebrated their victory, but it came at great cost. Soldiers suffered through brutal winters with inadequate resources. During the single winter at Valley Forge in 1777–1778, over 2,500 Americans died from disease and exposure. Life was not easy on the home front either. Women on both sides of the conflict were frequently left alone to care for their households. In addition to their existing duties, women took on roles usually assigned to men on farms and in shops and taverns. Abigail Adams addressed the difficulties she encountered while “minding family affairs” on their farm in Braintree, Massachusetts. Abigail managed the planting and harvesting of crops, in the midst of severe labor shortages and inflation, while dealing with several tenants on the Adams property, raising her children, and making clothing and other household goods. In order to support the family economically during John’s frequent absences and the uncertainties of war, Abigail also invested in several speculative schemes and sold imported goods.

美国人庆祝他们的胜利，但代价惨重。士兵们在严酷的冬季中忍受着不足的资源。在1777至1778年间的瓦利福奇冬季中，超过2500名美国人死于疾病和寒冷。家前的生活也并不轻松。冲突双方的女性常常被迫独自照顾家庭。除了现有的职责外，女性还承担起通常分配给男性的农场、商店和酒馆的角色。阿比盖尔·亚当斯在麻萨诸塞州布雷恩特里照看农场的“家庭事务”时，谈到了她所面临的困难。阿比盖尔在严重的劳动力短缺和通货膨胀中管理着作物的种植和收获，同时照顾亚当斯家族的几位租户，抚养她的孩子，并制作衣物和其他家居用品。为了在约翰频繁缺席和战争不确定性的情况下在经济上支持家庭，阿比盖尔还投资了几项投机计划，并出售进口商品。

While Abigail remained safely out of the fray, other women were not so fortunate. The Revolution was not only fought on distant battlefields. It was fought on women’s very doorsteps, in the fields next to their homes. There was no way for women to avoid the conflict or the disruptions and devastations it caused. As the leader of the state militia during the Revolution, Mary Silliman’s husband, Gold, was absent from their home for much of the conflict. On the morning of July 7, 1779, when a British fleet attacked nearby Fairfield, Connecticut, it was Mary who calmly evacuated her household, including her children and servants, to North Stratford. When Gold was captured by loyalists and held prisoner, Mary, six months pregnant with their second child, wrote letters to try to secure his release. When such appeals were ineffectual, Mary spearheaded an effort, along with Connecticut Governor, John Trumbull, to capture a prominent Tory leader to exchange for her husband’s freedom.

虽然阿比盖尔安然无恙地躲过了战乱，但其他女性却没有那么幸运。革命不仅是在遥远的战场上进行的，它也在女性的家门口、她们家旁边的田野中展开。女性无法避免冲突或它带来的扰动与破坏。在革命期间，作为州民兵的指挥官，玛丽·西利曼的丈夫戈尔在冲突的大部分时间里都不在家。1779年7月7日早晨，当一支英国舰队袭击康涅狄格州附近的费尔菲尔德时，玛丽冷静地撤离了她的家，包括她的孩子和仆人，前往北斯特拉特福。当戈尔被忠诚者捕获并被关押时，怀有六个月身孕的玛丽写信试图为他争取释放。当这些请求没有效果时，玛丽与康涅狄格州州长约翰·特伦布尔合作，发起了一项努力，捕获一位重要的托利党领袖，以交换她丈夫的自由。

Black Americans, enslaved and free, also impacted (and were impacted by) the Revolution. The British were the first to recruit Black (or “Ethiopian”) regiments, as early as Dunmore’s Proclamation of 1775 in Virginia, which promised freedom to any enslaved person who would escape their enslavers and join the British cause. At first, Washington, an enslaver himself, resisted allowing Black men to join the Continental Army, but he eventually relented. In 1775, Peter Salem’s enslaver freed him to fight with the militia. Salem faced British Regulars in the battles at Lexington and Bunker Hill, where he fought valiantly with around three dozen other Black Americans. Salem not only contributed to the cause, he earned the ability to determine his own life after his enlistment ended. Salem was not alone, but many more enslaved people seized on the tumult of war to run away and secure their own freedom directly. Historians estimate that between thirty thousand and one hundred thousand formerly enslaved people deserted their enslavers during the war.

黑人美国人，无论是被奴役的还是自由的，也影响了（并受到）革命的影响。英国人是第一批招募黑人（或称“埃塞俄比亚”）军团的，早在1775年维吉尼亚州的邓莫尔宣言中就承诺任何愿意逃离奴隶主并加入英国事业的被奴役者可以获得自由。起初，华盛顿自己也是一个奴隶主，他抵制让黑人男性加入大陆军，但最终还是妥协了。1775年，彼得·塞勒姆的奴隶主将他释放，以便与民兵一起作战。塞勒姆在列克星敦和邦克山的战斗中面对英国正规军，他与其他约三十名黑人美国人勇敢作战。塞勒姆不仅为事业做出了贡献，还在服役结束后获得了决定自己生活的能力。塞勒姆并不孤单，许多被奴役的人也利用战争的动荡逃跑，直接争取自己的自由。历史学家估计，在战争期间，三万到十万名曾被奴役的人从奴隶主那里逃脱。

Men and women together struggled through years of war and hardship. For patriots (and those who remained neutral), victory brought new political, social, and economic opportunities, but it also brought new uncertainties. The war decimated entire communities, particularly in the South. Thousands of women throughout the nation had been widowed. The American economy, weighed down by war debt and depreciated currencies, would have to be rebuilt following the war. State constitutions had created governments, but now men would have to figure out how to govern. The opportunities created by the Revolution had come at great cost, in both lives and fortune, and it was left to the survivors to seize those opportunities and help forge and define the new nation-state.

男女共同经历了多年的战争与艰辛。对于爱国者（以及那些保持中立的人）来说，胜利带来了新的政治、社会和经济机会，但也带来了新的不确定性。战争摧毁了整个社区，尤其是在南方。全国成千上万的女性成为了寡妇。美国经济因战争债务和贬值货币而沉重，战争结束后必须重建。州宪法创建了政府，但现在人们需要弄清楚如何治理。革命带来的机会付出了巨大的代价，既有生命的损失，也有财富的损失，幸存者必须抓住这些机会，帮助铸造和定义新国家。

VI. The Consequences of the American Revolution

六、美国革命的后果

Like the earlier distinction between “origins” and “causes,” the Revolution also had short- and long-term consequences. Perhaps the most important immediate consequence of declaring independence was the creation of state constitutions in 1776 and 1777. The Revolution also unleashed powerful political, social, and economic forces that would transform the new nation’s politics and society, including increased participation in politics and governance, the legal institutionalization of religious toleration, and the growth and diffusion of the population, particularly westward. The Revolution affected Native Americans by opening up western settlement and creating governments hostile to their territorial claims. Even more broadly, the Revolution ended the mercantilist economy, opening new opportunities in trade and manufacturing.

与之前的“起源”和“原因”之间的区分类似，革命也有短期和长期的后果。也许，宣布独立最重要的直接后果是1776年和1777年各州宪法的制定。革命还释放了强大的政治、社会和经济力量，这些力量将改变新国家的政治和社会，包括政治和治理的参与增加、宗教宽容的法律制度化，以及人口的增长和向西扩散。革命影响了美洲原住民，开放了西部定居点，并创造了敌对他们领土主张的政府。更广泛地说，革命结束了重商主义经济，开启了贸易和制造业的新机遇。

The new states drafted written constitutions, which, at the time, was an important innovation from the traditionally unwritten British Constitution. These new state constitutions were based on the idea of “popular sovereignty,” that is, that the power and authority of the government derived from the people. Most created weak governors and strong legislatures with more regular elections and moderately increased the size of the electorate. A number of states followed the example of Virginia and included a declaration or “bill” of rights in their constitution designed to protect the rights of individuals and circumscribe the prerogative of the government. Pennsylvania’s first state constitution was the most radical and democratic. They created a unicameral legislature and an Executive Council but no genuine executive. All free men could vote, including those who did not own property. Massachusetts’s constitution, passed in 1780, was less democratic in structure but underwent a more popular process of ratification. In the fall of 1779, each town sent delegates—312 in all—to a constitutional convention in Cambridge. Town meetings debated the constitution draft and offered suggestions. Anticipating the later federal constitution, Massachusetts established a three-branch government based on checks and balances between the branches. Independence came in 1776, and so did an unprecedented period of constitution making and state building.

新州起草了书面宪法，这在当时是一个重要的创新，与传统的无书面宪法的英国宪法相比。这些新的州宪法基于“人民主权”的理念，即政府的权力和权威源于人民。大多数州创造了权力较弱的州长和权力较强的立法机构，设定了更为定期的选举，并适度增加了选民的规模。许多州效仿弗吉尼亚州，在宪法中包含了旨在保护个人权利并限制政府特权的声明或“权利法案”。宾夕法尼亚州的第一部州宪法是最激进和民主的。他们创建了单院立法机构和执行委员会，但没有真正的行政首长。所有自由人都可以投票，包括那些没有财产的人。马萨诸塞州的宪法于1780年通过，在结构上不那么民主，但经过了更为广泛的批准过程。1779年秋天，每个城镇派出代表——总共312人——参加在剑桥举行的制宪大会。城镇会议辩论宪法草案并提出建议。马萨诸塞州在设立三权分立的政府时预见到了后来的联邦宪法，基于各分支之间的制衡。独立是在1776年实现的，同时也开启了一段前所未有的制宪和州建设时期。

The Continental Congress ratified the Articles of Confederation in 1781. The articles allowed each state one vote in the Continental Congress. But the articles are perhaps most notable for what they did not allow. Congress was given no power to levy or collect taxes, regulate foreign or interstate commerce, or establish a federal judiciary. These shortcomings rendered the postwar Congress weak and largely ineffectual.

美国大陆会议于1781年批准了《邦联条款》。该条款允许每个州在大陆会议中投票一次。但该条款最显著的或许是它未能赋予的权力。国会没有征税、征收税款、调节国际或州际贸易或建立联邦司法机构的权力。这些缺陷使得战后的国会脆弱且在很大程度上无效。

Political and social life changed drastically after independence. Political participation grew as more people gained the right to vote, leading to greater importance being placed on representation within government. In addition, more common citizens (or “new men”) played increasingly important roles in local and state governance. Hierarchy within the states underwent significant changes. Society became less deferential and more egalitarian, less aristocratic and more meritocratic.

独立后，政治和社会生活发生了剧烈变化。随着越来越多的人获得投票权，政治参与增加，政府中对代表性的重视程度上升。此外，越来越多的普通公民（或“新兴人物”）在地方和州治理中扮演着日益重要的角色。各州内部的等级制度经历了重大变化。社会变得不再恭顺，而是更趋平等，不再是贵族化，而是更趋向于基于才能的社会。

The Revolution’s most important long-term economic consequence was the end of mercantilism. The British Empire had imposed various restrictions on the colonial economies including limiting trade, settlement, and manufacturing. The Revolution opened new markets and new trade relationships. The Americans’ victory also opened the western territories for invasion and settlement, which created new domestic markets. Americans began to create their own manufactures, no longer content to rely on those in Britain.

革命最重要的长期经济后果是重商主义的终结。英国帝国对殖民经济施加了各种限制，包括限制贸易、定居和制造业。革命打开了新的市场和新的贸易关系。美国的胜利也为西部领土的入侵和定居铺平了道路，从而创造了新的国内市场。美国人开始自行制造商品，不再满足于依赖英国的产品。

Despite these important changes, the American Revolution had its limits. Following their unprecedented expansion into political affairs during the imperial resistance, women also served the patriot cause during the war. However, the Revolution did not result in civic equality for women. Instead, during the immediate postwar period, women became incorporated into the polity to some degree as “republican mothers.” Republican societies required virtuous citizens, and it became mothers’ responsibility to raise and educate future citizens. This opened opportunity for women regarding education, but they still remained largely on the peripheries of the new American polity.

尽管这些重要的变化存在，但美国革命也有其局限性。在抵制帝国统治期间，女性在政治事务中经历了前所未有的扩展，她们在战争中也为爱国事业服务。然而，革命并未导致女性的公民平等。相反，在战后初期，女性在一定程度上被纳入到政治体系中，成为“共和母亲”。共和社会需要有美德的公民，母亲有责任抚养和教育未来的公民。这为女性提供了教育的机会，但她们仍然在新美国政治体中处于边缘地位。

Approximately sixty thousand loyalists ended up leaving America because of the Revolution. Loyalists came from all ranks of American society, and many lived the rest of their lives in exile from their homeland. A clause in the Treaty of Paris was supposed to protect their property and require the Americans to compensate Loyalists who had lost property during the war because of their allegiance. The Americans, however, reneged on this promise and, throughout the 1780s, states continued seizing property held by Loyalists. Some colonists went to England, where they were strangers and outsiders in what they had thought of as their mother country. Many more, however, settled on the peripheries of the British Empire throughout the world, especially Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec. The Loyalists had come out on the losing side of a Revolution, and many lost everything they had and were forced to create new lives far from the land of their birth.

大约有六万名忠诚者因为革命而离开了美国。忠诚者来自美国社会的各个阶层，许多人在流亡中度过了余生。《巴黎条约》中有一条款本应保护他们的财产，并要求美国人赔偿因忠于王室而在战争中失去财产的忠诚者。然而，美国人并未履行这一承诺，在1780年代，各州继续没收忠诚者的财产。一些殖民者前往英格兰，在他们曾认为是故国的地方却成了陌生人和局外人。然而，更多的人则在世界各地的英帝国边缘定居，特别是在新斯科舍省、新不伦瑞克省和魁北克省。忠诚者在革命中站在了失败的一方，许多人失去了所有，必须在远离出生地的地方重新开始生活。

In 1783, thousands of formerly enslaved Loyalists fled with the British army. They hoped that the British government would uphold the promise of freedom and help them establish new homes elsewhere in the Empire. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, demanded that British troops leave formerly enslaved people behind, but the British military commanders upheld earlier promises and evacuated thousands of freedmen, transporting them to Canada, the Caribbean, or Great Britain. They would eventually play a role in settling Nova Scotia, and through the subsequent efforts of David George, a Black loyalist and Baptist preacher, some settled in Sierra Leone in Africa. Black loyalists, however, continued to face social and economic marginalization, including restrictions on land ownership within the British Empire.

1783年，数千名曾被奴役的忠诚者随着英国军队逃离。他们希望英国政府能履行自由的承诺，并帮助他们在帝国的其他地方建立新家。《巴黎条约》结束了战争，要求英国军队留下曾被奴役的人，但英国军事指挥官坚持先前的承诺，撤离了数千名自由民，将他们运送到加拿大、加勒比海或大英帝国。最终，他们在新斯科舍省的定居中发挥了作用，并通过黑人忠诚者和浸信会牧师大卫·乔治的后续努力，部分人定居在非洲的塞拉利昂。然而，黑人忠诚者依然面临社会和经济的边缘化，包括在英帝国内对土地拥有权的限制。

The fight for liberty led some Americans to manumit their enslaved laborers, and most of the new northern states soon passed gradual emancipation laws. Some manumissions also occurred in the Upper South, but in the Lower South, some enslavers revoked their offers of freedom for service, and other freedmen were forced back into bondage. The Revolution’s rhetoric of equality created a “revolutionary generation” of enslaved people and free Black Americans that would eventually encourage the antislavery movement. Slave revolts began to incorporate claims for freedom based on revolutionary ideals. In the long term, the Revolution failed to reconcile slavery with these new egalitarian republican societies, a tension that eventually boiled over in the 1830s and 1840s and effectively tore the nation in two in the 1850s and 1860s.

争取自由的斗争使一些美国人解放了他们的奴隶劳工，大多数新的北方州很快通过了逐步解放法。在上南方也发生了一些解放，但在下南方，一些奴隶主撤回了他们的服务换取自由的承诺，其他被解放的人则被迫重返奴役。革命的平等口号造就了一代“革命世代”的奴隶和自由黑人的出现，最终推动了反奴隶制运动的兴起。奴隶反抗开始根据革命理想提出自由的要求。从长远来看，革命未能将奴隶制与这些新的平等共和社会调和，这一紧张关系最终在1830年代和1840年代爆发，并在1850年代和1860年代有效地将国家撕裂为两半。

Native Americans, too, participated in and were affected by the Revolution. Many Native American groups, such as the Shawnee, Creek, Cherokee, and Iroquois, had sided with the British. They had hoped for a British victory that would continue to restrain the land-hungry colonial settlers from moving west beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Unfortunately, the Americans’ victory and Native Americans’ support for the British created a pretense for justifying rapid and often brutal expansion into the western territories. Native American peoples would continue to be displaced and pushed farther west throughout the nineteenth century. Ultimately, American independence marked the beginning of the end of what had remained of Native American independence.

美洲土著人民也参与了革命，并受到其影响。许多美洲土著团体，如肖尼、克里克、切罗基和易洛魁，曾站在英国一边。他们希望英国获胜，以继续阻止贪图土地的殖民定居者向阿巴拉契亚山脉以西扩张。不幸的是，美国的胜利和美洲土著对英国的支持为迅速且往往残酷地扩展到西部地区提供了正当理由。美洲土著人民在整个19世纪将继续被驱逐并推向更远的西方。最终，美国独立标志着美洲土著独立所剩无几的开始。

VII. Conclusion

七、结论

The American Revolution freed colonists from British rule and offered the first blow in what historians have called “the age of democratic revolutions.” The American Revolution was a global event. Revolutions followed in France, then Haiti, and then South America. The American Revolution meanwhile wrought significant changes to the British Empire. Many British historians even use the Revolution as a dividing point between a “first British Empire” and a “second British Empire.” At home, however, the Revolution created a new nation-state, the United States of America. By September 1783, independence had been won. What the new nation would look like, however, was still very much up for grabs. In the 1780s, Americans would shape and then reshape that nation-state, first with the Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781, and then with the Constitution in 1787 and 1788.

美国革命使殖民地摆脱了英国的统治，并在历史学家所称的“民主革命时代”中发出了第一声炮响。美国革命是一个全球性事件。随后法国、海地以及南美洲也发生了革命。同时，美国革命对英国帝国造成了重大变化。许多英国历史学家甚至将革命视为“第一英帝国”和“第二英帝国”之间的分界点。然而，在国内，这场革命创造了一个新的民族国家，即美利坚合众国。到1783年9月，独立已然获得。但新国家的面貌依然悬而未决。在1780年代，美国人将塑造并重塑这个民族国家，首先通过1781年批准的《联邦条款》，然后通过1787年和1788年的《宪法》。

Historians have long argued over the causes and character of the American Revolution. Was the Revolution caused by British imperial policy or by internal tensions within the colonies? Were colonists primarily motivated by constitutional principles, ideals of equality, or economic self-interest? Was the Revolution radical or conservative? But such questions are hardly limited to historians. From Abraham Lincoln’s use of the Declaration of Independence in the Gettysburg Address to twenty-first-century Tea Party members wearing knee breeches, the Revolution has remained at the center of American political culture. Indeed, how one understands the Revolution often dictates how one defines what it means to be American.

历史学家们长期以来对美国革命的原因和特征进行争论。这场革命是由英国的帝国政策引发的，还是由殖民地内部的紧张关系引起的？殖民者主要是出于宪法原则、平等理想，还是经济自利的动机？这场革命是激进的还是保守的？但这样的问提并不仅限于历史学家。从亚伯拉罕·林肯在《盖茨堡演说》中引用《独立宣言》，到21世纪茶党成员穿着膝裤，革命始终处于美国政治文化的中心。事实上，一个人如何理解革命往往决定了他对美国意义的定义。

The Revolution was not won by a few founding fathers. Men and women of all ranks contributed to the colonies’ most improbable victory, from the commoners who protested the Stamp Act to the women who helped organize boycotts against the Townshend duties; from the men, Black and white, who fought in the army to the women who contributed to its support. The Revolution, however, did not aim to end all social and civic inequalities in the new nation, and, in the case of Native Americans, it created new inequalities. But over time, the Revolution’s rhetoric of equality, as encapsulated in the Declaration of Independence, helped highlight some of those inequalities and became a shared aspiration for future social and political movements, including, among others, the abolitionist and women’s rights movements of the nineteenth century, the suffragist and civil rights movements of the twentieth century, and the gay rights movement of the twenty-first century.

这场革命不是由少数开国元勋赢得的。各个阶层的男女都为殖民地最不可能的胜利做出了贡献，从抗议《印花税法》的平民，到帮助组织抵制《汤森法》的女性；从白人和黑人参军作战的男性，到为其提供支持的女性。然而，这场革命并不旨在结束新国家中的所有社会和公民不平等，特别是在美洲土著问题上，它创造了新的不平等。但随着时间的推移，革命所蕴含的平等言辞，正如《独立宣言》中所体现的那样，帮助突出了一些不平等，并成为未来社会和政治运动的共同愿望，包括19世纪的废奴主义和妇女权利运动、20世纪的女权和民权运动，以及21世纪的同性恋权利运动。