On the Road to War

Today we will identify several events leading up to the Revolutionary War

Pontiac’s Rebellion 1763

• Uprising of 18 western tribes

• Led by Pontiac of the Ottawa

• Results in Proclamation of 1763

The Stamp Act Congress 1765

• Representatives from 9 colonies meet in New York City

• Meet to protest the direct tax on all printed materials

• James Otis, “no taxation, without representation!”

Stamp Act Congress con’t.

• Declaration of Rights issued

• Sam Adams, Sons & Daughters of Liberty will enforce colonial boycott

• Parliament repeals Stamp Act

Boston Massacre 1770

• Unrest vs. the Townshend Acts

• British troops & colonial mobs on the streets

• British sentry assaulted

• 5 colonists die when soldiers fire into mob

Reenactment

The Facts

Massacre results

• Soldiers put on trial• Defended by John

Adams• 2 will be found guilty

& have their thumbs branded

• Townshend Acts will be repealed, except Tea Tax

The Committees of Correspondence 1772

• Formed by Sam Adams & James Otis

• Share information between colonies

• Keep the fire of liberty burning

The Boston Tea Party 1773

• Violent protest over the Tea Tax

• Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks destroy 342 chests of British Tea

• Boston Harbor is closed with the Intolerable Acts

First Continental Congress

• 56 men w/ various viewpoints meet in Philadelphia

• Protesting Intolerable Acts

• Express loyalty to England

• Wont follow all English laws

Bravery

• Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Congress con’t.

• Colonial boycott will continue• Call for armed militias/minutemen• Issue the Declaration of Resolves• Agree to meet again• King George III – “colonies are in a state

of rebellion”• The Avalon Project : Declaration and

Resolves of the First Continental Congress

PATRICK HENRY

• STATESMAN FROM VIRGINIA

The Shot Heard Around the World

• Lexington and Concord

• Paul Revere, William Dawes & Samuel Prescott make a “Midnight Ride”

• British are coming• Minutemen make

ready

Blood is Spilled, April 19, 1775

• British will attempt to seize colonial war materials & arrest Sam Adams & John Hancock

• On Lexington Green 70 minutemen meet 700 British regulars

• Colonists are ordered from the “King’s Green”

• Gun fire erupts

The March to Concord

Eight colonist die at LexingtonBritish move on to ConcordDestroy colonial supplies4,000 minutemen materializeBritish return to BostonColonists use guerilla warfare to kill and

wound over 300 British soldiers

The Retreat

The Battle of Bunker Hill

• British occupy Boston after fighting at Lexington & Concord

• Americas occupy high ground Breeds Hill• June 17,1775 British led by Gen. Wm. Howe

assaults the hill three times• 1st assault – British dead and wounded lie “as

thick as sheep in a field”• 2nd assault more of the same, colonists getting

low on ammo

Bunker Hill

• 3rd assault, a bayonet charge by the British

• Colonists driven from the hill

People & Results

• Americans led by Colonel Wm. Prescott• Quote, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their

eyes”• British led by Generals Howe, John Burgoyne & Henry

Clinton• Over 1,000 British casualties• Over 500 American casualties• Battle shows American willingness to fight and British

lack of tactics• The Decisive Day is Come: The Battle of Bunker Hill |

Introduction

After Bunker Hill

King George III declares the colonists rebels

Sets up a Naval Blockade of coloniesHires 10,000 German mercenaries

(Hessians)

The British Leave Boston

1776 Washington occupies Dorchester Heights

Places cannons on high ground surrounding Boston

mid-March 1776 British evacuate Boston

Fighting in New England comes to an end

Abigail Adams

From a letter “a town which we

expected would cost us a river of blood”

“every foot of ground which they obtain now they must fight for, and may they buy it at a Bunker Hill price.”

Common Sense

Written by Thomas Paine, January 1776

Plea for separation Expresses 2 ideals of

American Revolution Power struggle Role of citizens in their

gov’t. Acts as a “spark in a keg of

gunpowder” W/in a year 500,000 copies

sold

Advantages of Independence

Captured Patriots would be POW’s not traitors

Seize loyalist propertyObtain foreign aid

Common Sense Quotes

• Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one…

• To say, they will never attempt it again is idle and visionary, we thought so at the repeal of the stamp-act, yet a year or two undeceived us…

• Why is it that we hesitate? From Britain we can expect nothing but ruin. If she is admitted to the government of America again, this continent will not be worth living in.

• Until an independence is declared the continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity.

The Declaration of Independence

Today we will identify factors that led to the writing of this historic

document

A Celebration

Setting the stage

British blunders – taxes,acts, spilling of colonial blood

Common SensePro-Independence group in the Continental

Congress ( Patrick Henry, John Adams, Sam Adams, & Richard Henry Lee)

Rejection of John Dickinson’s The Olive Branch Petition by King George

Ideas of the EnlightenmentWritings of John Locke

The Ideas of the Declaration

• The Declaration is divided into 4 sections

• First – The Preamble – why are we doing this – “When in the course …”

• Second – Theory of Government – Ideas on Rights, who protects them, right to rebel

Ideas con’t

• Third – List of 28 abuses perpetrated on the colonist by King George

• Fourth – Actual Declaration of Independence

Footnotes

• Jefferson originally blamed slavery on the King

• This passage will be removed to gain Southern support

• Declaration lays the foundation for the future government of the United States

Reactions to the Declaration

• Mixed

• Rejoicing Patriots

• Fear & Uncertainty among Tories or Loyalists, 20% to 33% of population

• Who cares element of society

Colonial weaknesses & strengths

Undisciplined troops Lack of unity (Tories) No real central

government to tax or raise troops

Small number of troops

Little or no money profiteering

Home field advantage Motivation African American

soldiers Indian allies Foreign aid Leadership Guerilla warfare

British strengths & weaknesses

Professional army & navy

More peopleMore moneyStable governmentLoyalist (TORIES)

support

Geography/locationMust fight an

offensive warProblems of

leadership & supplyMercenary soldiersFighting in EuropeUnpopular in England

Washington crosses the Delaware

Surprise Attack

War in the Middle Colonies

Battle of Princeton

• Washington again in Trenton, New Jersey• Leaves Trenton when word of a Cornwallis

approach is received• On January 3, 1777 the sides clash at Princeton• 45 minute battle, British lose over 500 men,

Americans lose over 20 men• Washington declares the battle, “A foxhunt!”• Continental Army will move to Morristown, New

Jersey and spend the winter of 1777 there

Washington at Princeton

Princeton

Saratoga

• Turning point in the war• American victory• French will begin officially aiding the American

cause• British plan to end the war will fail• Following the battle the British will make a peace

offering• They will agree to suspend the Coercive Acts,

pardon Patriot leaders• Peace offering is rejected by the Americans

Jane McCrea

Saratoga

• Actually two battles: September 19, 1777 and October 7, 1777

• British will be severely mauled by Continental Army

• British General John Burgoyne surrenders his army and will never command again

• Daniel Morgan’s riflemen target British officers, British General Frazer ,"My duty forbids me to fly from danger“, the next moment he fell.

Saratoga

Betrayal

Yorktown

Cornwallis at Yorktown

Surrender

Americans Storm the British

French Troops on the Move

The War Ends

• Yorktown, Virginia

• British General Cornwallis is trapped on a peninsula

• American & French soldiers on land block his movement

• French fleet led by Admiral DeGrasse block his escape by sea

• October 19, 1781 Cornwallis surrenders to Washington’s forces

• A British band plays a popular tune, “The World Turned Upside Down” as they surrender their arms

The Treaty of Paris

• American negotiators Ben Franklin, John Adams and John Jay

• Negotiate a separate peace with Great Britain

• US independence is recognized by Great Britain

• US expands west to Mississippi River, north to Great Lakes, south to Spanish Florida

The Negotiators

• US can fish in northern waters

• British troops will leave all posts in American territory

• Loyalists claims against US will be treated fairly

• US, Spain, France and Britain all reach peace agreements separatelyJohn Jay, John Adams,

Ben Franklin, Henry Laurens, William Franklin

North America After theNorth America After theTreaty of Paris, 1783Treaty of Paris, 1783