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Chapter 4 – The Revolutionary Era
Section Notes
Video
The Road to Revolution
Declaring Independence
The Revolutionary War Begins
An American Victory
Maps
History Close-up
The Battle of Yorktown
Quick Facts
Tensions between Britain and America,
1765–1775
The Second Continental Congress, 1775
Key Documents That Influenced the
Declaration of Independence
Strengths and Weaknesses of the
Continental and British Armies
Visual Summary: The Revolutionary Era
The Revolutionary Era
Routes of the Alarm Riders
Battles of the American
Revolution, 1775–1778
Battles of the American
Revolution, 1778–1781
Images
Boycotting British Goods
Battle of Lexington
Attack on Bunker’s Hill, with
the Burning of Charleston
The Patriotick Barber
The Road to Revolution
Main Idea
A series of increasingly restrictive laws angered many
American colonists, leading to rebellion against Britain.
Reading Focus
• Why did Great Britain pass new laws in America?
• How did the colonists respond to the new laws? How did
their response lead to even stricter measures?
• Why did the First Continental Congress meet?
• What was the significance of the battles at Lexington and
Concord?
Britain Passes New Laws
Grenville and the Sugar Act
• French and Indian War left Britain with large debt.
British army of 10,000 was left in the colonies.
• England said the army was to protect the colonists, but
the colonists thought the soldiers were there to
intimidate them.
• Prime Minister Grenville wanted colonists to pay for
British troops through the Sugar Act, which taxed
sugar and molasses imported from the French and
Spanish West Indies.
• Northern merchants felt this would hurt rum trade.
Other colonists resented taxation without
representation in Parliament.
Britain Passes New Laws
The Stamp Act brings protests
• Parliament passed the Stamp Act as another way to bring in
money from the colonies.
• Required a government tax stamp on certain documents:
contracts and licenses, newspapers, almanacs, printed
sermons, and playing cards
• Colonists protested openly.
• Stamp Act Congress organized by the Massachusetts
Assembly to send a petition to the king and Parliament
• Sons of Liberty, made up of unskilled workers, artisans,
small farmers, merchants, and lawyers, organized boycott of
British goods and put pressure on merchants who did not
join the boycott.
• Stamp Act repealed after British merchants saw sales drop
because of the boycotts
Britain Passes New Laws
Townshend Acts
• Taxed lead, paint, paper, glass, and tea that were
imported from Britain
• Brought back writs of assistance, which were
written orders that allowed customs officers the right
to search colonial homes for smuggled goods
The Colonists Respond
The Boston Massacre
• Boston merchants joined with merchants in Philadelphia and
New York, along with some southern merchants and planters,
in nonimportation agreements
• Most of the Townshend Acts were repealed in March 1770,
except for tea tax.
• In Boston, where tensions were already high, colonists began
throwing snowballs at a British sentry guarding the customs
house. After British solders arrived to help, they fired into the
crowd, killing five.
• Samuel Adams introduced the idea of Committees of
Correspondence to spread the news of British injustices
from colony to colony.
– Became basis of a political network to unify the colonies
The Colonists Respond
• Colonial boycotts
left a British tea
company with
millions of pounds
of unsold tea. The
Tea Act (1773)
enabled the
company to sell tea
directly to colonists.
• Many colonists did
not buy the tea.
• In December 1773
about 70 colonists
boarded British
ships loaded with
the tea and dumped
it into Boston
Harbor.
• Parliament passed the
Coercive Acts to punish
the rebellious
colonists. They were
known by the colonists
as the Intolerable
Acts.
• Closed the port of
Boston
• Gave the royal
governor more control
over Massachusetts
• Imposed more rules
for quartering soldiers
• The Quebec Act
expanded the
province of Quebec
southward to the
Ohio river and west
to the Mississippi.
• The Roman Catholic
Church would be
legal.
• French Catholics
were guaranteed
their rights.
• American colonists
thought the act
limited their
chances to live on
the western frontier.
The First Continental Congress
September 1774
• Brought colonists together as Americans
• All delegates agreed that Parliament was exerting too
much control.
• It issued a Declaration of Rights protesting Great
Britain’s actions.
• Agreed not to import or use British goods
• Agreed to stop exports to Britain
• Formed a force of minutemen, colonial soldiers who
would be ready to resist a British attack with short
notice
The Battles of Lexington and Concord
• Minutemen in Massachusetts were drilling on their
village commons and stockpiling gunpowder and
weapons.
• British General Gage knew colonial militias were
preparing for a conflict.
• In April 1775 King George III ordered Gage to arrest
colonial leaders, especially Samuel Adams and John
Hancock, and to capture the colonists’ gunpowder.
• Colonists’ gunpowder was stockpiled in Concord, a town
west of Boston.
• On the night of April 17, 1775, 700 British troops left
Boston for Concord.
The Battles of Lexington and Concord
• Secret system of alarm riders was in place to warn of any
unusual activity of British troops.
• Paul Revere and William Dawes set off for Lexington to
warn Adams and Hancock.
• After warning the leaders, they headed to Concord.
Samuel Prescott, another alarm rider, met them on the
road. Then the British surrounded them and tried to arrest
all of them.
• Prescott escaped to warn the minutemen at Concord.
Dawes also escaped.
• Revere was captured. When they heard the militia guns,
the soldiers let Revere go, but without his horse.
The Battles of Lexington and Concord
• About 700 armed British
soldiers reached
Lexington to face 70
minutemen.
• British captain ordered
them to leave, then the
militia was charged.
• Minutemen fled, eight
Americans were killed.
• The British went on to
Concord where hundreds
of minutemen awaited.
• After gunfire was
exchanged, the British
retreated toward Boston.
• Along the way, the militia
fired at the British from
under cover.
• At the end of the day,
British casualties far
outnumbered colonial
casualties.
Declaring Independence
Main Idea
The French and Indian War established British dominance in
North America but put a strain on the relationship with the
colonists.
Reading Focus
• How did France develop an empire in North America?
• Why did Spain and England clash in North America?
• What were major events in the French and Indian War?
• What were the effects of the French and Indian War on all
those involved?
The Second Continental
Congress Takes Action
• Formed the Continental Army
• Appointed George Washington commander in chief
• Issued a Continental (national) currency
• Wrote A Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of
Taking Up Arms
• Proposed reconciliation with King George III in the Olive
Branch Petition
• King George III declared colonies to be in rebellion
• Parliament passed law banning colonial trade outside
the British Empire.
More Violence in Boston
The siege of Boston
• After the battles at Lexington and Concord, British
troops withdrew back into Boston.
• Several thousand British troops occupied the town.
• The Americans had a larger army of about 15,000
militia from all over New England.
More Violence in Boston
• First major battle of the Revolutionary War, the Battle
of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775
• British General Gage was planning to occupy the hills
overlooking Boston when his reinforcements arrived.
• Colonial force quickly built a fort on Breed’s Hill.
• Some 2,500 British troops stormed the hill twice.
• The colonists were short of ammunition; they waited
until the enemy was a few yards away, then fired with
deadly aim.
• On the third British attempt, the colonists ran out of
gunpowder. They retreated to nearby Bunker Hill.
• The British won, but the defense at the Battle of Bunker
Hill encouraged the colonists’ resistance.
More Violence in Boston
George Washington
• Commanded the Continental
Army in Boston after the
Battle of Bunker Hill.
– By March 1776, he was
ready to recapture
Boston.
– Forced the British to
evacuate the city
• British sailed for Halifax, Nova
Scotia, along with about 1,100
Loyalists; colonists sided with
the king and Britain.
Other battles
• Winter 1775–1776, Benedict
Arnold led an unsuccessful
attack on the city of Quebec.
• February 1776, Scottish
Loyalists attacked a colonial
force at Moores Creek, North
Carolina.
– Well-armed colonists
were waiting, and their
victory ended British
control in North Carolina.
• In June, British ships attacked
a fort near Charleston, South
Carolina, but the fort’s
commander held them off.
The Declaration of Independence
More colonists supporting independence
• Were angry at the king’s reaction to the Olive Branch Petition
• They learned that the British were recruiting Native Americans
and African Americans to fight against them.
• They heard that the king was hiring mercenary soldiers from
the German state of Hesse.
• When the Continental Congress met again, it opened seaports
to foreign trade except with Britain.
Revolutionary ideology
• The colonists still thought of themselves as British.
• They believed they were entitled to all the rights that British
citizens had claimed over the years.
• John Locke’s idea of natural rights was part of their
revolutionary ideology.
The Declaration of Independence
A matter of Common Sense
• Early in 1776 Thomas Paine published a pamphlet called
Common Sense.
• Condemned monarchy and particularly the rule of George
III
• Called for an American declaration of independence, not
just a protest against taxes
• The pamphlet sold more than 100,000 copies. It was one
of the first American bestsellers.
The Declaration of Independence
Virginia calls for independence
• In May 1776 the Virginia Convention of Delegates issued
the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the first official call
for American independence.
• Influenced the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of
Rights, and many state constitutions
• Richard Henry Lee of Virginia then presented three
resolutions to the Continental Congress.
– The colonies should be independent.
– Americans needed to form foreign alliances for support.
– The colonies needed to form a plan for unification.
The Declaration of Independence
Writing the Declaration
• The Continental Congress organized a committee to
write a draft of a declaration of independence.
– John Adams, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman,
Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.
Jefferson was chosen to write the draft.
• On July 2, 1776, Congress approved final document
and voted to declare independence.
• On July 4, they approved the entire document.
Reactions to Independence
• Colonists living on
the western frontier
not a part of the
political quarrels
• A fight for
independence would
expose them to
Indian attack since
fighting would draw
men away from the
defense of the
frontier.
• Many frontier
settlers did not
support the fight for
independence.
• A quarter of the
colonists remained
loyal to Great Britain
and the king; Patriots
called them Loyalists.
• Loyalists were strong
in southern colonies.
• Loyalist sympathies
were strong among
people who had been
government officials or
belonged to the
Anglican Church.
• Patriots harassed
Loyalists.
• Loyalists fought
with the British.
• Others left the
country for other
British lands.
• Some simply lived
quietly and avoided
politics.
• After the American
Revolution ended,
perhaps 100,000
Loyalists left the
United States,
mainly to settle in
Canada.
The Revolutionary War Begins
The Main Idea
While the colonies and the British began with different
strengths and weaknesses, the Revolutionary War
demonstrated Washington’s great leadership.
Reading Focus
• What groups of people played a part in the Revolutionary War?
• What major revolutionary battles took place in the North?
• In what ways was the Battle of Saratoga a British setback?
• How did Washington’s leadership at Valley Forge influence the
course of the Revolutionary War?
The People behind the American Revolution
Continental Army
British Army
Strengths
• Strong military leadership
• Fighting on home territory
• Alliance with France
Strengths
• Well-trained military
• Ample resources
• Alliances with Loyalists
Weaknesses
• Small, untrained military
• Shortages of resources
• Weak central government
Weaknesses
• Fighting in unfamiliar
territory
• Fighting far from home
The People behind the American Revolution
Women’s Roles
African American Roles
• Active in boycotts and other
protests
• Cared for wounded in their
homes
• Raised money to supply the army
with food and clothing
• At home, women knit wool
stockings and made bandages for
the troops.
• Some melted down their pewter
pots and pitchers to make
bullets.
• As in all wars, women kept their
homes, farms, and shops running
while the men were at war.
• Free and enslaved fought on
both sides of the war.
• Some offers of freedom in
exchange for military service
came from both sides.
• Continental Army’s need for
soldiers overcame prejudice.
• New England regiments had the
most African Americans.
• African American soldiers
generally received the same pay,
clothing, and rations as whites.
• Most had menial duties, were
kept at low ranks, and were not
encouraged to re-enlist.
The People behind the American Revolution
The Role of Native Americans
• Four of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League helped the
British.
• Oneidas and Tuscaroras sided with the Americans.
• On the frontiers, Loyalists and Native Americans
sometimes fought together.
– In the mountains of Virginia and the Carolinas, the
Cherokees attacked some settlements.
– Patriot militias fought back fiercely and tried to force
the Cherokees to move west.
Revolutionary Battles in the North
• After his defeat in Boston, Howe returned to New York in August 1776
with a force of more than 300 ships and approximately 30,000 British
soldiers.
• Rebels were offered a pardon if they would give in and promise loyalty.
Washington refused.
• Howe captured Long Island and took many Americans prisoner.
• In the fall, Howe’s army forced Washington to retreat from Manhattan
to New Jersey.
•
•
•
•
In European warfare, armies did not fight in the winter.
Howe’s men were in Princeton while the Hessians were in Trenton.
Washington did not follow European warfare.
On Christmas night 1776 he and his men crossed the Delaware River to
Trenton and took the Hessians, capturing weapons and ammunition.
• They drove the British out of Princeton.
Revolutionary Battles in the North
• Spring 1777—Britain’s plan was to cut New England off from
the rest of the colonies.
• Howe attacked Philadelphia with an army of 15,000. In
September he met Washington and his army of 11,000 in
southeastern Pennsylvania. The British won the Battle of
Brandywine Creek, but the Americans escaped without serious
casualties.
• Howe captured Philadelphia, where he and his troops settled
comfortably for the winter.
• The Continental Congress fled the city.
• Washington and his exhausted troops settled into quarters at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, for the winter of 1777–1778.
A British Setback at Saratoga
• Burgoyne’s army recaptured Fort Ticonderoga on July 5,
1777, a serious loss for the Americans.
• In early August, British attacked Fort Stanwix in one of
the bloodiest battles of the war. An American force
arrived to hold the fort.
• Burgoyne’s force was now short of supplies.
• In early October, Burgoyne and his 5,000 men were at
Saratoga, New York, surrounded by an American force of
17,000 under General Gates.
• After trying to break through Continental lines, he
surrendered on October 17, 1777.
• The Battle of Saratoga is considered the turning point
of the Revolutionary War.
Washington’s Leadership at Valley Forge
• The winter of 1777–1778 at Valley Forge was the
low point of the Revolution for the Continental Army.
• Bitter winter weather with inadequate housing
• Food was scarce.
• Soldiers in worn, ragged uniforms
• Many of the men became ill, and hundreds died.
• The winter at Valley Forge was a tough test of
Washington’s leadership.
Washington’s Leadership
• His firm character and common sense helped hold the
troops together. He always managed to keep a
national army in the field.
• His men admired him.
Washington’s Leadership at Valley Forge
Money
Problems
•
•
Congress did not have the power to tax people.
Congress and the states printed paper money with little
to back it up. As a result, it was worthless, and prices
soared. This situation is known as inflation.
•
Some farmers and merchants chose to trade with the
British, who had gold and silver coin.
Resulted in the food shortages at Valley Forge
•
Help
•
•
•
Several European officers joined the American cause.
Baron von Steuben of the Prussian army drilled
Washington’s troops at Valley Forge.
Marquis de Lafayette was an aide to Washington.
An American Victory
Main Idea
A strengthened Continental Army, along with European allies,
helped the colonists achieve a victory at Yorktown.
Reading Focus
• What Revolutionary War battles took place in the West and
South?
• Why did France and other European nations assist the
Americans?
• What led to the British surrender at Yorktown?
• How did the Revolution affect American culture?
Revolutionary Battles in the West and South
• In 1779 the Americans won some important victories in
the area north and west of the Ohio River.
• In 1778 George Rogers Clark led a small force down
the Ohio River and captured the British settlements at
Fort Kaskaskia and Cahokia on the Mississippi River in
present-day Illinois.
• In 1779 he and his men captured the fort and its
commander at Vincennes in the Battle of Vincennes.
Revolutionary Battles in the West and South
1778 — British shifted their strategy
• Because the British believed that Loyalist sympathies were
strongest in the South, they planned a campaign there.
• They discovered that Patriots were as strong and determined
in Virginia as in New England.
• Though many Loyalists lived in the Carolinas and Georgia,
they were often reluctant to help.
• The British also faced frequent surprise raids by small bands
of Patriots.
• In March 1781 colonial troops met British commander
Charles Cornwallis and his army in a battle at Guilford
Court House, North Carolina. Cornwallis won, but British
losses were so great that he stopped the campaign.
America’s European Allies
• Americans wanted recognition as a sovereign nation from
Europe.
• European nations could also provide the Americans with
money and supplies to fight the war.
• France became America’s strongest ally, but help also came
from Spain and the Netherlands.
• France liked seeing its old enemy losing part of its empire.
• It also hoped that a British defeat in America would help
restore French power in Europe.
• Initially France sent gunpowder, artillery, and muskets to the
Patriots.
• In 1776 Benjamin Franklin went to Paris to seek more help
from France.
America’s European Allies
• Because of Saratoga victory and Franklin’s diplomacy, France
signed two treaties.
• One formally recognized the United States as a nation.
• The other treaty promised military help.
– In 1780 the French government sent a 6,000-soldier
army to help the Americans. They were led by a French
general, the Count de Rochambeau.
Help from Spain
• Spain joined the war in 1779 as an ally of France.
• Bernardo de Gálvez was the Spanish governor of Louisiana.
– Attacked British forts on the Mississippi and along the
Gulf Coast in West Florida, which had once belonged to
Spain
– Defeated the British in Baton Rouge, Natchez, Mobile,
and Pensacola
America’s European Allies
• January 1781—Washington and Rochambeau received
word that Benedict Arnold had become a traitor.
– Arnold was leading British troops in raids on Patriot
warehouses in Virginia.
– Washington sent Lafayette to stop him.
• After giving up his Carolina campaign, General Cornwallis
moved into Virginia.
• Lafayette’s forces forced the British to the coast.
• July 1781—Cornwallis took his army to the Yorktown
Peninsula in Chesapeake Bay, built a fort, and waited for
British ships to take them to Charleston or New York.
Victory at Yorktown
A siege at Yorktown
• Washington saw an opportunity to trap Cornwallis.
• French Admiral de Grasse established a blockade in Chesapeake
Bay, preventing British ships from rescuing Cornwallis’s men.
• Lafayette kept Cornwallis’s army trapped on the peninsula.
• Washington and Rochambeau traveled south with a huge French
and American army.
• Cornwallis, with 7,000 troops, faced a combined French and
American army of more than 17,000.
• The Battle of Yorktown lasted about three weeks.
• Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.
• The war for independence was over.
Victory at Yorktown
• The Americans negotiated a peace treaty with Britain; the
Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783.
• It declared the Mississippi River the western boundary of the
United States.
• Britain formally recognized the United States as an
independent nation.
• Britain agreed to leave its forts in the West.
• Spain and France made peace with Britain.
• In return for its help during the war, Spain regained Florida.
• The United States promised to pay what Americans owed
British merchants.
• Loyalists were allowed to claim property losses.
Revolution Changes America
Women’s rights
• Equality did not include
American women.
• The words in the Declaration
of Independence applied only
to white males.
• Married women still could not
sign contracts or own
property.
• The law stated that a married
woman’s property belonged to
her husband.
African Americans
• Many African Americans who
had fought for the Patriot
cause believed they had
earned their freedom.
• In 1780 Pennsylvania passed a
law for the gradual abolition of
slavery.
• During the 1780s the New
England states also abolished
slavery.
• After the war, both Virginia
and Maryland made it easier
to grant freedom to enslaved
people. Several southern
states also passed laws
limiting the slave trade.
Revolution Changes America
Impact on Religion
• Before the war, many colonies
had official churches that
everyone paid taxes to
support.
• New laws endorsed a
separation of church and
state.
• For the Roman Catholic
Church, the Revolutionary War
led to a certain amount of
acceptance. Catholics had
often faced prejudice, but the
arrival of French Catholic
soldiers helped change many
people’s attitudes.
A New Nation
• The war left the new nation
with some problems.
• The Revolution had cost a lot
of money, and Congress had
borrowed from foreign sources
and American citizens.
• Now the money needed to be
repaid.
• Setting up a central
government to deal with debt
and other national issues was
going to be complicated. The
Continental Congress would
meet again to discuss
economic issues and a new
system of government.
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