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But undeniably, everyone's experiences from 1775 to 1783, were strongly impacted by the so-called American Revolution. For example, I was surprised to find that the birth rate for Albany couples hardly budged during the war years. However, for all New Yorkers, life went on. Most women, children, the aged and infirm, and also those newcomers and, transients - the so-called marginal people who although numerous mostly were on the receiving end of the deeds and decisions made by actual leaders and combatants on all sides of every issue. The historical energy dedicated to things mostly military and/or political has been grossly disproportionate to what was going on in the larger society across race, class, and orientation. The visible actors in those spheres mostly were established men - at the same time actually accounting for less than a quarter of the total population. Some parts of the story have been well studied - specifically on the battlefield and in the political arena. The decade that followed (the so-called era of the American Revolution) has been a popular topic for most of the past 250 years. That human mix doubled the colony's population to almost 200,000 settlers by the eve of Independence. In all these new settlement initiatives, native New Yorkers of all backgrounds and newcomers from every part of Europe were joined by New Englanders and former British soldiers. Some New Yorkers were comfortable in this while an even larger proportion faced uncertainties and were restless! After the end of the Seven Years War, these people were starting to lay claim to the previously unsettled back country of the populated regions noted above while pushing north and west onto the formally forbidden New York frontier. The extent of the colony, however, was proscribed by British imperial edicts that sought to limit expansion to the west and north and by refusing to enforce an eastern border which alienated would be settlers and developers on both sides of the official boundary of the Connecticut River.Д«y that time, many also had some notion of what their prospects might be going forward. I argue that the center of that was huge Albany County with more than twice the population of Manhattan in 1774. In short, a good core of people knew where they belonged - on Manhattan, up the Hudson Valley, on a long Long Island, and even out into the Mohawk country. What I'm going to say about the overall province I've found to be particularly true in the Hudson Valley.Д®ven after more than a decade of still booming and intense immigration and internal resettlement, by the 1770s, New Yorkers (some of whom could look back on several generations in America) seem to have experienced a sense of place - an identity.

Let's start by spending a few minutes setting the stage by peopling the vast landscape that was New York on the eve of the Revolution. My long-term ongoing work on the people of colonial Albany is inspired and still driven by that basic question.

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These activists needed to polarize all colonists into those who believed in a free and independent America while marginalizing and then removing those who were opposed. At the same time, an even larger part of the population sought to avoid or at least evade involvement in movements that a few willful zealots employed to separate friends from enemies. Judging by the diversity of perspectives represented here, it appears to mean different things to different people.ДЇor the last 40 years, I've been interested in the historical questions relating to what turned some colonists into revolutionaries while others opposed the so-called crusade for American liberties. I'm thrilled for this opportunity to talk about New York and the American Revolution as we have come together today to consider what the era really meant in the Hudson Valley. This online version provides links to explanatory information on The People of Colonial Albany Live Here Website and beyond. It was part of a panel entitled 'The Hudson River Valley in the Era of the American Revolution' and was sponsored by Marist's Hudson Valley Regional Institute. Stefan Bielinski This essay originally was presented at the Conference on New York State History held at Marist College on June 13, 2014. The Revolution and the Homefront: Needs and Opportunities

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