S8 Ep587: 5. Joseph Ellis, *The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773 to 1783*. Nathaniel Greene saved the Continental Army from collapse at Valley Forge by stabilizing the food supply as quartermaster. The veterans of this ordeal began to see th

5. Joseph Ellis, *The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773 to 1783*. Nathaniel Greene saved the Continental Army from collapse at Valley Forge by stabilizing the food supply as quartermaster. The veterans of this ordeal began to see themselves as an "aristocracy of virtue" committed to the necessity of a strong federal government. Figures like John Laurens envisioned the revolution as a crusade to end slavery, viewing it as the purest expression of the cause. Furthermore, the Continental Army was a genuinely integrated force, with African Americans making up 8-10% of the troops and serving in combat units at a level not seen again until the KoreanWar. (5)

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