Surveys American society, economy, and politics during the Revolutionary era, 1760-90. Following victory over the French, settlers hurtled into the eastern Mississippi River valley in search of land. Those remaining on the Eastern seaboard resented with British efforts to make the colonies pay for war costs, continuing defense, and government. In 1764 the Sugar Act attempted to curb smuggling while the Currency Act prohibited paper currencies; the following year the Stamp Act levied s transaction tax, setting in motion protests of ‘no taxation without representation’. By that time, some 4,000 British troops (from Ireland) were billeted among Boston’s 15,000 population. By decade’s end, open sedition commenced in Massachusetts, the Boston Massacre occurring in 1770. (The ‘Intolerable Acts’ and the Quebec Act, which seemed to give control of the western trade to French Catholics, followed in 1774.) Colonists had long identified with English ‘country’ sentiments as well as Whiggish views of the overbearing George III. They set to refashioning state constitutions, elevating the legislatures; but the British could not reconcile any challenge to Westminster’s sovereignty. Following military victory, republicanism intensified the country ideology: equality of citizenry (e.g., all could own property, vote, or serve in the legislature) combined with Humean sensibilities (degrading learning in favor of common opinion) and neoclassical cultural spirit overwhelmed established American elites. The shift destabilized views of family (e.g., inheritance or women’s roles) and slavery. Methodists and Baptists caught up to Anglicans and Presbyterians by 1790; elites being deist, upstart religions filled the void. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was Confederation America’s finest moment, enabling settlers to migrate without losing political rights; the peace treaty a splendid diplomatic accomplishment, persuading both Britain and France to concede more of the West than they might have. The new country took land from Indians by right of conquest. Following independence, internal markets fueled economic gains – Newport, RI, exemplified a port city which fell behind. The new constitution was prompted by economic shortcomings, overbearing state legislatures, and foreign policy problems such as in the Northwest. In contrast with the British view of sovereignty residing in Parliament, the Americans located it in the people, and so hadn’t to recover it from the states. The people could endorse the new charter in super-legislative act which established the two tier (federal and state) system.