3 - Wilkes, Liberty, and the Anglo-American Crisis

Summary

America’s War of Independence led to an upsurge of support for reform in Britain, as the costly conflict heightened critiques of government repressiveness and lack of representation. In 1778, freeholders mobilized the Association Movement, which sought to raise a national wave of petitions in support of Parliamentary Reform. The movement and its affiliated Society for Constitutional Information caucused reformers of many causes – radical and moderate, including special-interest reformers seeking greater religious freedom and/or antislavery measures – together to make a common push for systemic changes.