Download The American Revolution Thru the Creation of the Constitution The

The American Revolution Thru the Creation of the Constitution
The American Revolutionary War
After the Boston Tea Party and the creation of the Coercive/Intolerable Acts, The British were able to
determine that the leaders of the “Tea Party” and the Sons of Liberty were John Hancock and Samuel Adams. On April
19, 1775 the British went to arrest Hancock and Adams for treason. They knew the two were hiding in the town of
Concord, Massachusetts, along with a large amount of gun powder that the colonists had stockpiled. 700 soldiers
marched from Boston to the towns of Lexington and Concord looking for the two. Shots were fired in both towns until
the British were turned back and forced to march back to Boston. Along the way 73 soldiers were killed and another 174
were wounded.
After the trip back to Boston, the British settled into the city. The British had one big problem with staying in
Boston… the city was completely surrounded by hills. If the colonists had control of the hills, they could bring in cannons
and constantly bombard the British troops in the city below. The colonists set up on the hills and prepared to attack.
The British knew that they had to drive the colonists off of the hills, so they sent
troops to attack before the colonists could bring in cannons. The colonists were
originally settled onto Bunker Hill, but at the last minute moved over to nearby Breeds
Hill. For some reason the Battle is still known as the Battle of Bunker Hill today. On
June 17, 1775 it took the British three attempts to take the hill, when the colonists finally
ran out of ammunition and were forced to give up the ground. While the British took
over the hills, over 1000 soldiers were either killed or wounded.
As problems with the British increased, A Boston writer named Thomas Paine began to believe the Americans
were no longer being served by the British government. He wrote a small book titled “Common Sense”. His book spoke
about how the government of England was not only no longer protecting the colonists, but it was in fact hurting the
colonists. His argument included all of the taxes the British had placed on the Colonists, the fact that the Colonists had
no voice in the British law-making body known as Parliament (which led to the phrase “no taxation without
representation”) , the quartering of troops, the Boston Massacre, the shutting down of the Virginia House of Burgesses,
and the attacks in Lexington and Concord. Because England had in fact become bad for the Colonists, it only made
“common sense” that the Colonists should break away from the English government and form a new country of their
own. The book was a huge success and became the number 2 seller in New England (only behind the Bible) and was a
major influence on the thoughts of Colonists in all thirteen colonies.
Because problems between the Colonists and British continued to grow and didn’t seem to be going away,
another meeting was called between leaders of each of the colonies. This would be the
Second Continental Congress, and like the first, would take place in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. All 13 colonies sent delegates to this meeting and on July 4th, 1776, the
delegates agreed to adopt the document known as the Declaration of Independence. This
Document declared that the colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire and were
instead working together as free and independent states. The Declaration, mostly written
by Thomas Jefferson, gave many reasons for declaring independence, but it pretty much
boiled down to the fact that the English government was no longer protecting the
colonists, and was in fact taking away their chance to have a successful life.
Once the Colonists had declared their independence (and would now be known as Americans, Continentals, or
Yankees) full-fledged war broke out as the British determined that they were not willing to give up their money-making
colonies without a fight. The plans for winning the war were very different for the two sides. England had the strongest
military on earth and believed it could put down the rebellion by following old fighting techniques. England believed if it
won battles and controlled land and cities the colonists would have to give up. Their
plan was therefore to take over the major cities of Boston, New York, and
Charleston…which they did. The colonists knew that they had no chance of
matching up head to head with the British military. Instead they decided to fight
using “guerilla” tactics. The colonists did not care about taking land. They simply
wanted to use hit and run techniques to make life difficult on the British and to keep
the war going. If the war lasted long enough, the belief was that the British would get tired of fighting and simply quit.
The colonists also tried to get help from France, the long-time enemy of England.
During the first years of fighting, the battles went according to both plans. The British won all major battles and
took all major cities. However the Americans used hit and run tactics to kill many British
soldiers at places such as Trenton, New Jersey where George Washington lead troops on a
Christmas night raid against drunken German mercenary soldiers known as Hessians who were
fighting for the British. The Americans also did the unheard of act of firing upon British officers
in battles. The British believed the Americans were simply unfair.
A major turning point of the war was at the Battle of Saratoga, New York. Somehow the Americans were able
to defeat the British army in a head to head battle. The reason this was so important was because, with this victory, the
Americans began to get support from the French. The French now believed that the Americans might actually be able to
win the war, and they would be able to embarrass their longtime enemy, the British.
After the victory at Saratoga, the Americans began to lose battles again. They were driven out of Philadelphia
(The Temporary Capital city) and forced to camp throughout the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. At
Valley Forge, the soldiers had few buildings for shelter, little food, and some even
had no shoes. It was a bitterly cold winter and the only way to survive was to keep
moving. The leader of the Continental Army, General George Washington, with help
from Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben of Prussia, used this time to train his
men to become real soldiers. While a ragtag group of men entered Valley Forge,
what left in the spring of 1778 was a well-trained, well-disciplined, hard group of
fighting soldiers who would be able to compete with the British for the rest of the war. This hardened army spent the
next three years trading blow for blow with the mighty British Army. While they still couldn’t compete in the old style of
“line vs line” fighting, guerilla tactics allowed the Americans to win several battles.
Eventually, the British commander Charles Cornwallis, changed his plans and decided to stop fighting in mostly
Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and decided to move his army to the South. Initially the British
had huge success, as they were able to capture the cities of Charleston and Savannah. On January 17, 1781,
Cornwallis’s troops went up against Americans led by General Nathaniel Greene on a pastureland of South Carolina,
name Cowpens. In a shocking turn of events, the Americans overwhelmed the British in a battle that lasted less than an
hour.
Cornwallis’s troops were now separated from their supply lines and running low on food and
ammunition. Cornwallis needed to get his troops to the Atlantic coast to meet resupply ships. He
led his troops to Yorktown peninsula in Virginia where they were to be picked up by British ships.
Unfortunately, the French navy arrived first and cut of access to the Atlantic Ocean. American
troops covered all land exits from the peninsula, and the British troops were trapped. After a 2 ½
month siege, the British Army surrendered on October 19, 1781. This was the final battle of the
War.
On September 3, 1783 (almost two full years after the fighting had ended), the Treaty of
Paris was signed, ending the American Revolutionary War. According to the treaty, which was
signed in Paris, France, The American colonies were granted their independence and were able to
become a separate country. The treaty also gave the Americans all land in North America from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.
The British would keep what is modern day Canada. The British promised to pull all of its soldiers
out of the lands ceded to the Americans…They didn’t, and another war would be fought for this
land about thirty years later.
Creating a New Government
The citizens of the new United States of America were just leaving a period when they fought a war to
overthrow a strong national government. They believed that government was a “necessary evil”. Without government
there would be chaos, but too much government would put them right back where they had been. As a compromise,
the first Americans wanted to create a national government that was very weak. They actually wanted individual states
to have more power because state governments were closer to the people that they governed and the belief was that
state governments would therefore serve the people better and be less likely to get corrupt.
Another issue that these early Americans had was that they still weren’t sure that they really wanted to be
joined together. After all, the people from each state came from very different backgrounds, had different ways of life,
different occupations, etc… The only thing they really had in common was they had all fought against the British for
freedom. For this reason they determined that they would form a Confederation. A confederation is a loose alliance of
political units. This was done so that each small state could still have total control over itself without outside
interference. In actuality a Confederation is more like a club that you can join or unjoin whenever you wish. While this
may have kept people in each state from worrying about a new king coming to power, it really didn’t provide much of a
stable government either.
The government set up for the new United States was described and outlined by a document known as the
Articles of Confederation. The national government under the Articles of Confederation was made up of only a
legislative branch. This group was able to make laws that would sort of binding for the entire country…as long as the
people liked the laws. The problems with the government began with how laws were made. Each state had one vote
when making decisions. Some states sent several delegates to the meetings to voice their opinions, but only one vote
counted. This meant that a state like Virginia with a population of 580,000 had the same vote as a state like Delaware,
with only 45,000. Also 9 of the 13 states had to agree to get a law to pass. This was very unlikely. Another problem
under the Articles of Confederation was that the government really didn’t have much power.
1) The government could not tax. If money was needed the national government could only ask states to donate
money. It could not force individuals or states to give money.
2) The government could not form an army. If soldiers were needed the government could only ask states to
donate them. If a state didn’t want to send soldiers, it didn’t have to.
3) The government could not over ride state law. If each individual state had laws opposing the national law, the
law of the state won out.
4) The government had no national currency. Instead, each state created its own money.
The Articles of Confederation did have some positive aspects. One was the creation of the Northwest Territory and
how to deal with this land. This was a plan for how new territories could be settled and turned into states. The
Ordinance specifically dealt with the land around the Great Lakes, which would later become Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It said that once a territory had 5000 men, it could elect its own government and
once it reached 60,000 it could apply for statehood. This plan was later carried out in future territories. A controversial
part of the Ordinance was that SLAVERY was outlawed in the Northwest Territory. While the Northwest Territory
provisions were nice, the rest of the Articles of Confederation was filled with tragic problems.
It did not take long for the problems with the Articles of Confederation to show up. In August of 1786, a
Massachusetts farmer named Daniel Shays would lead an open rebellion against the state government of
Massachusetts. Since the national government couldn’t create an army, this small uprising
of citizens lasted almost ten months. But what caused Shays’ Rebellion? After the War
with England, colonists lost lots of their customers (other English colonies). Since they
could not sell their merchandise, they could not pay off debts to banks. Banks began to
foreclose on the farms of farmers who could not pay of their debts. Daniel Shays, a farmer
in Massachusetts, led a revolt of 100 farmers. They went to break into the Springfield
Armory to get weapons so that they could fight against the banks. The US government
could do nothing to stop them, because there was no army. Finally, in June of 1787, the Massachusetts government put
down the revolt, but not before many people saw the weak national government as a problem.
On May 25, 1787, a meeting began between delegates of each of the thirteen American states to discuss how they
could change the government to make it work better. What started out as a discussion over what changes could be
made to the Articles of Confederation soon turned into a debate over whether or not to scrap it completely and start
over with a brand new system.