Societal Discourse in the Colonies | Julie Silverbrook | BRI’s Constitutional Conversations

0:00 you mentioned these three groups the ones that were satisfied with kind of the status quo the ones that were concerned and the ones that there were that were an outright rebellion even as the war progressed you still have these three groups interacting what can you tell us about the percentages or how those three groups were interacting throughout the war period so I think

0:21 some historians estimate that estimate that it was about a third a third and a third so it’s pretty evenly divided I think the people who were thinking there could be some kind of compromise eventually are won over to the revolutionary cause I you know they’re preaching from the pulpit to say this is you know preordained that we should be

0:44 independent they’re publishing pamphlets like common sense they just don’t think you can understand how influential common sense was in not just saying this isn’t just about attacking the current Kings actions this is attacking monarchy right that monarch occult principle and then you have these state constitutions

1:04 that are drafted where you have relatively weak executive branches because of the experience with the British monarchy and you have these much more powerful legislatures again because the colonial experience was that these provincial congress’s were what we’re checking British power during the colonial period and so you see fairly

1:26 robust legislative bodies put together during the colonial or during that transitional period during the Revolutionary War and that again impacts decision-making at the Constitutional Convention