Download The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3

Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• Following the Boston Tea Party, the British passed the Coercive Acts
(dubbed the Intolerable Acts by the colonies) as a means to punish
the colony of Massachusetts and to restore order to the colonies as a
whole.
• The colonies responded by convening the First Continental
Congress—its delegates would change the course of world history.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• April 1774: General Thomas
_______
Gage was appointed as
______
commander-in-chief of British
forces in North America.
• Gage had earlier told King
George III that “the Americans
will be lions while we are lambs,
but if we take the resolute part
they will undoubtedly be very
meek.”
• Gage believed that if the British
dealt more harshly with the
colonies, the colonists would be
intimidated and would submit
___________
to British rule.
• With the king’s backing,
Gage acted quickly to
implement the most
hateful and odious of
the Intolerable Acts.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• June 1, 1774: General Gage
• There was no danger of
blockaded Boston
implemented the _________,
Port Act
starving.
shutting down Boston’s ports to
• The other New England
all commercial traffic, with the
colonies shipped food into
intent of cutting off radical
the city over land and
Boston from the rest of America
from as far away as lowand essentially ________
starving the
country South Carolina
city into submission.
came rice.
• He could not have been more wrong
• Delaware sent cash.
in his assumption that this would
• Instead of dividing the
bring about colonial submission to the
colonies, General Gage
British Crown.
actually brought them
• Instead of cutting Boston off from the
closer together with a
rest of colonial America, the Port Act
common purpose.
had the opposite effect.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• Just when it was difficult to imagine how the crisis could be made much
worse, George III made it worse.
• June 22, 1774: King George III signed into law the Quebec
__________,
Act
restoring the old borders of the Canadian province, which
Ohio Valley and the ______
Illinois country—
stretched down into the __________
where many of the American colonists had hoped to settle.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• The Quebec Act decreed that
French would
in these areas, _______
law would
be spoken, French ____
Roman
prevail, and the _______
______________
Catholic Church would be
officially recognized.
• In addition to the colonists’
belief that they were not being
afforded the rights of English
subjects under the _______
Magna
Carta most of the colonists
______,
• The colonists had had enough.
Protestant and
were __________
They were now ready to come
associated the Catholic Church
together in a united voice loud
tyranny
with _______ and
enough to be heard by King
____________.
persecution
George.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• September 5, 1774: ________
Fifty-six
delegates from every colony but
Georgia met in ___________
Philadelphia at
________
First
what became known as the ____
___________________
Continental Congress to plan a
united colonial response to the
Intolerable Acts
_______________.
• The 56 delegates represented
• The Congress endorsed
the full spectrum of colonial
the Suffolk Resolves, in
thought—from radicals who
which the Intolerable
wanted to sever all ties with
Acts (and 13 other acts of
Great Britain—to conservatives
Parliament passed since
who wanted to find a way to
1763) were deemed
patch up relations with the
unconstitutional.
“Mother Country.”
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• The delegates adopted FIVE MAIN RESOLUTIONS:
1. Asserted their rights to “____,
Life _______,
Liberty and
Property as English subjects.
_________”
• In a set of 10 resolutions, the First Continental
Congress enumerated the rights of the colonists.
2. Demand for the free and exclusive power of
self-government
________________
3. The pledge of ______________
mutual support between the
colonies
4. The revival and enforcement of boycotts
________ of
British goods
5. The call to colonists to arm themselves and form
militias
________
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• When the First Continental Congress ended in October,
the delegates agreed to meet in the Spring of 1775 to
take further steps if the conflict with Britain had not
been resolved.
• King George III was not moved to give in to the colonists
by this meeting. In November of 1774, King George
wrote, “THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES ARE IN A STATE
OF REBELLION—BLOWS MUST DECIDE.”
• So in a sense, it was King George III and the British
Parliament that declared war to start the American
Revolution.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• Massachusetts organized special militia units that could be
ready for battle on a moment’s notice—they were referred
Minutemen
to as the “___________.”
– General Gage was sent to Boston, Massachusetts to
suppress colonial ___________
insurrection (def): Open revolt
against civil authority.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• The Americans that King George III had labeled “rebels”
(they preferred to call themselves “patriots”) followed the
advice of the First Continental Congress and began to
gather guns and ammunition.
• ________
Patriots (def): Name given to American colonists who
rebelled against the British Crown.
• As the colonists were organizing and arming, Gage set
about positioning, preparing, and quartering his troops.
But he was continually harassed by colonial saboteurs—
who sunk barges, burned the straw intended for the
soldiers’ beds, and wrecked provisional wagons.
• Throughout New England, militiamen were drilling—and
stealing ammunition.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-3
• Gage issued a blanket indictment
against the colonists, declaring all
to be “in treason.” However, he
offered full pardons to everyone—
except for Samuel Adams and
John Hancock.
• If caught, they would be executed.
• Paul Revere then undertook his
first major mission of warning…
• A major stockpile of
…….to ride to Lexington,
____ and ammunition
___________
guns
Massachusetts and tell the two
was stored by colonial
revolutionary patriots they must
patriots in ________,
Concord
prepare to flee.
Massachusetts.
• Paul Revere’s second mission of warning followed hard on
the heels of his first.
• In addition to his duties as a rider, Revere supervised a ring
of Boston citizen-spies.
• These spies had observed the British General Thomas
Gage’s preparation of grenadiers and light infantry (these
two groups were comprised of some of Britain’s finest
soldiers) for an impending mission.
• When Revere and his spies watched the British hard at work
trying to repair a group of whaleboats, they believed that
Gage was about to send the troops by boat from Boston to
Cambridge—then on to Concord.
• When Revere returned to Boston from
Lexington, he arranged a signal that
would alert the Charlestown
countryside to the movement of
gage’s troops.
• He stationed his friend, John Pulling,
in the steeple of the North Church.
• If the troops were seen marching out
by land, a single lantern was to be
shown from the steeple.
• If they were using the whaleboats to
get across the Back Bay water
(meaning that they were embarking
for an attack on the arms cache at
Concord) Pulling was to show two
lanterns.
• Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow would
include this in his work that immortalized
Paul Revere—
• Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."
• During the day, on April 18, Gage
dispatched mounted officers out
along the Concord road to clear it
of rebel couriers.
• That night, the sergeants were
sent to awaken the sleeping light
infantry and grenadiers—600800 of Gage’s best troops (no
doubt some of the finest troops
of all of Europe).
• At 10:30, the redcoats were
ready.
• Two lanterns glowed in the North
Church steeple—the British were
bound for Concord where the
patriots had stockpiled a vast
supply of weapons and ammo.
• General Gage sent ____
700
British soldiers to
Concord on April 18,
1775 to seize these
supplies.
• The resourcefulness of a
small band of swift
riders was the only thing
that saved a large
portion of these
supplies—as well as the
lives of several of our
country’s founding
fathers.
Paul Revere William Dawes and ______________
Samuel Prescott rode
• ___________,_____________
on horseback to warn the countryside (Their cry was not, as
often told, “The British are coming! The British are
The Regulars Are Out
coming!, but…) with shouts of “___________________!”
• The British soon found out they had lost the element of
surprise…
• As the British set out for Concord to seize the patriot
weapons cache, a group of 70 colonial militia met them at
the town of _________.
Lexington
• Lt. Col. Francis Smith and Major John Pitcairn were in charge of
the British soldiers headed for Concord. Pitcairn called to the
militia on Lexington’s green (which fronted the road to Concord),
“Lay down your arms, you rebels, and disperse!”
• Head of the colonial militia, Captain Jonas Parker shouted the
orders to his men, “Don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they want
to have a war, let it begin here!”
• Shots rang out—from which side it is not known—but in the
matter of minutes, 8 militiamen, including Parker, were dead,
and another 10 were seriously wounded. A single British soldier
was slightly hurt.
• Outnumbered _____
700 to ___,
70 this patriot force was easily
defeated.
• It would not be so easy for the British in Concord.
• The British continued their march to Concord, but word of the
engagement at Lexington reached that town well in advance.
• Militia companies poured into Concord from surrounding
communities.
4,000 American militia arrived to defend
• At Concord, almost ______
the town.
• Although, never more than half this number were involved at any one time.
• As fresh militia units arrived, exhausted men, their 40 or so rounds of
ammunition spent, dropped out.
• The captain of the British light infantry was stunned by the approach of the
Americans.
• He ordered his men to form two ranks, the first to fire a volley—then run
behind the second rank to reload while the second fired. It was the standard
maneuver, drilled and drilled a thousand times over.
• But something went wrong for the British that day. The Battle of Lexington
had been easy.
• Here, at Concord, were many more men—men who really did look and move
like soldiers.
• The familiar maneuver miscarried—the volleys at first falling into the river
before a few shots found their marks.
• Militia captain Isaac Davis fell dead—as did Abner Hosmer, the little
drummer boy who had marched bravely at the head of the American
column.
• “Fire, fellow soldier!” an American officer begged his men. “For God’s sake,
fire!”
• The first full American volley of the American Revolution was recorded for
posterity.
• In response to the fire of the British soldiers at Concord, the
Ralph ______
Waldo
colonial patriots returned fire in what poet ______
________
The Shot Heard ‘Round the World
Emerson would later call “____________________________.”
“By the rude bridge that
arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze
unfurled,
Here once the embattled
farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard
round the world.”
• Three British regulars lay dead and nine more were
wounded in the volley.
• The “lobsterbacks” retreated into the town, but left
their dead and wounded behind on the bridge.
• Instead of pursuing the retreating British, one
“embattled farmer” ventured onto the North Bridge
and, seeing one of the wounded British soldiers stirring,
buried an axe in his skull.
• This served to strike terror into the hearts of the light
infantry—to see that “the Americans had scalped a
soldier of the Crown!”
• Forcing the British to retreat all the way back
Charlestown colonial militia _______
snipers
to ____________,
picked off British soldiers one by one and
harassed the British until they found refuge
within range of the big guns of their
warships.
• Almost ____
100 British redcoats had been killed
and another ____
174 were wounded.
• On the American side, ___
49 had died and ___
41
lay wounded.
• The _____________________________
Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the
beginning of the colonial fight for independence and the
American Revolutionary War.
• From a “Meeting-in-Exile” of the Virginia House of Burgesses
There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are
forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The
war is inevitable—and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, “Peace!
Peace!”—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next
gale that sweeps down from the north will bring to our ears the clash
of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand
we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they
have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the
price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not
what course others may take, but as for me, GIVE ME LIBERTY—OR
GIVE ME DEATH!