8 THE GREEN RISING 



foundations of feudalism. But the rising tide of 

 capitalism and the vast areas of fertile land made 

 this an impossible task. It is not surprising, how- 

 ever, that the early extension of agrarianism in this 

 country should grow out of the conflict between a 

 feudal and a democratic organization of society. 



The conflict between economic groups became so 

 pronounced by the time of the Revolution that the 

 demand for independence was far from unanimous. 

 Simons, in commenting on the state of public opin- 

 ion at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, says 

 that it was "not so much a split between the Colo- 

 nies and the English government as it was between 

 different divisions of the English people on both 

 sides of the Atlantic" and "in reality but a battle in 

 a great world-wide struggle between contending so- 

 cial classes." * 



The study of patriotic utterances, such as those 

 of Patrick Henry, 2 shows clearly that the issue 

 of independence from England was essentially a 

 conflict between the agrarian interests of the interior 

 regions and the industrial and professional interests 

 of the coast towns. "The warm support of the 

 Revolution by a great majority of the frontiersmen," 

 says H. U. Faulkner, "was to some extent a chal- 

 lenge by an agrarian and frontier people to both a 

 waning feudalism and a rising capitalism, and the 



1 Social Forces in American History, p. 7. 

 'See W. W. Henry's Patrick Henry (1891). 



