(c) 2003 wadsworth group all rights reserved the revolutionary republic chapter 6

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

The Revolutionary Republic

Chapter 6Chapter 6

Hearts and Minds: The Northern War, 1776-1777

• Rulers of Britain felt that loss of colonies would be fatal blow to British power

• Britain raised more soldiers and fleets – Doubled its national debt


The British Offensive

• Americans driven from Canada• Richard and William Howe• George Washington• Battle of Brooklyn Heights• Fall of New York City• Mass desertions from Continental army• New Jersey and Rhode Island fall to British


The Trenton-Princeton Campaign

• Christmas attack on Hessians at Trenton

• Charles, Earl of Cornwallis

• Princeton

• British mistakes– Not pursuing and destroying Washington– Abandoning Loyalists– Hessian war crimes


The Campaigns of 1777 and Foreign Intervention


• British strategy– Lacked coherence– Howes take Philadelphia– Burgoyne and Clinton meet in interior New

York

The Loss of Philadelphia

• Howes march North from Maryland to take Philadelphia

• Washington abandons Philadelphia• Valley Forge

– Frederich Wilhelm, Baron von Steuben: drillmaster for the Continental army

– Marquis de Lafayette

– 1/5th of Continental officers were foreign mercanaries

Saratoga

• John Burgoyne takes Ticonderoga, moves toward Albany

• John Stark and the New Hampshire militia

• Horatio Gates– Bemis Heights (1777)

• Saratoga: Burgoyne surrenders


French Intervention• French want revenge for loss of 7 Years War• Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais and

French aid• Benjamin Franklin and Charles Gravier, comte de

Vergennes: Franco-American alliance• Reasons for French entry

– Afraid fall of Philadelphia might weaken resolve of colonists to continue fighting

– Saratoga convinced them that colonists could win


Spanish Expansion and Intervention

• Spanish want revenge for loss of 7 Years War• Louisiana still largely French, even under Spanish

rule• California

– Spaniards explored California coastline– Junípero Serra

• Spain goes to war with Britain 1779• Spanish Florida again


The Reconstitution of Authority

• Intense debate in America on constitutionalism

• Written constitution important

• Fuller expressions of popular sovereignty– Power is derived from the people


John Adams and the Separation of Powers

• Thomas Paine and unicameral government• Constitutional Conventions: “popular sovereignty

in its purest form”• Adams responds with Thoughts on Government

– separation of powers

– virtue


The Virginia Constitution

• June 1776, Virginia– first state to adopt a permanent, republican

constitution– Sovereign legislature

• George Mason and Virginia’s Bill of Rights• Many states adopted variations of

Virginia’s model constitution


The Pennsylvania Constitution

• Quaker and Proprietary Parties

• Constitutional Convention 1776

• “Constitutionalists”


Massachusetts Redefines Constitutionalism

• Resentment of the “River Gods”

• Berkshire Constitutionalists– convention

• General Court– bill of rights


Confederation• John Dickinson and the “Articles of

Confederation and Perpetual Union”– State sovereignty and equality– Congress must requisition money from states

• Ratification process– All had to agree– Stalls over western land claims– Approved 3-1-1781


The Crisis of the Revolution, 1779-1783

• Americans, with French assistance, expected a quick victory

• War of attrition

• Loyalists: important to British war efforts

• British looked to Carolinas for support


The Loyalists

• Many colonists were conflicted: – new American union vs. part of British empire

• Risks for loyalists living in American colonies• One-sixth of white population chose British side

of the war – 19,000 men joined loyalist military units

• State government banished loyalists and confiscated their property


Loyalist Refugees, Black and White

• Slaves outside New England sided with Britain• British government freed thousands of slaves• Loyalists refugees, mostly to Canada• American Revolution laid groundwork for 2

Western hemisphere rivals—Canada and the U.S.A.


The Indian Struggle for Unity and Survival

• Most Indians believed only hope to stop colonist’s expansion was British victory

• Iroquois– Mohawks– Joseph Brant – Wyoming Valley

• Shawnees– Cornplanter

• Indian unity• George Rogers Clark


Attrition

• British war weary after 1778• British army is desperate for soldiers

– Recruited many Irish Catholics– Resulted in Protestant violence: Gordon riots

• Attrition weakened American forces and undermined economy

• Continental dollar collapses• Continental soldiers left unpaid, ill-clothed,

poorly fed, and mutinous (c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

The British Offensive in the South

• British success in Georgia

• George Clinton– Benedict Arnold– Banastre Tarleton– Failure of Northern attacks

• Cornwallis– Carolinas


The Partisan War

• King’s Mountain (1780)• Nathanael Greene• Francis Marion “the Swamp Fox”• Battle of Cowpens• Battle of Guilford Court House• Cornwallis back to Wilimington


Mutiny and Reform

• Mutinies in New Jersey• Congress abandons wartime economic controls

and restores market• Robert Morris

– Bank of North America

• Congress still weak, no laws, only ordinances


The Ravaging of Virginia to Yorktown and Peace

• British invade Virginia• Voluntarism falters• Yorktown: Britain’s final defeat

– Washington’s plan: trap Cornwallis at Yorktown

– François, comte de Grasse and Battle of the Capes

– Jean Baptiste Donatien, comte de Rochambeau

• Lord North resigns


Independence

Treaty of Paris (1783)

• British recognize United States independence

• Mississippi as Western boundary of United States

• Prewar debts still valid

• Congress must urge states to restore confiscated loyalist property

• Post war problems• Indians don’t accept

Treaty• Army discontent and

near mutiny

A Revolutionary Society

• Independence transformed American life• Biggest winners: free householders

– Gained enormous benefits from democratization of politics and chance to colonize Great West

• Biggest losers: loyalists and Indians• Winner when their interests coincided with

winners – Slaves– Women


Religious Transformations• Anglican Church “disestablished” in Southern

states• Thomas Jefferson

– Statute for Religious Freedom

• Congregational church “established” in New England

• Office holding generally restricted to Christians or Protestants

• Toleration extended to Catholics and Jews– Bishop John Carroll 1790


The First Emancipation

• Revolutionary Era: freedom for many slaves• Some freed because of Revolutionary War• Courts say Massachusetts and New Hampshire

slaves can walk away to freedom• Pennsylvania 1780: first gradual emancipation

statute, model for slave emancipation in North• Manumission of slaves allowed in Virginia and

Maryland• Slaves were essential to plantation economy and a

valuable asset in the South


The Challenge to Patriarchy• War gave women more responsibility and

power

• Coverture

• Philadelphia Ladies Association (1780)– Esther de Berdt Reed

• Republican Motherhood and the spread of women’s education


Western Expansion, Discontent, and Conflict with Indians

• Daniel Boone and the Cumberland Gap• Postwar settlement boom• Spain and Britain fuel Indian resistance• Secessionist Movements

– Franklin– James Wilkinson– Green Mountain Boys


The Northwest Ordinance• Land Ordinance of 1785

– Surveyed and divided land into townships– Ohio Company and apparent speculator triumph

• Northwest Ordinance of 1787– 3-5 states equal to original 13– Congressionally appointed governor, locally elected

assembly after population of 5000– At 60,000 population, could apply for statehood– Public funded education– No slavery


A More Perfect Union

• Difficult times: 1780s– Failing economy– Debtors vs. creditors– Bitter state politics

• Demand to amend the Articles of Confederation


Commerce, Debt, and Shays’s Rebellion

• Depression and debt

• Paper money and debt “stays”

• Massachusetts, high taxes, and Governor James Bowdoin

• Daniel Shays


Cosmopolitans versus Localists• Cosmopolitans

– Urban classes, large scale farmers and planters, Continental Army officers

– Aggressive trade policy, hard money, payment of public debts, high salaries for appointed officials

• Localists– Rural classes– Paper money and debt relief

• Localist win, but speculators thrive• Jay-Gardoqui Treaty

– John Jay

• Washington and other cosmopolitans call to strengthen central government


The Philadelphia Convention• Virginia Plan• New Jersey Plan

– William Paterson

• Connecticut Compromise• Government of laws enforced on individuals through federal

courts• Electoral College• 3/5ths compromise• Necessary and Proper clause• State ratification conventions


Ratification

• Federalists

• Anti-Federalists (localists)

• The Federalist– Federalist No. 10


Conclusion

• White America affirms liberty and equality rarely extended to Indians and blacks

• Discontent of postwar years led to Federalist coalition

• New national Constitution replaces Articles of Confederation

• Federalists endowed new central government with greater power

• American Federalist system


http://history.wadsworth.com/murrin_lep4e/

(c) 2003 wadsworth group all rights reserved the revolutionary republic chapter 6

Documents

rights reserved slide

wadsworth group

british c

people c

constitutionalists c

foreign intervention

burgoyne surrenders

foreign mercanaries