On the Road to War
Today we will identify several events leading up to the Revolutionary War
Pontiac’s Rebellion 1763
• Uprising of 18 western tribes
• Led by Pontiac of the Ottawa
• Results in Proclamation of 1763
The Stamp Act Congress 1765
• Representatives from 9 colonies meet in New York City
• Meet to protest the direct tax on all printed materials
• James Otis, “no taxation, without representation!”
Stamp Act Congress con’t.
• Declaration of Rights issued
• Sam Adams, Sons & Daughters of Liberty will enforce colonial boycott
• Parliament repeals Stamp Act
Boston Massacre 1770
• Unrest vs. the Townshend Acts
• British troops & colonial mobs on the streets
• British sentry assaulted
• 5 colonists die when soldiers fire into mob
Reenactment
The Facts
Massacre results
• Soldiers put on trial• Defended by John
Adams• 2 will be found guilty
& have their thumbs branded
• Townshend Acts will be repealed, except Tea Tax
The Committees of Correspondence 1772
• Formed by Sam Adams & James Otis
• Share information between colonies
• Keep the fire of liberty burning
The Boston Tea Party 1773
• Violent protest over the Tea Tax
• Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks destroy 342 chests of British Tea
• Boston Harbor is closed with the Intolerable Acts
First Continental Congress
• 56 men w/ various viewpoints meet in Philadelphia
• Protesting Intolerable Acts
• Express loyalty to England
• Wont follow all English laws
Bravery
• Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Congress con’t.
• Colonial boycott will continue• Call for armed militias/minutemen• Issue the Declaration of Resolves• Agree to meet again• King George III – “colonies are in a state
of rebellion”• The Avalon Project : Declaration and
Resolves of the First Continental Congress
PATRICK HENRY
• STATESMAN FROM VIRGINIA
The Shot Heard Around the World
• Lexington and Concord
• Paul Revere, William Dawes & Samuel Prescott make a “Midnight Ride”
• British are coming• Minutemen make
ready
Blood is Spilled, April 19, 1775
• British will attempt to seize colonial war materials & arrest Sam Adams & John Hancock
• On Lexington Green 70 minutemen meet 700 British regulars
• Colonists are ordered from the “King’s Green”
• Gun fire erupts
The March to Concord
Eight colonist die at LexingtonBritish move on to ConcordDestroy colonial supplies4,000 minutemen materializeBritish return to BostonColonists use guerilla warfare to kill and
wound over 300 British soldiers
The Retreat
The Battle of Bunker Hill
• British occupy Boston after fighting at Lexington & Concord
• Americas occupy high ground Breeds Hill• June 17,1775 British led by Gen. Wm. Howe
assaults the hill three times• 1st assault – British dead and wounded lie “as
thick as sheep in a field”• 2nd assault more of the same, colonists getting
low on ammo
Bunker Hill
• 3rd assault, a bayonet charge by the British
• Colonists driven from the hill
People & Results
• Americans led by Colonel Wm. Prescott• Quote, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their
eyes”• British led by Generals Howe, John Burgoyne & Henry
Clinton• Over 1,000 British casualties• Over 500 American casualties• Battle shows American willingness to fight and British
lack of tactics• The Decisive Day is Come: The Battle of Bunker Hill |
Introduction
After Bunker Hill
King George III declares the colonists rebels
Sets up a Naval Blockade of coloniesHires 10,000 German mercenaries
(Hessians)
The British Leave Boston
1776 Washington occupies Dorchester Heights
Places cannons on high ground surrounding Boston
mid-March 1776 British evacuate Boston
Fighting in New England comes to an end
Abigail Adams
From a letter “a town which we
expected would cost us a river of blood”
“every foot of ground which they obtain now they must fight for, and may they buy it at a Bunker Hill price.”
Common Sense
Written by Thomas Paine, January 1776
Plea for separation Expresses 2 ideals of
American Revolution Power struggle Role of citizens in their
gov’t. Acts as a “spark in a keg of
gunpowder” W/in a year 500,000 copies
sold
Advantages of Independence
Captured Patriots would be POW’s not traitors
Seize loyalist propertyObtain foreign aid
Common Sense Quotes
• Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one…
• To say, they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary, we thought so at the repeal of the stamp-act, yet a year or two undeceived us…
• Why is it that we hesitate? From Britain we can expect nothing but ruin. If she is admitted to the government of America again, this continent will not be worth living in.
• Until an independence is declared the continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.
The Declaration of Independence
Today we will identify factors that led to the writing of this historic
document
A Celebration
Setting the stage
British blunders – taxes,acts, spilling of colonial blood
Common SensePro-Independence group in the Continental
Congress ( Patrick Henry, John Adams, Sam Adams, & Richard Henry Lee)
Rejection of John Dickinson’s The Olive Branch Petition by King George
Ideas of the EnlightenmentWritings of John Locke
The Ideas of the Declaration
• The Declaration is divided into 4 sections
• First – The Preamble – why are we doing this – “When in the course …”
• Second – Theory of Government – Ideas on Rights, who protects them, right to rebel
Ideas con’t
• Third – List of 28 abuses perpetrated on the colonist by King George
• Fourth – Actual Declaration of Independence
Footnotes
• Jefferson originally blamed slavery on the King
• This passage will be removed to gain Southern support
• Declaration lays the foundation for the future government of the United States
Reactions to the Declaration
• Mixed
• Rejoicing Patriots
• Fear & Uncertainty among Tories or Loyalists, 20% to 33% of population
• Who cares element of society
Colonial weaknesses & strengths
Undisciplined troops Lack of unity (Tories) No real central
government to tax or raise troops
Small number of troops
Little or no money profiteering
Home field advantage Motivation African American
soldiers Indian allies Foreign aid Leadership Guerilla warfare
British strengths & weaknesses
Professional army & navy
More peopleMore moneyStable governmentLoyalist (TORIES)
support
Geography/locationMust fight an
offensive warProblems of
leadership & supplyMercenary soldiersFighting in EuropeUnpopular in England
Washington crosses the Delaware
Surprise Attack
War in the Middle Colonies
Battle of Princeton
• Washington again in Trenton, New Jersey• Leaves Trenton when word of a Cornwallis
approach is received• On January 3, 1777 the sides clash at Princeton• 45 minute battle, British lose over 500 men,
Americans lose over 20 men• Washington declares the battle, “A foxhunt!”• Continental Army will move to Morristown, New
Jersey and spend the winter of 1777 there
Washington at Princeton
Princeton
Saratoga
• Turning point in the war• American victory• French will begin officially aiding the American
cause• British plan to end the war will fail• Following the battle the British will make a peace
offering• They will agree to suspend the Coercive Acts,
pardon Patriot leaders• Peace offering is rejected by the Americans
Jane McCrea
Saratoga
• Actually two battles: September 19, 1777 and October 7, 1777
• British will be severely mauled by Continental Army
• British General John Burgoyne surrenders his army and will never command again
• Daniel Morgan’s riflemen target British officers, British General Frazer ,"My duty forbids me to fly from danger“, the next moment he fell.
Saratoga
Betrayal
Yorktown
Cornwallis at Yorktown
Surrender
Americans Storm the British
French Troops on the Move
The War Ends
• Yorktown, Virginia
• British General Cornwallis is trapped on a peninsula
• American & French soldiers on land block his movement
• French fleet led by Admiral DeGrasse block his escape by sea
• October 19, 1781 Cornwallis surrenders to Washington’s forces
• A British band plays a popular tune, “The World Turned Upside Down” as they surrender their arms
The Treaty of Paris
• American negotiators Ben Franklin, John Adams and John Jay
• Negotiate a separate peace with Great Britain
• US independence is recognized by Great Britain
• US expands west to Mississippi River, north to Great Lakes, south to Spanish Florida
The Negotiators
• US can fish in northern waters
• British troops will leave all posts in American territory
• Loyalists claims against US will be treated fairly
• US, Spain, France and Britain all reach peace agreements separatelyJohn Jay, John Adams,
Ben Franklin, Henry Laurens, William Franklin
North America After theNorth America After theTreaty of Paris, 1783Treaty of Paris, 1783
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