The movement for colonial independence began and always remained strongest in New England. The mid-Atlantic seaports moved along in support after the Tea Act. The Southern planters at no point had any immediate reason to involve themselves, excepting some of the Virginians who were looking more over the mountains into the Ohio valley.
Lacking the right to have banks of their own, wealthy colonists had long placed their money in land. People like Washington invested their wealth into land. They could always count on land increasing in value as new settlers arrived there. The Proclamation of 1763 pledged the Crown to prevent further white settlement. Concern about the future of their holdings across the mountains was a vital concern for some of them. Not just Washington who built his career (and started the Seven Years War) surveying those western lands but Jefferson, Madison and Monroe were all neighbors clustered along what was then the western line of white settlement. On the other hand, a sizeable portion of the planters were Tories (not just planters, of course). Those that sided with the movement for Independence did so more slowly and, yes, they were risking a great deal. And, yes, getting rid of slavery was thinkable in the colonies, as in Britain itself. Cheers, Mark L. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8554): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8554 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82563203/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
