Review

General Books

The Human Tradition in the American Revolution, edited by Nancy L. Rhoden and Ian K. Steele, is the second in a projected multi-volume series of minibiographies of individuals who are generally "less conspicuous but whose stories, nonetheless, offer us a window on some aspect of the nation's past." This particular volume consists of biographical sketches of seventeen individuals present in English North America during the period of the American Revolution. Arranged in order by the date of their birth, the editors provide a limited introduction to each biography, as well as a brief explanation of the purpose of this more inclusive anthology which includes men and women as well as Euro-Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans. Although some prominent elites are included, e.g., "Mrs. General," i.e., the Baroness Friederike von Riedesel, and the Virginia patriot and politician Arthur Lee, non-elites dominate the collection. There are six women, for example, as well as two African Americans and two Native Americans. The biographies also include men and women from the various regions of the incipient nation as well as exemplars of the range of political positions including those of patriot, loyalist, neutral and detached. Men and women of all economic conditions and classes are included as are political elites, middling artisans, impoverished soldiers and slaves. The only group not explicitly included are children.	1
Although illustrative of the range of human experiences, the men and women included in the anthology are not representative of the population groups from which they are drawn. The Euro-American males – Anthony Benezet, Lachlan McGillivray, William Smith, William Pendergast, Ashley Bowen, Daniel Boone, Arthur Lee, Simon Girty, Benjamin Gilbert and Jacob Nagle – are not representative of their gender, class, or region. Quite the contrary, they are by definition exceptional in two ways. First, they generated sufficient records to be identified by historians more than two centuries later and to have their lives recounted. And second, they lived their lives in ways that illustrate the breadth of human experiences, not the norm. Anthony Benezet, for example, was an antislavery advocate at a time when few white men and women shared his moral and philosophical convictions. William Pendergast differed from most men who like him were "oppressed" by the rich in that he resisted to the point of facing execution. Benjamin Gilbert and Jacob Nagle served in the Continental Army and Navy respectively, when most white men did not. Likewise the women included in the anthology – Eliza Lucas Pinckney, Elizabeth Drinker and her servant Jane Boon, the Baroness Fredericke von Riesdel, and Judith Murray Sargent – are atypical of Euro-American women of Revolutionary era. Von Riesdel, in fact, was not an American at all, but the wife of a German mercenary. Eliza Pinckney, Elizabeth Drinker and Judith Murray Sargent were all prominent elite women from South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts respectively. Pinckney and Sargent are also well known for their unique contributions to American agriculture and political thought. Pinckney played a key role in the development of indigo in South Carolina and Sargent was an articulate spokesperson for the rights of women by the 1770s. Finally, both the Native American and African American men and women included in the anthology are extraordinary figures. Dragging Canoe rejected the leadership of the elders of the Chicamauga tribe to pursue his own resistance to United States encroachment while Mary Brant, an Iroquois woman, lived as the wife of the British Superintendent for Indian Affairs Sir William Johnson. She was also an active Loyalist, which further set her apart from the bulk of her tribe. Absalom Jones, a black Episcopalian minister, was atypical in that he was one of the few African-American men born into slavery able to purchase his own and his wife's freedom. Likewise, Phyliss Wheatley, a distinguished poet, also acquired her freedom at a time when few men or women born into slavery were able to do so and established an international reputation during her own lifetime, by definition an extraordinary act.	2
These men and women are not typical then in terms of their individual lives. They are illustrative of the range of options made available to men and women of all classes and races as a by-product of Colonial resistance to British authority in the 1760s and beyond. Neither do they reflect the propositions of people in English North America who pursued those options. As illustrations of the range of choices made by real people, these minibiographies are informative. But the biographies as a whole are only that. They tell us a story of various individuals. But with the exception of the essays by Gary Nash and John Shy, the biographies lack the contextual and interpretive framework necessary to contribute materially to our understanding of that complex phenomenon known as the American Revolution.	3
University of Texas at San Antonio   Steven R. Boyd

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