The American Revolution

1. The American Revolution Seeds of Unrest

2. Section 1: The Stirring of Rebellion • The Treaty of Paris 1763 forced France out of most of North America. • American colonists poured into the new land causing trouble with Native Americans....Pontiac’s Rebellion.

5. The Proclamation of 1763 - Barred settlement west of the Appalachians. Sugar act - 1764. - Set an import duty on sugar products. The first real tax to be enforced in the colonies.

6. Stamp Act - 1765 - placed a tax on goods imported from Britain including glass, paper, paint, and tea. • The colonists complained about Taxation without Representation! • They organized boycotts and non-importation agreements. • They also bullied British officials and resisted any way possible.

7. The Sons of Liberty- a secret group that organized protests and spread propaganda. • Resisted the Stamp Act. • Led by Samuel Adams. • Mainly made up of mainly upper class professionals. • Used petitions, public meetings and pamphlets, but also used an occasional tar and feathering. • Very strong in Massachusetts. Ohh Gross! I’m covered with tar!

8. Stamp Act Congress - a meeting of delegates from 9 colonies. • They succeeded in pressuring Parliament into repealing the Stamp Act in 1766. • Declaratory Act of 1766 - declared Parliament’s right to make laws and rule over the colonies.

9. Townshend Acts (1767) - placed import duties on tea, lead, glass, and paints imported from Great Britain. • An indirect tax as opposed to the Stamp Act (direct tax). • Customs officials were allowed to have writs of assistance (similar to a search warrant) • These allowed for blanket searches. • Caused much resentment. • Protests and boycotts sprung up again. • Quartering Act - forced colonists to board British soldiers. Who the #*@ are you guys?! We’re Redcoats, now make us some supper and get my bed ready!

10. The Boston Massacre • March 5, 1770. • Boston was the center of colonial uprising and protest • A drunken mob gathered outside a Boston customs house and threw rocks and snowballs at 5 British soldiers. • Bostonians were angry that British soldiers were stationed there. • They cornered them, a gun went off accidentally, which caused the other soldiers to open fire and 5 colonists were killed. • Blown out of proportion and exaggerated. • (John Adams was the lawyer who defended the British soldiers, and won)

11. Committees of Correspondence • Formed to keep all of the colonies informed of events and keep public opinion anti-British. • Spread propaganda

12. Tea Act - A new law that let B.E.I.C. bypass wholesalers are sell directly to American agents. • This lowered the price of tea. • American wholesalers were bypassed and feared a BEIC monopoly. • The Sons of Liberty organized resistance against buying the tea and eventually dressed up like Indians and dumped the tea into Boston Harbor. • This even became known as the Boston Tea Party (Dec 1773)

13. Intolerable (Coercive) Acts • The British response to the Boston Tea Party. • Closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. • Revoked the Massachusetts charter of 1691. • Forbade town meetings in Mass. • Allowed royal officials charged with crimes to be tried in England • Reinstated a Quartering Act and martial law.

14. Quebec Act - extended Quebec’s boundaries into the Ohio Valley, land claimed by Mass, CT., and VA.  • The colonists saw all of this as a growing pattern of oppression.

15. 1st Continental Congress • Met in the Fall of 1774 to peacefully resolve their conflict with England following the Intolerable Acts. • 12 colonies (all but GA) met in Philly • Wrote the Declaration of Resolves which pledged loyalty to England but outlined colonial rights. • Called for a ban of all trade with Great Britain. • Caused King George III to declare the colonies “in a state of rebellion.”

16. Washington at the 1st Continental Congress • Although no formal thoughts of independence emerged from this meeting, George Washington purchased “new décor for his military uniform, inquired about the price of muskets, and ordered a book on warfare” in Philadelphia. • A clear indicator that he knew he would probably be the head of a new American army sometime soon.

17. British troops were sent to the colonies (under General Thomas Gage) to restore order.

18. Paul Revere’s Ride

19. The Shot Heard Round the World

20. Lexington and Concord • The British Redcoats tried to take the arsenal (stockpile of firearms and gunpowder) at Concord, but minutemen were alerted by Paul Revere and William Dawes. • At Lexington the colonists and British met, someone fired a shot (The Shot Heard ‘Round the World) and both sides opened up. • 8 colonists were shot and killed. • The battle lasted only 15 minutes! • (Read pg 52 in “The Greatest Stories”

21. Explanation: http://www.ngb.army.mil/gallery/heritage/standyourground.asp

22. The British took the supplies at Concord. • On their way back to Boston the colonists ambushed them using guerilla warfare. • By days end (April 19, 1775) 100 colonial casualties vs. 273 British. • About 20,000 “Minute Men swarmed around Boston, not letting the outnumbered Redcoats leave.

25. Section 2: Ideas Help Start a Revolution

26. 2nd Continental Congress • Met in the Spring of 1775 – through 1777. • Established a Continental Army. With George Washington as commander • Was not bent on independence and tried to keep peace with the Olive Branch Petition to the King as a last attempt at peace. • Declared that the colonies were independent on July 4, 1776! • Served as the first U.S. government.

27. George Washington • Washington had been a colonel in the militia, but was a good leader (although not a military genius) and had strong character. • Had a stellar resume • Washington oozed confidence. • Refused pay for his service. • His selection was political since most of the rebellion was in New England, Congress chose a Virginian to lead the military to draw more support from the rest of the colonies.

28. The Battle for Boston • June 1775 • Boston was believed by the British to be the source of the uprising. • The British took both Bunker and Breed’s Hill (and the city itself) but suffered 1,054 casualties vs. 450 American.

29. The Battle for Boston • Took place on Breed’s Hill (more so than Bunker Hill). • American volunteers were driven back but fought well. • Had American troops not run out of gunpowder, they may well have mowed down the entire British army. • See hyperlink for better definition. http://www.ngb.army.mil/gallery/heritage/whites.asp

30. Britain ordered all colonial ports blockaded. • Britain sent thousands of Hessian mercenaries to fight the colonists.  • They were actually from 6 German principalities, but most were from Hesse, so Americans called all of the foreigners “Hessians.” • Many of the Hessians deserted, as they had no personal loyalty to Britain or it’s cause, and remained in America as respected citizens • In March, 1776 George Washington took Boston back into American hands.

31. American Generals Benedict Arnold and Richard Montgomery tried to invade Canada trying to cash in on the hopes that the French Canadians wanted revenge against the British. • Invading Canada? I thought we were protecting ourselves? • So by invading Canada, did we really just want a restoration of rights? • Were we really just defending ourselves? • They were wrong, and failed to take both Quebec and Montreal. • The British wooed them in the Quebec Act of 1774, and the French-Canadians didn’t trust the Americans and thought they would be anti-Catholic • See map on pg 144. • http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.americanrevolution.com/TreasonofBenedictArnold.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.americanrevolution.com/TreasonofGeneralBenedictArnold.htm&h=273&w=200&sz=14&hl=en&start=12&tbnid=WdNWDgdQxhTNmM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbenedict%2Barnold%2B%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

32. Independence Declared • Many colonists supported independence for 2 reasons. • 1. The British Government had violated their rights. • 2. The War had already started and Americans had been killed fighting for the cause.

33. Independence and Loyalty • Americans could be divided into 3 roughly equal groups concerning independence. • 1/3: Patriots strongly supporting American independence. • 1/3: Loyalists opposing it thinking they had no right to independence. • 1/3: Those who favored whatever side was winning at that particular time.

34. Loyalists • Harassment of Loyalists was relatively mild before independence was declared, outside of some tarring and featherings, etc. • The frequency and intensity increased after independence was declared but was nothing like the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. • 80,000 Loyalists were driven out or fled, but hundreds of thousands more stayed. • The British never made full use of Loyalists during the War. • After the war some loyalists stayed and re-established themselves, most fled, had their property taken or were exiled.

35. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense shifted American public opinion towards independence. • It is one of the most influential pamphlets ever written. • He jolted Americans into claiming a country that was rightfully theirs. • He called King George III the “Royal Brute of Great Britain.” • Paine called for the creation of a republic where power flowed from the people themselves, not a monarch. • (Sold 120,000 copies)

36. Declaration of Independence • Proposed by Richard H. Lee of Virginia on June 7, 1776. • A five man committee was appointed to draft the declaration explain to the rest of the world why the colonies were fighting. • It was debated at length by the 2nd Cont Congress. • A detailed list of the King’s misdeeds. • A listing of “self-evident” truths. • Declared the right of all people to abolish a government that deprives people of their rights. • Jefferson drew upon many of John Locke’s ideas in the Declaration. • The Congress hoped that an independent nation could solicit the help of foreign countries better. • It was a declaration of War against England

37. The Second Continental Congress had very limited powers • No power to tax as a nation • Each state had more power than the national government.

38. Section 3: Struggling Toward Saratoga • A new nation of 2.5 million people faced Great Britain with 10 million people plus a world-wide empire.

39. Washington rarely had more than 16,000 troops in his command at any one time • Most enlistments were for 1 calendar year • Most troops were very poorly trained and lacked food and ammunition often. • Many troops would leave to plant and harvest crops. These guys stink! They’re all aiming up in the air.

42. The British moved from Boston to New York in an attempt to isolate New England in 1776. • The British amassed 500 ships and 35,000 men to N.Y. • Washington had only 18,000 ill-trained troops. • The British Army and Navy pounded the Americans who were forced to retreat in August. • Washington was pushed further into N.J. & Pennsylvania and had only 8,000 men in his army by the end of 1776. • More colonists were now volunteering for the British army than the Continental army. • The “Spirit of ’76” and American support for the war were very low at this point.

43. The Battle for New York • It had a great seaport, was centrally located, and had a large loyalist population. • The summer and fall of 1776 was a disaster for the Americans. • At Long Island, N.Y., America was outgeneraled and outmaneuvered. • Washington escaped to Manhattan and then to N.J., but did live to fight another day. • The British, under General William Howe, blew a perfect opportunity to seize the entire American army. He was too caciuos because he remembered the slaughter of Breeds Hill, the country was rough and unfamiliar, his supplies were slow in reaching him and it was winter.

44. The Battle for New York http://www.ngb.army.mil/gallery/heritage/longisland.asp

45. The Battle of Trenton • Christmas, 1776. • An all-out gamble by Washington. • Tried to use his army before enlistments expired at year’s end. • Washington crossed the Delaware River with 2,400 men. Why are these morons standing up in a boat?

46. Trenton • The Continental Army marched 8 miles through sleet and snow and caught the Hessians off-guard in Trenton. • Killed 30 and took 918 prisoner with no U.S. losses! • Although Lieutenant James Monroe was wounded…..good thing because he went on to become President Monroe! • The first, and much needed victory for the Continental Army.

47. Princeton • Jan 1, 1777. • Washington quickly moves from Trenton to Princeton, N.J. and scores another victory against the British. • Spends the Winter of 1777 in Morristown, N.J. in good spirits.

48. Philadelphia • The first battle of the 1777 campaign. • Washington tries and fails to defend the new U.S. capital. • Philadelphia had a high loyalist population and a lot of spies.

49. October 10-17, 1777 The Battle of Saratoga: • The British are forced to retreat, are cut off, surrounded and forced to surrender. • This victory is the turning point of the American Revolution:

50. Saratoga: 1777 • Military planners in London schemed to capture the Hudson Valley and isolate New England from the rest of the states and paralyze the rebellion. • The main British invasion under “Gentleman” Johnny Burgoyne would push down the Lake Champlain route from Canada, and meet up with General Howe’s troops from N.Y., who would move up the Hudson River. • A third and smaller prong, under Colonel Barry St. Leger would come from the west from Lake Ontario and the Mohawk Valley. ‘