Securing Independence, Defining Nationhood, 1776-1788

AP US HistoryEast High School

Mr. PetersonFall 2010

Focus Questions

• What factors enabled the Americans to defeat the British in the American Revolution?

• How did the Revolution affect relationships among Americans of different classes, races, and genders?

• What political concerns were reflected in the first state constitutions and Articles of Confederation?

• What were the principal issues dividing proponents and opponents of the new federal Constitution?

The Prospects of War

“unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers or resistance by force.”

–”Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms”

Loyalists and Other British Sympathizers

• “A Tory was a thing with a head in England, a body in America, and a neck that needed stretching.” –Whig jest

• around 20% of colonial pop; disagreed with idea that only independence could preserve’ constitutional rights

• retained profound reverence for crown, believed that if failed to defend their king, would sacrifice personal honor

• About 21,000 Americans fought in loyalist military units

Non-white Supporters of Britain

• Blacks• Many slaves went to Dunmore’s ranks• Hoped for freedom

• Iroquois divided• Most followed Joseph Brant-Mohawk chief• Oneida and Tuscaroras supported rebels

The Opposing Sides-British

• 11 million Britons to 2.5 million colonists• 1/3 of colonists slaves or loyalists

• Britain had world’s greatest navy• Largest army-100,000+ in America

• Well-trained• Needed 20,000 German mercenaries

• Cutbacks after Seven Years War

The Opposing Sides-Americans

• Americans used to serving in militias• Short terms• Guerilla style skirmishes

• Continental Army needed to fight European style• Discipline and training needed• Lost many battles early in war

Who supported independence?

• Among others: • New England town leaders• Virginia gentry• South Carolina rice planters• Northern African-Americans

• vigorously pursued a program of political education and popular mobilization from 1772-1776

p. 157

Who Had the Advantage?

• British advantages• Greatest navy and army• Resources of an empire• Experience• Command structure

• Americans advantages• Home-field advantage• Deeply committed population (Patriots)• Substantial aid from France

Map 6-1, p. 158

• A British cartoonist expresses his disgust for Britain’s surrender by depicting General Burgoyne, surrendering on his knees, and a sleeping General Howe.

Library of Congress

British Defeat at Saratoga, 1777

Some European ties

• Marquis de Lafayette -- highly optimistic, brave, close ties to Louis XVI

• Baron von Steuben -- Arrives at Valley Forge, Feb. 1778• Trains American army• Makes victory at Battle of Monmouth

possible• Tadeusz Kosciuszko from Poland, friend of

Jefferson, later fought against Russia for Polish freedom

p. 159

The War in the West, 1776-1782

• Retaliatory expeditions against Cherokees

• George Rogers Clark defeats Shawnees• John Sullivan defeats Brant and

Iroquois• Not very significant to outcome of

war, but important to future shape of US

Victory in the South, 1778-1781

• Americans lose at Camden, SC• Nathanael Greene forces Cornwallis

and British out of Carolina backcountry• Battle of Yorktown

• Washington and Lafayette converge and trap British

• Cornwallis surrenders Oct. 19, 1781• Last real battle of war

Map 6-3, p. 164

John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin and the Peace of Paris

• Peace negotiations began in June 1782• recognized American independence• Am gained lands east to Mississippi, the northwest• Am got fishing in the Grand Banks• Spain got Florida, but no clear northern border• Americans agreed to compensate loyalist losses (Ha ha,

but then Brits don’t evac all troops in NWest)• No reference to Native Ams, leaving them with no

provision for their status or treatment

A Heavy Price

• 5% of free males died fighting British• Only Civil War greater proportion

• Many loyalists, slaves, Indians exiled• Many to Canada

Egalitarianism among White Men

• War experience leads to change in attitudes• Soldiers retain self-esteem and insist on

respect from elites

• Democratic tendencies not welcomed by all• Increased equality for white males with

property

Still “natural aristocracy” tendencies

• Remember office-holding in colonial times?• Those who had demonstrated fitness for

government service by personal accomplishments

• Undermined the tendency to believe that wealth or distinguished family background conferred a special claim to public office

,

White Women in Wartime

• “camp followers”• Changing roles for women at home• Raising money for soldiers• Abigail Adams

p. 168

“By the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands.”-Abigail Adams, in a letter to her husband John (1776)

A Revolution for African Americans

• Wartime opportunities due to manpower shortages• Quakers begin push to end slavery• VT, PA, MA, RI, and CT phase out slavery• Slave importation ended except in SC and

GA• Some fought slavery in courts

• Difficult situation for free blacks• Slave poet Phillis Wheatley • More freedom in some states

p. 170

More Freedoms for everybody

• Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom• An example of the end to the notion of established

Churches• Some wives retained autonomy• 1784 shipload of indentured servants freed in New

York because “contrary to the idea of liberty”• Servants harder to hire and control, called

employers boss instead of master or mistress and started sitting at same table – “a free country”

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Maps/Figs/Tables, 6–33

Forging New Governments, 1776-1787

From Colonies to States

• Equal division of political power for counties and towns• Legislatures strengthen, governors

weakened• Most elected both houses of legislature

• Republican over democracy• Fear of mob rule

• Change in 1780-MA strengthens executive, greater property qualifications

Formalizing a Confederation, 1776-1781

• Articles of Confederation• Sent to states in 1777• Ratified in 1781• US a “firm league of friendship”

• Weak national government• No power to tax or regulate commerce• Unicameral legislature• Each state one vote• Unanimous vote for amendments• No independent executive or judiciary

The Articles of Confederation

• Reflected Am’s wide-spread fear of centralized authority and potential for corruption

• Reserved to each state its sovereignty, freedom, and independence

• People citizens of states first and nation second• Only one chamber of Congress, with one representative

from each state elected by the state’s legislature

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Maps/Figs/Tables, 6–37

Finance, Trade, and the Economy, 1781-1786

• $160 million cost of war• Huge public debt• Paper money now worthless-Continentals

• Inflation-”not worth a Contiental”

• Tax measures stopped by single states

• Newburgh Conspiracy• Some officers threaten coup• George Washington able to stop plot

The Confederation and the West

• States relinquish claims in west• Land Ordinance of 1785

• Procedures for surveying land north of Ohio R.

• Northwest Ordinance (1787)• New steps for creation and admission of

states -- equality• Slavery forbidden in NW• Money toward public education

Map 6-4, p. 174

Map 6-5, p. 176

Native Americans and the Confederation

• “a subdued people”• New treaties weakened tribes• Disunity among Indians in NW

• Alexander McGillivray leads Creeks against Americans• Creeks allowed to keep land

• Expansion into Spanish claimed territory• Proposed Jay-Gardoqui Treaty would open

Spanish markets, west and south unhappy because would also block expansion

Toward a New Constitution, 1786-1788

Shays’ Rebellion, 1786-1787

• Tax increases and legislature’s demand gold and silver as the only form of tax currency

• fuel revolt of Mass. farmers• Daniel Shays and followers march on

Springfield• Rebellion quashed

• Sparks call for general convention to amend Articles of Confederation

Shay’s Rebellion

• The depression that began in 1784 persisted• With Massachusetts farmers reeling from a loss of their number

one export market, the West Indies, the state legislature voted to increase taxes so they could pay off their war debt in three years

• The legislature was dominated by commercially minded merchants and elites that demanded gold and silver as the only form of tax currency

• Daniel Shays, a farmer and a Revolutionary officer led 2000 angry men in an attempt to shut down courts in 3 counties and strengthened a call for stronger centralized power

The Philadelphia Convention, 1787

• Instructed by states to suggest amendments to Arts of Conf dealing with commerce

• 55 delegates/national perspective• Most wealthy• Most in 30s and 40s• 19 slave owners• Over half trained in law• Secret proceedings

• Ready to replace Articles

Constitutionalism

• Belief that men could write law as framework of all other law

The Virginia Plan -- Madison

• Strong central government• Criticized-”to abolish the State

Governments altogether”

• Congress with tremendous powers• Bicameral • Both proportional representation• Lower house would appoint upper house

delegates• Both would name executive and judges• Four largest states would control Congress

The New Jersey Plan

• Unicameral legislature• Each state with an equal vote• Same as Articles

• Would have allowed the seven smallest states, which included just 25 percent of all Americans, to control Congress

The Great Compromise

• Also called Connecticut Compromise• A “grand committee” of one delegate

per state• Upper House/Senate

• Equal vote• Chosen by state legislatures (17th

Amendment/1913)

• Lower House/House of Representatives-proportional representation• Direct election by people in states

The Constitution

• Approved September 17, 1787• Vigorous national authority

• “supremacy clause”• Authority to:

• Lay taxes• Regulate interstate commerce• Conduct diplomacy• Raise an army and navy• Declare war• Use force against states to stop rebellion• Coin money

Executive Power

• Surprisingly powerful presidency• Commander-in-chief of military• Supervise foreign relations• Veto power over legislation• Appointments

• Electoral College• Indirect election of pres

• Assumed Washington 1st pres – would fix problems left unresolved

Federalism

• Shared power between national and state governments

• Limits on central authority• National government would limit its

activities to small number of roles• Foreign affairs• National defense• Regulating foreign and interstate commerce• Coining money

• Other powers left to states

“Three-fifths” Compromise

• Counting of slaves in population• Southern states wanted slaves counted

fully• Northern states wanted slaves not to be

counted

• 3/5 of slaves would count for population for representation and taxation

What was left out?

• No allowance for political parties• Supremacy of national government

implied, but not stated• No precise standard of citizenship

Ratification Process

• “We the People”• Special state conventions chosen by

voters

The Struggle over Ratification, 1787-1788

• Federalists• Favored ratification• Balance relationship between national

governments and states

• Anti-federalists• Opposed ratification• Feared centralized power• Patrick Henry, George Mason

Map 6-6, p. 182

The Federalist

• Arguments for ratification• Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John

Jay• Analysis optimistic

Ratification

• Bill of Rights promised• Delaware first to approve• New Hampshire ninth• Virginia and New York needed

• Narrowly approve