Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence

John Adams described July 1776 as the moment when thirteen clocks managed to strike at the same time, but Robert G. Parkinson's new history reveals that racial fear was the driving force behind the creation of the Declaration of Independence. He argues that patriot leaders used racial prejudices to persuade Americans to declare independence, and that the exploitation of colonial fears about race was more significant than the love of liberty.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 256 pages
\n Publication date: 10 May 2021
\n Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
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In his renowned account of the origins of American unity, John Adams hailed July 1776 as the moment when thirteen clocks managed to strike simultaneously. How, then, did these American colonies overcome insurmountable odds to forge a lasting union capable of declaring independence from Britain? In this compelling new history of the fifteen tense months that culminated in the Declaration of Independence, Robert G. Parkinson provides a troubling answer: racial fear. By tracing the circulation of information in the colonial news systems that linked patriot leaders and average colonists, Parkinson reveals how the system's participants constructed a compelling drama featuring virtuous men suddenly threatened by ruthless Indians and defiant slaves acting on behalf of the king.

Parkinson argues that patriot leaders exploited racial prejudices to persuade Americans to declare independence. Between the start of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and the Declaration, they broadcast any news they could find about Native Americans, enslaved Blacks, and Hessian mercenaries working with their British enemies. Thus, American independence owed less to the love of liberty than to the exploitation of colonial fears about race.

Thirteen Clocks offers an accessible history of the Revolution that uncovers the uncomfortable origins of the republic while also speaking to our own time.

\n Weight: 360g\n
Dimension: 157 x 234 x 20 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781469662572\n \n