During the American Revolutionary war were the Patriots of British ancestry themselves?

Question

Wasnt the war more like Britain against Britain? like a British or English civil war? but is it true most soldiers & the Militia men were of British heritage themselves, by the way how did the accent change? also were some patriots of Scot-Irish ancestry aswell? thanks.

Answer 1

The patriots represented the ethnicity of the colonies. The bulk were of British backrounds but certainly scots, Irish, german, dutch...The US had been settled for more than 100 years when the revolution broke out.

It was very much like a civil war in the sense that public opinion was pretty evenly divided three ways...Rebels, Loyalists and Fence sitters.

After the war a lot of the loyalists moved to Canada

If you want to read about the Revolution from a loyalist standpoint I recommend Kenneth Roberts historical Novel Oliver Wiswell.

Answer 2

Yes to both of your questions. The majority of the colonists in the American Colonies were of British origin. This includes the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, etc. If you will recall there were also a number of Dutch colonists as well and Germans, the Pennsylvania Dutch folk are primarily German. I would guess that up around the Canadian border there were colonists of French extraction and in the south towards Florida, a Spanish possession, there were folk of Spanish heritage. We were pretty much a melting pot even then. As to the difference between American English and The Queen's English, I would guess the influences of those other heritages had something to do with the changes. Okay that's my two cents for what it's worth.

Answer 3

As noted, it depends on perspective. To the Brits, the American colonists were clearly rebels. But I am guessing you seek help with some kind of homeworks assigment, so we may assume the perspective concerned is American -- so we were the patriots in the Revolutionary War. As for spies and their contribution to that conflict, I suggest you do some research on the topic. Best first place to start would be a topic search of books online of you local library. Then you will want to do some skimming to define terms and narrow your focus before doing a second online search (also through the library) of artlicles from journals and periodicals. Of course, if this is something due tomorrow, you should probably just skim around Wikipedia for some basic info and hope you can squeeze out a C. Assuming someone gives you a usable answer on here, I wonder how that will look in the Works Cited...

Answer 4

Y E S!!There were Scottish and Irish ancestry
fighting in the Revolutionary War. There were also French in the war fighting for the Patriots(Americans).

Answer 5

Of course. The pilgrims were the first people of not Native American descent to reach this country and they were English.

Now of course the Patriots represeneted the ethnicity of the colonies but they were of British descent.

Answer 6

of course they were they were British Colonials there were no Americans At that time so yes we were fighting between ourselves
Scottish and Welsh are Brittish and yes there were Irish
its not just the American accent thats changed our accent and spelling is nothing like it was back then either

Answer 7

there were people from all over europe in america at the time of the revolution, but when you figure that many of them had been here for at least a generation, they considered themselves american. my family's roots are from ireland and germany, but i consider myself american with a specific focus on pennsylvania dutch (we're a very unique bunch!). i went to germany two summers ago, and although it rang true with my soul, it wasn't home.