Mr. Schaber - U.S. History
Chapter 4 Class Notes
*Section 1
- In May 1754 George Washington led an unsuccessful raid on the French in Western
Pennsylvania - this was the first minor battle of a war that lasted until 1763
- It was called the French and Indian War because the British and their American
colonists waged war against the French and their Indian allies
- While English colonists built their settlements along the eastern seacoast during the
1600s, the French explored farther inland: along the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes,
and the Mississippi River
- From these explorations the French claimed a vast region stretching from the
Appalachian Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west
- British and French colonization of North America followed different patterns
- British settlers founded towns and cleared land for planting crops, while French
colonists established forts to protect their land claims - French forts were also centers for
trade w/ Indians
- French relations with Native Americans were generally better than were British-Indian
relations
- When Great Britain and France battled over issues in Europe, their colonists often
fought in America
- The French and Indian War actually started in the colonies and spread to Europe because the European phase began in 1756, about two years after the fighting started in
America, in Europe it was called the Seven Years' War
- A meeting of delegates from seven northern American colonies met at Albany, New
York, in June 1754 - the delegates hoped to strengthen ties with the Iroquois League
- Also, the delegates wanted to work out a unified war effort in the northern colonies
- Benjamin Franklin offered an ambitious plan for a permanent union of the colonies - it
was called the Albany Plan of Union, and it called for a grand council of delegates from
each colony, elected by their colonial legislatures
- Heading the council would be a president general, appointed by the British crown
- The delegates approved Franklin's plan, but the colonists themselves rejected it colonists were unwilling to surrender that much power to a central government
- But, this episode provided a model for the later government of the U.S.
- At first the French and Indian War went poorly for the British
- On July 9, 1755, about 900 French and Native Americans surprised a force of nearly
1,500 British troops and 450 colonial militia (armed citizens who serve as soldiers during
an emergency)
- British soldiers had been trained to fight in the open and in straight lines, as was done in
Europe - They were no match for an enemy who hid behind rocks and trees, like the
French and Indians
- Among the colonists who survived that attack was wagon driver Daniel Boone, and
another was George Washington, who had two horses killed under him and ended the
battle with four bullet holes in his coat
- Washington later reported (about the battle): the colonists "showed a great deal of
bravery" ..... while the British soldiers "broke and ran as sheep pursued by dogs."
- In 1756 Great Britain formally declared war on France, and in 1757 William Pitt
became Britain's prime minister
- Pitt persuaded Parliament to raise taxes and borrow huge sums of money to fight the
war
- Pitt's efforts soon paid off - in 1758, better-prepared and better-led British troops began
to overwhelm French and Indian forces in western Pennsylvania and Canada
- Fort Duquesne in Pennsylvania was a place the British finally overran, and they
renamed the fort Fort Pitt, which later became Pittsburgh
- The French abandoned their forts in New York and retreated for Canada
- Meanwhile, the Iroquois decided that the French cause was hopeless, and they began to
support the British
- In the spring of 1759, the British began a campaign to invade Canada and capture
Quebec, the capital of New France
- The British later conquered Quebec, and with this the war was nearly over
- The following September, British forces took the city of Montreal, giving Great Britain
control over all of Canada
- In 1763, representatives of Great Britain, France, and France's ally Spain signed a treaty
in Paris, France
- It was called the Treaty of Paris (1763), and it ended the French and Indian War in
America and the Seven Years' War in Europe
- In the treaty, France turned Canada over to Britain and surrendered its claim to all lands
east of the Mississippi River
- The only exception was the city of New Orleans, which France had given to Spain in a
secret treaty the year before
- The British returned Cuba, captured during the war, to Spain in exchange for Florida
- Despite the victory, the war seriously strained relations between the British and the
American colonists
- The British thought the colonists did not provide enough support for the long and costly
war that Britain had fought to protect them
- For their part, the Americans were shocked by the weakness of British military tactics
- Also, the colonists demanded to be led by colonial officers, which the British viewed as
treason
- The end of the war left many colonists with two strong beliefs - one was the loss of
respect for British military power - the other was a belief that the British did not share the
same values as Americans or treat them with appropriate respect
- Colonists saw no reason why they should not expand and prosper on their own, w/o
British help
*Section 2
- King George III of England became king at the age of 22, and he had a huge empire to
control
- He was stubborn and insecure, and he replaced William Pitt as prime minister with his
personal adviser, John Stewart
- As the end of the war approached in 1763, British traders and land speculators showed
increased interest in the Great Lakes region and the Ohio River Valley
- Native Americans in these regions became alarmed, and especially because the British
colonists were farmers, so they represented a much greater threat to Indian lands and
resources
- When Native Americans approached government officials with their concerns, they
discovered another difference between British and French - British despised the Indians,
and after British moved onto a piece of land, they stopped the trade of goods w/ Indians
(the French had traded)
- In response, Ottawa, Huron, Potawatomi, and other Indians in the Great Lakes region
rebelled against the British in the spring of 1763 - this was known as Pontiac's Rebellion
- By the end of the year, Native Americans had destroyed every British fort in the area
west of the Appalachians except Fort Pitt and Fort Detroit - about 2,000 colonists had
been killed or captured, and thousands more hurried back east to safer areas
- The British gov. acted to restore peace - in October, King George issued the
Proclamation of 1763
- This order closed the region west of the Appalachian Mountains to all settlement by
colonists - the area was placed under the control of the British military
- Despite the Proclamation of 1763, colonists continued to move west into the forbidden
territory
- By 1763 the British were among the most heavily taxed people in the world
- The costs of governing and defending Britain's vast empire contributed to this burden
- While Britain struggled with its heavy debts and taxes, its colonies in America were
prospering
- With British citizens so burdened, the prime minister thought that the American
colonists should begin to pay some of the costs of the British government and defense
- The passage of the Sugar Act in 1764 marked the start of a new British policy designed
to raise more income from the colonies
- To enforce this tax and others, the prime minister issued a flurry of rules for the
colonists
- Another reform was the Quartering Act, which was passed by Parliament in 1765 - it
required the colonies to provide housing and supplies for the British troops who remained
in America after the French and Indian War
- In March 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act - it placed a tax on newspapers,
pamphlets, legal documents, and most other printed materials
- It required that an official government stamp be printed on or attached to these materials
to show the tax had been paid
- The Stamp Act touched almost every American in every colony - all were affected,
especially some of the most powerful people in the colonies (printers, merchants,
lawyers)
- In October 1765, delegates from seven colonies met in New York to hold a meeting that
became known as the Stamp Act Congress
- Americans claimed that Britain had no right to force laws on the colonies, because the
colonists had no representatives in the British Parliament - "no taxation without
representation"
- To protest the Stamp Act, merchants and others organized a boycott of British goods
- Groups sprang up throughout the colonies to enforce the boycott and to organize other
ways to resist British policies - the groups were known as the Sons of Liberty & the
Daughters of Liberty
- By November 1765, when the Stamp Act was to take effect, most stamp distributors had
resigned or fled, leaving no one to sell the stamps
- Parliament finally repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766
- On the day the Stamp Act was repealed, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which
stated that Parliament had authority to make laws that applied to the colonists "in all
cases whatsoever"
- In 1767 Parliament reasserted its power by placing duties on certain imported goods,
including glass and tea - called the Townshend Acts
- The protests and violence of the colonists began again - Americans didn't care how the
British taxed them, the point was that they were being taxed without their consent
- To put down violent resistance to the Townshend Acts, Britain sent troops to Boston,
where officials feared a rebellion was at hand
- On the evening of March 5, 1770 British soldiers opened fire on a crowd that had been
taunting them, leaving an African American named Crispus Attucks and four other
colonists dead or dying in the snow - this incident was called the Boston Massacre
- Soon after the Boston Massacre, Parliament cancelled the Townshend taxes - it kept
only the duty on tea
- So, only the boycott of tea remained among the colonists
- The colonies entered a quiet period for a while
- In 1772 Bostonians formed a Committee of Correspondence to coordinate resistance
throughout the colonies - by 1774 nearly all the colonies had such committees
- In May 1773, in a move to help the struggling British East India Company, Parliament
passed the Tea Act, which was to make Britian's tea less expensive than smuggled tea,
thereby driving the American tea merchants out of business
- Colonists, especially tea merchants, protested at this act - when Britain's tea began
arriving in the colonies in November 1773, several colonial port cities refused to let the
ships dock in their harbors
- On the night of December 16, 1773, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded
three tea ships in Boston, broke open every crate on board, and threw the tea into the
harbor - this is called the Boston Tea Party
- To punish Boston and all of Massachusetts, in the spring of 1774 Parliament passed a
series of laws known as the Coercive Acts, which were known as the Intolerable Acts
- These acts extended Canada's boundary south to the Ohio River, which stripped
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia of their claims to western lands
- Committees of correspondence in several colonies called for a meeting to plan a united
response to these developments - this gathering became known as the First Continental
Congress
- On September 5, 1774, a gathering of 56 delegates met at Carpenter's Hall in
Philadelphia
- George Washington from Virginia was a leading figure, as were Patrick Henry and
Richard Henry Lee - Samuel Adams was the most rebellious of the delegates
- The First Continental Congress adopted a number of measures - among these were a
renewed boycott and a call to the people of all the English colonies to arm themselves
and form militias
- King George III didn't take the colonies seriously and wrote, "The New England
colonies are in a state of rebellion, blows must decide."
- The Americans were now "rebels" to the British, and Americans called themselves
"patriots"
- Massachusetts patriots formed militias and began to gather guns and ammunition - a
major stockpile of weapons was stored in Concord, a town about 20 miles from Boston
- Late at night on April 18, 1775, a force of about 700 British troops moved out of Boston
and marched toward Concord with orders to seize these supplies
- Boston Patriots learned of it and sent Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel
Prescott on horseback through the countryside aiming to get the news to Patriot leaders
- Revere arrived in Lexington, about 5 miles from Concord, near midnight - Sam Adams
and John Hancock were there, and Revere warned them that British soldiers were coming
- The main British force reached Lexington at about dawn on April 19 - they encountered
70 armed militia, known as minutemen
- British commander ordered, "Throw down your arms and you shall come to no harm" the colonists began to obey, but then someone fired a shot, and British troops fired on the
militia
- Within minutes 8 Americans lay dead on the green and 10 more were wounded
- The British marched on to Concord, where they burned the militia's stockpile of
supplies
- As the British troops returned to Boston, some 4,000 patriots gathered along the road to
shoot at them from behind trees and stone walls - this was the Battles of Lexington and
Concord
- More than 70 British soldiers were killed and over 170 wounded before the force
reached the safety of Boston - the Revolutionary War, which lasted until 1783, had begun
- Patrick Henry, an American patriot, wrote: "Gentlemen may cry, 'Peace! Peace!' - but
there is no peace.....The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the
clash of resounding arms!...Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the
price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may
take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
*Section 3
- The American Revolution really took place on two levels: (1) it was a struggle for
power between the American colonists and Great Britain over the question of who would
rule them; and (2) a level of ideas - colonists were rethinking the proper role of citizens,
government, and the relationship between the two
- One important document that expressed both levels of the Revolution was Common
Sense, a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine (January 1776)
- Within a year from its release, 500,000 copies of Common Sense were sold
- The pamphlet convinced many readers, including those who had favored a peaceful
settlement of differences with the British government, to support a complete break with
Britain instead
- Common Sense appeared at a time when the Second Continental Congress was meeting
in Philadelphia
- Most of the delegates from the First Continental Congress returned for the meeting but, some of the new faces were Benjamin Franklin (Penn) and John Hancock (Mass)
- In June, Thomas Jefferson (Virgina) arrived on the scene
- At first the delegates, like the American people, were deeply divided
- In November 1775, the Congress learned that George III had refused the Olive Branch
Petition, which expressed the colonists' continued loyalty to the monarch and their desire
for peace - it begged the king to stop the fighting until a solution could be found - George
rejected it
- In June 1776, after more than a year of war, Congress decided it was time for the
colonies to cut their ties with Britain
- So, they came up with the Declaration of Independence, which was a statement of the
reasons for the separation
- Thomas Jefferson wrote the document, and his political ideas were influenced by the
Enlightenment (an 18th-century movement that emphasized science and reason as key to
improving society)
- Jefferson divided the Declaration of Independence into 4 sections: an introduction, a
declaration of rights, a list of complaints against the king, and a resolution of
independence
- At the heart of the document is the idea that everyone has natural rights (rights which
belong to everyone simply because they are human) - Jefferson called these "inalienable
rights" and these were Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
- On July 4, 1776 (Independence Day), delegates joined in voting to approve the
Declaration
- It's so important because it defined the basic principles on which American government
and society would rest
*Section 4
- King George said, "Once these rebels have felt a smart blow, they will submit"
- Following the clashes at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, as many as 20,000
armed Patriots surrounded Boston - their presence prevented the 6,000 British troops
from quickly crushing the rebellion - the war was on and would last a while
- So, Patriots turned their attention to gathering badly needed military equipment
- A Vermont militia under Colonel Ethan Allen crossed Lake Champlain and surprised
the British troops at Fort Ticonderoga in northern New York - the capture of the fort
provided the Patriots with cannons and other supplies
- In June 1775 the Americans occupied two hills north of Boston - on June 17, 1775, the
British army attacked them
- As the British neared the American position, 1,600 Patriots poured unending musket
fire into their ranks - the advancing troops slowed, stopped, then fell back
- The British launched another assault , but Patriot fire from the hill drove them back
- A third attack was ordered, and this time the British succeeded in taking Breed's Hill
- The Patriots, having used all their ammunition, were forced to retreat - so, British forces
quickly overran the second, weaker Patriot position on nearby Bunker Hill
- Thus, the British emerged victorious from the Battle of Bunker Hill, but nearly 1,100 of
2,400 British soldiers had been killed or wounded
- Patriot casualties amounted to fewer than 400
- For the next 9 months, a small British army remained pinned down in Boston, so
America acted
- George Washington, who Congress had named as commanding general of the Patriot
forces, worked during this time to make the Patriot militia groups into the Continental
Army
- Washington took cannons his troops had taken from Fort Ticonderoga, and put them on
the hills outside of Boston - from there he could see British forces in the city and their
ships in the harbor
- So, the British abandoned Boston in March 1776, and their fleet took the army to the
Canadian city of Halifax - British took along some 1,000 Loyalists (people who remained
loyal to G.B.)
- According to John Adams, about one third of colonists were Patriots - another third
were Loyalists, or Tories as the Patriots called them - the remaining third were neutral in
the war
- Britain's main strength was its well-equipped, disciplined, and trained army - also, the
British navy was the best in the world
- Britain received help from roughly 50,000 Loyalists, & also many African Americans &
Indians
- The British also hired about 30,000 mercenaries (foreign soldiers who fight for pay)
- The British also had their problems though - the war was not popular in Great Britain,
British troops had to fight in hostile territory, and British commanders didn't adapt their
tactics to conditions in America
- For the Americans, the very things that were British weaknesses were American
strengths
- Patriot forces were fighting on their own territory, many of their officers were familiar
with the tactics that had worked in the French & Indian War
- For much of the war, the Americans lacked a well-supplied, stable, and effective
fighting force
- New recruits were constantly arriving while experienced soldiers were heading home
because their time of service was up
- Still, more African Americans served in the Patriot cause than supported the British
- In the summer of 1776 the British army appeared off the New York coast
- The British had decided to concentrate on the Middle Colonies, where many Loyalists
lived
- In a series of battles, including the Battle of Long Island, some 32,000 British and
German troops battered Washington's poorly trained and poorly equipped army
- By October the British had captured New York City and had driven the Continental
Army into Pennsylvania
- By the winter of 1776 the entire Patriot cause seemed on the point of collapse
- Fearing for their safety, members of the Continental Congress fled Philadelphia
- In December 1776 Thomas Paine produced another pamphlet to inspire Americans
again to the cause of freedom
- It was called The American Crisis, and part of it said: "These are times that try men's
souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of their country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man
and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation
with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
- Washington and his troops met the challenge at hand
- On Christmas night of 1776 Washington left his Pennsylvania camp and went on the
attack
- Some 2,400 troops were ferried across the icy Delaware River in small boats, and early
the next morning they surprised about 1,400 enemy troops stationed in Trenton, New
Jersey - this is known as the Battle of Trenton
- A few days later Washington made a similar attack on nearby Princeton - in this attack,
they were spotted and the British attacked them first, but the Americans drove them back
and captured the town
- The victories in December 1776 and January 1777 greatly boosted Patriot morale and
convinced more Americans to support the Patriot cause
- In July 1777 the British army moved from New York to attack the American capital at
Philly
- Late in the month, the British occupied Philly, but in October Washington and his army
took the city back
- Meanwhile, another British force was moving in northern New York - it took Fort
Ticonderoga and then moved south toward Albany
- As the Americans retreated on this path, they destroyed bridges and felled trees across
the road to slow the British advance
- The British's slow progress caused its army to run low on supplies, and this while the
Continental Army and Patriot militias continued to grow and got ready for the British
- In mid-September the Americans attacked the main British armies, and America won a
series of victories
- These victories took place around Saratoga, New York - Battle of Saratoga
- October 17, 1777 British army in New York surrendered - it was the biggest American
victory yet and it marked the turning point of the war
- A few months after Congress declared independence, it sent Benjamin Franklin on a
mission to Paris, where he pushed for an open alliance with the French
- The British loss at Saratoga convinced the French that the Americans had a real chance
at winning the war
- On February 6, 1778, France and the U.S. signed a treaty of alliance
- The alliance with France helped the U.S. big time - more supplies, loans of money,
French troops, and a navy
- A year later Spain joined the war as France's ally, followed by the Netherlands in 1780
- Even before France and Spain entered the war, a number of Europeans volunteered to
help the American cause against the British - among them were Marquis de Lafayette,
Johann de Kalb, and Baron Friedrich von Steuben
*Section 5
- The British lost their colonies in the end because Americans had the determination to
outlast their rulers
- Washington figured that the British might capture territory, but they could never win the
war as long as Americans were willing and able to continue fighting them
- A true symbol of the Americans' determination was during the winter of 1777-1778 at
Valley Forge in Pennsylvania
- While British troops remained warm and well-fedin Philly, about 20 miles away, Patriot
soldiers huddled in huts with few blankets, ragged clothing, and almost no food
- Washington reported to Congress that nearly one third of his 10,000 soldiers were unfit
for duty because they lacked coats or shoes
- During the war, a problem for the colonies was that the Continental Congress had little
real power - it could ask colonies and people to do things, but it couldn't enforce anything
- Also, the British blockaded the Atlantic Coast and severely disrupted American trade
- Nearly everyone in America felt the pinch of shortages during the war - goods were
fewer
- And, even when goods were available, it was not always possible to purchase them, for
inflation reduced people's ability to buy goods
- It must be remembered that fighting also went on in the West and South in the colonies
- At the end of the war, British general Cornwallis set up camp with his army at
Yorktown, on a peninsula between the York and James rivers, and waited for the Royal
Navy to come and help
- But, General Lafayette (helping the Americans) positioned his troops to block an
overland escape from the peninsula
- A French army had just joined the Continental Army in New York, and Washington
quickly moved the combined American-French force south
- After Washington's troops arrived at Yorktown, the Battle of Yorktown began
- Cornwallis and the British faced an army twice as big, and they were blocked from
escaping
- The French fleet prevented the Royal Navy from helping the British
- So, on October 18, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington
- Nearly two years passed between the surrender of Cornwallis and the signing of the
peace treaty that formally ended the war
- Because 4 nations were involved (Great Britain, U.S., France, and Spain), negotiations
were long and complex
- In September 1783 the Treaty of Paris (1783) was signed - it established borders
between U.S. & Canada and U.S. & Spanish Territory, but mostly it said that Great
Britain recognized the independence of the United States of America
- Revolution didn't produce any immediate gain in political or legal power for women
- For African Americans, results were mixed - Revolution promoted anti-slavery in the
north, but the states also passed laws severely limiting the legal rights and powers of
African Americans
- For Native Americans the war's outcome was a disaster - their land and power was
taken
* Perhaps the greatest effect of the Revolution was to spread the idea of liberty, both at
home and abroad