America’s War for Independence
DO NOW: Friday 10/24
The pen is mightier than the sword.
What does this mean?
Do you agree or disagree?
Can you give other examples in history when a
writer was more influential than a soldier?
Recipe for Revolution!!
1. Educated LEADERSHIP
– Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”
2. MAKE IT OFFICIAL!!
– Paine got the country talking “Do we
formally declare our independence??”
– Declaration of Independence
Common Sense
• Working together, analyze Thomas
Paine’s “Common Sense” and explain
each section IN YOUR OWN
WORDS!!
WHAT IS HE REALLY SAYING?!
Exit Ticket
• Would Thomas Paine’s pamphlet have
inspired you to think FOR or AGAINST
independence from Great Britain?
• Why would you pick that side? Explain
using specific examples that would sway
you one way or another!
10/28
• In your notes, write what
you ALREADY KNOW
about the Declaration of
Independence.
• You have 2 minutes!
Second Continental Congress
• May 10, 1775
• Same day that Benedict Arnold &
Ethan Allen storm Ticonderoga!
• Congress struggles with ongoing
WAR
• Required transforming REBELS into
an ARMY
Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Jefferson – Drafts Declaration
– ALL Men are created equal
– Is it ALL men?
• White males who own PROPERTY
– Deliberately excludes slaves & women
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VOTED – July 2nd
RATIFIED – July 4th
First PUBLIC READING – July 8th
34 Delegates signed on July 4th, the rest signed on
or after August 2nd
• How did the Declaration of
Independence inspire The
Declaration of Rights of
Man/Declaration of Sentiments?
• Highlight in the document
• THEN write your explanation!
• AT LEAST 6-8 sentences.
DO NOW: Wednesday 10/29
• Take out your HW!
• Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen OR
Declaration of Sentiment
• Find someone who did the OPPOSITE
document.
• Compare your notes! 
• Writing The Declaration of Independence
• John Green - Tea, Taxes and the American
Revolution
DO NOW: Northern Theater
• If King George had
accepted the Olive Branch
would the colonists have
still pushed for
independence…?
PHASE 1
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•
•
•
Begins in NE over TAXES
Lex. & Conc., Ticonderoga,
Siege of Boston
Cannons from Henry Knox
– Positioned above Boston
Harbor
– Did not fire
– Intimidated British  they
were surrounded
• Deal = GB evacuate w/
loyalists in 2 WEEKS!
• USA VICTORY
America
Strengths
• Fighting defensive
war
• “Home-field”
advantage
• Self-sustaining
agricultural society
• Better marksmen
• Sense of Purpose
Weaknesses
• Disorganized,
amateur army
• Poor supplies and
provisions for
soldiers
• Weak/indecisive
central leadership
• Wartime inflation
Britain
Strengths
• Larger professional
army(50K redcoats,
30K hessians)
• More money
• Strongest navy in the
WORLD
Weaknesses
• Need for a
clear/decisive
victory over large
area of land
• 3,000 mile distance
from central
leadership
• Second-rate
generals
Military strategies
•
War of Attrition
•
•
Guerilla tactics
•
you don’t have to win
EVERY battle
“Divide and Conquer”
between North and
South
•
Secure military
alliances with
Britain’s enemies
(FRANCE )
•
“Divide and Conquer”
between patriots and
loyalists and “freed”
slaves
Blockade the ports
Exit Ticket
• "The cause of America is in a
great measure the cause of all
mankind"
• Evaluate the significance of
this statement.
Do Now: Middle Theater
• Take out your HW  Chart on
the Northern Theater Battles
• The Battle of Trenton
• Explain HOW and WHY the
two accounts of the Battle of
Trenton are different.
Battles – NEW YORK
• General William Howe (Brother, Ad. Richard
Howe)
• NY Harbor Summer of 1776
• LARGEST British armada EVER assembled
– 32,000 soldiers & German Hessians
• Washington had 23,000  OUTNUMBERED
• RESULT? American retreat/British Victory
• Most men have been killed or deserted
– Fewer than 8,000 men remain
Battles – Trenton, NJ
• NEED A VICTORY
• Christmas night  2,400 men in row boats
across Delaware
• Surprised drunk Hessians
• VICTORY  30 killed, 918 POWs, 6 cannons
• Princeton  another VICTORY
• With high morale troops march to
Morristown!
Battles – Philadelphia
• 1777  Howe needs to capture CAPITAL
• Brandywine Creek
– GW attempts to block British
– Congress flees for safety
• Philadelphia was CAPTURED
• Continental Congress will be relocated during
this time
– YORK, PA will become their home base
Battles – Saratoga
• General Burgoyne (GB)
• Miscommunication leads to American
VICTORY
• SUPPOSED to meet w/ Howe’s men in NY
• Howe was distracted in PA & never showed
• Americans surrounded Saratoga
– Burgoyne surrendered
• Importance? Changes GB military strategy
– Forced to keep close to the cost
Exit Ticket
•How might the course
of the war changed if
the British had
captured Saratoga?
Generals
“Triumvirate”  British Generals
• General William Howe
• General John Burgoyne “Gentleman Johnny”
• Henry Clinton
__________________________
• General Gates
• General Washington
Turning Point
• French secretly send weapons to Americans
• Victory @ Saratoga encourages the French
to join the Americans against the British
• 1778  Recognize American Independence
& sign treaty of cooperation
• France could not make peace w/ Britain
unless Britain recognized American
Independence
• (Spain also helps….)
Third Phase
• British change tactics AGAIN
• Focus on LOYALISTS & SLAVES
– Think they are strongest supporters
– All in the South
• Southern Theater = DISMAL failure
• Underestimate support
• Stray from coast line  won’t have supplies
DO NOW
• Have your HW out!
• You will discuss questions
3, 4, 5 with a partner
before we discuss as a
class.
REVIEW
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•
•
•
Where was the 1st phase?
Where was the 2nd phase?
Where was the 3rd phase?
What was the TURNING POINT in
the war?
• WHY is it considered to be the
turning point?
• Parliament, Lord North, & the English want to give up
• George III refuses to surrender
– “I’d rather lose the crown than do what I think is disgraceful”
• France and Spain support
• 1/3 1/3 1/3 changing much more now
• Get __________ &
_______ to fight
with GB
– GB thinks there are
more loyalists in the
South than Patriots!
• Try to create a
______ war in the
colonies
• Win the South and
then move North
• GW’s most trusted
subordinate
• Good military mind
• Commands half of
Greene’s men in SC
• Won Saratoga 
• Get into Pitched Battles? NO
–Greene splits his army and uses
Guerilla Warfare
• Utilize home-field advantage
Battles…no major
defeats
–USA Generals 
• Greene >
Cornwallis
• Morgan does well
too
• Cornwallis sloppy!!

• Not enough
loyalists in south
• Patriots knew land
better
• Cornwallis trapped
three ways
– 1-month siege
• Cornwallis writes to
Clinton for help
– Clinton = IDIOT!!
• Surrender Oct. 17,
1781
– 4 years after…
• Saratoga…
– 7K British surrender
EXIT TICKET
How did French forces
contribute to the
American victory at
Yorktown?
• France delays
treaty talks
“I have lived long enough, and
had experience enough of the
conduct of governments and
people, nations and courts, to
be convinced that gratitude,
friendship, unsuspecting
confidence, and all the most
amiable passions in human
nature, are the most
dangerous guides in politics”
between nations.
– 2nd Cont Congress
agrees to let
France approve
talks & “advise”
– JA handcuffed by
orders & “aids”?
• JA & Jay cut out
France 
– BF makes nice ♥
• Independence recognized by
GB
• Fishing rights in Canada…
• Mississippi River access
• Spain gets Florida
• France gets...
• USA & GB don’t follow a bunch of agreements
(slaves, debts, Loyalist property)
• Last British soldiers (?) leave NYC Harbor
• Last shots fired 