AP U.S. History Chapter 5 The American Revolution
Main Idea / DetailsDefining American War Aims / Two groups emerged in support of war, but they disagreed about its purpose.
Samuel and John Adams, along with Richard Henry Lee of Virginia favored complete independence from Great Britain
A second group led by moderate John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, hoped for modest reforms that would lead to a quick reconciliation with Great Britain
Two very different declarations emerged:
The Olive Branch Petition
The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms
During the first year of war, most colonists believed they were fighting not for independence but for a redress of grievances.
However, many began to change their minds when they saw the costs of the war, both human and financial, were so high that their original aims seemed too small to justify them.
The Prohibitory Act passed by Parliament onDecember 22, 1775
Britain rejected the Olive Branch Petition and instead instituted a naval blockade of all American ports and halted the colonies’ trade with the world and among each other.
January 1776
Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense
Quote from Common Sense: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldiers and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country.”
The Decision for Independence / Over 100,000 copies of Common Sense were sold in its first few months. Paine donated all the proceeds from the sale of his pamphlet to support he Continental army
Support for the idea of complete independence grew rapidly as colonists read Paine’s work.
July 2, 1776 – draft of the formal resolution to declare independence from Britain
July 4, 1776 Congress approved the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson, a 33 year old delegate from Virginia wrote most of the Declaration, with help from Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
Responses to Independence / The news of the Declaration of Independence prompted crowds to gather and cheer, church bells rang and cannons and guns were fired.
There were those who did not agree. They were in the minority as referred to themselves as Loyalists.
Those who favored independence had another name for the Loyalists, they called them Tories.
Parliament had suspended representative government in America, but that did not mean the end of colonial self-government.
It actually increased it.
After the Declaration of Independence, former colonies marked their independence by writing formal constitutions for themselves.
By 1781, most of the new states had produced such constitutions
At the national level, progress would be much slower.
November 1777 – Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation
The Articles were weak and ineffective, and the Congress struggled with them throughout the war.
Mobilizing for War / The new governments of the states faced a series of overwhelming challenges:
Raising and organizing armies
Providing supplies and equipment
Finding a way to pay for it all
They had to rely heavily on supplying themselves with arms and ammunition by capturing British supplies
Congress had no authority to levy taxes directly on the people, it had to requisition funds from the state governments
Congress tried selling long-term bonds
Continental money was printed but of little value and inflation rose
The War for Independence / Britain advantages: greatest navy
best-equipped army
access to empires resources
coherent command structure
American advantages: fighting on home territory
many deeply committed to independence
aid from abroad (France)
Thomas Paine (Common Sense) “They cannot defeat an idea with an army”
Blunders and miscalculations by the British in the early stages of the fighting
The First Phase: New England / British uncertain if this is a rebellion or a war
Battle of Bunker Hill (1775) Patriots lose but inflict the heaviest casualties of the war on the British
Early 1776 – British conclude Boston was tactically indefensible & depart for Nova Scotia; departure indicated a regrouping and a change of British assumptions about the war
Moore’s Creek Bridge, NC, Patriots crush a Loyalist uprising
British hope of help from Tories in the southern colonies not realized
Benedict Arnold invades Canada, laid siege to Quebec, ultimately unsuccessful
The Second Phase: The Mid-Atlantic Region / 1776-1778 British ships arrive off the coast of New York.
Admiral William Howe in command; hoped to avoid hostilities and was given authority by King George III to negotiate a peace, if possible.
Howe offers Congress a choice between submission w/ a royal pardon or a battle against overwhelming odds, which is declined
Patriots lose Long Island, Manhattan, and then retreat through New Jersey, across the Delaware and into Pennsylvania.
Patriot victories at Trenton, NJ (Christmas 1776) and Princeton are short-lived; British troops drive them into the hills of Morristown, NJ for the winter.
1777 British strategy: Gen. Howe’s forces move north while Gen. Burgoyne’s troops would march south for a two-pronged attack on Washington’s army.
Gen. Howe changes the plan, launches an assault on Philadelphia, trying to rally Loyalists, discourage Patriots, and bring the war to a speedy end.
This leaves Burgoyne to carry out the campaign in the north alone.
Burgoyne easily takes Ft. Ticonderoga & assumes the rest of the campaign will be as easy. He was wrong.
Smaller Patriot forces hand Burgoyne two staggering defeats at Oriskany, New York and Bennington, VT.
Surrounded at Saratoga, NY, Burgoyne surrenders his army of nearly 5,000 men.
The Battle of Saratoga was a turning point as France decided to form an alliance with the United States.
Gen. Howe’s mistakes included leaving Burgoyne to fight alone, allowing Washington to repeatedly retreat and regroup.
Howe also permitted Washington’s army to spend the winter in Valley Forge, when an attack would have made the Patriots easy prey.
Some mentioned that Howe’s sympathies actually lay with the colonists; others mentioned political links in Britain with those opposed to the war, or even alcoholism and a romantic attachment.
Howe’s most clear failure was the failure to understand the nature of the war he was fighting.
The Iroquois and the British / Iroquois supported the British, believing that a British victory would help stem the white movement onto tribal lands.
Mohawk brother and sister, Joseph and Mary Brant were important people within the Mohawk nation.
Joseph was a celebrated warrior, Mary was the widow of Sir William Johnson, British superintendent of Indians
The Brants persuaded their tribe, along with the Seneca & Cayuga to support Britain
This alliance showed a growing division within the Iroquois Confederacy, Only 3 out of 6 nations supported the British
The Oneida and Tuscarora supported the Americans, the Onondaga split into several factions.
Large groups of Iroquois moved into Canada to seek refuge from the fighting and never returned
Securing Aid from Abroad / Congress dispatched representatives to the capitals of Europe to negotiate trade agreements.
John Adams was called early on to go to France. Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson were also called to serve abroad and they and others were nicknamed the ‘militia diplomats.’
France’s intervention made the war an international conflict.
Over the course of the next two years, France, Spain and the Netherlands all drifted into another general war with Britain.
All contributed directly, or indirectly, to the ultimate American victory, but it was France who was America’s indispensable ally.
The Final Phase: The South / British strategy changes: use Loyalist support and try to undermine the Revolution from within.
Loyalist sentiment was strongest in the South; therefore, the final stages of the war occurred there.
New British strategy a dismal failure.
They spent 3 years moving thru the South, fighting small battles and large with little success.
British overestimated Loyalist sympathies. Although there were many Tories (Loyalists) in Georgia & South Carolina, there were more Patriots.
In Virginia, Patriot fervor was almost as high as that in Massachusetts
The British also harmed their cause by encouraging slaves to desert their owners in exchange for emancipation.
Southerners were aghast at this idea and made them much more likely to support the Patriots.
British suffered logistical problems- unfamiliar terrain, climate, could not distinguish friend from foe.
This phasemade the war truly ‘revolutionary’ as it introduced a new kind of combat, and mobilized & politicized large groups of people who had previously remained on the sidelines.
Benedict Arnold- revolutionary hero turned traitor; his plot to turn West Point over to the British failed, fled to Canada and after the war moved to England.
Although the British captured both Savannah and Charleston, they were constantly harassed throughout the countryside.
Nathanael Greene, Quaker, former blacksmith from Rhode Island and the most able general next to Washington himself turned the tide of battle to the Patriots favor.
His victories included:
King’s Mountain
The Battle of Cowpens
Guilford Court House
These victories forced British Gen. Cornwallis to withdraw to Wilmington, N. Carolina
He and his army were then ordered to go to Yorktown and wait for ships to carry them to either New York or Charleston.
Washington’s army with French army and French naval backup trapped Cornwallis and his men and after a few days of resistance,
Cornwallis, via a lower ranking deputy, surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown.
Washington also sent a subordinate to receive the surrender
For all practical purposes, the fighting was over.
Winning the Peace / Cornwallis’ defeat strengthened British anti-war sentiment.
Lord North resigned, and British emissaries appeared in France to meet informally with the American diplomats in France: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay.
The British and Americans reached a final settlement, signed the Treaty of Paris, on September 3, 1783
It granted recognition of the United States independence from Britain and generous territory concessions.
Fall 1783 – the last of the British troops left New York and General Washington rode triumphantly into the city.
War and Society / Was the American Revolution a social as well as a political revolution?
Loyalists and Minorities / Those who remained loyal to England, numbered somewhere between 20 to 30 per cent of the population, suffered, in some cases greatly, at the war’s end.
Up to 100,000 Loyalists fled the country.
Those who could afford it moved to England, others to Canada. Many left behind large estatesand positions of power.
Religious sects also suffered, in particular Anglicans. The revolution weakened the Quakers. They were unpopular because of their pacifism.
However, the Catholic Church was strengthened.
The French alliance brought Catholic troops and chaplains to the country, and many Americans were grateful for France’s help.
The War and Slavery / The Revolution exposed the continuing tension between the new nation’s commitment to liberty and its commitment to slavery.
In South Carolina, nearly a third of the slave population defected to the British side. For other slaves, it exposed them to the concept if not the reality of liberty.
In the North, the combination of Revolutionary sentiment and evangelical Christianity spread anti-slavery fervor.
In the South, churches rejected Northern anti-slavery ideas and worked to develop a rationale for slavery, partly by reinforcing ideas of white superiority and partly by encouraging slave owners to make slavery ‘more humane.’
Native Americans and the Revolution / The Revolution generally weakened the position of Native Americans in several ways.
Victory increased the white demand for western lands
Many whites resented the assistance the Mohawks and other tribes gave the British
The Revolution both revealed and increased the divisions between the tribes, making it increasingly difficult to form a common front to resist white settlers moving west.
The triumph of the American patriots contributed to the ultimate defeat of the Indian tribes.
Women’s Rights & Women’s Roles / The departure of men during the Revolutionary War meant that women were left in charge of farms, and businesses.
Those women who did not have either of those to fall back on became impoverished. Some rioted and looted for food.
Some followed their husbands, not of choice but of economic necessity.
While some were hostile to the idea of ‘camp followers,’ the women provided significant value to the new army: cooking, laundry and nursing.
Molly Pitcher, nicknamed because she carried pitcher of water to the battlefield, saw her husband fall in battle and immediately took his place at a field gun.
The emphasis on liberty and the ‘rights of man’ led some women to question their position in society.
Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, in 1776 to ‘remember the ladies’ when forming new codes of laws.
Abigail Adams “...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
Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush also voiced support for the education of women and other feminist reforms.
In colonial society, unmarried women had some legal rights(property, contracts) but a married woman had virtually none.
No legal authority over her children, no property, no independent wages. Everything she owned or earned belonged to her husband. She could not vote nor obtain a divorce.
Initially, the Revolution actually strengthened the patriarchal system.
Few American women challenged that belief and accepted that their place remained in the family.
But ultimately the Revolution encouraged people of both genders to reevaluate the contribution of women to family and society.
As the new republic searched for a cultural identity, it began to place additional value on the role of women as mothers.
The new nation was producing a new kind of citizen, steeped in the principles of liberty.
Mothers had the important task of instructing their children in the virtues republican citizenry was expected to possess.
The War Economy / After a century of dependence on the British imperial system, American trade was now on its own.
During the war, Americans had learned to adapt, after the war, they continued this trend.
Privateers led to the development of new fast, maneuverable ships.
Merchants in New England begins commerce with the Caribbean and South America
Americans began making their own cloth.
There was a general awareness that America need not forever be dependent on other nations for manufactured goods.
The Assumption of Republicanism / Americans agreed that their political system would be one in which all power came from the people rather than a king.
Its success depended on the nature of its citizenry. If the people consisted of sturdy, independent property owners with civic virtue, then the republic could survive.
In reality, the United States was never a nation in which all citizens were independent property holders.
There would be no equality of condition but there would be equality of opportunity.
It made the United States the most admired and studied nation on earth.
Toleration and Slavery / Most Americans believed that religion should play some role in government, but they did not want any particular religion to be given special powers.
1786 Virginia enacted the Statute of religious Liberty, written by Thomas Jefferson.
More difficult to resolve was the issue of slavery.
In New England and Pennsylvania it was abolished early.
Every state but South Carolina and Georgia banned further importation of slaves.
However, slavery survived in all the southern and border states.
Debts, Taxes and Daniel Shays / Daniel Shays was a former captain in the Revolutionary army. Shays, like many other soldiers, had been promised a bonus after the war ended. However, the bonus was not due to be paid for several years.
The post-war economy was bad and poor farmers, already burdened by debt and taxes, demanded relief.
Shays issued a set of demands including paper money, tax relief, a moratorium on debt repayments, and the relocation of the state capital of Boston to a more inland location.
Shays and his followers used force to keep courts from foreclosing on farms and selling the property.
By winter, the rebels advanced on the Springfield arsenal hoping to seize the weapons stored there.
In January of 1787, state militiamen met Shays group and dispersed the ragged band.
As a military enterprise, Shays Rebellion was a failure, however, it did underscore the urgency and support of producing a new national constitution.
Most of the slaves "owned" by George Washington were actually part of the estate of his wife's deceased first husband (Daniel Parke Custis). When George Washington married Martha Custis, he became trustee of the estate, not the owner. He couldn't legally free those slaves, as they weren't actually his. His own slaves intermarried with the slaves from the Custis estate, and so he couldn't free them without breaking up families