Committees, Councils, and Congresses

Abstract This essay explores the role of local revolutionary governments in overthrowing British rule and establishing a de facto independence during the early months of the American Revolution. In small towns and rural communities from New Hampshire to Georgia, ordinary colonists formed revolutionary committees that balanced governing in place of the deposed colonial regime with organizing and consolidating support for armed rebellion against the crown. While leaders in the Continental Congress and provincial conventions dithered on the direction and goals of the revolutionary movement, these popular regimes established de facto independent governments at the local level, administering justice, taking charge of military recruitment, and even taking measures to suppress dissent in their communities. In so doing, these governments played a crucial role in the coming of American independence.