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!