Patriots

Patriots (also known as the Whigs American Revolutionaries, Congress-Men or Rebels) is a name often used to describe the settlers in the thirteen British colonies in America who rebelled against British rule during the American Revolution. It was their leading figures, who in July 1776, the United States declared an independent nation. Their rebellion was based on the political philosophy of republicanism, as expressed by pamphleteers such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Paine.

They called themselves Whigs after 1768, the identification with the British Whig party members (including the radical Whigs and Patriot Whigs), the colonial policies which encouraged similar.

As a group, the Patriots are a variety of social backgrounds, economic, ethnic and racial lines. They are students like Alexander Hamilton, pots, such as Thomas Jefferson, merchants like Alexander McDougall, lawyers like John Adams, and plain farmers like Daniel Shays and Joseph Plumb Martin.