Voices of an Era

1 total work

Voices of Revolutionary America: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life

by Carol Sue Humphrey

Published 23 May 2011

This book describes the everyday lives of people during the American Revolution as they adapted to the political and military conflicts of the time.

Students studying the American Revolutionary War learn primarily about battles and how independence from the British was achieved. In Voices of Revolutionary America: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life, readers get the largely untold story of the American Revolution: the ongoing issues and details of life in the background, behind the battles.

This book surveys the entirety of the Revolutionary era, describing topics like marriage, childbirth, learning a trade, cost of living, slavery, and religion in the late 18th century. While some documents from the 1760s and early 1770s are provided to present general information about life, the book focuses on the years of the war from 1775 to 1783 and describes how the prolonged conflict impacted people's day-to-day lives.

Includes original documents showing the impact of war on daily life, such as a series of letter exchanges between John and Abigail Adams showing how Abigail ran the family farm while John was serving in the Continental Congress

Provides a chronology of events in American history during the Revolutionary Era

Supplies a bibliography of important books, websites, and films related to the Revolution and its impact on Americans

Contains a helpful glossary of terms