Chapter 4
Section 5: Winning
Independence
Americans Endure Hardships
•Financing the War
–Congress had no taxation power
–Congress issued paper money
but it wasn’t backed by gold or
silver
•Disruptions of trade
–Britain blockaded the
Atlantic Coast
–Fell from 2,000,700lbs to
111,000 in 1777
–Inflation- reduced peoples’
buying power
Victories in the West & South
•June 1778- Britain abandoned
Philadelphia & moved to reinforce
NY (French fleet was coming)
•Fighting in the west
–Spring- Colonel George Rogers
Clark & militia capture 175 British
soldiers
•British retook the Fort at
Vincennes, Indiana
•US recaptured the Fort in Feb.
1779
–Convinced the Natives to
abandon the British
The War in the South
•Britain hoped for loyalist support
•Seized Savannah in Dec. 1778 &
Charleston in May 1780
•Aug. 1780- Britain won at Camden,
SC
•Battle of Kings Mountain (Oct)
Patriots won
•Battle of Cowpens, Jan 1781
stopped Cornwallis again
•Cornwallis continued north &
defeated the Patriots at the Battle
of Guilford Courthouse March
1781
•Cornwallis set up camp at
Yorktown to wait for the navy
Victory at Yorktown
• Lafayette positioned his troops to block an
overland escape from the peninsula
• French fleet set up a blockade off the VA
coast
• Washington moved south & met up with
Lafayette
• Oct. US artillery pounded Yorktown
• Oct. 19, 1781 Cornwallis surrendered
The Treaty of Paris 1783
•Britain, Spain, France, & US
•Provisions
–Britain recognized US independence
–Northern border was set from New
England to the Mississippi River
–Mississippi River was the boundary
between the US & Spain
•Navigation open to the US &
Britain
•Florida was returned to Spain
•Britain withdrew remaining troops
•Rights & property of loyalists were
restored
–Persecution did continue anyway
The Impact of the Revolution
• Inspired Patriotism
• No immediate results for women
• Mixed results for African AmericansAntislavery in the North
• Limits on their rights & political power in
the south
• Bad for Native Americans
• Spread of liberty “all men created equal”