People of the Revolution

Benjamin Franklin

• Prominent member of the Continental Congress

• helped frame the Declaration of independence

• helped gain French support for American independence by being an ambassador to France.

Thomas Paine

• Journalist and author of Common Sense• Anti-slavery • Able to communicate the ideas of the

Revolution to common farmers as easily as to intellectuals.

• “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

George Washington

• Commander of the Continental army.• First President• Thought farming was one of the most

honorable professions

Marquis de Lafayette

• Was a member of the Freemasons and other “thinking” groups in Paris

• Became an advocate for the rights of man and the abolition of slavery

• Purchased his own ship against Louis XVI’s orders and went to America.

• Was at Valley Forge.• Eventually returned to France to lobby for troops

and support from France (worked with Franklin).

Thomas Jefferson

• Leader of Democratic Republicans• Opposed a national bank• Favored weak national government• Supported States’ powers• Major author of the Declaration of

Independence.• 3rd President: Bought Louisiana from France

Crispus Attucks

• Seaman, so lived with the threat of being forced into the British navy.

• First to fall during the Boston Massacre• First casualty of the American Revolution.

Patrick Henry

• Outspoken member of the House of Burgesses• inspired colonial patriotism with “Give me

liberty or give me death” speech• Helped write Virginia’s state constitution in

1776• Governor of Virginia during the war• Only accepted the federal government with

the passage of the Bill of Rights (anti-federalist)

Samuel Adams

• Opponent of British taxation• Helped organize the “Destruction of the Tea”• Signed the Declaration of independence• 2nd cousin to John Adams

John Adams

• Championed the cause for independence• He defended the British soldiers on trial for

the Boston Massacre because he felt they deserved a fair trial. – He wanted to show the world that Americans

believed in justice even if the British did not.

• A two-party system emerged during his administration

Caesar Rodney• Rodney was a leading patriot in his colony.• He was elected President of the State of

Delaware for a three year term.• He was also Major-General of the Delaware

Militia. In this office he played a crucial part not only in the defense of his own colony but in support of Washington's Continental Army, for Delaware had a record of meeting or exceeding its quotas for troops and provisions throughout the revolutionary conflict.

King George III

• British king during the Revolutionary era

Lord Cornwallis

• British general who surrendered at Yorktown.• His surrender ended the American Revolution.• Cornwallis held a southern command for the

British (malaria)

Phillis Wheatley

• A former enslaved African American who wrote poems and plays supporting American independence.

Paul Revere

• Patriot who was one of three to make a daring ride to warn colonists that the Redcoats were coming.

• Led patriots to throw tea into Boston Harbor

How is Molly Pitcher significant to the American Revolution?

• Mary Hayes known as “Molly Pitcher”

• Washed and cooked for her husband

• Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, she rallied the men by firing a cannon on advancing British troops