Chapter 5- The American Revolution



Chapter 5: The American Revolution

I. The States United

- Faced the task of mobilizing for war against the world’s greatest armed power

A. Defining American War Aims

- Second continental congress met in the State House in Philadelphia, w/ delegates

from every colony except Georgia

- Agreed to support the war, but disagreed about its purpose

- Approved one, last conciliatory appeal to the king, the “Olive Branch Petition”

- Reasons Americans changed their minds from redress of grievances to independence

1. Cost of war- human and financial

2. Lingering affection for England diminished

- British recruited Indians, slaves and foreign mercenaries (Hessians)

3. Believed British govt. was forcing them toward independence

- Rejected Olive Branch Petition

- Prohibitory Act closed colonies to over seas trade and made no concessions to

American demands

- Enforced by a British naval blockade

- Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense in January 1776

- Changed the outlook of Americans towards the war

- Paine wanted to turn anger toward root of the problem -English Constitution

- It was the king and the system that permitted him to rule, that was to blame

B. The Decision for Independence

- Common Sense sold more than 100,000 copies in first few months

- Continental Congress declared American ports open to all ships except GB and

entered into communication w/ foreign powers

- July 2nd, 1776, Congress adopted a resolution

- July 4th 1776, Congress approved Declaration of Independence

- Thomas Jefferson wrote most of Declaration w/ help from Benjamin Franklin

and John Adams

- Expressed ideas voiced in colonies in preceding months; town meetings, artisan &

militia orgs, county officials, grand juries, Sons of Liberty & colonial assemblies

- Declaration split in two parts:

1. Govt. formed to protect rights of life, liberty, & property (Locke’s contract)

2. Listed the crimes of the king

- Declaration led to increase in foreign aid and led to France’s intervention

C. Response to Independence

- Loyalists were true to the king, while Tories were supporters of independence

- Aftermath of D of I, colonists began to call themselves states

- November 1777, Congress adopted Articles of Confederation – ratified in 1781

- Confirmed weak, decentralized system w/ limited power over the states

D. Mobilizing for War

- New govt. faced challenges of raising and organizing armies, providing them with

supplies and equipment, and finding a way to pay for it all

- Americans largely relied on captured guns from British

- Financing the war proved to be the most vexing problem

- Congress had no power to levy taxes

- Congress issued paper money which caused inflation

- Reason troops suffered at Valley Forge: merchants wouldn’t sell to them

- Financed the war by borrowing heavily from other countries

- Continental Army was created in spring of 1775, commanded by Washington

- Continental Congress was too little interested in supplying Washington w/ manpower

and too interested w/ interfering w/ military operations

- Left the troops with little rations

- GW got aid from military experts Lafayette of France & von Steuben of Prussia

- Washington was most successful at holding the new nation together

II. The War for Independence

- British had the greatest navy and best equipped army in the world

- America had the advantage of fighting on there own soil

- The war was won not by advantages but by egregious blunder

A. The First Phase: New England

- British made the territory of the American colonies a battleground

- British withdrew from Concord and Lexington in April 1775

- Battle of Bunker Hill: June 6, 1775

- British suffered their heaviest casualties at the Battle of Bunker Hill

- March 17, 1776 British departed Boston to Halifax in Nova Scotia

- America invaded Canada hoping they joined the American cause

B. The Second Phase: The Mid-Atlantic Region

- 32,000 troops arrived outside New York under William Howe

- Washington only mustered up a ragtag group of 19,000

- Christmas 1776, Washington launched a surprise attack on Hessians

- Howe would come from the North along the Hudson and another invading force

would come from Canada and travel south

- Howe abandoned his own plan one day after he put it into motion

- Continental Congress moved from its capital into York Pennsylvania

- General Philip Schuyler was removed from command after the British force took

control of Ticonderoga

- Replaced by General Horatio Gates

- Burgoyne was forced to surrender on October 17, 1777at Saratoga

- Saratoga was turning point in war > led to alliance between US and France

- British Generals had problems with the war effort

- Burgoyne let the Americans retreat and regroup

- Howe did not understand the nature of war

C. The Iroquois and the British

- Iroquois Confederacy declared it was neutral in 1776

- 3 out of 6 nations supported the British

D. Securing Aid From Abroad

- Failure to crush the Continental Army and Saratoga were two main reasons for the

turning point in the war

- America had indirect from European countries and direct support from France

- John Adams called early American representatives abroad Militia Diplomats

- United States most potential ally was France

- French government would not give the U.S diplomatic recognition

- Benjamin Franklin was a popular hero among the French

- France helped America by furnishing most of the money and munitions but also

provided a navy and an expeditionary force

E. The Final Phase: The South

- British troops spent three years moving throughout the South

- British badly overestimated the extent of the loyalist settlement

- Many loyalists refused to help the British

- This phase made the war truly “revolutionary” by introducing a new kind of combat

and had a new of mobilizing and politicizing large groups of population

- Sir Henry Clinton replaced William Howe in 1778

- George Rogers Clark captured settlements in Illinois country from British & Indains

- Benedict Arnold was a traitor – betrayed Patriot stronghold at West Point

- December 29, 1778 British captured Savannah, GA

- May 12, British captured the port of Charleston, SC

- Nathanael Greene replaced Gates after British crushed patriot forces at Camden, SC

- On October 7, 1780 patriots captured a force of 1,100 Tories at King’s Mountain

- Cornwallis suffered “…unexpected and severe blow” at Cowpens on 1/17/1781

- Greene combined all of his forces and met the British at Guilford Court House, NC

and eventually retreated, but forced British to abandon the Carolina campaign

- Washington, Rochambeau and de Grasse trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown

- caught Cornwallis between land and sea (see map on page 140)

- Cornwallis, claiming to be ill sent a deputy to surrender 7,000+ men

F. Winning the Peace

- French would not agree to settlements w/ England until Spain won back Gibraltar

- November 30, 1782 Franklin, Jay, and Adams signed a treaty with Britain

- Treaty of Paris was finally settled on September 3, 1783

- Granted US w/ clear recognition of independence & generous cession of territory

III. War and Society

A. Loyalists and Minorities

- The losers were the British and American loyalists

- Up to 100,000 loyalists fled the country

- The majority consisted of men and women of wealth

- The distribution of wealth and power was distributed more rapidly after the war

- Anglicans suffered the most after the war

- The revolution weakened the Quakers in Pennsylvania

- Roman catholic religion was on the rise

- Father John Carroll was named head of Catholic missions in America in 1784

- In 1789, Carroll became first American Bishop

B. The War and Slavery

- Many slaves took advantage of British presence in the South and escaped

- In SC nearly one third of slaves defected from the war

- In 1770, Africans constituted over 60% of the war

- Blacks started to engage in open resistance after the Revolution

- Slaves constituted for more than half the population in Georgia and SC

- Revolutionary sentiment and Christian fever spread antislavery sentiments in North

- Southerners believed enslaving blacks was the only way to ensure liberty for whites

C. Native Americans and the Revolution

- American patriots tried to persuade Native Americans to stay neutral

- Some tribes joined European cause because they sought out to stop white expansion

- A Cherokee faction led by Dragging Canoe attacked settlements in summer of 1776

- Patriot victory increased white demands for western lands

- Also, white attitudes towards tribes took a turn for the worse

- Thomas Jefferson viewed Native Americans as “noble savages”

- The Revolution revealed and increased deep division within tribe

D. Women’s Rights and Women’s Roles

- Women who were left behind during war took care of family farms & businesses

- Some women went to Patriot armies and joined their male relatives by choice

- Women helped w/ morale and doing jobs such as cooking, laundry, and nursing

- Considerable amounts of women became involved in combat

- Some disguised themselves as men just so they could fight

- Important male political leaders voiced support for women’s education

- Unmarried women had legal rights such as owning property, entering contracts

while married women had no rights at all

- Most women accepted that their place remained within the family

- Revolution encouraged people to reevaluate contributions of women to family

and society

- Wives were still far from equal partners in marriage, but their ideas, interests, and

domestic roles received increased respect

E. The War Economy

- After a century of dependence on British, American trade was on its own

- English ships attempted to drive American vessels from the sea

- Mid-1780’s American merchants developed a new system of trade with Asia

- Americans began to make their own clothes after British ports stopped trading

IV. The Creation of State Government

A. The Assumptions of Republicanism

- Americans could only agree the new Government would be Republican

- Condition of a person’s birth was crucial determinant of success

- America’s experiment with statecraft became a model for other countries

- Made U.S the most admired and studied nation on all the Earth

B. The First State Constitutions

- First decision was to write down the constitution

- Second decision was the executive branch power must be limited

- Most important no state governor or executive officer could hold a seat within the

executive branch, separating power between the two branches

C. Revising State Governments

- Many states began to revise their state constitutions to limit power

- First change was the actual writing of the constitution

- Second change was a significant strengthening of the executive

D. Toleration and Slavery

- In 1786, Virginia enacted Thomas Jefferson’ Statue of Religious Liberty

- Slavery was abolished where slavery was already weak

- Slavery survived in all southern states and Border States

- Few whites believed blacks could be integrated into American society as equals

V. The Search for a National Government

A. The Confederation

- Articles of Confederation was adopted by the Continental Congress in 1777

- It could not regulate trade, draft troops, or levy taxes on the people

- Lasted from 1781 until 1789

- Had little stature in the eyes of the world

B. Diplomatic Failures

- Confederation held at low esteem because of difficulties in persuading Great Britain

to live up to the terms of the peace treaty of 1783

- Congress sent John Adams in 1784 to London to work out things out

- Throughout the 1780’s Britain refused to send a diplomatic minister to the

American capital

- Confederation diplomats agreed to a treaty with Spain in 1786

C. The Confederation and the Northwest

- A of C most important accomplishment was its resolution of some of the

controversies involving western land

- By 1784, confederation had enough land to permit Congress to begin making policy

for national domain

- Ordinance of 1784 divided western territory into ten self governing districts

- Could petition Congress for statehood when population was equal to that of the

smallest state

- Congress created system for surveying & selling western lands in Ordinance of 1785

- Grid was applied in 1785 in the Northwest Territory

- Northwest Ordinance was passed in 1787

- Abandoned the ten districts & created a Northwest Territory - Specified a 60,000 min. for statehood

D. Indians and the Western Lands

- In 1790-91 Little Turtle led group of tribes in two attacks on the U.S and won both

- 630 whites died in the second battle on November 4, 1791

- A year later, the Miami tribe signed the Treaty of Greenville

E. Debts, Taxes, and Daniel Shays

- Postwar depression lasted from 1784 to 1787

- Confederation was in great debt & couldn’t tax the people to get it

- Only receiving about one-sixth of what is was asking for

- Committed Nationalists sought ways to increase the powers of central govt. and to

meet its financial obligations

- Continental impost: 5% duty on all imported goods to be levied by Congress and

used to fund the debt

- Farmers deemed that state govts. issued paper money to increase money supply and

make it easier for them to meet their obligations

- Most riots were rallied behind Daniel Shays

- Shays issued demands including paper money, tax relief, a moratorium on debts, the

recollection of the state capital from Boston to the interior, and the abolition of

imprisonment for debt

- As a military enterprise, Shays Rebellion was a failure

- Shays Rebellion helped a movement produced in states: a new national constitution

( Proved the A of C was not working and needed to be revised!

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