I have always been curious about the extent of support there was in Colonial America at the Continental Congress. I assume there would be many who wanted independence but no a bloody war, some who would fight, some who were happy to stay part of the UK, and those who did not care one way or the other. How would these groups break down as a percentages of the colonial population?
I have seen numbers as Pro-independence, 40-45%, Loyalists, 10-15% and the rest undecided, dithering, and trying to keep out of it. About 200,000 soldiers served in the Continental army, out of a total population of 2.5 million. Once you drop women, elderly , African Americans ( who were usually not free ) and Loyalists, that's a considerable military effort , and it had to have had considerable popular support. But the numbers should be used with caution. First, there was no actual poll of everyone in the Colonies. Second, 1776 was a year of immense change, preceded by another year of immense change. By January of 1776, the Continental Congress was involved in directing a war in Massachusetts and New York. Reconciliationists like John Dickinson of Pennsylvania had not succeeded in their efforts, as the British army broadened its front. When the governor of Virginia offered freedom to all slaves who joined the British army to put down the rebellion, most of the slave-owning Tories of Virginia switched sides, and an alarmed North Carolina sent 400 soldiers to Virginia to help defend against the British. But while the British were widening their war, making a negotiated solution less and less likely, Colonial notions of a quick military solution also vanished, with an American expeditionary army having to give up its siege of Quebec, and Washington's attempt to defend New York ending in disaster.
At the beginning of 1776, probably most of the colonies would not have voted for independence. Then Thomas Paine published Common Sense. It was an immensely popular pamphlet, and is remarkable today for how well it reads- this was a time in which most serious writing contained large words and classical allusions. Paine described the situation of the colonies very simply, offering optimistic views on the success of a republic and the outcome of the war. Paine's writing greatly boosted public support for independence. That, and the broadening war, and British refusal of all attempts at reconciliation by the summer of 1776 swung the Congress towards what they saw was inevitable.
So, given that constant change in events, how a typical colonist answered likely depended on what month, day, and perhaps hour in 1776 you asked it . After Washington's retreat from Long Island, that support likely fell, and after his victory at Trenton, it likely went up.
John Resch and Walter Sargent, eds : War and Society in the American Revolution