Roads to Revolution

Between 1764 and 1775 thirteen British colonies in North America each started down their own road to revolution against the British Empire. As John Adams recalled, the colonies were so different in their government, religions, and customs, and had so little to do with each other, "that to unite them in the same principles in theory and the same system of action" would be an extraordinary feat. Yet the radical changes in the political, economic, and social dimensions of transatlantic life wrought by the end of the Seven Years War would do just that, bringing Americans and Britons alike to new senses of the meaning of liberty and equality.