The Colonial Past in the Early Republic

Abstract

This chapter examines representations of the colonial past in the two decades following the end of the war. It explores how postwar Americans reimagined their shared colonial past in light of the present by stressing the colonies’ practical independence from Britain and internal unity from the earliest days of settlement. In doing so, this new shared colonial past contributed to both a sense of historical and cultural independence from the former mother country and a historical narrative that de-radicalized the Revolution by stressing continuity between the colonial past and present. It argues that reimagining the colonial past was a critical part of the efforts to create a shared national history that would foster national identity in the new republic.