Transcript of What Happened Immediately After the American Revolution Ended

[MUSIC PLAYING] It's easy to think that the moment the British surrendered at your town, the United States of America was born. But the truth is transforming the idealistic ex-colonies into a fully functional nation was a long, arduous process. The new country faced years of economic hardship. State governments were widely disorganized. Insurrections weren't uncommon, and the Continental Congress was toothless and ineffective. Yet somehow, the founding fathers were able to get their act together and form the country we recognize today. Today, we're going to take a look at what happened directly after the American Revolution ended. But before we get started, be sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel and let us know in the comments below what other chapters of American history you would like to hear about. OK. Let's head back to post-Revolutionary America. Although I guess we're post-Revolutionary right now, so let's head back to immediately post-Revolutionary America. While the revolution was very popular in the colonies, the truth is not everyone was in favor of rebelling against the crown. In fact, historians believe that the number of American colonists who remained loyal to the crown ranged anywhere from 15% to 20% of the entire population. This fairly large segment of the community was obviously unhappy when the British surrendered at Yorktown in 1781 and with good reason. After their surrender, many of these loyalists were hunted down at their homes and beaten by gangs of so-called patriots looking to punish them for backing the wrong side. If you're wondering, hey, why didn't you just keep your mouth shut, the truth is they probably couldn't. While a number of people, mostly wealthy, had the luxury of being able to keep silent about their politics, circumstances made it such that most colonists had to publicly choose a faction. So when the British started pulling out of the states, many the loyalists wisely went with them. The prime minister of Britain during the revolution was Frederick North, second earl of Guilford or Lord North for short. As prime minister, Lord North generously lowered the bar for his successors by losing the war and then resigning in disgrace. North tried to end the revolution by diplomatic means. He offered a conciliation plan that promised the British would end all oppression of the colonies if the colonists ended the rebellion. Spoiler alert. The colonists did not take the deal. By the time the war ended, North was exhausted by the tension between the two countries and felt badly burned out from the stress of his position. It's said that when Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Lord North took the news like a bullet to the chest, repeatedly exclaiming, "Oh, god. It's all over." The British waved the white flag at the Battle of Yorktown on October 17, 1781, but their withdrawal from the colonies didn't happen overnight. In fact, it took quite a while for them to get everyone out. As late as July 11, 1782, British royal governor Sir James Wright and military personnel under his command fled Georgia for South Carolina. Wright's goal was to escape the colonies via the Atlantic Ocean. Several of his ships sailed for New York while others went to Florida or the West Indies. As for Wright himself, he eventually made it back to London where he died three years later. While the British surrender happened at the Battle of Yorktown, the war itself was technically not over for quite a while afterwards. Official peace talks in Paris commenced a full year after the surrender in 1782. The British were represented at the talks by Richard Oswald while the Americans were represented by luminaries like John Jay, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. The two sides hammered out preliminary articles of peace which were signed at the Hotel d'York on November 30, 1782. This agreement brought America and Britain closer to the conclusion of the conflict and would become the basis for a formal treaty several years later. In 1783, the Continental Congress would ratify a preliminary version of the treaty. The agreement was then fleshed out a bit more, and the final version was ratified on January 14, 1784. The British then ratified the treaty April 9, 1784. And on May 12, 1784, the ratified versions were exchanged in Paris. Nothing quite as exciting as a good ratification exchange. The final treaty of Paris was the product of many months of negotiation and politics. Per its terms, England was required to recognize the former colonies as an independent nation. The British were also required to give the Americans control of the territory between the Allegheny mountains and the Mississippi River and let American fishermen fish in Canadian waters. The Americans agreed not to persecute British loyalists or block British creditors from collecting debts owed by former colonists. The Americans also agreed to return a great deal of the property taken during the conflict. In November of 1783, the last British soldiers departed from New York. With them were thousands of loyalists and former slaves. The event was celebrated in the new country and became a holiday known as Evacuation Day. The British understandably were a tad bitter about it. As a parting shot before they left, they nailed their flag to a pole and greased it up so it'd be hard to remove. The British-- such pranksters. The flag was eventually removed by a soldier named John Van Arsdale who scaled the pole and replaced the British flag with an American one. For years after, celebrations of evacuation day would typically include a re-enactment of Van Arsdale's daring climb. Just one month after the British troops left the country, General George Washington, the commander of the US Army, resigned his post. Washington's move was seen as a patriotic act that demonstrated a commitment to his country over any desire he had for personal power. It made him even more popular than he already was. And he was already trending to begin with. The former commander returned to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia. He remained there until his countrymen made it clear they wanted him to enter the forthcoming election and become the new country's first president. [MUSIC PLAYING] In the 1780s, an economic crisis swept through Massachusetts, forcing numerous farmers deep into debt. The state refused to forgive the debts, and many of the farmers lost their property or were thrown in jail. And anger began to foment. And given that many of these farmers were the same revolutionaries who had fought the British, they eventually took up arms against the government. When the Revolutionary War first started, Daniel Shays was just a farmhand. But after joining the Continental Army, he saw action in several battles, including the battle of Lexington, the battle of Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Battle of Saratoga. By the 1780s, Shays, now a savvy war vet, retired from the army and returned home to Massachusetts to find himself in trouble with the law for nonpayment of debts. He became active in the emerging antigovernment movement and soon found himself leading 4,000 rebels in a massive protest against economic injustice and widespread abuses of civil rights. However, while the revolution was ultimately a success, Shays' rebellion was not. The governor of Massachusetts, James Bowdoin, assembled his own militia and proceeded to crush the rebels. For what it's worth, siding against the citizens of his own state wound up costing the governor at the ballot box, and he was defeated in a landslide in the following election. In 1777, representatives of the original 13 states drafted the initial document that would outline American society, The Articles of Confederation. However, after America actually won its independence and became a functioning nation, it quickly became clear that the articles were badly in need of some revision. For example, the original articles didn't give the federal government any power to effect change, regulate the nation, or tax the people. A growing consensus emerged that a constitution was needed. So on February 21, 1787, the confederation Congress called for a convention to propose a new form of government. Delegates were sent to Philadelphia to craft the new governing document. Over the next several months, various plans for the new federal government were presented and debated. Eventually, compromises were reached. And after a signing ceremony on September 17, 1787, the United States Constitution was completed. While the Constitution is considered the backbone of American democracy today, it wasn't an immediate hit with everyone. In fact, it took several years for all of the states to ratify it. While there weren't formal political parties yet, factions quickly emerged around those in favor of the new constitution, known as Federalists or cosmopolitans, and those who were against it, known as anti-Federalists or localists. The first five states to ratify were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut. Several of the other states had serious misgivings. The document failed to protect basic human rights, such as freedom of speech and religion. To rectify the situation, 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights were quickly added to the Constitution. Meanwhile, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay undertook a relentless campaign to convince New York, then a firmly anti-Federalist state, to support the new plan. The three men wrote numerous essays under the pseudonym PUBLIUS. Today, these commentaries, famously known as the Federalist papers, are often cited by the US Supreme Court as evidence of the framers' own contemporary understanding of the language in the Constitution. By its own terms, the minimum number of states required to ratify the document was nine. And after much public debate, that number was reached on June 21. By the end of July, another two signed on, and the process of starting up the new government began. The United States of America held its first presidential election under the new Constitution in 1789. The rules of this first election were extremely different than the laws governing elections today. For example, only white male property owners were allowed to cast votes. Also, the candidate who got the second highest number of votes would become vice president, an arrangement that didn't work out too well and was changed relatively quickly. In addition to General George Washington, there were seven other candidates in that first election, including John Adams, John Jay, John Rutledge, John Hancock-- hmm, John was a popular name-- Samuel Huntington, Benjamin Lincoln, and George Clinton, who was the governor of New York and not the guy from Parliament-Funkadelic. In what will come as no surprise to anyone, the election was won by the massively popular George Washington, who in something that would be inconceivable to Americans today was the unanimous choice of both factions, Federalists and anti-Federalists. He would be sworn into office on April 30, 1789, and henceforth be known as the father of the country. So what do you think? How do you think the founding fathers did? Let us know in the comments below. And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos from our Weird History. [MUSIC PLAYING]