Stephen Savage

Ms. Goodloe
Humanities 8A
11 November 2015
What Were the Most Important Roles in the American Revolution?
If you were forced with a decision to fight for freedom and risk everything you have ever
known, or live in fear of the consequences and stay loyal, what would you choose? In the
American Revolution, there were five groups of minorities. The Native Americans, who were
fighting for what was originally theirs, the women, who were tasked with looking over the farms
while the men went off to war, the slaves, who fought for both the Patriots and the British, the
Patriots, who fought for the freedom of the Americans, and the Loyalists, who supported and
fought with the British army (Essential Documents). Which minority in the American Revolution
was the most important? Although all the minorities were important to the Revolution, Patriots,
women, and Loyalists were the most important.
During the Revolutionary war, the patriots played an important role. The Patriots role in
the Revolutionary war was to fight the oppression fight of the British, to allow them to believe in
what they wanted. Its a matter of fundamental rights. Thats how daddy put it... Everybody
had a different fundamental right to protect, a different breaking point. (Rinaldi 63). The
Patriots were colonists who supported the Continental Congress and independence, and fought
with the Americans to get freedom (Essential Documents). The Patriots took control of the fight,
and beat back the british on their own terms. I suspect they think its now time. Anniversary of
the declaration against the king yesterday (Rinaldi 105). The Patriots stood up against the british
and they fought, even though that often meant losing what was important to them. ...that place

where Mrs. Martin had gathered her small family after being burned out of her own home for
being a patriot (Rinaldi 106).
During the revolutionary war, the woman played an important role, but were looked at as
unimportant to the cause by other groups. When the men went off to fight, most of the women
stayed behind to look over the farm, children, and servants, however some of the women went
into the army to be messengers and nurses. (Essential Documents). Often times the womens
efforts in the war were completely neglected, and all the credit was given to the men. It was all
male notations, this rebel or tory business (Rinaldi 24). Even though the womens efforts
went unnoticed, they still suffered just the same as men during the war. ...matter for the women,
too, so many of the women have suffered because of it. Saw their houses burn, livestock
slaughtered, their servants taken. (Rinaldi 261).
The Loyalists played the most important role in the Revolutionary War. The Loyalists
were colonists who remained faithful to the king and Great Britain, and fought on the side of the
british to neutralize the Patriot war effort (Essential Documents). They motivated the Patriots to
fight for freedom. The Loyalists opressed the rights of the Patriots, and treated them unfairly. I
had 200 lashes for misconduct (Rinaldi 54). They killed Kit Gales (Rinaldi 44). ...Monster
who with the opening of his mouth could sentence a man to death (Rinaldi 29). The Patriots
were unhappy with their situation as it was, but without the harsh punishments and murder of
kids, the Patriot cause never would have boiled over into the War it became.
The Patriots, Women, and Loyalists were the most important minorities in the American
Revolution, however, the Loyalists were the most important group, because they fueled the fire
that allowed the Patriots to fight for what they believed in, even though for many of them it
meant death.