The American
Revolution
1775-1785
Key Concepts
• Causes and consequences of divisions b/w
Patriots and Loyalists in American society.
• The origins and significance of the
Declaration of Independence.
• Factors that led to American victory in the
Revolutionary War.
• The dispersal of Loyalists to Upper Canada
and the Maritimes.
• Political and economic challenges facing
the USA after the revolution.
• Creation and adoption of the United States
Constitution.
Timeline
• 1774- First Continental Congress
• 1775-Skirmishes at Lexington and
Concord.
• 1776-Declaration of Independence,
Thomas Paine “Common Sense”
• 1777-American Victory at Saratoga
• 1781- Articles of Confederation, British
surrender at Yorktown.
• 1783-Treaty of Paris
• 1787- Constitutional convention
• 1789- Washington inaugurated as president
• 1791-Bill of Rights
Reading of the DOI on July 7, 1776 in NY city. There were
mixed feelings concerning these public protests.
What emotions seem to animating the people?
Loyalist
Strongholds
Washington’s Headaches
Only 1/3 of the colonists were in
favor of a war for independence [the
other third were Loyalists, and the
final third were neutral].
State/colony loyalties.
Congress couldn’t tax to raise money
for the Continental
Army.
Poor training [until
the arrival of
Baron von Steuben.
Exports & Imports: 1768-1783
Causes of the War
• Outgrowth of the colonists’ desire not to
be taxed without representation in the
Parliament of England.
• Over the course of time many taxes were
implemented and revoked because of the
outrageous reaction from the colonies.
• “Taxation without representation is
tyranny” became the battle cry of the
colonies.
The Boston Massacre
• In Boston the American’s outrage
resulted in violent acts against the
British customs officials.
• British troops, protecting the customs
officials, opened fire into a group of
protestors.
• Five members of the group were killed, in
what later became known as the Boston
Massacre.
The Boston Tea Party
A group of citizens from the Boston
area dressed as Mohawk Indians,
boarded a ship and dumped over
300 chests of tea into the harbor to
protest the monopoly of the East
India Trade Company.
First Continental
Congress
• The First Continental Congress was a
convention of delegates from twelve of the
thirteen North American colonies that met on
September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the
American Revolution.
• It was called in response to the passage of
the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable
Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British
Parliament.
• The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for
the Boston Tea Party.
• The Congress was attended by 56 members
appointed by the legislatures of twelve of the
Thirteen Colonies, the exception being the
Province of Georgia, which did not send delegates.
• At the time, Georgia was considered a convict
state and was not taken into consideration in the
colonies.
• The Congress met briefly to consider options,
including an economic boycott of British trade;
publishing a list of rights and grievances; and
petitioning King George III for redress of those
grievances.
• The Congress also called for another
Continental Congress in the event that their
petition was unsuccessful in halting
enforcement of the Intolerable Acts.
• Their appeal to the Crown had no effect, and
so the Second Continental Congress was
convened the following year to organize the
defense of the colonies at the onset of the
American Revolutionary War.
• The delegates also urged each colony to set
up and train its own militia.
Lexington and Concord
• “Gentleman may cry peace,
peace! But there is no peace …I
know not what course others
may take, but as for me, give
me liberty or give me death!”
• -Patrick Henry
The Shot Heard Around
the World
• April 18, 1775 General Thomas Gage
sent 700 redcoats, to seize militia
weapons stored at Concord, 30 km
west of Boston.
• Paul Revere rode overnight from
Boston to Lexington and on to
Concord, warning the minutemen of
the approaching force.
• 73 killed and 200 wounded
• This battle had ignited a revolution.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
George Washington
As Commander in Chief,
Washington’s first great feat was
leading the rag-tag Continental
army to victory over the British
expeditionary forces in the
American colonies.
The Battle of Bunker Hill
• As important as this battle was to war, it
is a common myth, the battle did not
actually take place on Bunker Hill.
• The American soldiers waited all night for
the British, before they ambushed them
and forced them to leave Charleston.
• This was one of the first of many victories
that the Americans had over the British.
The Birth of the United States
Navy
On Friday, October 13, 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the
Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels,
armed with ten carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and
manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a
cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying
munitions and stores to the British army in America.
This was the original legislation out of which the
Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth
certificate of the navy.
The United States NAVY
The Declaration of
Independence
• The Declaration of Independence was a
document drafted mostly by Thomas
Jefferson.
• This document stated that the
Continental Congress was to sever all
ties with Great Britain.
• July 4, 1776, the document was adopted
and signed; church bells rang to let the
people know the good news.
The Battle of Trenton
• On Christmas Eve 1776, George
Washington and his men were cold, tired,
defeated, and demoralized.
• But when it came time to fight the
British, who had many more men, and
much more equipment, the American
troops pulled it together and beat the
British.
• This was not only a great victory for
America, but it was a great boost for the
American morale.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
New Jersey’s part in the
Revolution
• New Jersey played a key part,
geographically in the war.
• Being in the center of the new nation, it
was crossed numerous times by men of
both America and Britain.
• New Jersey holds the record for getting
the most action of the war, followed
closely in second with South Carolina.
The Battle of Saratoga
• The battle of Saratoga is an interesting one.
• This was when 6,000 British troops were in
upstate New York, traveling southbound.
• The American troops cut or burned down all
of the bridges in their path.
• This made the British an easy target for the
American soldiers.
• This battle would prove to the French King
that they should support the Americans
against the English.
Saratoga Part 1
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Saratoga Part 2
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Results of the War
• The Americans achieved their
independence under a form of ad hoc or
temporary government.
• The end of the war would force the U.S.A
to create a more viable and lasting form
of government.
• In Europe the end of the war depend
hostility between France and Britain.
• France provided economic support that
would weaken their own health.
• An influx of Loyalist migration to Upper
Canada.
Check Your
Understanding
• 1. What reasons did most
soldiers have for joining the
Continental Army?
• 2. How did the CA create a
sense of national identity?
• 3. Why did the Americans fail to
take Quebec?
Famous Quotes of the
Revolution
“I only regret that I have but one
life to give for my country.”
~Nathan Hale
“These are the times that try all
men’s souls.” ~Thomas Paine
“They that can give up the
essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserves
neither liberty nor safety.”
~Benjamin Franklin
Famous Quotes cont’d
“I have but one lamp by which my feet are
guided, and that is the lamp of experience.
I know no way of judging of the future but by
the past.” ~Patrick Henry
“The god who gave us life gave us liberty at the
same time.” ~Thomas Jefferson
“There never was a good war, or a bad peace.”
~Benjamin Franklin
Famous People of the Revolution
• John Adams
• George
Washington
• John Paul Jones
• Nathanial Greene
• Betsy Ross
• Benjamin Franklin
• Patrick Henry
• Alexander
Hamilton
• Thomas Jefferson
• Ethan Allen
• Molly Pitcher
• Paul Revere
• John Hancock
• Nathan Hale
Internet Link about The
American Revolution
• http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/
EMS/RevWar/AmRevolution.htm
• http://www.edtech.kennesaw.edu/
web.amrevol.html
• http://www.theamericanrevolution.
org/index.htm
• http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/