Zinn Chapter Five

Howard Zinn

Chapter Five

Summary

Chapter Five of Zinn's "A People's History Of The United States" deals with the time before, during and after the Revolutionary War.
The book starts with the problem that the Americans had a hard time forming an army. It was only white men allowed to enter the militia; friendly Indians, free Negroes, white servants and free white men without home were excluded.
But the Americans realized soon that it was too difficult to fill an entire army only with Americans, so they made exceptions.
The poor people saw their chance in these exceptions to become respected in the society and to rise in rank. But it usually didn't work out (they often were deeply in debt after they returned).
Furthermore, during the war, the conflict between poor and rich men arose again. 
Zinn also talks about the new constitutions that were an outcome of the war; they were not much different from the old ones. Plus, they were made only by the white men (they were pretty much only for whites).