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Monday, September 14, 2015
Laura Gill Notes
The Empire in Transition
- General Thomas Gage received orders from England to arrest Sam Adams and John
Hancock
• he sent a detachment of 1,000 soldiers from Boston to Lexington and Concord in 1775
- William Dawes and Paul Revere rode out to warn the villages and farms
- minutemen organized but were overpowered by the British
- Americans had removed most of the powder supply by the time the British reached
Concord
- farmers hid along the road to Boston to attack the British
• the British lost almost three times as many men as the Americans
• one of the minutemen claimed that the British fired the first shots while the British story is
that Americans fired first
- The American colonists and Great Britain fought together against the French colonists
• the British took the war as evidence that the colonies needed tighter control
• Americans began to resist more overtly to increasing British control through the 1760s and
1770s
The American Revolution
- America was unprepared for a war with Britain
- had a population that was a third of the population in Britain
- had vastly inferior economic and military resources
- had a population divided on what they were fighting for
- The Second Continental Congress decided to support the war
- every colony except Georgia was represented
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- John Adams, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, and others wanted
complete freedom from England
- John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and others hoped for modest reforms from the Crown
- The “Olive Branch Petition” was approved as one last attempt at at maintaining peace
- On July 6, 1775, the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”
announced the decision to begin active resistance against England
- The revolution began as a fight for more liberty under English rule rather than for
independence
- the high cost of the war shifted the colonial goals higher
- Revolutionary propaganda packet, Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, argued that it was
common sense to break from the corrupt English government rather than trying to fight for
fairer policies
- support grew rapidly in the first few months of 1776
- the Continental Congress declared ports closed to British ships
- On July 4th, Congress approved the Declaration of Independence
- the Declaration of Independence was written mostly by Thomas Jefferson, along with
Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
- it expressed ideas that had already been voiced throughout the colonies
- modified John Locke’s theory that governments were formed to protect the rights of
life, liberty and property to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness
- borrowed “all men are created equal” from Virginian George Mason
- the Declaration stated that the King forfeited his claim over the colonies by violating
their “contract”
- The Declaration of Independence inspired the French Revolution’s Declaration of the
Rights of Man
- Loyalists ,who were unhappy about the Declaration of Independence, were called Tories by
supporters of independence
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- The colonies called each other states to reflect that each one was a separate and sovereign
entity in some respects
- after the Declaration of Independence was written, many of the former colonies wrote
formal constitutions for themselves
- Congress adopted the Articles of the Confederation in November, 1777, confirming the
weak centralized government already in place
- states operated mostly independently from the centralized government
- British emissaries met with American diplomats (Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and
John Jay) in France
- France would not agree to any settlement of the war with England until the British
surrendered Gibraltar back to France’s ally, Spain
- waiting for this would prolong the war
- the Americans signed a preliminary treaty with Great Britain without letting France know
in 1782
- The Treaty of Paris was the final settlement, reached on September 3, 1783
- both Spain and France agreed to end hostilities
- American borders stopped at Florida and the Mississippi river
- As much as a third of the white population of America were loyalists
- up to 100,000 fled the country
- some moved back to England
- others established the first English-speaking province in Quebec
- Distribution of wealth and power changed more rapidly after the Revolutionary War than
during it
- The Anglican church was disestablished in Virginia and Maryland, where it had been the
official faith
- French Catholic allies eroded hostilities towards Catholics
- the Pope provided the USA its own Catholic hierarchy
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- Father John Carroll became the head of Catholic missions in America
- Many slaves found freedom during the war
- Some freed slaves engaged in open resistance to white control
- slaveowners feared the Revolution would lead to slave rebellion
- southern churches developed rationales for slavery that reinforced ideas of white
supremacy
- Both Americans and the British tried to convince the Native Americans to stay uninvolved
in the Revolutionary War
- some tribes, especially the Iroquois, helped the British because they had tried to limit
American expansion
- Demand for American land increased after the victory
- Thomas Jefferson called the natives “noble savages”
- The most vicious massacre of natives in the settlers’ attempts of expanding west occurred in
1782 when a band of peaceful Christian converts was slaughtered
- Impoverished women led price protests on occasion
- women launched attacks on occupying British troops
- women flocked to join the Patriot army camps
- George Washington viewed them as disruptive
- they increased army morale and filled the needed roles doing cooking, laundry, and
nursing
- women were sometimes present on the battlefield and a few dressed as men to be a
part of the combat
- Judith Sargent Murray called for girls to receive the same education as boys
- Unmarried women could own property and enter contracts but married women had virtually
no rights at all
- Abigail Adams appealed to her husband Samuel Adams to give women more rights
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- Women’s participation in the revolution caused the society to reevaluate women’s roles as
subordinates to their husbands
- they also lost rights including the right to regain their dowry after their husband’s death
- The Articles of Confederation provided for Congress to become a national government
- its powers expanded to conducting wars and foreign relations, and to appropriate, borrow,
and issue money
- each state had a single vote in Congress
- The Confederation lasted from 1781-1789
- The British continued to occupy a string of frontier posts along the Great Lakes despite
promising to evacuate in the Paris peace treaty
- England placed restrictions on American access to British markets
- The Spanish accepted the American interpretation of the Florida boundary in a treaty in
1786
- Americans agreed to limit the right of US vessels on the Mississippi River, then blocked
ratification
- this weakened America’s standing in world diplomacy
- The Ordinance of 1784 was proposed by Thomas Jefferson to divide the western territory
into ten self-governing districts
- The Ordinance of 1785 established the pattern of dividing up land for human use
- Enlightenment thinkers devised a precise form of land distribution, dividing land into
even rectangles
- Land was sold to the Ohio and Scioto Companies before normal landowners
- Americans convinced Native American leaders to sign treaties ceding the land the US but
many ignored the treaties and attacked the settlers for the disputed land
- Miami warrior Little Turtle defeated American forces in two major battles near the Ohio
border, achieving the greatest defeat the Natives had against the Americans
- Three years later General Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians in the Battle of Fallen
Timbers
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- the Miami signed the Treaty of Greenville, ceding land to them
- The country suffered a post-war depression
- Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison called for a continental
impost, a 5 percent levy on imported goods
- states relied on taxation to pay off war debt
- farmers demanded that more money be issued to make it easier for them to pay
- farmers rioted throughout the 1780s
- Daniel Shays, a former army captain, issued a set of demands for the rioting farmers
- Shaysites were denounced as rebels and traitors
- Massachusetts offered protestors some tax relief and a postponement of debt payments
Crash Course US History 6
- The Treaty of Paris was received negatively by colonists
• limited their ability to take land from the indians
• left colonists with war debt from the Seven Years War
- taxes were raised to lessen war costs for the British
- Smuggling was more heavily restricted
- The Stamp Act was passed in 1765
• all printed material had to carry a stamp
• protesters organized the Stamp Act Congress
- the first time colonists took action together
- The British repealed the Stamp Act
• viewed by the colonies as a victory
- The Declaratory Act threatened more taxes
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- Townshend Acts created a new board of customs to stop smuggling
- Sons and Daughters of Liberty coordinated boycotts and organized street action of British
goods
- Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770
• John Adams defended the British in this case
- The British passed the Intolerable Acts in respond to the Boston Tea Party
• the Massachusetts Governing Act
• the Quartering Act
• the Quebec Act
- The Continental Congress was the first government of America
- The fighting started in 1775 15 months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence
- The colonists lost the Battle of Bunker Hill
- “The Olive Branch Petition” stated that the colonists wanted reconciliation
- “Common Sense” contributed ideas about seeking independence
Crash Course US History 7
- The British captured cities to try to force the colonists to surrender
- The British lost the Battle of Saratoga because of poor generals
- Lord Cornwallis stationed his troops on a peninsula surrounded by French ships in the Battle
of Yorktown
- Quaker property was confiscated when they refused to fight
- The British Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation granting freedom to slaves who fought for
the British
• 100,000 slaves abandoned their masters to fight for the British
- Native American tribes fought for both sides
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• there were divides between the young and old within tribes
- Religious freedom was established
• Jefferson called for separation of church and state
- Slavery was declining until the cotton gin was invented
- Colonists referred to themselves as slaves for having no representation in England
• many still owned slaves
- All slaves north of Maryland got rid of slavery during 1777-1804
- The American idea that all are equal became the foundation for many revolutions after the
American Revolution
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