The Spinster's Soliloquy

On the surface, the American Revolution is a unified resistance marching toward righteous liberty and enduring freedom. However, through the personal writings of John Adams, Margaret Morris, and Boston King, a much more complex reality is exposed. All three occupied different positions in society, and all three interpreted events through a belief in divine Providence – the idea that God actively guides human history. Adams, an elite Patriot leader, viewed Providence as supporting the struggle for independence and personal rights. Certain unalienable rights. Morris, a Quaker widow living through military occupation, uncertainty, and hardship, understood Providence as God’s protection amid war. King, an enslaved loyalist who escaped immoral captivity, saw Providence as a force of personal deliverance and spiritual redemption. While many Americans believed God was shaping events during the Revolution, their understanding of God’s purpose reflected their unique experiences of survival and, later, of liberty and freedom.

John Adams: Providence and the Cause of Independence

John Adams occupied an elite position within colonial society. Born in Massachusetts in 1735, Adams was a successful lawyer and emerged as a leading voice of the Patriot movement. He served in the Continental Congress and became one of the most influential advocates of American Independence. He directly participated in shaping the rebellion’s political course. He viewed resistance to Britain as part of a larger struggle for liberty. On December 17, 1773, Adams describes the destruction of tea in the Boston Harbor as “the most magnificent Movement of all.” He praises the event for its “Dignity, a Majesty, a Sublimity.”

Adams doesn’t explicitly mention divine Providence, but his colorful description suggests he viewed the event as part of a larger historical process. It was a defining moment in the struggle against tyranny. Later in July 1776, the day before the colonies declared their own independence, Adams writes to his Abigail, “I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Day’s Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.” He interprets American success as evidence that Providence favored the rebel cause.
At the same time, Adams recognized the dangers in revolutionary action. He acknowledged that power might result in the loss of human life.

Nevertheless, he remained convinced that resistance was necessary. In a letter to Abigail that same month, on the 7th, he writes, “A Chaplain from that Army, preached a Sermon here the other day, from ‘cursed is he, that doth the Work of the Lord, deceitfully.” He goes on to say, “I knew better than he did, who the Persons were, who deserved these Curses. But I could not help myself, nor my poor Country any more than he.” Providence, in Adams’s view, worked through political action and the creation of a new republic.

Margaret Morris: Providence and Everyday Survival

Margaret Morris, a Quaker woman living near Philadelphia, endured a less illustrious struggle. Quaker values include peace, spiritual reflection, and nonviolence, complicating loyalties to God or Country. When speaking with an officer in the Pennsylvania militia who spent the evening at her home, she notes his arrogance when discussing their chances against the British. She writes in her journal that he was, “not considering there is a God of battle, as well as a God of peace, who may have given them the late advantage…” Less concerned with politics than with the effects of war on ordinary life, Morris documented troop movements, shortages, illnesses, fears of violence, and the presence of soldiers in her community. She interpreted events through a more personal lens: safety over victory, concern for neighbors, family members, and community stability. Adams wrote to his Abigail, celebrating dramatic political action, while Morris recorded the consequences of those actions on ordinary civilians.

Quaker values shaped Morris’s understanding of divine Providence. Morris sees God’s hand in preservation and endurance rather than in military victories or political achievements. Her writings reflect a belief that individuals remained under God’s care despite the chaos around them. For Morris, Providence was less about taking sides and more about sustaining people through suffering and uncertainty.

Morris makes plain there are stories of the Revolution that have never been told. Americans enduring from the margins. War transformed communities and homes as profoundly as it transformed government.

Boston King: Providence and Deliverance from Slavery

Boston King’s memoir demonstrates the most dramatic example of providential thinking among the three authors. Born into slavery, King saw the Revolution as an opportunity to obtain freedom. King sought liberty from his captors, men who beat and tortured him. The British were offering freedom to the enslaved, and King threw himself into their hands.

Like Morris, King’s belief in divine Providence sustained his endurance. He writes an account of God sending salvation in the form of a man who aided in his recovery from smallpox when he was left to die outside of a military camp, “We lay sometimes a whole day without anything to eat or drink; but Providence sent a man, who belonged to the York volunteers whom I was acquainted with, to my relief. He brought me such things as I needed; and by the blessing of the Lord I began to recover.” Throughout his memoir, King repeatedly interprets major events in religious terms, describing God’s guidance through hardship.

Providence is at the heart of King’s narrative. He portrays God as actively directing his path—from his escape from slavery to his religious conversion, ministry, and eventual migration to Sierra Leone. Unlike Adams, who saw Providence guiding a nation, King saw Providence guiding an individual soul. His memoir resembles spiritual testimony as much as a historical account.
Liberty for King was a far-out alternate reality to Adams’s understanding. American leaders who spoke frequently of freedom and natural rights kept slaves of their own and benefited from a society built on their backs. His race and legal status fundamentally shaped his perspective. Because he lacked even the most basic freedom at the beginning of the Revolution, he measured events according to whether they brought him closer to liberation. Providence, therefore, was not an abstract force operating through governments but a personal force of deliverance.

Comparing Their Perspectives

In this essay, I highlight how the individual experiences of Adams, Morris, and King reveal more than a unified resistance to British tyranny. These accounts also demonstrate how race, gender, class, and social status shaped their experiences. Adams helped create the new nation. Morris endured the disruptions created by that process. King used the conflict to pursue the freedom that American society had long denied him. The Revolution appears not as a single event but as a collection of interconnected experiences.

However, these different experiences must not overshadow the important similarities. All three believed that history had meaning beyond current conditions and events, and that God was present and active in human affairs. Yet, each interpreted divine Providence according to their unique circumstances.

Reflection

Going into this assignment, I thought I would be bored by accounts of American patriots who bought into natural rights as if they were a modern campaign promise. Citizens who were convinced that power was in the hands of the people, equality, separation of powers, religious tolerance, and so forth. Perhaps sneaky propaganda soaking the minds of two separate tribes – Patriots vs Britain. What I found was that individuals experienced the rebellion in dramatically different ways. Each is shaped by their social position and personal circumstances.

Most surprising was the extent to which all three authors interpreted events through the concept of divine Providence. Despite their differences, Adams, Morris, and King each believed that God played an active role in shaping history. However, they disagreed about what God was accomplishing. Adams saw Providence guiding a nation toward independence, Morris saw Providence protecting individuals through hardship, and King saw Providence delivering him from slavery to autonomy and dignity.

I found that these perspectives cannot be reduced to my own jaded perception in the context of modern society. These citizens were led by God, not 24-hour news cycles and Twitter. These stories offer a richer, more complete picture of American history than I ever would have imagined.

Works Used

Adams, John. Diary. December 17, 1773. Massachusetts Historical Society, Digital Adams Archive. Accessed June 4, 2026. https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/browse/.

Boston King. “Memoirs of the Life of Boston King, a Black Preacher.” Black Loyalist Heritage Society. Accessed June 4, 2026. https://blackloyalist.com/cdc/documents/diaries/king-memoirs.htm.

“Boston King.” Equiano’s World. Accessed June 4, 2026. https://equianosworld.org/associates-religious.php.

Miller Center. “John Adams: Life Before the Presidency.” Miller Center, University of Virginia. Accessed June 4, 2026. https://millercenter.org/president/adams/life-before-the-presidency.

Morris, Margaret. Private Journal Kept During a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister. Accessed June 4, 2026. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t78s55k92.

“Margaret Morris.” Researching the American Revolution. Accessed June 4, 2026. https://researchingtheamericanrevolution.com/women.