history 255 chapt 7 and 8
Bills of Rights—
. Bills of Rights—Six state constitutions included bills of rights, which were lists of basic individual liberties that government could not abridge; Virginia passed the first bill of rights in June 1776; guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and trial by jury.
Fighting on the Frontier
. Continued Fighting on the Frontier—Two more years of skirmishes ensued after the British surrender; Americans fought Indian tribes in frontier areas of Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois; British army remained in control of Savannah, Charleston, and New York; Continental army had to stay in the field.
women voters
. Gender—Few stopped to question excluding women from voting; only three states specified that voters had to be male, as the assumption was unspoken
Remember the Ladies
Abigail Adams wanted independence but called for a revolution in women's rights; wrote a series of letters to her husband John Adams; asked him to "remember the ladies" when constructing a new government; the new government did not change women's rights.
American Treatment of British Captives
American Treatment of British Captives—Washington insisted British captives be treated humanely; they were gathered in rural encampments where they were allowed to plant gardens, move freely during the day, and even hire themselves out as workers.
executive departments
Attempts to Fix the Problems—Congress created executive departments of war, finance, and foreign affairs; the departments handled purely administrative functions, but their formation demonstrated that the congress was inventing a modest executive branch by necessity.
Slavery
Challenging Slavery—The Revolutionary ideals about natural equality and liberty encouraged a legal assault on slavery; slaves in the North filed petitions to obtain their freedom, but they were not successful; slaves in Massachusetts found success suing for freedom in the courts; slavery in Massachusetts was effectively abolished by judicial decisions by 1789.
Certificates—
Congress had to borrow money from wealthy men in exchange for certificates of debt promising repayment with interest; also paid soldiers with land grant certificates, which also depreciated.
Currency—
Continental Congress printed money, but its value deteriorated because the congress held no reserves of gold or silver to back up the currency
Resistance to Emancipation—
Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia rejected emancipation bills; slavery was central to the economy; the states did ease restrictions on individual acts of emancipation; by 1790, close to 10,000 newly freed Virginia slaves had formed local free black communities with schools and churches; in the deep South of the Carolinas and Georgia, freeing the slaves was unthinkable for whites.
Republican Institutions—
Delegates saw pure democracy as a dangerous thing; favored republican institutions, but created a government that gave a direct voice to the people only in the House; gave a check on that voice by the Senate, a body of men elected not by popular vote but by state legislatures; presidency also out of reach of direct democracy due to the electoral college.
Slave rights
Did Bills of Rights Apply to Slaves?—No; referred to white Americans; Virginia legislators explicitly excluded slaves from civil society.
Georgia
Easy Victory in Georgia—Fell easily at the end of December 1778; the bulk of the Continental army was still in New York and New Jersey
Checks and Balances and Enumeration of Powers—
Government had limits and checks on all three of its branches; convention listed the powers of the president and of Congress; only three dissenters refused to sign the document; only nine states, not thirteen, would need to ratify the document; votes would come from special ratifying conventions, not state legislatures.
Jefferson's Plan—
Jefferson's Plan—Thomas Jefferson drafted a policy for expanding westward; he proposed dividing the territory north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi (called the Northwest Territory) into nine new states with evenly spaced east-west boundaries and townships ten miles square; first encouraged giving land to settlers rather than selling it to build a nation of freeholders and discourage speculation; the draft guaranteed self-government and prohibited slavery in the territory.
Jefferson's plan for the Northwest Territory
Jefferson's plan is orderly, mathematical. He uses straight lines and right angles almost exclusively. States are roughly the same size measured north to south. The plan would add a total of fourteen states, more than doubling the size of the union
Second Continental Congress 174
Legislative body that govern the United States from May 1775 through the wars duration. It established and or me, created it's own money, and declared independence wants all hope for a peaceful Reconciliation with Britain was gone.
Property—
Limits to participation were widely agreed upon in the 1770s; in nearly every state, candidates for the highest offices had to meet substantial property qualifications; only property owners were presumed to possess the necessary independence of mind to make wise political choices; qualifications probably disfranchised from one-quarter to one-half of all adult white males in the United States; made voting class specific.
British victories
Minor Victories for the British—British took Williamsburg in June 1781; captured members of the Virginia assembly in Charlottesville soon afterward; minor victories allowed Cornwallis to imagine he was succeeding in Virginia; moved toward Yorktown near the Chesapeake Bay to wait for backup.
Independence
Moving toward Independence—Common Sense, the prospect of an alliance with France, and the news that the British were negotiating to hire German mercenary soldiers solidified support for independence; all but four states agitated for a declaration by May 1776; the four opposing states had large loyalist populations; but by July 2, New York was the only holdout.
New Jersey—
On December 25, Washington crossed the Delaware River and made a quick capture of German soldiers at Trenton; victory lifted the morale of the troops.
James Bowdoin
Response from State and Federal Governments—Governor James Bowdoin had organized protests against British taxes; now characterized western dissidents as rebels; vilified the chief leader Daniel Shays; Continental Congress feared armed revolt and called for enlistments to triple the size of the army; fewer than 100 men responded; Bowdoin also raised private army of 3,000 men, whose pay was provided by wealthy and fearful Boston merchants.
Cornwallis
Surrender—Cornwallis and his 7,500 troops faced a combined French and American army of 16,000; French and Americans bombarded British fortifications at Yorktown for twelve days; Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.
Serve the People
. How to Best Serve the People—Leaders agreed that republics could succeed only in small units so people could make sure their interests were being served; most states limited the term length and powers of the governor; real power resided with the lower houses, which were more responsive to popular majorities, with annual elections and guaranteed rotation in office.
Robert Morris
A five percent impost—Philadelphia merchant Robert Morris was the superintendent of finance; led an effort to collect a 5 percent impost (import tax), but it failed by one vote each time; showed how unworkable the amendment provision of the Articles was.
Fort Stanwix—
Two Meetings at Fort Stanwix—The congress summoned Iroquois to a meeting in October 1784 at Fort Stanwix; the governor of New York argued that New York Indians should only negotiate with the state of New York and called his own meeting at Fort Stanwix in September; Iroquois knew the September meeting would be superseded by the congress; sent deputies without negotiating power.
Treaty of Paris—
Two years in the making; acknowledged American independence; set western border of the new country at the Mississippi River; guaranteed creditors on both sides could collect debts owed in sterling money; prohibited the British from evacuating slaves; signed September 3, 1783.
War west of North Carolina—
War west of North Carolina—West of North Carolina (today's Tennessee), militias attacked Cherokee settlements in 1779; Indians from north of the Ohio River, in alliance with the British, repeatedly attacked white settlements such as Boonesborough in present-day Kentucky.
Washington's Response
Washington's Response—Washington signed the initial petition but did not know that the leaders of the planned march were in collusion with congressional leaders; in March 1783, he learned of these developments and delivered an emotional speech to five hundred officers; asserted that civilian government takes precedence over the military; defused crisis.
Wives of Loyalists—
When loyalists fled the country, property was confiscated; if a wife remained, courts usually allowed her to keep one-third of the property; supported a wife's autonomy to choose political sides, if she stayed in the United States; courts later ruled that women had no independent will to choose to be loyalists.
Mohawk Valley
. The Mohawk Valley—Slaughter at Oriskany marked the beginning of three years of terror for inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley; Loyalists and Indians raided farms throughout 1778; captured or killed residents; Americans responded by destroying Joseph Brant's home village; in the summer of 1779, Washington authorized a campaign to wreak "total destruction and devastation" on Iroquois villages of central New York; forty Indian towns were obliterated.
New Government—
. The Problems of the New Government—State legislatures were slow to select delegates; many politicians preferred to devote their energies to state governments, believing the real power was at the state level; often, too few representatives showed up to conduct business; the congress had no permanent home
Three-Fifths Clause
. The Three-Fifths Clause—Determined how slaves were counted as people and property; all free persons plus "three-fifths of all other Persons" would constitute the numerical apportionment of representatives; using the phrase "all other Persons" as a substitute for "slaves" indicates the discomfort delegates felt in acknowledging in the Constitution the existence of slavery; the words slave and slavery never appear, but the Constitution recognized and guaranteed slavery with the fugitive slave clause and a provision closing the international, but not the domestic, slave trade.
Second Continental Congress 174
. Thomas Paine, Abigail Adams, and the Case for Independence 1. Common Sense—Pamphlet published by Thomas Paine in January 1776; made the case for independence in simple yet forceful language; elaborated on the absurdities of monarchy and called for republican government; sold more than 150,000 copies in a matter of weeks; reprinted in newspapers and read aloud across the colonies. 2. "Remember the Ladies"—Abigail Adams wanted independence but called for a revolution in women's rights; wrote a series of letters to her husband John Adams; asked him to "remember the ladies" when constructing a new government; the new government did not change women's rights.
Virginia Plan—
. Virginia Plan—The Philadelphia convention worked in secrecy so that the men could freely explore alternatives without fear their honest opinions would come back to haunt them; major issue was representation; Virginia Plan repudiated the principle of a confederation of states; called for a two-chamber legislature, a powerful executive, and a judiciary; practically silenced the smaller states by linking representation to population; argued government operated directly on the people, not on the states.
loyal -who
. Who Remained Loyal—Most visible loyalists were royal officials; wealthy merchants also preferred the trade protections of the navigation acts and British navy; loyalist urban lawyers admired British law and order; backcountry farmers who remained loyal did so because they resented the power of the lowlands gentry; southern slaves looked to Britain in hope of freedom
Battle of Camden
. —American troops arrived to strike back at Cornwallis by August 1780; met the British at the battle of Camden; most devastating defeat of the war for the Americans.
Charleston
. —Ten Continental army regiments in Charleston; British laid siege for five weeks; took Charleston in May 1870; General Charles Cornwallis established military rule of South Carolina by mid-summer.
Continental Army
. —The war became a rebellion, an overthrow of long-established authority; local defense had long rested in militias, which were best suited for limited engagements; they were more social events than serious military units; Congress first set enlistments in the new Continental army at one year; offered $20 incentive for three years of enlistment and a hundred acres of land for those who committed to the duration of the war; the army was raw, inexperienced, and undermanned, but it was never as bad as the British continually assumed
Declaration of Independence
1. Moving toward Independence—Common Sense, the prospect of an alliance with France, and the news that the British were negotiating to hire German mercenary soldiers solidified support for independence; all but four states agitated for a declaration by May 1776; the four opposing states had large loyalist populations; but by July 2, New York was the only holdout. 2. The List of Grievances—Thomas Jefferson drafted the document; after a preamble focused on natural rights and equality, he listed two dozen grievances against King George; the congress argued over the list for two days; Jefferson had blamed the king for slavery, and delegates from Georgia and South Carolina struck out the passage; colonies let stand the passage, blaming the king for mobilizing Indians into frontier warfare. 3. Adopting the Declaration of Independence—The congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776; New York endorsed it on July 15, making the vote for independence unanimous; printed copies did not include signed names because it was technically an act of treason.
Disputed Lands
1. —Indians had been excluded from the Treaty of Paris; confederation government wanted to end hostilities and secure land cessions, particularly from the Iroquois; the government wanted to take advantage of the revenue that land sales would generate.
Threatened Coup
A Threatened Coup—The Newburgh Conspiracy marked the country's first and only instance of a threatened military coup; no actual coup was envisioned; Morris and other congressmen offered encouragement to officers to act as if the army would march on the congress to demand its back pay.
Saratoga—
Burgoyne camped at the small village of Saratoga; General Horatio Gates began moving his army toward Saratoga; the British won the first battle of Saratoga, but the Americans won the second; forced Burgoyne to surrender to American forces on October 17, 1777.
Republicanism—
By 1778, all states had drawn up constitutions; having been denied the unwritten rights of Englishmen, Americans wanted written contracts that guaranteed basic principles; all state constitutions stipulated that government ultimately rested on the consent of the governed; political writers embraced the concept of republicanism as the underpinning of the new governments; republicanism meant different things to different people, but all proponents believed that a republican government was one that promoted the people's welfare.
African Americans
Fate of African Americans—Thousands of self-liberated blacks who had joined the British under the promise of freedom did not celebrate; more than 4,000 blacks sailed out of New York to Nova Scotia; some blacks headed to the Indian country; the British never wanted to emancipate the slaves; they only wanted to destabilize patriot planters and gain manpower.
Jefferson's plan- problems
Few of Jefferson's states took natural boundaries into account, except for those bordered by the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The plan also failed to consider the claims of Indians on those lands to the West. It failed to anticipate the existing states' ambitions for new land
Fort Stanwix—
Fort Stanwix—Burgoyne instead awaited reinforcements from the west; at Ft. Stanwix, the reinforcements encountered Americans who refused to surrender; the British laid siege to the fort with the help of Palatine German militiamen and Oneida Indians; Mohawk chief Joseph Brant led an ambush on the Germans and Oneidas in a narrow revere called Oriskany, killing nearly 500 out of 840 of them; these were multiethnic battles with a high mortality rate; the British retreated at Fort Stanwix, depriving Burgoyne of reinforcements.
American Demands—
In October, Americans demanded a return of prisoners of war, recognition of the confederation's power to negotiate (rather than that of the individual states), and a cession of Indian land from Fort Niagara due south; land would establish the U.S. border with Canada and encircle Iroquois land within the United States; argued the Indians were a subdued people
Quebec—
In late 1775, the Americans launched an expedition to conquer the cities of Montreal and Quebec before British reinforcements could arrive; General Montgomery took Montreal in September of 1775; Montgomery and General Benedict Arnold failed to take Quebec, and smallpox ravaged their ranks.
New Jersey Plan—
In mid-June, delegates from small states unveiled the New Jersey Plan; maintained the single-house congress of the Articles, but gave it sweeping powers; also called for a plural presidency.
Land Ordinance of 1784—
Incorporated parts of Jefferson's plan; found too radical the proposal to give away the land; slavery prohibition failed as well.
Contested Treaty
Indians balked but ultimately signed the treaty; tribes not at the meeting tried to disavow the treaty as a document signed under coercion by virtual hostages; the confederation government ignored them and made plans to survey and develop the Ohio territory; New York leaders astutely understood that the confederation government lacked the resources to implement the treaty terms; quietly began surveying and selling the very land they had failed to secure from the Indians in September; exposed another weakness in the confederation government.
Indians
Indians—Indians were acknowledged, but their land claims were not protected or honored.
Western Massachusetts—Farmers in
Protests in Western Massachusetts—Farmers in the western two-thirds of the state petitioned Boston for relief and held conventions calling for democratic revisions to the state constitution; also wanted the capital moved farther west in the state; still unheard, the dissidents in six counties targeted the county courts; forced them to close their doors until the state constitution was revised
Money from the States
Requesting Money from the States—In 1785, the confederation government requested $3 million from the states, four times larger than the previous year's requisition; needed the money for operating the government, paying debts owed to foreign leaders, and paying Americans who owned government bonds; at the same time, states were struggling under state tax levies.
James Madison - revision meetings
Revision Meetings—James Madison and Virginians convinced the congress to allow a meeting of delegates in Annapolis in September 1786 to revise the trade regulation powers of the articles; only five states participated; rescheduled the meeting for May 1787 in Philadelphia; the congress reluctantly endorsed the meeting and limited its scope to revising the Articles; Alexander Hamilton of New York attended with hopes for a stronger government
Battle of Bunker Hill 176
Second battle of the war, on June 16, 1775, involving a massive British attack on new England militia units on a hill facing Boston. The militia men finally yielded the hill, but not before inflicting heavy Casualties on the British.
Land Ordinance of 1787 (the Northwest Ordinance)—
Set forth the process by which settled territories would advance to statehood; population would eventually write a constitution and apply for full admission to the Union; perhaps the most important legislation passed by confederation government; ensured United States would not become a colonial power with respect to its white citizens.
Shays's Rebellion
Shays's Rebellion and Its Aftermath—Insurgents learned of the private army marching west in January 1787; moved to capture a federal armory to obtain weapons; met with gunfire from a militia; four rebels killed and another 20 wounded; in the end, two rebels were executed for rebellion; 4,000 men gained leniency for confessing misconduct; Shays himself escaped to Vermont; the rebellion was significant, in that it caused colonial leaders to worry about the confederation's ability to handle civil disorder.
Slavery and the Roots of North-South Sectionalism—
Slavery and the Roots of North-South Sectionalism—The ordinance prohibited slavery but came with a fugitive slave law; acknowledged and supported slavery even as it barred it from one region.
Southern Strategy
Southern Strategy—British forces abandoned New England and focused on the South; they believed the South's large slave population would desert to the British and disrupt the southern society and economy; also believed Georgia and South Carolina were loyalist strongholds
New Jersey—
State constitution enfranchised all free inhabitants worth more than £50; opened the door for unmarried women and free blacks; a 1790 law used the language he or she, making woman suffrage explicit; small numbers of free blacks and women made their influence small, but a new state law explicitly disfranchised blacks and women in 1807.
Punishment—
Tarring and feathering; property confiscation; deportation; terrorism; all proved to loyalists that democratic tyranny was more to be feared than monarchical tyranny.
Massachusetts—
Tension in Massachusetts—Massachusetts saw most extreme tensions; fiscally conservative legislature had passed tough tax laws four years in a row; in March 1786, the legislature in Boston loaded the federal requisition onto the bill.
Western Land Claims—
The Articles had no plan for the lands to the west of the thirteen original states; many states claimed those lands; five states had no claims, and they wanted congress to hold the land in a national domain and eventually sell the land to form new states.
American Morale—
The British proposed a negotiated settlement, not including independence, to end the war; Americans refused; morale ran high, but supplies of arms and food ran low; the American army suffered a devastating loss at Valley Forge due to disease and desertion; Washington blamed the citizenry for lack of support; evidence of corruption and profiteering was abundant; army suppliers too often provided defective food, clothing, and gunpowder.
Constitutional Convention—
The Constitutional Convention—The fifty-five men who met in Philadelphia had already concluded weaknesses in the Articles; all white men; generally wealthy; two-thirds were lawyers and the majority had served in the Confederation Congress and knew its strengths and weaknesses
Indians
The Decision of the Indians—Many Indian tribes hoped to remain neutral; most were drawn in, with many taking the British side; the powerful Iroquois Confederacy divided.
End of Neutrality
The End of Neutrality—By 1780, very few Indians remained neutral; most sided with the British or went to Spanish territory; the rare instance of Indian support for the American cause was a strategic decision; these Indians believed Americans were unstoppable, and it was better to work out an alliance than lose in a war; Americans treated friendly Indians poorly, showing there was no winning strategy for them.
Great Compromise—
The Great Compromise—Solved the deadlock between large and small states in mid-July; produced the basic structural features of the emerging U.S. Constitution; bicameral legislature, with representation in the lower house, the House of Representatives, tied to population and representation in the upper house, the Senate, coming from all states equally.
Hudson River Valley
The Hudson River Valley—In 1777, Burgoyne assumed command of an army of 7,800 soldiers in Canada and began the northern squeeze on the Hudson River valley; also had 1,000 "camp followers," 400 Indian warriors, and 400 horses; captured Fort Ticonderoga with ease in July; Burgoyne's army slowly moved South; rather than meet Burgoyne to isolate New England, however, General Howe sailed south to attack Philadelphia.
Committees
The Importance of Committees—Committees of correspondence, of public safety, and of inspection dominated colonial politics; took on local governance and enforced boycotts, picked army draftees, and policed suspected traitors; sometimes invaded homes to look for contraband goods; loyalists were dismayed by the increasing show of power by the patriots
Grievances
The List of Grievances—Thomas Jefferson drafted the document; after a preamble focused on natural rights and equality, he listed two dozen grievances against King George; the congress argued over the list for two days; Jefferson had blamed the king for slavery, and delegates from Georgia and South Carolina struck out the passage; colonies let stand the passage, blaming the king for mobilizing Indians into frontier warfare
Loyalist Exodus
The Loyalist Exodus—Throughout the war, probably 7,000 to 8,000 loyalists fled to England, and 28,000 fled to Canada.
Treason—
The Second Continental Congress defined all loyalists as traitors; state laws defined provisioning the British army, saying or printing anything that undermined morale, or discouraging men from enlisting in the army, as treason
Backcountry
The Situation in the Backcountry—Revitalized rebels waged guerilla warfare in western South Carolina, an area Cornwallis thought was pacified and loyal; South Carolina backcountry became the site of guerilla warfare; British southern strategy depended on loyalist strength to hold reconquered territory; assumption was proven false.
Indians—
The Treaty of Paris had nothing to say about Indian participants; like the treaty ending the Seven Years' War, the 1783 treaty failed to recognize Indians as players in the conflict; Indian lands were assigned to victors as though they were uninhabited; Indians did not concede defeat; some fought the Americans into the nineteenth century
Continental Army 175
The army created in June 1775 by the second Continental Congress to oppose the British. Virginian George Washington, commander-in-chief, had the task of turning local militias an untrained volunteers into a disciplined or me
War in the Interior—
While the war paused on the Atlantic Coast after Burgoyne's defeat and Washington's stay at Valley Forge, it continued in the interior; Native Americans struggled against the Americans for their own independence, freedom, and land.
Loyal-why
Why Remain Loyal—About one-fifth of Americans remained loyal to the crown in 1776, and probably another two-thirds tried to remain neutral; elite loyalists often had cultural and economic ties to England and believed stability depended on a government anchored by monarchy and aristocracy; they feared domestic tyranny; there were many non-elite people who remained loyal due to local reasons for opposing the revolutionary leaders in their region.
France Enters the War
—American victory at Saratoga convinced France to enter the war; formal alliance signed in February 1778; French had been covertly providing weapons and military advisers to the Americans well before 1778.
Unclear Goals
—Americans had to repulse and defeat an invading army; the British wanted to put down a rebellion and restore monarchical power, but it was unclear how they would accomplish this; decisive defeat of the Continental army was essential, but the British would still have to contend with an armed insurgent population; in addition, there was no single political nerve cell to capture or attack; the British had to restore old government without destroying an enemy country; needed a large land army and counted on the help of Americans who remained loyal.
Women and African Americans
—Women served non-combat roles by cooking, washing, and nursing the wounded; George Washington at first excluded blacks from the Continental army, but as manpower needs increased, the congress permitted free blacks to enlist and paid southerners $400 for each slave they allowed to enlist; about 5,000 black men served on the rebel side, nearly all from northern states.
British Treatment of American Captives
—British leaders saw the Americans as traitors and therefore treated them worse than common criminals; crowded their first 4,000 prisoners on two dozen vessels anchored between Manhattan and Brooklyn; overcrowded, dark, stinking spaces; more than half a dozen men died daily; food and sanitation were inadequate; Continental Congress sent funds to supply rations to the prisoners, but most supplies were diverted to British use; in early 1777, Parliament suspended habeas corpus for colonists accused of treason; more than 15,000 men endured captivity in the prison ships, and two-thirds of them died.
Benedict Arnold
—British success resulted in part because of improved information about American troop movements furnished by Benedict Arnold, hero of several American battles; believed he did not get proper honor or financial award; traded information for money beginning in 1779; planned to sell a West Point victory to the British; Americans captured the man carrying plans from Arnold to Clinton; vilifying Arnold allowed Americans to stake out a wide distance between themselves and dastardly conduct; inspired a renewal of patriotism
Taxation and Requisition
—Congress had to be sensitive to the language of the Revolution, which denounced taxation by a distant and nonrepresentative power; the congress would requisition (request) money to be paid into the common treasury; each state legislature would levy taxes within its borders to pay requisition; no mechanism compelled states to pay.
Corruption
—Depreciating currency led to rising prices; poor economy and unreliable currency was demoralizing to Americans; some turned the situation to their advantage, and a black market in prohibited luxury imports thrived
Symbolic Importance
—Every state from Pennsylvania north acknowledged that slavery was fundamentally inconsistent with Revolutionary ideology; also led to a geographic divide that associated the North with freedom and the South with slavery.
Soldiers' Back Pay
—For nearly two years, the Continental army camped at Newburgh, New York, awaiting the finalized peace treaty; they were angry at the prospect of not receiving their pensions due to the unstable economy; in December 1782, officers petitioned the congress for immediate back pay for their men; the congress hoped they could use this sympathetic story to make a case to the states for taxation.
Divide and Conquer
—Overall strategy was divide and conquer; started with New York since the British believed it contained the most loyal subjects; control of the Hudson River would also isolate New England.
Common Sense
—Pamphlet published by Thomas Paine in January 1776; made the case for independence in simple yet forceful language; elaborated on the absurdities of monarchy and called for republican government; sold more than 150,000 copies in a matter of weeks; reprinted in newspapers and read aloud across the colonies
Gradual Emancipation
—Pennsylvania passed its first gradual emancipation law in 1780; freed children of slave mothers once they reached age 28; many slaves simply ran away from their owners and claimed freedom; other northern states followed with gradual emancipation laws.
French Motivations
—Primarily aligned with the Americans in hopes of defeating archrival Britain; even an American defeat would not be a disaster for France if the war drained Britain of money and resources.
Land Ordinance of 1785
—Revisions of the 1784 plan; called for dividing the land into three to five states; land would be sold by public auction for a minimum price of one dollar an acre; minimum purchase was 640 acres, and payment had to be made in hard money or certificates of debt; gave the advantage to speculators, who held the land for sale rather than living on it; thus avoided conflict with Indians who called the land their own.
Compromise and Conflict
—States with claims finally compromised; any land a state volunteered to relinquish would become the national domain; Madison and Jefferson ceded Virginia's huge land claim in 1781; Articles finally approved; conflict demonstrated the differences between the states.
Forming a Government
—The Continental Congress wanted to draft a document that would specify what powers the congress had and by what authority it existed; delegates agreed a government should pursue war and peace, conduct foreign relations, regulate trade, and run a postal service; the congress reached agreement on the Articles of Confederation in November 1777; defined the union as a loose confederation of states with no national executive and no judiciary; congressional offices had a three-year term limit; routine decisions in the congress required a simple majority of seven states; declaring war required nine; approving or amending the articles required unanimous consent of thirteen state delegations and thirteen state legislatures; unanimity stalled the acceptance of the Articles until 1781.
French Intervention
—The French fleet beat British backup to the Chesapeake Bay; a five-day naval battle left the French navy in clear control of the coast; proved a decisive factor in ending the war because French ships prevented any rescue of Cornwallis's army
Adopting the Declaration of Independence
—The congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776; New York endorsed it on July 15, making the vote for independence unanimous; printed copies did not include signed names because it was technically an act of treason.
Battle of Long Island
—The main action of the first year came in New York; after the British won the battle of Long Island in late August, Washington evacuated his troops to Manhattan Island; knowing it would be hard to hold Manhattan, he moved north to two forts along the Hudson River; two armies engaged in limited skirmishing for two months before British General Howe finally captured Fort Washington and Fort Lee; Washington retreated through New Jersey and into Pennsylvania; Howe again decided not to pursue.
Women's Patriotism and the Ladies Association
—White women increasingly demonstrated patriotism; while husbands were away, wives took on masculine duties like tending farms and making business decisions; women from prominent Philadelphia families formed the Ladies Association in 1780 to collect money for Continental soldiers; a published broadside, "The Sentiments of an American Woman" defended female patriotism
