Fries' Rebellion: The Enduring Struggle for the American Revolution Book Report

What aspect of the American Revolution and the American Revolutionary Wars is the most fascinating? One might inquire. Other than the influence these two historical occurrences had on the creation of the United States, historians and academics alike find the numerous battles that were fought to be a fascinating possibility. Numerous accounts of historic occurrences that aided in the ultimate formation of the United States as we know it today can be found in American history. The Fries' Rebellion was one of these incidents that is mentioned in American legend. To satisfy the curiosity which undoubtedly abounds concerning this event, one ought to read Paul Douglas Newman’s book, “Fries Rebellion: The Enduring Struggle for the American Revolution” which effectively puts this historic occasion into perspective.

Paul Newman’s book is a well-researched and well-written recollection of the Fries’ Rebellion, one of the most oft-misunderstood events that took place in the years spanning the late 1790s. At the beginning of the book is a detailed account describing who the rebels involved in the rebellion were. Newman utilized two key sources in writing his recollection of the event that is more often than not misunderstood. First, the depositions recorded at a common pleas judge offered a first-hand recollection of the trials featuring the so-called rebels. The second source of information that the author uses is records from the United States Circuit Court for Pennsylvania.

Using the above records, Newman identifies two hundred and eleven people who were actively involved in the rebellion that ran from 1798 to 1799. Of this number, 83 actively served in the American Revolution while another 70 took part in the Revolutionary War. The author undertakes a collective surname check and arrives at the conclusion that one hundred and eighty-seven of the rebels were German-Americans. The leader of the rebellion was Fries himself supported by other influential leaders. Fries was a member of the military force sent by President Washington to subdue the Whiskey Rebellion which had erupted in the year 1794.

Newman notes that the rebellion was triggered by the Federal government’s decision to introduce additional taxes to raise additional revenue in anticipation of the war with France. The “House Tax” and “Direct Tax” coupled with the Sedition Act caused a lot of consternation among the farmers thus triggering the rebellion. The author speculates that if Adams and his administration had selected nonsectarian Federalists instead of the mix of Anglo- and German-American Federalist assessors there might have been opposition, “but active resistance… would have been less likely.”

The author’s use of vivid description and factual information makes for good reading. The importance of Newman’s claim in this book is his decision to view the protests through a sympathetic eye and in so doing rejects the common stereotype propagated by modern critics and historians that the German farmers from Pennsylvania were ignorant people who were incapable of thinking about serious political issues. For this reason, I find the book highly intriguing, and the author's passionate approach to the subject and the interesting plot make the book a worthwhile read.