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! Historians in the early 20th century such as J Franklin Jameson examined the class composition of the Patriot cause looking for evidence of a class war inside the revolution. More recent historians have largely abandoned that interpretation emphasizing instead the high level of ideological unity. Both Loyalists and Patriots were a "mixed lot", but ideological demands always came first the Patriots viewed independence as a means to gain freedom from British oppression and taxation and to reassert their basic rights Most yeomen farmers craftsmen and small merchants joined the Patriot cause to demand more political equality They were especially successful in Pennsylvania but less so in New England where John Adams attacked Thomas Paine's Common Sense for the "absurd democratical notions" that it proposed, The consequent American Civil War beginning in 1861 led to the end of chattel slavery in America Not long after the war broke out through a legal maneuver credited to Union General Benjamin F Butler a lawyer by profession slaves who came into Union "possession" were considered "contraband of war" General Butler ruled that they were not subject to return to Confederate owners as they had been before the war Soon word spread and many slaves sought refuge in Union territory desiring to be declared "contraband" Many of the "contrabands" joined the Union Army as workers or troops forming entire regiments of the U.S Colored Troops Others went to refugee camps such as the Grand Contraband Camp near Fort Monroe or fled to northern cities General Butler's interpretation was reinforced when Congress passed the Confiscation Act of 1861 which declared that any property used by the Confederate military including slaves could be confiscated by Union forces. .