Course: The American Revolution with Joanne B. Freeman Dnatube
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Lec 1 - Introduction: Freeman's Top Five ...
"Lec 1 - Introduction: Freeman's Top Five Tips for Studying the Revolution"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman offers an introduction to the course, summarizing the readings and discussing the course's main goals. She also offers five tips for studying the Revolution: 1) Avoid thinking about the Revolution as a story about facts and dates; 2) Remember that words we take for...
Lec 2 - Being a British Colonist
"Lec 2 - Being a British Colonist"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman discusses what it meant to be a British colonist in America in the eighteenth century. She explains how American colonists had deep bonds of tradition and culture with Great Britain. She argues that, as British colonists with a strong sense of their British liberties, settlers in America valued their...
Lec 3 -Being a British American
" Lec 3 -Being a British AmericanThe American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman discusses the differences between society in the American colonies and society in Britain in the eighteenth century. She uses examples from colonists' writings to show that the American colonies differed from British society in three distinct ways: the distinctive character of the people who migrated to the...
Lec 4 - Ever at Variance and Foolishly J ...
"Lec 4 - Ever at Variance and Foolishly Jealous"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman discusses colonial attempts to unite before the 1760s and the ways in which regional distrust and localism complicated matters. American colonists joined together in union three times before the 1760s. Two of these attempts were inspired by the necessity of self-defense; the third attempt was...
Lec 5 - Outraged Colonials: The Stamp Ac ...
"Lec 5 - Outraged Colonials: The Stamp Act Crisis"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman concludes her discussion (from the previous lecture) of the three early instances in which the American colonies joined together to form a union. She then turns to a discussion of the Stamp Act crisis, and how American colonists found a shared bond through their dissatisfaction with the...
Lec 6 - Resistance or Rebellion? (Or, Wh ...
"Lec 6 - Resistance or Rebellion? (Or, What the Heck is Happening in Boston?)"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman discusses the mounting tensions between the colonists and the British in the late 1760s and early 1770s. The Virginia Resolves were published and read throughout the colonies in 1765, and generated discussion about colonial rights and liberties. Colonies began...
Lec 7 - Being a Revolutionary
"Lec 7 - Being a Revolutionary"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman continues her discussion of the Boston Massacre and how it represented a growing sense of alienation between the American colonists and the British authorities. The Americans and British both felt that the colonies were subordinate to Parliament in some way, but differed in their ideas of the exact nature of...
Lec 8 - The Logic of Resistance
"Lec 8 - The Logic of Resistance"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman lays out the logic of American resistance to British imperial policy during the 1770s. Prime Minister Lord North imposed the Intolerable Acts on Massachusetts to punish the radicals for the Boston Tea Party, and hoped that the act would divide the colonies. Instead, the colonies rallied around Massachusetts...
Lec 9 - Who Were the Loyalists?
"Lec 9 - Who Were the Loyalists?"The American Revolution (HIST 116) The lecture first concludes the discussion of the First Continental Congress, which met in 1774. Ultimately, although its delegates represented a range of opinions, the voices of the political radicals in the Congress were the loudest. In October 1774, the Continental Congress passed both the radical Suffolk Resolves and the...
Lec 10 - Common Sense
"Lec 10 - Common Sense"The American Revolution (HIST 116) This lecture focuses on the best-selling pamphlet of the American Revolution: Thomas Paine's Common Sense, discussing Paine's life and the events that led him to write his pamphlet. Published in January of 1776, it condemned monarchy as a bad form of government, and urged the colonies to declare independence and establish their own...
Lec 11 - Independence
"Lec 11 - Independence"The American Revolution (HIST 116) In this lecture, Professor Freeman discusses the Declaration of Independence and sets the document in its historical context. The Declaration was not the main focus of the Second Continental Congress, which was largely concerned with organizing the defensive war effort. The Congress had sent King George III the Olive Branch Petition...
Lec 12 - Civil War
"Lec 12 - Civil War"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman concludes the discussion of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was widely circulated and read aloud throughout the colonies. Professor Freeman argues that by 1775-1776, British and American citizens were operating under different assumptions about how the conflict between them could be resolved. The...
Lec 13 - Organizing a War
"Lec 13 - Organizing a War"The American Revolution (HIST 116) In this lecture, Professor Freeman discusses four difficulties that the Continental Congress faced in organizing the colonial war effort: regionalism, localism, the supply shortage that the Continental Army faced in providing for its troops, and the Continental Congress's inexperience in organizing an army. The lecture concludes...
Lec 14 - Heroes and Villains
"Lec 14 - Heroes and Villains"The American Revolution (HIST 116) In this lecture, Professor Freeman discusses Benedict Arnold as a case study of the ways in which ideas about regionalism, social rank, and gender - and the realities of the Continental Congress and the Continental Army - played out in this period. Like many Americans during this period, Benedict Arnold thought that he could...
Lec 15 - Citizens and Choices: Experienc ...
"Lec 15 - Citizens and Choices: Experiencing the Revolution in New HavenThe American Revolution (HIST 116) To show how Americans experienced the war and made difficult choices, Professor Freeman offers a spur-of-the-moment lecture on New Haven during the Revolution, discussing how Yale College students and New Haven townspeople gradually became caught up in the war. Warfare finally came to...
Lec 16- The Importance of George Washington
"Lec 16- The Importance of George Washington"The American Revolution (HIST 116) This lecture focuses on George Washington and the combined qualities that made him a key figure in Revolutionary America, arguing that the most crucial reason for his success as a national leader was that he proved repeatedly that he could be trusted with power - a vital quality in a nation fearful of the...
Lec 17 - The Logic of a Campaign (or, Ho ...
"Lec 17 - The Logic of a Campaign (or, How in the World Did We Win?)"The American Revolution (HIST 116) In this lecture, Professor Freeman explains the logic behind American and British military strategy during the early phases of the Revolution. First, she discusses the logistic disadvantages of the British during the war: the difficulties shipping men and supplies from more than three...
Lec 18- Fighting the Revolution: The Big ...
"Lec 18- Fighting the Revolution: The Big Picture"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Today's lecture concludes Professor Freeman's discussion of the four phases of the Revolutionary War. America's victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 marked the end of the third phase of the war, and led to a turning point in the conflict: France's decision to recognize American independence and enter...
Lec 19 - War and Society
"Lec 19 - War and Society"The American Revolution (HIST 116) In this lecture, Professor Freeman discusses the experiences of African Americans, women, and Native Americans during the Revolution, framing her discussion within a larger historical debate over whether or not the Revolution was "radical." Freeman ultimately concludes that while white American males improved their position in...
Lec 20 -Confederation
"Lec 20 -Confederation"The American Revolution (HIST 116) This lecture discusses the ongoing political experimentation involved in creating new constitutions for the new American states. Having declared independence from Great Britain, Americans had to determine what kind of government best suited their individual states as well as the nation at large; to many, this was the "whole object" of...
Lec 21- A Union Without Power
"Lec 21- A Union Without Power"The American Revolution (HIST 116) In this lecture, Professor Freeman discusses the Articles of Confederation. Although they seem hopelessly weak in the long view of history, the Articles made perfect sense as a first stab at a national government by a people who deeply distrusted centralized power - a direct product of their recent experience of the British...
Lec 22 -The Road to a Constitutional Con ...
"Lec 22 -The Road to a Constitutional Convention"The American Revolution (HIST 116) In this lecture, Professor Freeman discusses how the new nation moved towards creating a stronger, more centralized national government than the Articles of Confederation. Complications of commerce between individual states - a factor that wasn't regulated by the Articles - led to a series of interstate...
Lec 23- Creating a Constitution
"Lec 23- Creating a Constitution"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman discusses the national debate over the proposed Constitution, arguing that in many ways, when Americans debated its ratification, they were debating the consequences and meaning of the Revolution. Some feared that a stronger, more centralized government would trample on the rights and liberties that had...
Lec 24 - Creating a Nation
"Lec 24 - Creating a Nation"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman discusses the national debate over the proposed Constitution, arguing that in many ways, when Americans debated its ratification, they were debating the consequences and meaning of the Revolution. Some feared that a stronger, more centralized government would trample on the rights and liberties that had been won...
Lec 25 - Being an American: The Legacy ...
"Lec 25 - Being an American: The Legacy of the Revolution"The American Revolution (HIST 116) Professor Freeman discusses when we can consider a revolution to have ended, arguing that a revolution is finally complete when a new political regime gains general acceptance throughout society - and that, for this reason, it is the American citizenry who truly decided the fate and trajectory of...
The American Revolution with Joanne B. Freeman
Source of these courses is Yale
The American Revolution entailed some remarkable transformations--converting British colonists into American revolutionaries, and a cluster of colonies into a confederation of states with a common cause -- but it was far more complex and enduring then the fighting of a war. As John Adams put it, "The Revolution was in the Minds of the people... before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington"--and it continued long past America's victory at Yorktown. This course will examine the Revolution.
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COURSE NAME: The American Revolution with Joanne B. Freeman