How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
We heard reports from Boston. The body politic was so disordered that all government seemed suspended. Soldiers patrolled through the streets, apprehending Negroes out at unseasonable hours on suspect errands. Groups of rebels, communicating by eerie whistles, carried out a nighttime justice, descending on informants silently. There was continual outcry against the troops by some—soldiers scuffling with boys, their heel-marks in the slush; girls surrounded by lanky privates.
We went about our business in the countryside, in a town of slow undulating fields and great clouds.
On the Canaan town green, the militia practiced loading and firing their muskets. We sate inside, and jumped with the reports of guns in the distance. Their officers claimed, with supercilious air, that they practiced speed and marksmanship in case the French should invade; but we all of us knew for what eventuality they prepared. (2.20.3-5)
Canaan is basically the boonies, which is why Octavian stresses the fact that they "heard" about the war rather than experiencing it more intimately. These passages show the difference between the way the war affected (at least at the beginning) the countryside and the city. In Canaan, the College people are so distant from anything real that they can sit inside the house and be unaffected by all the goings-on outside.
Quote #5
"Octavian, there is word up and down the coast that the British are attempting to convince slaves to take up arms against their American masters. The citizenry is terrified. You are lying here amongst us, your bodies too dark to see until it is too late." He smiled. "That is what they say. They fear you will all turn murderers." (2.27.18)
Dr. Trefusis is explaining to Octavian why the Young Men are so watchful during the pox party. It's war, and the colonials are preparing for violence on two fronts—out in the cities, from the Redcoats, and in their homes, from the slaves. Sounds like those American colonials know they've done wrong to the slaves…
Quote #6
O Fruition, dear Sis, the Spirit of Liberty stirs the Countryside like Sap, & everywhere I am sensible of the Blossoms. I am in such Spirits I cannot describe the like. As we march towards Boston, we meet every Mile upon the Way another Column of Patriots bound for the Encampment at Cambridge. (3.5.2)
"Spirit of Liberty stirs the Countryside like Sap"? "I am sensible of the Blossoms"? Seriously? Private Goring makes it sound like he's going off on a hunt or a camping trip—not war.
But his excitement makes sense if you consider his age. This guy is young, and he doesn't know anything outside of his little village, his sister, his mother, and the cooperage—so going to war lets him go out of his village and into the world, even if it's just a march to Boston. That's major if you've never been away from your home or family before.