"Why Did George Washington Join the Revolution?" Topic

"A close examination of some of Washington's writings provides many clues as to why Washington joined the Revolutionary War…."
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Amicalement
Armand

You know, the best thing the British could have done after the Seven Years/French and Indian War was made Washington a peer and had him raise a Royal regiment in Virginia

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

The letter documents his obvious sense of frustration and disgust at the manner in which the colonists were treated by the British professionals in the FI War, but it is a stretch to suggest it has much of anything to do with his decision to align himself with the revolutionists in the years leading up to the revolution.

To get to the other side?

He was tired of paying top dollar for British imports and in return receive poor quality goods. He believed the British merchants were purposely ripping the Americans off. That is why he began producing everything he could in Virginia.

There were always the threat the British could cut off the slave trade. He tried to get a British officers commission but was turned down. Just a few here. I am sure there are more but when it comes down to it, money seems to be the number one reason for many of the Founders.

He was rather fond of winning.

A lot of Americans joined because they thought they were disrespected for being Americans.
"Taxation without representation" was just one facet.
Not being allowed to join the British army as an officer.
Provincial ranks being inferior despite being equivalent.

Had the British treated the Colonies as part of Britain, rather than … the Colonies, would have been far better for all concerned.
The rebelling colonists felt slighted. At least the big shots, who are always the ones who really count.
George was certainly a Big Shot.

Even the little shots felt pretty well slightly. Patriotic colonists had turned out in great numbers to volunteer for service in the French and Indian War; only to be poorly treated at every turn by the regular army during that war. Then very shortly afterwards when that regular army came back as a large and hostile occupying force with an already established disdain for the colonists, things didn't get better.

Winston;
"Disrespected" is not a verb.

Forsooth.

Eric

Of course it is.
He often said to Jefferson and Hancock, "They was dissin' me, Man!"

According to the Grammarphobia blog, the Oxford English Dictionary has a citation of disrespect used as a verb dating from 1614.

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By extension, as you say, the short form "dis" makes a lot of sense. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language now recognizes "dis" as an "informal" verb meaning "to show disrespect to" someone.

Oooh. Informal verbs!

And we have a citation right here from 26 Nov 2018 9:50 a.m. PST!

"Patriotic colonists had turned out in great numbers to volunteer for service in the French and Indian War; only to be poorly treated at every turn by the regular army during that war."

THere are contemporary sources which suggest that auxiliary forces drawn from the the Colonies to support the Crown forces in the F&IW did not always cover themselves with glory.

We also have contemporary sources showing that the Provincial forces were assigned overwhelmingly to fatigue details and guard duty that kept them exhausted and with precious little time for any training before combat. They were malnourished to the point of starvation and often too physically weak from hunger to even effectively perform the continuous fatigue details They were lucky to have tallied a week's worth of firearm training before being committed to battle. All while being derided by the regular officers and soldiers for being bad troops.

They were indeed bad 'regular troops'. What they were was very highly motivated and dedicated auxiliaries. The regulars had no concept of how to incorporate them as auxiliaries.

This generation of young Provinicials from across the colonies formed a collective [and generally negative] experience of dealing with the regular army. They would go on to be the older community leaders come the revolution. That was a huge flip from starting out as exceedingly loyal volunteers who served the crown.