Bill Offutt - Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City, 1775–1776

It is April 1, 1775. The residents of the British colony of New York are involved in a political and social struggle of enormous intensity, in which the future of millions of people on a continental scale seems contingent on the actions and reactions of every member of that society. For ten years, the actions of the British government (levying taxes, instituting regulations, sending in military troops) have led to many colonial responses of defiance, which have produced repeated political crises and escalating confrontations involving violence and intimidation. The legitimacy of the existing political and economic system of the British empire is now under attack, following Bostons infamous tea party of 1773, the stunning punishments the British government leveled on Massachusetts in response, and the subsequent intercolonial economic retaliation against the British proposed by the first ever Continental Congress in 1774. The British North American colonies now teeter on the brink of political chaos, economic catastrophe, social upheaval, and possibly warincomprehensible possibilities just a few years before.

The vast majority of New Yorkers, formerly lacking much political enthusiasm or principles beyond self-interest, now face a choice of two factions within a political elite that happily prospered from and cooperated with British rule. The Patriots are now passionately opposed to the existing British government, believing that the British have spent the previous decade plotting to destroy colonial rights and liberties. The Loyalists are just as passionately committed to the British governments defense, claiming it ensures the rule of law and provides prosperity, protection, and justice amid chaos and disorder. Many if not most New Yorkers are waiting for the next crisis before picking a side. Those New Yorkersmoderate undecided elite and disfranchised men, women, and slaveswill be swayed to the Patriot or Loyalist side by a combination of principle, self-interest, and opportunistic desire to join the side whose success is most assured.

When the game begins, you have just been calledeither by election or by personal interestto attend a Provincial Congress for the entire New York colony held in New York City Hall. New Yorks regular colonial assembly has been dissolved by the royal governor, who then fled the scene in fear for his safety. The Provincial Congress thus is not a regular governing body but an extraordinary new institution, erected to meet the needs of an ongoing crisis of political power and authority. This Congress must deal with the collapse of the existing order and government under the pressure of events in Massachusetts and the divisions between Patriots and Loyalists in the elite. Without the power to command any regular institutions of governmentpower enjoyed by tax collectors, bureaucrats, or an armythe Provincial Congress will have to enforce its own decisions about New Yorks role in the British Empire, about the necessity of revolution, and about who should make these decisions for society in the first place.

Some of the players in this episode of Reacting to the Past have the power to vote in this Congress, having been elected by their neighbors; some are from the city, others are from nearby counties, and still others are from regions more than one hundred miles away. Other players, including laborers, slaves, and women, sit in the gallery of the Congress without votes, but they are hardly spectatorsthey make comments and ask questions from the balcony or at the podium, add petitions to the agenda, and engage in street actions to influence the course of events. All will draw on their knowledge of history, on the writings of great philosophers and lowly pamphleteers, and on their own personal views on culture, economy, and society to advance their own interests as well as the interests of New York.

Now, in early April 1775, no one knows there will be a war; no one knows that a Declaration of Independence will be produced; and no one knows who will be victorious. The game asks you to determine the fate of New York in 177576, and the outcome depends on your collective actions and choices during the sixteen months of historical time covered by the game. The choices made in the game may (and in fact often do) deviate from what really happened, but all choices available in the game were real possibilities at the time. The game requires you to understand and internalize the choices and contingencies of that time; it allows you to feel the anxieties and triumphs of those alive in that moment, and thus make the history of Patriots, Loyalists, and all colonial Americans your own. You probably know something about the results of the American Revolution, including that the Revolutionary War led to the founding of the United States of America. What the game asks you to do is to forget that outcome, as best you can, and to immerse yourself in the chaotic world of colonial America in 1775. You will not reenact the history of that timeyou will make it.