Revolutionary Era Review 1754-1783

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The Revolutionary War(1776-1783) How
were Americans able to successfully win
independence from Britain?
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Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775)
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• I. Why did it take the Continental Congress more
  than a year after Lexington Concord for an
  official Declaration of Independence?
• Sentimental attachment to England King was
  strong
• Fear of anarchy
• Hope that the British would change policies
• Reluctance of colonial merchants to lose trade
  w/ UK
• Failed invasion of Canada Bunker Hill
  illustrates American military shortcomings
• Lack of consensus at Continental Congress
• But, after Olive Branch Petition rejected in
  November, 1775

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2nd Continental Congress Declares
IndependenceJuly 1776
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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 to 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. .
The history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and
usurpations, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these
states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to
a candid world. He has refused his assent to
laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the
public good. He has forbidden his governors to
pass laws of immediate and pressing importance,
unless suspended in their operation till his
assent should be obtained and when so suspended,
he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He
has dissolved representative houses repeatedly,
for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on
the rights of the people. He has endeavored to
prevent the population of these states for that
purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization
of foreigners refusing to pass others to
encourage their migration hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands. He
has kept among us, in times of peace, standing
armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military
independent of and superior to civil power. He
has combined with others to subject us to a
jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and
unacknowledged by our laws giving his assent to
their acts of pretended legislation For
quartering large bodies of armed troops among us
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the
world For imposing taxes on us without our
consent For depriving us in many cases, of the
benefits of trial by jury
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The battle for Hearts Minds is the key to
any revolution
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This new world hath been the asylum for the
persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty
from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled,
not from the tender embraces of the mother, but
from the cruelty of the monster and it is so far
true of England, that the same tyranny which
drove the first emigrants from home, pursues
their descendants still. Everything that is
right or reasonable pleads for separation. The
blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature
cries, 'tis time to part. Now is the seedtime
of continental union, faith and honor. The least
fracture now, will be like a name engraved with
the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young
oak the wound would enlarge with the tree, and
posterity read in it full grown characters.
The cause of America is in a great measure the
cause of all mankind. Thomas Paine, Common
Sense, 1776
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II. What were the strengths and weaknesses of
each side as the Revolutionary War progressed?
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American Continental Army established
under leadership of George Washington in
1776 William Howe leads British Army Richard
Howe leads British Navy Against
Colonial Insurgency
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Advantages or Drawbacks? British
Americans

• Finances Equipment
• Loyalists
• Navy
• Mercenaries aka Hessians
• Location of Battles
• Traditional Tactics

• Funding Organization
• Civilian Support
• Home Field Tactics
• Foreign Aid
• Desire
• Need only a draw

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• Early Battles at
• Boston
• New York
• Philadelphia
• All losses for Continental Army early in war, but
  
• Washington Continentals Live to Fight Another
  Day

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The Times that Try Mens Souls Valley Forge,
PA Winter 1776/77
Morale Turning Point Trenton Princeton Winter
1776/77
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Battle of Saratoga October 1777 -- Military
Turning Point of War
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American Social/Financial Problems Grow Battles
terrorized divided non-associators Most
states refused to pay taxes to Continental
Congress Continental Congress lacked specie to
back up paper money American Not worth a
Continental led to Inflation and a bankrupt
army
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France Saved the Day How and Why?? Treaty of
Alliance -- 1778
Lafayette
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Fighting Moved South 1779 1781 Battles are ind
ecisive, bloody personal
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Oh God! It is all over! Lord North
Whig opposition to war grew in Parliament Cornwa
llis Surrendered at Yorktown, VA 1781 UK
sought end to war
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Mixed Role of African-Americans and Native
Americans in Revolutionary War
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III. How did the Revolutionary War End?
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Treaty of Paris -- 1783

• Major Issues
• British forts
• Fishing Rights
• Debts
• Mississippi Access
• Western Lands
• Loyalists property

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The meaning of liberty in the new
American republic was a question just starting to
be debated