Unit 2: The Revolution
Goals of Unit:
• To recognize that colonial culture took on distinct American
qualities in such areas as religion, education, press freedom, and
self-government.
• To be able to explain why the colonies began to thrive
economically, their mercantilist relationships with England
became strained.
• To understand why England’s territorial clashes with other
European powers to protect the colonies, actually hurt their
relationship with the colonists.
• To identify the reasons for England’s series of taxes and
restrictions, the effects these had on colonial unity, and how the
political, diplomatic, and rebellious responses of the colonists
helped lead to a revolution.
• To be able to explain why a small, weak, and unorganized army of
rebel colonists were able to win their independence from one of
the most powerful empires in the world.
Day One: Introduce Unit
GOAL OF TODAY:
To understand how the culture and
customs in the colonies transformed over
time and signaled a split from English
identity.
Colonial Society in the 1700s
• Most populated colonies were Mass, Penn, Virginia,
Maryland, North Carolina
– 9/10 colonists lived in rural areas
• New racial makeup in the colonies (% by 1775)
– 6% German (Lutherans) – “Pennsylvania Dutch”
– 7% Scots-Irish
• Squatters, “lawless”, fierce, independent
• March of the Paxton Boys (1764), Regulator Movement in North
Carolina
– 5% Assorted European groups: French Huguenots, Welsh,
Dutch, Swedes, Jews, Swiss, Irish
– Races start to mingle
Colonial Society in the 1700s
• Mid 1700s – Richest 10% owned about 2/3 of the
wealth
– Class system especially present in the south
• Professions developing:
– Clergy most honored and powerful
– Physicians and medical care outdated and ineffective
(malpractice common)
• First medical school not opened until 1765
– Lawyers not much used or respected
• Great orators, defenders of law…
• Roads slow and dangerous
• Ineffective inter-colonial mail system
Colonial Society in the 1700s
• Agriculture leading industry (90%)
– Fishing less profitable
• Lumbering a large industry as well
• Triangular Trade
– Britain can’t keep up with colonists’ demand
• Leads to a trade imbalance…
• Colonists’ start looking towards foreign markets
– 1733 – Molasses Act – taxed non-British imports
of molasses
• Colonists smuggled
Colonial Society in the 1700s
• Religious tolerance increasing
• Anglican and Congregational Churches become the
two most dominant
• Anglican (Church of England)
– Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, parts of NY
– Sermons opposite of “jeremiads”
– College of William and Mary (1693)
• Trained young bishops
• Congregational Church
– Spawned from Puritan church
– Spread in all of New England (except Rhode Island)
The Great Awakening
• Churches losing influence, followers
• 1730s-1740s: The First Great Awakening
– Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield
• Fiery preachers using scare tactics
• Faith through God brings salvation, not doing good
• “old lights” skeptical of “new lights”
– Results in a revitalization of religion in America
• Leads to opening of Princeton, Brown, Rutgers,
Dartmouth as “new light” centers
Colonial Society in the 1700s
• Art and architecture becoming popular
• Art
– John Trumbell, Charles Wilson Peale
– Some had to finish studying in England
• Architecture combined old world and new American
influence
– Log cabins from Sweden
– Red brick “Georgian” style in 1720
• Colonial literature – average
– Ben Franklin – leading literary figure, scientist
• “Poor Richard’s Almanack”
– John Peter Zenger – NY newspaper printer goes to trial for
slandering a NY governor
• Found not guilty…
• Freedom of Press
Colonial Politics
• By 1775:
– 8 colonies had royal governors (appt by king)
– 3 (Maryland, Delaware, Penn) under proprietors who
chose governors
– 2 – (Conn, Rhode Island) elected own governors
• 2 house legislative body common
– Upper house (council) appt by the crown or
proprietors
– Lower house (popular branch) elected by the people
• Self taxation with representation
• Who could vote?
– White, male, landowners
Day 2: Clash of Empires
GOAL OF TODAY:
To understand how and why the presence of
three major European power in the Americas
would lead to a struggle for power for each,
and how the wars affected the colonists.
France in Canada
• France late in colonizing North America
– Had internal social problems: Catholics vs.
Protestants
• 1598 – Edict of Nantes
– Grants limited religious freedom to French
Huguenots (Protestants)
• 1608 – King Louis XIV interested in new
world
– Quebec formed and lead by Samuel de Champlain
– “New France” under direct control of French crown,
no representation
New France
• One valuable resource:
– Beavers (fur trapping)
• French begin to spread:
– Detroit (1701) by Antoine
Cadillac
– Louisiana (1682) by Robert
de La Salle
– New Orleans in 1718
– Illinois – produced grain –
“garden empire”
– Baton Rouge, Des Moines,
Grand Teton
Clash of Empires
• King William’s War (1689-1697) and Queen
Anne’s War (1702-1713)
– Struggle for territory
– English colonists vs. French fur-trappers, Indians and
some Spanish
– No “real” troops used
– French and Spanish beaten badly
– Wars end with treaty
• British gain Acadia (Nova Scotia), Newfoundland, and
Hudson Bay, limited trading rights in Spanish America
War of Jenkins’s
Ear (1739)
• “King George’s War in
America”
• English Captain had ear cut
off by Spanish commander
• Britain vs. Spain fought
mostly in the Caribbean sea
and Georgia
– French joins Spanish side
• English capture Ft.
Louisborg, Nova Scotia
– Was captured by New
England colonists
• 1748 – Treaty signed
– England then gives Ft.
Louisborg back to French
– Outraged New Englanders
Causes of French & Indian War
• Past wars had been
largely indecisive
and insignificant in
regards to territory
possession
• The fertileness of
the Ohio Valley
discovered
– Desired by both the
French and English
colonies
• 1754 – The French set up
Ft. Duquesne to claim the
Ohio Valley
– (Pittsburgh)
• Virginia governor sends
young Major George
Washington and a militia of
150 to claim the fort
• Washington and his
men shoot and kill
French officer near
Duquesne
• GW hastily builds
Ft. Necessity
– Overtaken by
vengeful French
forces
– Use of guerilla
warfare (“Indian
style”)
– GW surrenders,
returns to Virginia
Other causes of war
• Fearing an uprising,
British evict French
citizens of Nova Scotia
(formerly Frenchowned Acadia)
• They were displaced
far from Acadia
– Many to New Orleans
– “Cajuns”
• Acadian + Injun = Cajun
Day 3: French and Indian War
GOAL OF TODAY:
To understand how a major war between
England and France would actually alienate
the colonists from their English protectors.
War begins…
• The French & Indian War (1754-1763)
– AKA “Seven Years War” (globally)
In America:
• English troops & American colonists & few native tribes
vs.
• French troops & French colonists & more native tribes
In Europe:
• England & Prussia (Germany) & Portugal
vs.
• France, Spain, Austria, Russia
Colonies Unite?
• To unite or not?
• 1754 – 7 of 13 colonies
meet in Albany Congress (NY)
• Ben Franklin led debates urging for unity
• Eventually unsuccessful…
– Colonies didn’t want to give up their
sovereignty and power
– Significance?
• First step towards colonial unity
Braddock’s Defeat
• 1755 – English send General Edward Braddock to
conquer Ft. Duquesne
• Braddock’s men ambushed en route by French and
Indian forces using guerilla warfare tactics (“Indian
style)”
• Braddock refused to adapt and fight back Indian style
• Ends up being killed in the battle
• His aide, Washington fights back using guerilla tactics
and avoids total defeat
• Effects?
– Realization that guerilla warfare was superior
– Indian uprisings along the borders of the English
colonies
French and Indian War
• English mistakes in war – nearing defeat
– Braddock fails
– Attacks on French posts in Canada fail
• William Pitt takes over (1757)
– Plan:
• Fight less in French West Indies
• Turn attention to Quebec and Montreal
• Hired newer, younger, daring officers
Step One: Capture Ft. Louisborg (1758)
Significance: Cuts off supplies and reinforcements from France
Step Two: Quebec
• James Wolfe – British general chosen to
capture Quebec
– 1759 – Battle of Quebec
• Quebec protected by cliffs
• Wolfe leads men up cliffs to surprise French
• Defeats the French on Plains of Abraham next to
Quebec
• Wolfe and Marquis de Montcalm (French
general) both killed
– With Louisborg and Quebec fallen, Montreal
surrenders in 1760
– French doomed in America
Treaty of Paris - 1763
• Results:
– France gives up all land
in North America
– France keeps sugar
plantations in West
Indies and two St.
Lawrence islands
– France forced to give
Louisiana territory to
Spain
– Britain takes Florida
from Spain
Aftermath of War
• France kicked out of North America
• Spain weakened
– Indian and slave difficulties in Florida
• Colonists free to move westward (up to the
Mississippi River)
– Indian land shrinking fast
– Ottawan uprising in Ohio Valley ruthlessly
obliterated (Pontiac’s Uprising of 1763)
– Daniel Boone leads settlers into Tennessee and
Kentucky
• Proclamation Line of 1763
– Whites could not settle west of Appalachian
Mountains
• Colonists outraged, ignore decree
– British and Colonists feud growing
Effects of War in Colonies
• Confidence boost for Britain and colonies
• British not invincible
• Social friction between British and colonists
emerges
– British see colonists as boors, scum
• British don’t trust colonists
– Colonists had traded with enemies
– Some colonists wouldn’t fight without pay
• Colonies realizing their commonness
Day 4: Dissention Brewing
GOAL OF TODAY:
To understand how and why the English passed
certain taxes and restrictions on the colonies,
and what the results of these act were.
Already Independent from England?
•
•
•
•
Geographically removed
Generationally distant
Felt separated – “more advanced”
Own political system emerging
– republicanism: citizens elect representatives to govern
them
– “radical Whigs”
• Political party in England critical of how king would
appoint positions (nepotism, bribery, corruption)
• Influenced American philosophy of government
Mercantilism
• Mercantilism – economic theory that in order to have a
positive gold flow (expanding their economy) a country had to
export more than it imported.
– Colonies established so that mother country had source of
cheap raw materials
– monopolized markets for their manufactured goods.
– (England → American Colonies)
• Navigation Acts – 1650
– established a mercantilist relationship between England and its’
colonies.
– Trade to & from America had to be on English ships.
– The colonies had to purchase all manufactured goods from
England.
– Raw materials from the colonies had to be sold to England.
– Americans were forbidden to manufacture any goods on a
large scale.
Navigation Act in America
• Navigation Act not enforced in America until
1763 – “salutary neglect”
– Geographic separation
– British indifference
– Smuggling
• Prime Minister Grenville
• Once enforced…
– Held back American growth to keep below British
– Americans felt exploited by system
New Acts and Taxes on America
• Britain has large debt after wars
• Sugar Act (1764)
– Taxed sugar to raise revenue in Britain
– After American protest, tax is lowered
• Quartering Act (1765)
– Colonists forced to provide food and shelter for
British troops at anytime
• The Stamp Act (1765)
– Only stamps with proof of tax payment or authorized
stamped paper legal to use
• Legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, marriage
licenses, playing cards
– Purpose was to support a new large British military to
protect the colonies
• Americans outraged and protested
• Skeptical – what enemy?
• Grenville wants Americans to pay fair share
• “Taxation without representation”
• Stamp Act Congress (1765)
– 27 delegates from 9 colonies assemble in NYC,
made formal protests:
• Non-importation agreements
– Pledged to boycott British goods
• Drew up a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances”
against Parliament and the crown
– Informal protests:
• Colonists boycotting British goods
• Attacking tax collectors
• Stealing from British officials
– Parliament repeals Stamp Act in 1766
• Then passed Declaratory Act stating England still ruled
completely over the colonies…
• Townshend Tea Tax (1767)
– Taxes paper, lead, paint, and tea
• “Indirect tax” – price was included in the good
(hidden)
– Comparatively smaller protests arose
• “Overreaction” to protests by British leads to
– Suspension of NY legislature
– British troops sent to rowdy Boston to enforce
laws…
• Admiralty courts – no juries, guilty until
proven innocent
Day 5:
GOAL OF TODAY:
To understand how the American Revolution
started and what major events led to it’s
outbreak.
Boston Massacre
• March 5, 1770
• 10 redcoats open fire on crowd of 60
colonists protesting in Boston – 11 die
– Crispus Attucks – ex-slave killed becomes martyr
– 2 redcoats found guilty of manslaughter in
following trial
• Punishment: branded on the hand
• Colonists outraged
Seditious Committees of Correspondence
• 1770s – Townshend Acts largely
unsuccessful
– King George III & Prime Minister Lord North
– Repeal Townshend tax, except for tea
– Samuel Adams - Committees of
Correspondence
• Letter-writing network
• Spreads news, information – organization
Boston Tea Party
• In 1773, British East India Company
– Financial trouble, overstock of tea
– Granted tea monopoly in America
– Colonists saw it as a hidden tax
• “Taxation without representation”
• December 16, 1773
– Led by Samuel Adams
– Group of men invaded the harbor, dumped 350
chests of tea
• Valued at about $1,000,000
– Reaction mixed: Some cheered, some
considered it anarchism
“Intolerable Acts”
•
•
British reaction to Boston Tea Party:
1774 – Repressive Acts
– AKA “Intolerable Acts”
1. Boston Port Act shuts down Boston harbor
•
Huge financial blow to colonies
2. Massachusetts charter revoked
3. Americans right to assemble and rule limited
4. British criminals in America had preferential treatment
•
1774 – Quebec Act
• Benefits French-Canadians living in British America
• Colonists outraged by each part of the act
1. Guaranteed religious tolerance – Catholicism
•
Threat to American Protestantism
2. French could have trial without juries
•
Threat to American court systems
3. French allowed to settle in Ohio Valley
•
•
Proclamation Line of 1763
Americans already beat French for rights to land
First Continental Congress
• Philadelphia (Fall of 1774)
• 12 of 13 colonies present
• Motives:
– Not demanding independence
– List of grievances to London
– Declaration of Rights
• Meeting adjourned with plan to
reconvene in 1775 if London doesn’t
change laws and acts
Shot Heard ‘Round the World
• Lexington, Mass – April 1775
• British soldiers march from Boston to Concord to
confiscate weapons and arrest rebel leaders John
Hancock and Sam Adams
• “Minutemen” assembled and tried to stop the British
troops in Lexington
–
–
–
–
–
Standoff ensues, first shots of war were fired
British fight off Minutemen, march on
Minutemen reassemble, block bridge into Concord
British turn around, begin to march back
Minutemen ambush and pick off British troops the whole
way back using guerilla style of warfare
Day 6: War Begins
GOAL OF TODAY:
To understand the advantages and
disadvantages for both the British and the
colonists during this war and analyze how they
played out as the war started.
War Begins
• Advantages:
– 7.5 million people
– Dominant navy, wealth
– Hired German
mercenaries
• “Hessians”
– 50,000 Loyalist
Americans
• Disadvantages:
– International conflicts
already present
• Ireland, threat of
France
– British apathy, sympathy
• Pitt
– Geographically isolated
– Subpar officers in
America
• Advantages:
– Better leadership
• Washington, Ben Franklin
– French aid
• Guns, supplies, money
• Troops, navy later
– Fighting for freedom
– Geography
• Familiar with land
• Defending land, not
conquering it
• No central capital for
British to capture
• Disadvantages:
– 2 million people only
– Lack of money and wealth
– No navy – French aid would
have to beat British navy
America’s Weakness
• Supplies and money very limited
• Soldiers trained quickly and poorly
• Many deserted
– Baron von Steuben hired
• Drillmaster from Prussia brought to help
• African-American population split in war
– Barred from fighting at first
– Some fought for British, promised freedom
• American apathy
– Farmers in remote locations not interested in fighting
– Merchants favored British
• Brits paid in gold, Colonists paid in paper currency soon to be worthless
– “Minority war”
• Small population dedicated themselves to the cause, fought
War Begins
• After Lexington and Concord – minutemen
and patriots calling for war
• Second Continental Congress meets
(Philadelphia, May 1775)
– Plan: Pursue peace, but prepare for war
– Actions:
• Sends another list of grievances
• Raises money for army, navy
• Appoints Washington general of continental army
First Battles
• May 1775
– Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen lead “Green Mountain
Boys” raided two British forts in Vermont
• Ft. Ticonderoga
• Crown Point
– Significance?
• Colonists acquire weaponry from British forts
Bunker Hill
• June 1775, Boston
• British troops attack Bunker Hill
– Frontal, uphill assault by British
– Americans defense held up
• British win, but at heavy costs
– “Pyrrhic victory”
• Significance?
– Proves Americans can win
Petitions for Peace
• Continental Congress still seeking peace
and reconciliation King George III
– Want to avoid full blown war with powerful British
– “Olive Branch Petition”
• Pledges loyalty and asks for peace
– King George III refuses
• Significance?
– Full war was inevitable
– Justification for rebels
– Ultimatum for all colonists
Battle of Quebec
• Americans attack British-owned Canada
• Dec. 1775 – General Montgomery,
Benedict Arnold march towards Quebec
– Relied on French Canadians to join fight, but they refused,
resisted
– Montgomery killed in battle, Arnold is wounded, men
retreat
• Significance?
– Big blunder for Americans
– Not defending their land – trying to conquer more
Still Seeking Peace?
• Early 1776, Americans still striving for peace
resolution
• English burn:
– Falmouth, Maine (Oct 1775)
– Norfolk, Virginia (Jan 1776)
• British pushed out of Boston in March
• Colonists win two battles in the south
– Moore’s Creek Bridge (Feb.)
– Charleston Harbor (June)
Day 7: The Turning Point
GOAL OF TODAY:
To understand how a strengthening of political
unity among the colonies helped lead to a
shift of momentum in the war.
Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”
• Insisted on American independence
– Physically bigger America, being ruled by smaller
England
– Pamphlet disrespects King
– Called for a republic
– The time had come to break away… it was just
“common sense”
– “Republicanism”
• people elect representatives to rule for them – more
power to people
• Paine’s idea of gov’t well received
Declaring Independence
•
2nd Continental Congress reconvenes (June 1776)
– Richard Henry Lee
• Virginian delegate calling for independence
– Congress finally decides to officially break from
England
• Declaration of Independence
– Written by Thomas Jefferson
– Formal statement of intendance sent to Britain
1. Preamble
2. Statement of rights
• Based on John Locke’s works
• Unalienable rights – “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness” … “all men are created equal”
3. List of grievances
4. Statement of separation
– Significance?
• Officially rebels, allowed for foreign aid, Americans had to win
war
• Loyalists now official enemies
•
•
•
•
•
Battles of New York, Long
Island
March 1776 – British evacuate
Boston, eye NY as new headquarters
Huge British fleet arrives from Nova
Scotia
Washington and 20,000 defend NY
and Long Island during summer and
fall of 1776 and lose battles in:
– Brooklyn, Harlem, White Plains,
and Long Island
– Retreats to Pennsylvania
Dec 26, 1776 – Launches surprise
attack on Hessians in Trenton
– Second victory comes a week later
in Princeton
Significance?
– Boosts American morale
– Americans had not lost the war
yet
Britain’s New Plan for Victory
• Focus on New England, divide
colonies
– Three large armies (Leger,
Burgoyne, Howe) to join at Albany
– Capturing Albany cuts off North
from South
• Problems:
– Benedict Arnold stalls British near
Lake Champlain
– Terrain was tough to navigate
through
– Leger’s troops lose battle at
Oriskany and turn back
– General Howe ditches plan and
turns south to attack GW in Phila.
• Washington and men retreat for
the winter
• Howe occupies Philadelphia,
becomes “comfortable” there
Significance?
-British
unorganized
-Poor leadership
Battle of Saratoga
• (Sep 1777) Burgoyne and 7000 arrive in
Albany for battle
– Tired, hungry, alone
– American reinforcements arrive
– Burgoyne outnumbered 6-1, surrenders
• Significance?
– First major American victory
– Huge boosts for American morale
– Convinced French to aid Americans openly,
not just secretly
French Aid
• Continental Congress sends delegates to
Paris seeking an alliance with France
– French want revenge on British
– London was willing to compromise after
Battle of Saratoga
• Offered to meet all demands, except
independence
• Franklin used this to his advantage to
scare French into an alliance
• Franco-American Treaty (1778)
– France official ally of America
– France recognizes American independence
– Pledged a military alliance
Day 8: Winning Independence
GOAL OF TODAY:
To understand how and why the Americans will
end up victorious in the Revolutionary War
and gain their independence.
Colonial War Grows
• 1778 – England and France go to war
• 1779 – Holland and Spain joined France
– Spanish/French Navy now outnumbers British
• 1780 – Russia forms the “Armed Neutrality”
– Allied neutral nations around the world against
England
• Significance?
– War in America becoming secondary
Effects of French Alliance
• France offered what America was lacking…
– A Navy
• Britain’s naval blockade was in jeopardy now
• Britain evacuates Philadelphia, moves to NY
to shorten supply lines
– Battle of Monmouth (June 1778)
• Americans attack British leaving
Philadelphia
• Indecisive battle
French Arrive, War Rages On
• 1780 – 6,000 French troops arrive in Rhode
Island
– Comte de Rochambeau
• 1780 – Benedict Arnold trades sides
• British attack in South
– Guerilla style, better tactics favor Americans
• Marion “The Swamp Fox”
• Greene “The Fighting Quaker”
– General Charles Cornwallis’s troops
exhausted
• Most Indian tribes side with British
–Chief Joseph Brant leads raids in 1777-79
–Treat of Ft. Stanwix (1779)
• American-Indian treaty
• Indians surrender most land
• George Rogers Clark
–Lead attacks on British forts in the west
• American Navy disrupts shipping lines
–John Paul Jones
–Privateers (legal American pirates)
Yorktown (Fall of 1781)
• Cornwallis and men baited
north to Chesapeake Bay
– Wanted access to British
naval supply line
• French navy seals off bay
• Washington and Rochambeau
move south and close off
peninsula
– Trapped, Cornwallis fights
and surrenders
• War “officially” over in
America
Treaty of Paris
• English lose in America, losing battles
worldwide – want to end war completely
• Americans send delegates to Paris for peace
treaty
– Franklin, John Adams, John Jay
• Jay suspicious of French intentions
• Treaty of Paris (1783)
– Ends American Revolution
– England recognizes American
independence
– Americans retain some fishing rights in
North Atlantic
– Loyalists’ equal rights were guaranteed