Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo: Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves & the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (Paperback)

from JBD1

An interesting analysis of pre-Revolutionary Virginia; Holton argues that many of the "elites" who we now consider leaders of the Revolutionary movement were in fact pushed there through the actions of slaves, smallholders, and Indians. Not entirely convincing, and I didn't think Holton gave enou...

from rsubber

Holton offers a backstory to the drive by Virginia's elite political leaders to support rebellion against England and the Declaration of Independence. He argues that Indians, slaves, merchants and small farmers, each in their own sphere, exerted influence on Washington, Jefferson and other Virgin...

from DarthDeverell

In Forced Founders, Woody Holton argues "that the Independence movement was...powerfully influenced by British merchants and by three groups that today would be called grassroots: Indians, farmers, and slaves." Holton argues against the tendency to transpose the New England narrative of the Ameri...

from noblechicken

Dry, but very informative perspective of the politics of the Revolutionary War era from the common peoples point of view in Virginia. Holton has managed to create an important and previously unrepresented piece of history. The most intriguing section to me was about Lord Dunmore and his emancipat...