Period III: 1754-1800 Part Two: The War for Independence

Second Continental Congress May, 1775

!   Approved the “Olive Branch Petition” – last effort at peace !   Responded with Prohibitory Act – declared colonies in

rebellion

!   Approved “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”

Battle of Bunker Hill June 17,1775

!   Massachusetts militia entrenched on Breed’s Hill outside of Boston

!   British soldiers under Thomas Gage attacked in waves – third wave dislodged colonial forces !   British suffered over 1,000 casualties

Mobilizing for War

!   Approved “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms”

!   Continental Congress created Continental Army with single commander in chief: George Washington – sent to Massachusetts

Mobilizing for War

!   How to provide for the army? !   Couldn’t depend on British markets

!   Arms from France and other European nations

!   Printed own continental currency !   Led to inflation

!   Depended on other nations to finance the war

!   Few volunteers after initial Patriotic fervor faded !   Patriots unwilling to fight outside of own “states”

Thomas Paine – Common Sense

!   Colonists divided: Patriots, Loyalists (Tories), neutrals

!   Helped change the American outlook on the war

!   Blamed the English system of government for problems of the colonies

Declaration of Independence

!   Declared formal split with the British government

!   Written mostly by Thomas Jefferson with help from John Adams, Ben Franklin, and others

!   Approved by the Continental Congress July 4, 1776

Declaration of Independence cont.

!   Two Parts: 1.  The Declaration

!   Contract theory of John Locke – “The Enlightenment”

2.  The Alleged Crimes of the King

Excerpts From the Dec. of Independence

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Clause on Slavery (removed from final draft) “he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”

Response to Declaration

!   Loyalists fought alongside British (20-30% of population) !   Many American Indians supported the British

!   “States” drew up constitutions for themselves !   Adopted by state legislatures

!   Balance the commitment to state and local autonomy against need for centralized authority

Articles of Confederation

!   Adopted November, 1777 – Ratified March, 1781

!   Weak central government !   One body – Congress

!   9 votes needed to pass important laws

!   Amendments required unanimous votes

!   Limited power over individual states

Advantages

!   British advantages !   Greatest navy and best equipped army in the world

!   Resources for an empire

!   Coherent structure of command

!   American advantages !   Fought on own ground

!   Deeply committed to the conflict

!   War did not have popular support in Britain

!   Substantial aid from abroad – France, Spain, Holland

The First Phase: New England 1775-1776

! Battle of Bunker Hill – June 17, 1775 !   Inflicted heavier casualties on the British

!   Patriot forces seized heights around Boston !   March 17, 1776 – Evacuation Day

!   Invasion of Canada – General Benedict Arnold !   Couldn’t take Quebec

!   Franklin couldn’t gain support

Second Phase: Mid-Atlantic 1776-1778

! General William Howe moves forces into New York !   Easily pushed defenders from Long Island and

Manhattan

!   British occupied Philadelphia !   Washington retreated into Pennsylvania – Winter at

Valley Forge

!   Washington crosses the Delaware – Christmas 1776 !   Takes Trenton from Hessians and scatter British at

Princeton

Second Phase cont.

!   General Burgoyne abandoned in the north

!   October 17, 1777 – British surrender at Saratoga !   Major turning point of the war

!   Led directly to alliance with France

!   British blunders !   Howe abandoned strategy to split U.S. in two – left

Burgoyne alone

!   Repeatedly allowed Washington to retreat and regroup

Surrender of General Burgoyne

Securing Aid From Abroad

!   Direct aid from France – Louis XVI !   Provided military

supplies

! Benjamin Franklin travelled to France to represent U.S. – popular among the French !   France formally

recognized the U.S. as a sovereign nation

!   Widened war – forced British to divert military resources

The Final Phase: The South

!   British tried to undermine revolution from within – believed Loyalists were strongest in the South

!   British captured Savannah, Charleston !   Constantly harassed in

countryside by guerilla fighters

! Nathaniel Greene given control of Southern army !   Outmaneuvered Cornwallis !   Moved to the Peninsula to

await transport to New York or Charleston

Yorktown

!   Washington and French fleet moved to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown

!   Trapped between land and sea – surrendered October 17, 1781

The Treaty of Paris

!   Formal recognition of independence

!   Cession of territory – southern boundary of Canada to northern boundary of Florida and from Atlantic to Mississippi River

Consequences: Society !   Loyalists – 20%-30%

!   Many fled the country !   Estates sold off

!   Religion !   Anglican Church greatly weakened

!   Still survives today !   Catholic position strengthened !   Religious freedom – separation of church and state

!   Slavery !   Many defected during the war !   Tension between commitment to liberty and commitment to

slavery

Consequences: Society !   Native Americans

!   Most stayed out of the war – others joined the British

!   Weakened position of Native Americans

!   Fighting amongst whites and Natives continued long after Revolution

!   Women !   Some joined the war effort

!   Maintained colonial economies during the war

!   Abigail Adams – “…remember the ladies…”

!   Calls for women’s rights

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

- Abigail Adams

The War Economy

!   Loss of trade with Britain – loss of imperial markets

!   Privateering became profitable

!   End of imperial restrictions on trade

State Governments

! Republicanism !   All power comes from the people, not a supreme

authority – influence of John Locke

!   Concept of equality – equality of opportunity

!   State Constitutions !   Written by Conventions, not Legislatures

!   “Bill” or “Declaration” of rights

!   Limited executive power – Separation of Powers

!   Vote extended to white males who owned property

Revised State Governments

!   Limited popular power

!   Changed constitutional writing process !   Conventions, not legislatures

!   Strengthening of the executive - governors

National Government – the Articles of Confederation

!   One branch – Congress !   Could not regulate

trade, draft troops, levy taxes

!   Each state had one vote – 9 needed to make decisions

!   Couldn’t deal with interstate issues

Confederation Government: Challenges

!   Foreign Affairs !   Postwar disputes with Britain and Spain

!   Economic matters !   Debt

!   Trade

!   Taxes – Shays’s Rebellion

Confederation Government: Successes

!   Western Lands !   State claims transferred to federal government

! Land Ordinance of 1785: established policy for surveying and selling western land

! Northwest Ordinance of 1787: set rules for creating new states

What Historians Have to Say The Other Theater: The War for Independence

Beyond the Colonies 1.  Why would the British choose the “Siege of Gibraltar” as the subject for a

painting commemorating the conflict with the American colonies?

2.  In what way was the British Empire “ascending” in the 1790s, despite the loss of the American colonies?

3.  Who was John Aitken? What did he try to do in Britain? How did his actions impact the British psychologically?

4.  What was “The Other Armada”?

5.  How did the American War for Independence provide an opportunity for the Spanish and the French to take Gibraltar? Did they succeed?

6.  How did fighting in the “other theater” contribute to an American victory in the War for Independence?