THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

1
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
THE WINGS OF FREEDOM
2
THE FIRST COLONIES

• By 1620 English colonies began to settle in North
  America. Since London was 500 miles away, they
  had to solve they problems by themselves. The
  demand of liberty was growing and the relations
  with England were deteriorating.By 1770 the
  population had increased and was getting
  impatient of economic subordination to Britain

3

• In the XVII century the NAVIGATION ACT imposed
  that all American trade should be carried in
  British ships and colonies were forced to buy all
  manufactured goods from the home country.
• Between 1754 and 1763 Britain was at war with
  France. Britain won the war and Canada and the
  lands between the Appalachian mountains and the
  Mississipi River became English possessions

4
NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

• To defend its vast territory Britain decided to
  keep an army of 10.000 men. It would cost a lot
  of money so Britain wanted the colonies to pay.
  This money would come from the STAMP ACT, a tax
  paid on all official and legal documents. No
  taxation without representation was the
  colonists battle cry .It had been inspired by
  the principle of MAGNA CHARTA, according to which
  taxes could not be imposed on citizens who had no
  representatives in the British Parliament.

5
The destruction of the statue of King George III
at the foot of Broadway on the Bowling Green
occurred on the night of July 9 after the
American army had heard the reading of the
Declaration of Independence. (The tail of the
horse is in the New York Historical Museum.)

• They refused to pay the stamps and merchants
  agreed not to import goods from Britain until the
  act was dropped.

6
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

• In 1770 all the unpopular duties were repealed
  except the duty on tea. Three years later some
  colonists, dressed up like Indians, threw a
  shipload of tea into the Boston harbour.The port
  was closed by the British government. The
  colonists decided to prevent British goods from
  entering America until the port was opened again.

7
The Boston Tea Party was a protest by the
American colonists against Great Britain in which
they destroyed many crates of tea bricks on ships
in Boston Harbor. The incident, which took place
on Thursday, December 16, 1773, has been seen as
helping to spark the American Revolution.

• BOSTON TEA
  PARTY

8
THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1775-1783

• The war began on April 19th 1775 at Lexington and
  Concord, near Boston. The New England shared with
  Virginia the leadership of the movement for the
  independence.The Congress met on May 15th , 1776
  to advise colonies to establish themselves into
  states with reorganised government based on the
  consent of the people. Virginia was the first
  colony to declare herself independent.

9
On the 4th July 1776 , in Philadelphia, the
Congress signed the Declaration of Independence
written by Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer from
Virginia.Not only it stressed that the colonies
were a new nation but it also claimed that all
men had a natural right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness It also stated that
governments can rule only if they have the
approval of those they govern.
The writer of the Declaration of Independence and
the Third President of The USA Thomas Jefferson
10
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

• It consists of three parts
• The first is a statement of the radical
  philosophy of the 17th century that all men are
  created equal
• The second part is a list of 27 grievances
  against king George III .
• The third is the declaration of independence. It
  appealed to the liberal thought of Europe and
  noticed to the world that a new nation was born.

11
THE AMERICAN DECLARATION 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.
  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
  long established should not be changed for light
  and transient causes and, accordingly, all
  experience hath shown, that mankind are more
  disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
  than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
  to which they are accustomed.

12

• But, when a long train of abuses and
  usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object,
  evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
  Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
  to throw off such Government, and to provide new
  Guards for their future security. Such has been
  the patient sufferance of these Colonies and
  such is now the necessity which constrains them
  to alter their former Systems of Government. 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.
  ()

13
The End of The War

• 1783 the British army was defeated and with the
  treaty of Versailles the independence of the
  colonies was recognized. America became the
  symbol of a new start with its virgin territories
  and the dream of people coming from different
  European countries .
• The new republic of the United States of America
  adopted a federal constitution in 1787 and George
  Washington became the first president

The first president of the USA George Washington
14
SLAVERY
SLAVE TREATMENT Peter, a slave from Baton
Rouge,Louisiana, 1863. The scars are a result of
a whipping by his overseer, who was subsequently
discharged. It took two months to recover from
the beating.
SLAVE SALE IN EASTON, MARYLAND
15
The American Civil War

• In the Northern States the American economy was
  based on industry. They didnt need slave labour
  because slaves were not suitable for factory
  work. In the Southern States economy was based
  above all on cotton and tobacco plantations so
  slave labour was essential to agricultural work
  and plantation owners considered slaves
  fundamental to the economy. In particular cotton
  farming could easily to be taught to slaves. It
  employed women and children, as well as men. But
  there were also other conflicting interests. The
  Northern States wanted high custom duties on
  foreign imports to protect factory products,
  while the Southern States were in favour of free
  trade. In the North many people regarded slaverey
  as a national shame. In 1859 a fanatic
  abolitionist, John Brown , led a raid into
  Virginia to encourage slaves to rebel and to
  capture an arsenal of the USA. But he was taken
  prisoner and later hanged. When the civil war
  broke out, union troops sang

16

• Old John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the
  grave,
• While weep the sons of bondage whom he
  ventured all to save
• But though he lost his life in struggling for the
  slave,
• His soul is marching on.Chorus
• Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
• His soul is marching on!

John Brown
17

• When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 and
  proclaimed his intention to abolish slavery,
  eleven states from the South seceded from the
  Union and declared themselves the Confederate
  States of America and Jefferson Davis was elected
  their president. The Civil war started in 1861.
  The most famous generals of the war were General
  Lee for the North and General Grant for the South.

G. Grant
G. Lee
18

• At last the North won the war.
• Five days after the war ended
• Lincoln, who, in 1863, had issued
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• to abolish slavery, was
• assassinated while watching a
• performance at a theatre in
• Washington.
• The North lost his great leader.

19
Uncle Toms cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe
20
Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) is best known
  today as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which
  helped galvanize the abolitionist cause and
  contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War.
  Uncle Tom's Cabin sold over 10,000 copies in the
  first week and was a best seller of its day .
• So you are the little girl who wrote the book
  that started this great war!
• These words uttered by Abraham Lincoln during the
  Civil War, are a signal of the celebrity of
  Uncle Toms Cabin.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1869), born at
  Lictchfield, Connecticut,worked as a techer
  before moving to Cincinnati, Ohio with her family
  in 1832. In 1836 she married Calvin Stowe and had
  seven children. Cincinnati was the border between
  South and North and therefore it was involved in
  the drama of the Civil War. After the death of
  one of her children, she returned to New England
  and committed herself in the condemnation of the
  brutality of slavery.She began her story of Uncle
  Tom, a black Christ, and serialized it in an
  anti-slavery newspaper.For many years of her
  life, she had avoided any allusion to the subject
  of slavery, considering it too painful to be
  inquired to.

21

• But since the legislative act of 1850. when she
  heard with perfect surprise and consternation,
  Christian people actually recommending the
  remanding escaped fugitives into slavery, as a
  duty of good citizens-when she heard
  compassionate and estimable people in the free
  state of North to discuss about Christian duty-
  she realized taht they didnt know what slavery
  was, and from this arose her desire to write
  about a living dramatic reality.The writer had
  lived for many years on the frontier line of
  slave states, and had had great opportunities of
  observation among those who formerly were slaves.
  They had been in her family as servants and when
  other schools didnt want black pupils, she
  instructed them in a family school, with her own
  children. The book has a strong dramatic quality
  because she tells true stories inspired by
  personal experiences or testified by missionaries
  and friends.

22
THE PLOT
23

• Uncle Toms Cabin begins with the description of
  a pleasant Kentucky plantation where The Shelby
  live, surrounded by their slaves.They have a good
  relationship with them, especially with Tom who
  is loved and respected by everybody. But Colonel
  Shelby is compelled to sell Tom and a little boy
  ,Harry, because of economic problems.Henry
  succeeds to escape with his mother Eliza and
  takes refuge in Canada.
• Tom is sold and sent to Louisiana. His new master
  is Augustine St. Clare, a byronic character
  trapped in a bad marriage, who lives only for his
  beloved daughter, Eva. He treats his slaves well
  and respects Tom so much that he decides to free
  him. But after the death of Eva, he is involved
  in a tragic quarrel and dies before freeing Tom.
  His wife decides to sell all the slaves. Tom is
  sold to a cruel master , Simon Legree and is
  brought to a cotton plantation, where he dies
  after the persecution and the torture of his
  master.
• George Shelby, Colonel s son. Who wants to buy
  Tom and free him, arrives at the plantation too
  late, but helps two slaves , Cassy and Emmeline,
  to escape.
• Tom is the protagonist and the main theme is
  his refusal to submit to spiritual tyranny as he
  had earlier submitted to the separation from his
  family. His assertin that he belongs not to his
  master but to Jesus, constitues his rebellion. He
  will not disobey God to obey his heartly master.
  Thus Tom become a Christian martyr, tortured on
  earth and triumphant in heaven.

24
FromUncle Tom's Cabin by
Harriet Beecher Stowe The Slave WarehouseCap.
XXX
25

• The day after the letter arrived in New
  Orleans, Susan and Emmeline were attached, and
  sent to the depot to await a general auction on
  the following morning and as they glimmer
  faintly upon us in the moonlight which steals
  through the grated window, we may listen to their
  conversation. Both are weeping, but each quietly,
  that the other may not hear. "Mother, just lay
  your head on my lap, and see if you can't sleep a
  little," says the girl, trying to appear calm. "I
  haven't any heart to sleep, Em I can't it's the
  last night we may be together!" "O, mother, don't
  say so! perhaps we shall get sold together,--who
  knows?" "If 't was anybody's else case, I should
  say so, too, Em," said the woman "but I'm so
  feard of losin' you that I don't see anything but
  the danger." "Why, mother, the man said we were
  both likely, and would sell well." Susan
  remembered the man's looks and words. With a
  deadly sickness at her heart, she remembered how
  he had looked at Emmeline's hands, and lifted up
  her curly hair, and pronounced her a first-rate
  article. Susan had been trained as a Christian,
  brought up in the daily reading of the Bible, and
  had the same horror of her child's being sold to
  a life of shame that any other Christian mother
  might have but she had no hope,--no protection.
  "Mother, I think we might do first rate, if you
  could get a place as cook, and I as chambermaid
  or seamstress, in some family. I dare say we
  shall. Let's both look as bright and lively as we
  can, and tell all we can do, and perhaps we
  shall," said Emmeline.  

26

• "I want you to brush your hair all back straight,
  tomorrow," said Susan. "What for, mother? I don't
  look near so well, that way." "Yes, but you'll
  sell better so." "I don't see why!" said the
  child. "Respectable families would be more apt to
  buy you, if they saw you looked plain and decent,
  as if you wasn't trying to look handsome. I know
  their ways better 'n you do," said Susan. "Well,
  mother, then I will." "And, Emmeline, if we
  shouldn't ever see each other again, after
  tomorrow,--if I'm sold way up on a plantation
  somewhere, and you somewhere else,--always
  remember how you've been brought up, and all
  Missis has told you take your Bible with you,
  and your hymn-book and if you're faithful to the
  Lord, he'll be faithful to you." So speaks the
  poor soul, in sore discouragement for she knows
  that tomorrow any man, however vile and brutal,
  however godless and merciless, if he only has
  money to pay for her, may become owner of her
  daughter, body and soul and then, how is the
  child to be faithful? She thinks of all this, as
  she holds her daughter in her arms, and wishes
  that she were not handsome and attractive. It
  seems almost an aggravation to her to remember
  how purely and piously, how much above the
  ordinary lot, she has been brought up. But she
  has no resort but to _pray_ and many such
  prayers to God have gone up from those same trim,
  neatly-arranged, respectable slave-prisons,--praye
  rs which God has not forgotten, as a coming day
  shall show for it is written, "Who causeth one
  of these little ones to offend, it were better
  for him that a millstone were hanged about his
  neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of
  the sea."

27

• A little before the sale commenced, a short,
  broad, muscular man, in a checked shirt
  considerably open at the bosom, and pantaloons
  much the worse for dirt and wear, elbowed his way
  through the crowd, like one who is going actively
  into a business and, coming up to the group,
  began to examine them systematically. From the
  moment that Tom saw him approaching, he felt an
  immediate and revolting horror at him, that
  increased as he came near. He was evidently,
  though short, of gigantic strength. His round,
  bullet head, large, light-gray eyes, with their
  shaggy, sandy eyebrows, and stiff, wiry,
  sun-burned hair, were rather unprepossessing
  items, it is to be confessed his large, coarse
  mouth was distended with tobacco, the juice of
  which, from time to time, he ejected from him
  with great decision and explosive force his
  hands were immensely large, hairy, sun-burned,
  freckled, and very dirty, and garnished with long
  nails, in a very foul condition. This man
  proceeded to a very free personal examination of
  the lot. He seized Tom by the jaw, and pulled
  open his mouth to inspect his teeth made him
  strip up his sleeve, to show his muscle turned
  him round, made him jump and spring, to show his
  paces. "Where was you raised?" he added, briefly,
  to these investigations. "In Kintuck, Mas'r,"
  said Tom, looking about, as if for deliverance.
  "What have you done?" "Had care of Mas'r's farm,"
  said Tom.

28

• We have hundreds more books for your
  enjoyment. Read them all!
• "Likely story!" said the other, shortly, as
  he passed on. He paused a moment before Dolph
  then spitting a discharge of tobacco-juice on his
  well-blacked boots, and giving a contemptuous
  umph, he walked on. Again he stopped before Susan
  and Emmeline. He put out his heavy, dirty hand,
  and drew the girl towards him passed it over her
  neck and bust, felt her arms, looked at her
  teeth, and then pushed her back against her
  mother, whose patient face showed the suffering
  she had been going through at every motion of the
  hideous stranger.
• The girl was frightened, and began to cry.
• "Stop that, you minx!" said the salesman "no
  whimpering here,--the sale is going to begin."
  And accordingly the sale begun.
• Adolph was knocked off, at a good sum, to the
  young gentlemen who had previously stated his
  intention of buying him and the other servants
  of the St. Clare lot went to various bidders.
• "Now, up with you, boy! d'ye hear?" said the
  auctioneer to Tom.
• He was pushed from the block--the short,
  bullet-headed man seizing him roughly by the
  shoulder, pushed him to one side, saying, in a
  harsh voice, "Stand there, _you!_"

29
Identikit of Simon Legree, Toms new Master,from
H. B. Stowes description
30
EMMELINE
THE AUCTION
31

• Tom stepped upon the block, gave a few
  anxious looks round all seemed mingled in a
  common, indistinct noise,--the clatter of the
  salesman crying off his qualifications in French
  and English, the quick fire of French and English
  bids and almost in a moment came the final thump
  of the hammer, and the clear ring on the last
  syllable of the word _"dollars,"_ as the
  auctioneer announced his price, and Tom was made
  over.--He had a master!
• Tom hardly realized anything but still the
  bidding went on,--ratting, clattering, now
  French, now English. Down goes the hammer
  again,--Susan is sold! She goes down from the
  block, stops, looks wistfully back,--her daughter
  stretches her hands towards her. She looks with
  agony in the face of the man who has bought
  her,--a respectable middle-aged man, of
  benevolent countenance.
• "Likely story!" said the other, shortly, as
  he passed on. He paused a moment before Dolph
  then spitting a discharge of tobacco-juice on his
  well-blacked boots, and giving a contemptuous
  umph, he walked on. Again he stopped before Susan
  and Emmeline. He put out his heavy, dirty hand,
  and drew the girl towards him passed it over her
  neck and bust, felt her arms, looked at her
  teeth, and then pushed her back against her
  mother, whose patient face showed the suffering
  she had been going through at every motion of the
  hideous stranger.

32

• The girl was frightened, and began to cry.
• Stop that, you minx!" said the salesman
  "no whimpering here,--the sale is going to
  begin." And accordingly the sale begun.
• Adolph was knocked off, at a good sum, to
  the young gentlemen who had previously stated his
  intention of buying him and the other servants
  of the St. Clare lot went to various bidders.
• "Now, up with you, boy! d'ye hear?" said the
  auctioneer to Tom.
• Tom stepped upon the block, gave a few
  anxious looks round all seemed mingled in a
  common, indistinct noise,--the clatter of the
  salesman crying off his qualifications in French
  and English, the quick fire of French and English
  bids and almost in a moment came the final thump
  of the hammer, and the clear ring on the last
  syllable of the word _"dollars,"_ as the
  auctioneer announced his price, and Tom was made
  over.--He had a master!
• He was pushed from the block--the short,
  bullet-headed man seizing him roughly by the
  shoulder, pushed him to one side, saying, in a
  harsh voice, "Stand there, _you!_"
• Tom hardly realized anything but still the
  bidding went on,--ratting, clattering, now
  French, now English. Down goes the hammer
  again,--Susan is sold! She goes down from the
  block, stops, looks wistfully back,--her daughter
  stretches her hands towards her. She looks with
  agony in the face of the man who has bought
  her,--a respectable middle-aged man, of
  benevolent countenance.

33
"O, Mas'r, please do buy my daughter!" "I'd like
to, but I'm afraid I can't afford it!" said the
gentleman, looking, with painful interest, as the
young girl mounted the block, and looked around
her with a frightened and timid glance. The
blood flushes painfully in her otherwise
colorless cheek, her eye has a feverish fire, and
her mother groans to see that she looks more
beautiful than she ever saw her before. The
auctioneer sees his advantage, and expatiates
volubly in mingled French and English, and bids
rise in rapid succession. "I'll do anything in
reason," said the benevolent-looking gentleman,
pressing in and joining with the bids. In a few
moments they have run beyond his purse. He is
silent the auctioneer grows warmer but bids
gradually drop off. It lies now between an
aristocratic old citizen and our bullet-headed
acquaintance. The citizen bids for a few turns,
contemptuously measuring his opponent but the
bullet-head has the advantage over him, both in
obstinacy and concealed length of purse, and the
controversy lasts but a moment the hammer
falls,--he has got the girl, body and soul,
unless God help her! Her master is Mr. Legree,
who owns a cotton plantation on the Red river.
She is pushed along into the same lot with Tom
and two other men, and goes off, weeping as she
goes.
34
A movie poster from Kroger Babb's 1965 production
of Uncle Tom's Cabin
35

• SITOGRAFIA
• www.americancivilwar.com
• http//enwikipedia.org
• http//lcweb2.loc.gov
• http//jefferson.village.virginia.edu
• www.ushistory.org
• www.constitution.org

36
BIBLIOGRAFIA

• Only Connect. Spiazzi, Tavella, ed. Oxford
• The Golden String.Ansaldo,Giuli. Ed. Petrini
• Uncle Toms Cabin. H.B. Stowe. Ed. Oxford

37
STUDENTS ACTIVITIES
38

• Research a painting on the internet which could
  be representative of the American Revolution
• Find information about the first American
  colonies
• Imagine to be a journalist and write an article
  about the Boston Tea Party
• Analyze the Declaration of the Independence and
  identify its main principles
• Imagine to be Thomas Jefferson who is writing a
  draft of The Declaration of Independence
• Imagine to be a colonist and write a letter of
  protest to King George III

39

• (The Slave Warehouse)
• Questions
• Who are Emmeline and Susan?
• Where are they?
• Whats their mood
• What does Susan remember with a sense of
• anguish?
• What does Emmeline hope?
• Susan suggests something about her hair whats
  her aim?
• Why is Bible important for a slave?
• Why is Susan so worried?
• Emmeline is considered a first rate article is
  that positive or negative for her?
• What do you yhink about the two women personality?

40

• Find the physical details referring to Simon
  Legree(build, head hair,mouth,hands) and describe
  his clothes.
• Draw an identikit of S. Legree