"What do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war?" Former President John Adams asked in a letter to a magazine publisher in 1818, eight years before America’s 50th birthday.This question is fitting today as we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.
His answer is a revelation about the real revolution.Adams understood that the American Revolution began long before the first muskets flared at the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775.He knew it went beyond the battlegrounds and bloodshed of an eight-year war.
Nearly 7,000 American soldiers were killed in action, while 17,000 soldiers died of disease.At its core, the revolution was a transformation of the colonists’ hearts and souls.For most of them, this change came slowly, after wrestling in their hearts over their allegiances and beliefs in the decade leading to the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776."The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations," Adams explained.THE PENNSYLVANIA LONG RIFLE: THE GUN THAT WON THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONWorking through differences in faith was essential to building a new nation.
(Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)Why did Adams describe the revolution as a change of religious sentiments? He understood something that many of us may have trouble understanding today.The American founders believed that they were very diverse, especially in their religious beliefs."The colonies had grown up under constitutions of government, so different, there was so great a variety of religions, they were composed of so many different nations, their customs, manners and habits had so little resemblance," Adams wrote of America’s first diversity struggle.In 1776, the founders knew that European history was marred by religious persecution.
Catholic English monarchs had persecuted Protestants while Protestant English monarchs had persecuted Catholics.Jews had been pe...