The American Revolution
Agenda
• Shout it Out! Review
• Notes: The American Revolution
• Patriot/Loyalist/Neutral Scenario
Activity
• Battles of Revolutionary War Notes
Shout it Out!
• The three-legged trade route that
connected Europe, Africa, and the
European colonies in North and South
America
• The philosophy that colonies existed to
benefit the mother country
• The route of African slaves from Africa to
the New World
Shout it Out!
• The religious group who wanted to purify the
Anglican Church of all Catholic elements; built
the Massachusetts Bay Colony; very strict and
intolerant of other religions
• The agreement the Pilgrims made off the coast
of Massachusetts to govern themselves in the
New World
Shout it Out!
• The joint stock company that founded
Jamestown, Virginia in order to make a lot of
money
• Virginia’s representative assembly in the New
World
• The thing Benjamin Franklin said to try to
convince the colonies to join together in a
colonial congress during the French and Indian
War
• The law passed by Britain that said the colonists
could not settle west of the Appalachian
Mountains
Shout it Out!
• The religious revival during the 1700s that
made the colonists start to think for
themselves and question authority
• The event during which colonist rebels
dressed up like Indians and threw chests
of tea into the Boston Harbor
• The event during which the British
Redcoats shot and killed five colonists in
Boston outside the customs house
Review
• Although the American colonists helped Britain defeat
France in the French and Indian War, a lot of the
colonists got mad at Britain for the following reasons:
– Proclamation of 1763: said colonists could not
settle west of the Appalachian Mountains
– Sugar Act: taxed foreign sugar
– Stamp Act: colonists had to purchase a stamp to
put on every single written document
– Townshend Acts: taxed tea
– Boston Massacre: British killed five colonists
• Reactions of colonists: formed Sons of Liberty;
boycotted (refused to buy) British goods; Boston Tea
Party – threw tea chests into water; made own tea and
clothes; smuggled goods to other countries illegally
What is a revolution?
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Name one thing you don’t like about the world
Maybe you should have a revolution…
Would that change things?
What is a revolution?
Revolution = a drastic (really big) change in
government or society
• In the American Revolution, we go from being
ruled by Britain to forming our own independent
country ruled by ourselves
Build-Up to American Revolution
(Continued…)
• In World History II, you studied the time
period known as the Enlightenment, or
Age of Reason
– Europeans began to use their reason to
question their government; the Enlightenment
led to all the revolutions you studied last year
(Glorious Revolution, French Revolution, Latin
American Revolutions, Russian Revolution)
• One Enlightenment philosopher was an
English guy named John Locke
John Locke
• In his book Two Treatises on Government, John
Locke used his power of reason to discover that all
people are born free and equal with certain natural
rights locked in to them: life, liberty, and property
• People, not rulers, are supreme/sovereign; people
make a contract with their rulers/government to rule
in a way that protects their natural rights (this is
called the “social contract”)
• As long as the government protects people’s natural
rights, people will obey the government: this is
called “ordered liberty” (you are free but with rules)
• If the government starts abusing its power and going
beyond what the people have agreed to, then the
people have a right to overthrow their government
and put in a new one
Effect of John Locke’s ideas on the
American colonists?
• Did the colonists make a social contract with the
King of England and Parliament (George III)?
• Have the colonists had much say in the rules
that were made?
– Taxation without representation
• Is the English government protecting the
colonists’ rights to life, liberty, and property?
• Then what must the colonists do? HAVE A
REVOLUTION – OVERTHROW THE OLD
GOVERNMENT AND PUT IN THE NEW!
– OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
First Continental Congress
• In 1774, the First Continental Congress was
called
– All colonies except Georgia sent delegates to the
Congress held in Philadelphia
• The First Continental Congress defended the
colonies’ right to run their own affairs
– Supported protests in Boston
– Said that if the British used force against the
colonists, the colonists would fight back
• This was the first time most of the colonies had
acted together (remember…“join or die said that
Benjamin Franklin guy”)
Join or Die: Finally!
Differences Among American
Colonists
• Patriots
– Believed in complete independence from Britain
– Will supply troops to George Washington’s
Continental Army
• Loyalists (Tories)
– Remained loyal to Britain because of cultural and
economic ties
– Believed that Britain should tax the colonists because
they needed to station troops in the colonies to
protect the colonies against the Indians
• Neutrals
– Tried to be as uninvolved as possible; did not care
one way or the other
Patrick Henry
• In the House of Burgesses, Virginian
Patrick Henry declared “give me liberty or
give me death!”
– Wanted to persuade Virginia to send troops to
the Continental Army
• http://www.history.org/almanack/people/bi
os/biohen.cfm
• Patrick Henry was a Patriot!
Colonists Scenario Challenge
• You will work with your peers at your table.
• You will be presented with several
descriptions of certain types of colonists.
• In your groups, you will decide whether the
colonists would be Patriots (Whigs),
Loyalists (Tories), or Neutrals
• Use your white boards to write P, L, or N
Scenario #1
• This colonist is an eastern cavalier
planter in the South. The taxes and
acts of Parliament have not affected
him much. He doesn’t live near the
Appalachian Mountains, so the
Proclamation of 1763 hasn’t affected
him either.
Scenario #2
• This colonist is a northern merchant,
so he does a lot of trade with other
countries, including Britain. The
Navigation Acts, Sugar Act, and
Townshend Acts (which taxed tea)
have made him lose a lot of money.
Also, the closing of the Boston Harbor
has affected him greatly.
Scenario #3
• This colonist is a small farmer on the
frontier near the Appalachian
Mountains. He is not allowed to
move west of the Appalachian
Mountains even though he helped
Britain beat the French during the
French and Indian War.
Scenario #4
• This colonist is a Boston Dock
worker is competing with British
soldiers for work. Some of his
friends were killed by the British
Redcoats during the Boston
Massacre.
Scenario #5
• This colonist is a Quaker who
does not believe in fighting.
Scenario #6
• This colonist is a slave who has
been promised freedom by Britain
if he fights on the side of the
British during the Revolutionary
War.
Scenario #7
• You are a Powhatan Indian who
has had violent clashes with the
colonists ever since they moved
here and took your land.
Revolutionary War Battles
Research
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Lexington and Concord
Battle of Bunker Hill
Battle of Trenton
Battle of Saratoga
Victory at Yorktown
Mnemonics
• Locke: natural rights are locked in
• Tories tied to Britain
• “Join or die” said that Benjamin
Franklin guy
• Patrick the Patriot