The American Revolution

Chapter 5

The Colonies Unite

• In 1775 the colonies were neither prepared for nor united to fight a war with England.

• In fact, the Revolution encompassed two struggles: a military conflict with Great Britain and a domestic political struggle.

• Once fighting began, Americans 'opinions ranged from wanting complete independence to wanting no change in the imperial relationship.

Common Sense

• Within a month of Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress attempted reconciliation with Great Britain with the Olive Branch Petition.

• The king’s response was to try to stop the rebellion by force.• The English tried to recruit slaves, Indians, and mercenaries

as soldiers and eventually blockaded American ports.• Both the congress and the public became more radical over

the course of the first year• Sentiment for independence strengthened, especially in

January 1776 with the publication of Thomas Paine’s widely read pamphlet Common Sense.

Declaration of Independence

• As imperial governments crumbled, the colonies established governments apart from British authority

• On July 4, 1776, the congress adopted a Declaration of Independence

• Written mainly by Thomas Jefferson, it borrowed heavily from the political theories of John Locke and the protest rhetoric of the past decade.

• The Declaration made America a sovereign nation but resistance to independence continued.

• Loyalists, called Tories by patriots, remained loyal to the king.

Articles of Confederation

• The former colonies, now states, began to write constitutions and were sovereign in the new national government.

• The Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1781 near the end of the war

• This new government was purposely designed to create a weak central government with stronger state governments.

Mobilizing for War

• America’s greatest challenge was keeping a well‐equipped army in the field, and paying for it.

• Foreign nations, particularly France, provided much of the financing for the war

• The government could not force states to provide money or troops and had difficulty selling bonds

• They thus resorted to printing paper money. The result was inflation.

George Washington

• The continental army depended heavily on what weapons they were able to capture from the British.

• As the war continued, patriotism faded, and the nation had difficulty raising troops.

• George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army, was mainly responsible for keeping the army and the new nation together.

The War for Independence• Although Britain appeared to have the advantage of a large army

and navy, abundant resources, and centralized command, Americans were fighting at home and were committed to their cause.

• The Americans were able to get substantial foreign aid• English commanders also made major errors. From 1775 to

1776, British opinion held that the conflict was a local rebellion around Boston.

• General Thomas Gage’s army in Boston was besieged by the American forces that lost the Battle of Bunker Hill but not before they inflicted heavy casualties on the English.

• This helped change British perceptions about the conflict.

British Retreat from Boston

• In early 1776, when it became apparent that the war was a larger conflict than the British initially realized, the British evacuated Boston

• Elsewhere, the Americans invaded Canada without success, and the British met resistance in the South.

The Second Phase: The Mid-Atlantic

• During the second phase of the war from 1776 to early 1778, the British were in the best position to win.

• General William Howe moved British forces to New York City• The Patriots were successful in defeating Hessian troops at

Trenton on Christmas Eve in 1776, but otherwise Washington's forces suffered a series of defeats.

• In 1777 Howe adopted a pincer’s strategy to divide the United States along the Hudson River, separating New England from the rest of the colonies.

• The plan fell apart when Howe decided to occupy Philadelphia rather than moving up the Hudson Valley to General John Burgoyne, whose army was moving south in to New York from Canada.

Washington’s Crossing at Trenton

British Blunders

• In October 1777, British forces suffered defeats at Oriskany and Bennington, and Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.

• This proved to be a turning point because it led to an alliance between France and America.

• British mistakes were monumental during this period; Burgoyne was left to fight alone and Washington was allowed to regroup his forces after defeats.

• Some have questioned Howe’s loyalty to the British cause.

French Aid

• When fighting first began, America sent diplomats aboard to enlist support, and France provided covert aid.

• Benjamin Franklin went to France and, aided by the news of the British defeat at Saratoga in 1778, France recognized the United States and provided loans, munitions, and army and naval forces.

• Spain and the Netherlands also provided aid and all three nations went to war with England.

Divisions in the Iroquois Confederacy

• After maintaining neutrality in past conflicts, the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy were divided over support for the British or Americans.

• Some of the Iroquois leaders hoped that an alliance with the British would slow the advance of Americans onto Indian lands

• However, Patriots retaliated by destroying Iroquois villages and forcing many to flee to Canada.

Final Phase: The South

• After the defeat at Saratoga, British public opinion, which was never fully behind the war, forced a limited commitment.

• In this final phase of the war, the strategy shifted to the South where the British erroneously believed that there was significant Loyalist support.

• Although the British enjoyed some military successes, they found themselves fighting a guerilla war.

• This misguided tactic aroused segments of the American population that previously had been detached from the conflict.

• The politicization of the populous made the war “revolutionary” and deepened support for the Patriot cause.

Treaty of Paris(1783)

• Accepting failure of this strategy, Lord Cornwallis, commander of the southern forces, retreated to Yorktown, Virginia, to rendezvous with a fleet to evacuate his troops.

• Trapped there by a combined Franco American army and the ‐French navy, he surrendered in October 1781.

• This marked the end of major fighting, and public opinion in England shifted in favor of a negotiated peace.

• The Treaty of Paris in 1783 recognized an independent United States stretching from Canada to Florida and west to Mississippi River.

British Surrender

Loyalists

• The Revolution was both a social and political revolution.

• Many Americans remained loyal to Britain and many were forced to flee the country, some leaving behind large estates and positions of authority in the former colonies.

• Although this Loyalist property was confiscated, the overall distribution of wealth did not change dramatically.

The Anglican Church

• The Anglican Church was disestablished, and many Anglican clergy left the United States.

• Quaker pacifism also weakened that sect’s influence in the United States.

• The position of the Catholic Church improved as Catholic Patriots such as Charles Carroll and the alliance with Catholic France gave Catholicism new validity in America.

• Maryland’s John Carroll became the first American bishop in 1789.

The War and Slavery• Tension existed between the ideal of liberty and the reality of slavery.• Many southern blacks were exposed to the Revolutionary ideals of

liberty.• British policy and presence in the South freed some slaves, but many

more remained in bondage.• Some white Southerners were ambivalent toward the Revolution

because of slavery.• Whites opposed British efforts at emancipation but also feared that

Patriot ideology might prompt salve revolts.• In the North, revolutionary ideals combined with evangelical

Christianity to spread antislavery sentiments.• In the South, churches developed a rationale that painted slavery as

essential to the liberty of whites.

Native Americans & the Revolution

• Indian groups mostly tried to remain neutral in the conflict although some tribes sided with the British.

• They saw the Americans as more hostile and the British as protectors from American westward settlement

• Some simply took advantage of the situation to attack American settlements on the frontier

• Mostly, the war weakened the Native American tribes• The American victory spurred westerns settlement and many

resented Indian alliances with the British• Deep divisions developed among tribes, and many found it

difficult to unify to resist further American encroachment on their lands.

Women’s Roles

• The Revolution had a significant effect on women, who often ran farms and businesses in their husbands’ absence.

• The war created an unstable population of poor women.• As the war progressed , increasing numbers of women

known as camp followers joined the camps of the Patriot army.

• Although discouraged by many officers, the women provided household services to the army and increased morale.

Women’s Rights

• The Revolution raised issues about women’s rights and role in society.

• British author Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 articulated these ideas– There was little change in the legal restrictions of married

women– The participation of women in the Revolution led to a new

role for them as Republican mothers who were responsible for teaching the virtues of republicanism to their children

War Economy

• Freedom from the British Navigation System strengthened the American economy.

• New trading ventures opened up in the Caribbean, South America, and later in China.

• During the war, privateering was profitable for ship‐owners and trade between American states also increased.

• Entrepreneurial energy was funneled into commerce but not industry.

State Governments

• State governments were the first political creations of the Revolution.

• They revolved around the idea of a republican government with power emanating from virtuous landowning citizens.

• Despite this, men without property, blacks, Native Americans, and women were denied rights of citizens.

• The Revolutionary struggle inspired written constitutions with limited executive power and bicameral legislatures

• The upper chamber was to represent the elite, which demonstrates that democracy was not completely accepted.

Revising State Governments

• In the midst of the war, the state governments were having trouble governing, which many attributed to too much democracy.

• Massachusetts revised its constitution and significantly strengthened the power of the executive

• This provided a model for the other states• Many states moved in the direction of complete religious

freedom• Virginia adopted Thomas Jefferson’s Statute of Religious

Liberty in 1786, which completely separated church and state.

Toleration & Slavery

• Slavery, already weak in New England and Pennsylvania, was abolished in some northern states, but it continued in the southern states.

• Racist assumptions about blacks and the significant financial investment in slaves left many Americans without a viable option to end slavery, even if they had moral reprehension for the institution.

Articles of Confederation

• As the war raged with England many sought a weak national government with sovereignty resting in the states.

• The result was the Articles of Confederation adopted in 1777 and ratified in 1781.

• This government had little authority over the states and no executive or courts.

• It could not regulate trade or tax or raise armies.• Each state had a single vote, and a majority of nine was

necessary for approval of bills.• Its record was mixed during its existence from 1781 to 1789.• The Confederation commanded little respect in the world.

Land Ordinances

• After the war, Britain continued to violate aspects of the Treaty of Paris, and full access to English markets was never achieved.

• An important accomplishment was resolution of western land issues.

• The Land Ordinance of 1785 created a system of surveying and selling lands in rectangular sections.

• In 1787 the Northwest Ordinance provided for settlement and government of the Northwest Territory, guaranteeing freedom of religion and prohibiting slavery there.

Northwest Ordinance

Northwest Ordinance

Shays’ Rebellion

• A postwar depression from 1784 to 1787 exposed the economic weakness of the new nation.

• Without the ability to tax, the Confederation could not pay its debts and states increased taxes to pay their debts.

• Massachusetts’ famers pressed by higher taxes joined Daniel Shays, a western Massachusetts farmer and veteran who closed courts to prevent farmers from losing their property.

• With national government unable to act the revolt was extinguished by a local militia financed by wealthy merchants.

• Shays’ Rebellion exposed fundamental weaknesses in government and strengthened the movement to revise the Articles.