History - Chapter 2

The Declaration of Independence

- On July 4, 1776 a committee made up of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson. - The colonies had now become the U.S. of America and the American Revolution had begun.

Sons of Liberty

- by the summer of 1765 this group was organizing huge demonstrations and intimidating stamp distributors. - In August, a crowd of Boston hung effigies - crude stuffed figures meant to represent persons-of several British officials, including Boston's stamp agent.

The Declaration of Rights & Grievances

- drafted by a wealthy lawyer from PA named John Dickinson. - declared that because taxation depended upon representation, only the colonists' political representatives, and not Parliament, had the right to tax them.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763

*** - 1763 was the end of the French and Indian War. - The proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. - The King and his council presented the proclamation as a measure to calm the fears of the Indians, who felt that the colonists would drive them from their lands as they expanded westward. - Many in the colonies felt that the object was to pen them in along the Atlantic seaboard where they would be easier to regulate. The colonists could not help but feel a strong resentment when what they perceived to be their prize was snatched away from them. - The proclamation provided that all lands west of the heads of all rivers which flowed into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest were off-limits to the colonists

Prohibitory Act

*** - December 22, 1775 - Parliament passed the Prohibitory Act, which instituted a blockade of all American ports and halted the colonies' trade with the world and among each other.

George Washington

*** - Revolutionary War: 1775-1776 Following Lexington and Concord, in May, 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened. On June 15, 1775, John Adams nominated George Washington as Commander in Chief and Congress approved the choice. He was officially commissioned as General and Commander in Chief on June 17 and immediately left for Boston. Arriving on July 3, he took command of the siege of Boston.

Patriots

- (also know as Whigs) they believed that the British had become Tyrants. - they represented a wide cross-section of society. - they were artisans, farmers, merchants, planters, lawyers, and urban workers. - strong in New England and Virginia

George Greenville

- 1763 he becomes prime minister and first lord of the Treasury. - he had to find a way to reduce Britain's debt and pay for the 10,000 British troops now stationed in North America. - he knew that merchants were smuggling many goods into and out of the colonies without paying customs duties, taxes on imports and exports. He convinced Parliment to pass a law allowing smugglers to be tried at a new vice-admiralty court in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Vice admiralty courts were run by naval officers instead of juries who were often sympathetic.

Benedict Arnold

- American general early in the war but then later sold military information to the British. - When his treason was discovered, Arnold fled to British-controlled New York City. There he was given command of British troops and ordered to Virginia.

Lexington and Concord

- April 1775, British government ordered General Gage to arrest the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, even if it meant risking armed conflict. - Gage didn't know where they were so he decided to seize the militia's supply depot at Concord instead. - April 18th 700 British troops set out for Concord on a road that took them through the town of Lexington. - Patriot leaders sent Paul Revere and William Dawes to spread the alarm. They made it to Lexington and warned people that the British were coming. A 3rd man named Dr. Samuel Prescott joined them and headed for Concord. A British patrol stopped Revere and Dawes but Prescott got through and was able to warn Concord. April 19th, the British arrived in Lexington and were greeted by 70 minutemen on the green. The minutemen started to back off but then a shot was fired (no one knows whose side fired the shot) and the British started shooting. They killed 8 and injured 10 minutemen. - British then headed to Concord and found most of the supplies had been removed. They tried to cross the North Bridge on the far side of town, they ran into some 400 colonial militia. A fight broke out and the British retreated. - Militia from all over New England raced to the area to help fight the British. By May 1775, the militia had surrounded Boston, trapping the British.

Yorktown

- April 1781 Cornwallis marched into Virginia. - with more French troops on their way the British knew they had very little time left to win the war and secure Virginia. - September 1781, American and French forces surrounded Yorktown and began to bombard it. - On October 14th Alexander Hamilton (Washington's aide) led an attack that captured key British defenses. - 3 days later Cornwallis began negotiations to surrender, and on October 19th approximately 8,000 British soldiers marched out of Yorktown and laid down their weapons.

The Treaty of Paris

- Britan recognized the U.S. as a new nation. - Mississippi River was its western border. - Florida was given back to Spain.

Albany Plan of Union

- proposal developed by a committee led by Benjamin Franklin. - proposed that the colonies unite to form a federal government. - colonies rejected the plan but it showed that many colonial leaders had begun to tink aobut joining together for their common defense.

The Stamp Act

- Enacted in March 1765. - taxed almost all printed materials, including newspapers, pamphlets, posters, wills, mortgages, deeds, licenses, diplomas, and even playing cards. - because of Patrick Henry's speeches, resolutions were passed that stated that Virginians were entitled to the rights of British people and could be taxed only by their own representatives. Other Colonial assemblies passed similar resolutions.

The Boston Massacre

- Fall of 1768, violence against custom officers increased. - Britian sent 1000 troops to the city to maintain order. Bostonians referred to them as Lobster Backs because of the red coats they wore. Crowds constantly heckled and harrassed the troops. - March 5, 1770 a crowd started throwing snowballs at a British soldier guarding a customs house. His call for help brought Captain Thomas Preston and a squad of soldiers. - the soldiers killed 5 and 6 others were wounded. The first colonist to die was a man of African and Native American decent both known as Michael Jonson and Crispus Attucks. - a few weeks later, news arrived that the British had repealed almost all of the Townshend Act. Parliament kept one tax - the tea tax - to uphold its right to tax the colonies. - Peace and stability returned to the colonies, but only temporarily.

Battle of Kings Mountain

- Ferguson tried to subdue the people living in the Appalachian Mountains. "Over Mountain Men" put together a militia. They intercepted Ferguson at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780, and destroyed his army. - was a turning point in the South. Southern farmers, furious with British treatment, began organizing their own forces. - New American commander General Nathaniel Greene, decided to wear down the British in battle while militia destroyed their supplies. He organized the militia into small units to carry out hit-and-run raids against British camps and supply wagons. Francis Marion, known as the "Swamp Fox", led the most famous of these units. The strategy worked. - By late 1781, the British controlled very little of the South except for Savannah, Charles Town, and Wilmington.

Count Rochambeau

- French General. - He learned that a french fleet commanded by Admiral de Grasse was on its way north from the Caribbean.

James Wolfe

- General - sailed to to Quebec - defeated the french troops protecting the city of Quebec.

Saratoga

- General Burgoyne did not know Howe had gone south to attack Philadelphia. - June 1777, he and an estimated 8,000 troops marched south from Quebec to New York. He seized Fort Ticonderoga with its large store of gunpowder and supplies. After that his march slowed down to a crawl and American troops removed al the crops and cattle from the region in an effort to cut off the British Food Supply. - Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga where he was surrounded by an American army 3x the size of his own. - October 17, 1777 he surrendered to General Gates. - More than 5,000 British soldiers were taken prisioner.

The Boston Tea Party

- Lord North (Britian's prime minister) made a serious mistake by deciding to help the East India Company who was deeply in debt. - Corrupt management and costly wars in India had put the company in debt. - at same time British taxes on tea had encouraged colonial merchants to smuggle in cheaper Dutch Tea. - because of all this the company had over 17 million pounds of tea that it needed to sell quickly.

Battle of Bunker Hill

- helped to build American confidence. - it showed that the colonial militia could stand up to one of the world's most feared armies. - British suffered more than 1,000 casualties in the fighting. Shortly afterward, General Gage resigned and was replaced with by General William Howe. - situation became a stalemate, with the British troops encircled by colonial militia.

Townshend Acts

- In 1767 Charles Townshend, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced new regulations and taxes. - One of the acts was the Revenue Act of 1767. This put new customs duties on glass, lead, paper, paint, and tea imported by the colonies. Violators of the Revenue act had to face trial in vice-admiralty chorts which did not have juries or follow the common law. - Also allowed officials to seize private property under certain circumstances without following due process. - Revenue act legalized the use of writs of assistance - which was general search warrants that enabled customs officers to enter any location during the day to look for evidence of smuggling.

The Olive Branch Petition

- July 1775 sent this to King George III. - Written by John Dickinson, it stated tha the colonies were still loyal to the king and asked him to call off hostilities and resolve the situation peacefully. - in meantime radical delegates of the Congress convinced the body to order an attack on the British troops based in Quebec. Hoped attack would convince the French in Quebec to rebel and join in fighting the British. - American forces captured the city of Montreal, but the French did not rebel. This attack convinced British there was no chance of reconciliation so when the act arrived the King refused to open it and instead proclaimed tha the colonies were now "open and avowed enemies" and ordered the military to surpress the rebellion in America.

The Tea Act of 1773

- Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773. - It refunded four-fifths of the taxes the company had to pay to ship tea to the colonies, leaving only the Townshend Tax. East India Company tea could not be sold at lower prices than the smuggled Dutch Tea. - also allowed the East India Company to sell directly to shopkeepers, bypassing American Merchants who usually distriubted the tea. - this enraged the colonial merchants, who feared it was the first step by the British to squeeze them out of business.

Sugar Act

- Same as American Revenue Act of 1764 - It raised the tax rates on imports of raw sugar and molasses. Placed new taxes on silk, wine, coffee, pimento, and indigo. - Merchants complained to Parliment that the act hurt trade. Many were also furious that the act violated several traditional English rights.

Benjamin Franklin

- notes that the "Common Sense" (which sold 100,000 copies) is working a powerful change in the minds of men. - signed the Declaration of Independence - American Revolution: In September 1776 the Congress sent him to France to ask for troops. - French and Indian War: Washington led a committee which issued the Albany Plan of Union which proposed that the colonies unite to form a federal government. (but it was rejected but did show that many colonial leaders had begun to think about joining together for their common defense.)

Valley Forge

- place where George Washington went and someone tried to take it over but didn't win. - Continental army setup their winter camp here and the living conditions were terrible. Bitter cold and food shortages killed nearly 2,500 men.

Privateer

- privately owned ships licensed by the government to attack ships of other countries.

Committees of correspondence

- Thomas Jefferson had suggested that each colony create these committees to communicate with the other colonies about British activities. - this helped unify the colonies and shape public opinion. - also helped colonial leaders coordinate their plans for resisting the British.

James Otis

- argued in one pamphlet that although Parliament could impose taxes to regulate trade, taxing Americans to pay for British programs was different because of the colonies had no representatives in Parliament. - his arguments gave rise to the popular expression, "No taxation without representation".

Thomas Paine

- published a lively and persuasive pamphlet called "Common Sense". In this pamphlet he attacks King George III. Parliament, he wrote, did nothing without the king's support. Paine agured that monarchies had been setup by seizing power from the people. King George III was a tyrant, and it was time to declare independence. - He wrote another pamphlet called "American Crisis" where we reminded Americans that "the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph"

The Quartering Act

- required local officials to provide lodging for British soldiers, in private homes if necessary.

Paul Revere

- rode to Lexington to warn that the British were coming. - he was stopped by the British patrol before he could make it to warn Concord.

The Gaspee Affair

- to intercept smugglers, the British sent customs ships to patrol North American waters. One such ship was the Gaspee, stationed off the coast of Rhode Island. - The Rhode Islanders hated the commander of the Gaspee because he often searched ships without a warrant and sent his crew ashore to seize food without paying for it. - June 1772 the Gaspee ran aground, some 150 colonists seized and burned the ship.

Charles Cornwallis

- was left in command of Charles Town

Parliament

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The French and Indian War

1754 - 1763 - war between France and England for control of North America.

Loyalists or Tories

Americans who supported the British side in the conflict of Parliament policies. - came from all parts of American society. - many were government officials or Anglican ministers. Others were prominent merchants and landowners. Even back country farmers remained loyal because they regarded the King as their protector against the planters and merchants who controlled the local government.

Continental Congress

Committee of people that represent each state and send information to each other about the British.

nonimportation agreement

In November 1765, 200 merchants signed this agreement pledging not to buy any British goods until Parliament repealed the Stamp Act. - thousands of workers lost their jobs as orders from colonies were cancelled. - British merchants could not collect money the colonies owed them. - with thousands of protests mounting in both American and British colonies, British lawmakers repealed the act in 1766. - Parliament passed the Declaratory Act which affirmed that Parliament had the power to make laws for the colonies.

Intolerable Acts

This was a combination of both The Coercive Acts and the Quebec Acts.

The Declaratory Act

This act affirmed that Parliament had the power to make laws for the colonies.

Shot heard 'round the world

This is the first shot fired during the arms stand off between British forces and local militia in Lexington. - later escalated to engagements at Old North Bridge and Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Marquis de Lafayette

was from France and joined George Washington at Valley Forge. Helped Washington improve discipline and boost morale among the weary troops despite the camp's harsh conditions.