The documents below demonstrate some of the ways in which the American Revolution influenced the lives of African Americans, women, poor men, dissenters, and non-Protestants. The documents in the first section focus on individual African Americans, the status of African Americans in general, and the institution of slavery in the new United States. The second section focuses on white women and the extent to which the Revolution did or did not change their social and legal status. The documents in the last two sections explore how the Revolution affected the rights and social status of poor men in the United States and of men and women who did not belong to the dominant Protestant faiths.
