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Who Is Mary Silliman's War?

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Mary Silliman’s War offers a portrait of colonial society, from the vantage point of one woman, Mary Silliman, and her family. The film weaves together the themes of community tensions and gender roles, among others. The film begins with emphasizing the divisions between the Tories and patriots in a case prosecuting two loyalists. The case proposes a question that the colonists were split over. Is it treason a reasonable charge against loyalists or patriots? The patriots maintained their argument from the Declaration of Independence that it was their responsibility to overthrow an unreasonable government, and that they were now independent of the crown. Anyone who remained loyal to the monarch thereafter was guilty of treason. The loyalists asserted that the colonies remained one with the British Empire, despite the Declaration, which they viewed as an act of treason in …show more content…

But the town is not just divided between Tories and patriots, the Silliman family also represents the community divide. Mary represents the family-oriented and community-oriented perspective, and strongly maintains her principles in her quest to find her husband. She refuses to allow any bloodshed because she will not allow the hurt that her family is experiencing to be done to another. However, her husband, General Silliman, has a limited community view as the State Attorney, whose political objective is the prosecution of loyalists as traitors. While Mary asserts that her husband is the voice of moderation, his actions result in a death sentence. That evening, the tension escalates as Mary cannot condone the harsh outcome of the case because of the effects it will have on the families of the executed men. But Selleck refuses to tolerate her objection

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