The American Revolution

Essential Questions
• Why did England increase colonial taxation in the years leading up to
the Revolution?
• Why did England move away from a policy of “salutary neglect”?
• Which colonial leaders stood out as the most vocal and most radical?
• What British policies and laws caused the strongest colonial reaction?
• Why did the British government continue to tax the colonies without
allowing them representation in Parliament?
• Why did the American Revolution become a battle of ideas, rather
than simply a military conflict?
• How did the Revolution affect women, blacks, and Indians?
• How did the Revolution create a new “American character”?
 England and the Colonies (1763)
• Victorious in French and
Indian War
• British territory in North
America doubled
• British military and
economy stretched thin
• England expected colonies
to help pay for war
• Colonists’ view of The green area indicates British holdings as a
result of the Treaty of Paris.
these expectations
 Pontiac’s Rebellion and the
Proclamation of 1763
• Ottawa chief Pontiac
• Led Indian confederacy
against British forts
and outposts
• Rebellion crushed
• British government created
Proclamation Line
• Colonists angered

Map showing the Proclamation Line of 1763

 “Salutary Neglect”
• Unofficial British trade policy
• Restrictive trade laws affecting colonies not
strictly enforced
• Belief that non-enforcement would help colonies’
economic growth
• Britain began to enforce laws more strictly after
French and Indian War
 Discussion Questions
1. What differences in views did the British and the
colonists have about each other in 1763? Why?
2. How did Pontiac’s Rebellion affect the relationship
between the colonies and England? Why?
3. Why did the British follow a policy of “salutary
neglect” in regard to colonial trade? What led them
to abandon this policy?
Navigation Acts and Molasses Act
• Navigation Act designed to
protect British/colonial
shipping industries
• Barred some goods from
export to anywhere
but Britain/colonies
• Molasses Act taxed French
West Indian molasses
• Colonists had to buy higher-
priced British West Indian
molasses; smuggling ensued
A copy of the Molasses Act
 The Sugar Act (1764)
• Passed under Grenville to
replace Molasses Act
• Taxed sugar, coffee,
indigo, wine
• Violators tried by
military courts
• Colonists upset about
“taxation without
representation”

Colonists meeting about the Sugar Act

 The Stamp Act
• Passed by Parliament
in 1765
• Required an official stamp
on all printed materials
• Stamps proved tax had
been paid
• Direct tax
• Greatly angered colonists
A tax stamp
The Stamp Act: Opposition Grows
• “The Loyal Nine”
• Tax collectors burned in effigy,
tarred and feathered
• Massachusetts Governor
Hutchinson’s home was
burned down

A colonial cartoon criticizing the

Stamp Act
 The Stamp Act Congress
• New York, October 1765
• Nine colonies sent delegates
• Admitted that England had
the right to make laws
regarding the colonies
• Protested taxation
without representation
Members of the Stamp Act Congress debating
the issues before it
• Resolutions called for
boycotts of British goods
 The Sons of Liberty
• Colonial group formed to
protest the Stamp Act
• Members included Revere,
Warren, Henry, Hancock,
J. Adams
• Later organized Boston
Tea Party

Members of the Sons of Liberty tarring and

feathering a stampmaster; note also the noose
in the background of the picture.
 Committees of
Correspondence
• Created as an information
network for those opposed to
British policies
• Idea first suggested by
Samuel Adams
• First committee created, 1764
• Later used to coordinate First
Continental Congress

Samuel Adams
 The Declaratory Act
• Accompanied Stamp Act repeal
• Parliament agreed to repeal Stamp Act if Declaratory
Act was passed
• Declared that Britain had the right to make laws
affecting the colonies even without colonial
representation in Parliament
• Some colonial leaders saw Declaratory Act as proof
that further taxation laws would be enacted
 The Townshend Acts
• Introduced by
Chancellor Townshend
• Indirect taxation of many
everyday transactions
• Colonists still resistant
• British sent troops to Boston

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Charles Townshend
 Discussion Questions
1. How did the Navigation Acts and Molasses Act turn
many colonists into smugglers?
2. What items did the Stamp Act tax? Why did
colonists strongly resist this tax? Why did the
British repeal the tax?
3. What made the Townshend Acts different than the
Stamp Act? What items did they tax? Why did the
colonists oppose these acts?
 The Boston Massacre
• March 1770
• British soldiers killed
five protestors
• Crispus Attucks among
the dead
• John Adams represented
soldiers at trial
• Most found not guilty

Paul Revere’s famous engraving of

the massacre
 The Boston Tea Party
• British East India Co. given
tea monopoly
• Pushed prices down; tea
still taxed
• Colonists kept tea ships
from unloading
• Sons of Liberty threw
An 1846 engraving of the Boston Tea Party
tea overboard
• British responded with
“Intolerable Acts”
 “The Intolerable Acts”
• Called the “Coercive Acts”
in Britain
• Punishment for the
Boston Tea Party
• Boston Port Act
• Administration of
Justice Act
A cartoon protesting the Intolerable Acts • Massachusetts
Government Act
 First Continental Congress
• Philadelphia, Sept. 1774
• Included Washington,
Adams, Henry
• Galloway Plan of Union
• Suffolk Resolves
• Continental Association
• Declaration of Rights
and Grievances
A mural in the U.S. Capitol showing Patrick
• Planned to reconvene Henry speaking to the Continental Congress
in 1775
Lexington and Concord
• April 1775
• General Gage ordered
weapons and supplies at
Concord seized
• Revere and others warned
minutemen about the
coming attack
• Eight minutemen killed at
Lexington; heavy British
Paul Revere losses at Concord
 Discussion Questions
1. What events led to the Boston Massacre? What
happened to the British soldiers involved in
the shooting?
2. Why did the Sons of Liberty carry out the Boston
Tea Party? How did the British respond?
3. What was the purpose of the First Continental
Congress? Who were some of the delegates?
4. Why did the British march on Lexington and
Concord? What happened at these two sites?
The Fall of Fort Ticonderoga
• Patriots saw fort as key to
possible British invasion
from Canada
• Held large amount of
artillery and cannon
• Lightly defended
• Allen and Arnold
commanded the force that
This engraving shows the 1775 capture
of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen
took the fort
(with sword)
 Second Continental Congress
• Philadelphia, May 1775
• More radical than First Continental Congress
• New members included Jefferson and Washington
• Delegates faced with dilemma of negotiating with
British while raising an army
• Washington appointed commander of the new
Continental Army
 Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill)
• Hill provided locations for
colonists to attack
British troops
• Colonists fortified
Breed’s Hill
• British managed to take hill
on third charge
• Over 1000 British and about
British troops attempt to take the colonial
400 Continental position at Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill)
soldiers killed outside Boston
“The Olive Branch Petition”
• July 1775
• Written by John Dickinson
• Last attempt at peace
with England
• George III refused to
receive the petition;
declared the colonies in
rebellion in late August

John Dickinson
The Declaration of the Causes and
Necessity of Taking Up Arms
• Written by Jefferson and Dickinson
• Approved by Congress the day after adopting the
Olive Branch Petition
• Contained pledge of loyalty to George III
• Included a threat of colonial independence if the
British did not recognize colonial rights
 Discussion Questions
1. What made the Second Continental Congress
different than the first? What dilemma did it face?
What military issue did it address?
2. What happened at the Battle of Bunker Hill? What
did George III do when he heard about the battle?
3. What was the Olive Branch Petition? How did
George III respond to it?
 Common Sense
• Written by Thomas Paine,
early 1776
• Gave easily understandable
arguments for a split
with Britain
• Convinced many more to
support independence
• Sold over 150,000 copies

Thomas Paine
Moving Toward Independence
• Common Sense led many to
think differently about the
conflict with England
• Lee’s independence
resolution
• Committee of Five formed;
Jefferson selected to write
the document

Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson (from left)

editing the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson
• Born 1743, in Virginia
• Studied law
• Virginia House
of Burgesses
• Wrote several works other
than Declaration
of Independence
• Governor of Virginia
• President of the U.S.
 Declaring Independence:
Advantages
• France might provide military and financial aid
• Colonies could act as an independent nation
• Captured soldiers would receive better treatment
• Would make a statement about rights
• Freedom from British “tyranny”
 Declaring Independence:
Disadvantages
• Colonists might lose support of British who favored
colonial representation
• Leaders could be tried and executed as traitors
• Colonies poorly prepared to fight a war
• Colonies would cut themselves off from England;
many had a sentimental attachment to mother country
 Debate Over the Declaration
• July 2nd: Congress accepted
Lee’s resolution
of independence
• July 3rd–4th: Debated
Jefferson’s document
• July 4th: Accepted and
signed Jefferson’s
John Trumbull’s famous painting, in which the
Declaration Committee of Five presents the Declaration to
of Independence Continental Congress President Hancock

• Deleted passage criticizing

slave trade
The Declaration of Independence
• Preamble includes statement
regarding natural rights and
basis for republican
government
• Grievances (complaints)
against the king
• Formal declaration of war
 From the Declaration
of Independence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed,—That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new Government…”
 Creating a National Government
• Declaration was not a
system of government
• Articles of Confederation
sent to states for approval
late 1777; ratified 1781
• Weak central government
based on Congress’s
authority; states
kept sovereign
• Articles replaced in 1787
The front page of a copy of the Articles
 Discussion Questions
1. What aspect of Common Sense made it so popular in
early 1776? What was the purpose of the pamphlet?
2. What was the Committee of Five, and who was on
it? Why was Jefferson selected to write what
became the Declaration of Independence?
3. What were some of the advantages of the colonies’
declaring independence? Disadvantages?
4. What are the three sections of the Declaration of
Independence, and what was the purpose of each?
Colonial Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths Weaknesses
• “Home-field advantage” • Fighting the strongest
• Support of most civilians military force in world
• Fighting for a cause • Lack of a navy
• Better military leaders • Less military training
• Different tactics • Had smaller forces
• Support from France and • Poorly supplied
other nations • Desertions
British Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths Weaknesses
• More troops, including • Long supply lines
Hessians, Indians, slaves • War lost support on
• Better trained home front
• Better equipped • Lack of effective generals
• Large amount of supplies
 Hessians
• German soldiers paid to fight
alongside the British
• Nearly 30,000 Hessians came to
North America
• About 5000 decided to stay

A Hessian in uniform
 Loyalists (Tories)
• Colonists who remained loyal to
England during the Revolution
• Frequently wealthy
and influential
• Included royal officeholders,
Anglican clergy, landholders
• Some harassed, had
property seized
• Thousands emigrated after
the Revolution

Colonists preparing to tar and

feather some Loyalists
 The New York Campaign
• Washington miscalculated
Howe’s strategy
• Battle of Long Island
• Howe did not pursue
Washington aggressively
• Colonial forces escaped to
New Jersey
• Washington developed
different strategies

Troop movements at the Battle

of Long Island
 Trenton and Princeton
• December 1776
• Howe retreated to
winter quarters
• Washington attacked
posts at Trenton
and Princeton
• Crossing the Delaware Washington Crossing the Delaware, created
in 1851 by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze
• Hessians defeated at
Trenton and Princeton
• Victories raised morale
 Discussion Questions
1. What were some colonial strengths and weaknesses
at the start of the war?
2. What were some British strengths and weaknesses at
the start of the war?
3. What happened at the battles of Trenton and
Princeton? What was the significance of
these battles?
 The Fall of Philadelphia
• Howe marched to
Philadelphia area instead
of Albany
• Defeated Washington
at Brandywine
• Howe moved into
Philadelphia
without resistance Washington and his men at the
Battle of Brandywine
• British took
American capital
British Strategy
• Three-pronged attack
• Burgoyne’s,
St. Leger’s, and
Howe’s forces to meet
at Albany, New York
• None of the
commanders
reached Albany
 Burgoyne’s Mistakes
• Overconfident
• Oversupplied
• Did not know terrain
• Continental troops slowed
him further by cutting trees
in his path
• His army was
soon surrounded

Gen. John Burgoyne

 Victory at Saratoga
• Americans led by
Schuyler, Arnold,
and Gates
• Set up defenses
around Saratoga
• Pushed Burgoyne’s
forces back twice
• Laid siege to
Burgoyne surrenders to American forces
British lines
• Burgoyne surrendered,
October 1777
 Alliance With France
• British loss at Saratoga
convinced France to
aid Americans
• France wanted revenge after
loss in French and
Indian War
• Treaty of Alliance and
Treaty of Amity
and Commerce
• Spain also provided aid Benjamin Franklin (center) at the royal
French Court in 1778
Final British Attempt at Peace
• Coercive Acts and Tea Act would be repealed
• Parliament would pledge never to tax the colonies
• Parliament delayed approving deal until March 1778
• British envoys arrived in Philadelphia after colonies
signed treaties with France
• Americans rejected peace proposal
• France declared war on England
 Valley Forge
• Winter 1777
• Washington’s winter
headquarters
near Philadelphia
• Harsh conditions
• Men underfed and
poorly clothed
• Prussian military training
An 1866 engraving shows General
Washington at Valley Forge on one knee
praying, while soldiers wait nearby
 Discussion Questions
1. What was the British three-pronged strategy for
defeating the colonies?
2. What mistakes did British General Burgoyne make that
led to his surrender at Saratoga?
3. Why did France decide to assist the colonies after the
Battle of Saratoga? What steps did they take to aid
the colonies?
4. Why did Washington choose to camp at Valley Forge in
the winter of 1777? What kinds of conditions did the
men there endure?
Foreign Soldiers in the Revolution
• Lafayette: French
nobleman who served
at Valley Forge
• Von Steuben:
Prussian drillmaster
• Pulaski: Father of Lafayette

American cavalry

Von Steuben

Pulaski
 Battles on the Frontier
• British encouraged Indian
raids on settlers
• Clark sent to stop raids in
Kentucky territory
• Clark attacked British at
Cahokia, Kaskaskia,
and Vincennes
• Victories ensured the U.S.
would get the Northwest
George Rogers Clark accepts the Territory after the war
British surrender of Ft. Sackville,
in Vincennes, Indiana
 Benedict Arnold
• Disagreements with other
generals, angered at
treatment by Congress
• Offered to deliver West
Point to British
• British Major Andre acted
as go-between
• Arnold defected to British;
was rewarded but
never trusted

Benedict Arnold
 Major Southern Battles
• British changed strategy to focus
on southern region
• Major British victory
at Charleston
• British actions convinced many
southern Loyalists to join
Patriot cause
• Spanish captured Pensacola
and Mobile
• Gates defeated at Camden;
Francis Marion, the Patriot
“Swamp Fox”
replaced by Greene
 Yorktown
• Cornwallis ordered to
establish base
at Yorktown
• French and American
forces surrounded
Yorktown
• Cornwallis surrendered,
October 19, 1781 John Trumbull’s painting of the surrender of
• Last major battle of British forces at Yorktown

the Revolution
 Discussion Questions
1. What influence did foreign soldiers have on
American forces during the Revolutionary War?
Who were some of the better-known
foreign soldiers?
2. What was the importance of the frontier battles in
the Revolutionary War? What major battles took
place in the Kentucky territory?
3. How did the American and French forces win at
Yorktown? What was the importance of this battle?
 The Treaty of Paris: Negotiations
• Formal independence
from Britain
• Separate treaties for France
and America
• American commissioners
Adams, Franklin, Jay,
Jefferson, Laurens
• Franklin and Jay did most of Benjamin West left his famous painting of the
the negotiating treaty negotiations unfinished because British
commissioners would not sit for the picture
• Treaty signed in 1783
 The Treaty of Paris: Terms
• American independence
• Set U.S. boundaries
• British to evacuate
frontier forts
• Return of Loyalist property
• Why the British agreed to
In this map of North America after the the terms
treaty, the U.S. is shown in white
 State Constitutions
• Similarities to/differences from colonial constitutions
• Three branches of government
• Powers given to states
• Authority resided in the legislature
• Included bills of rights
• Drawn from best parts of British system
Revolutionary-Era Social Reforms

• Greater separation of church and state

• Moves against slavery
• Elimination of “aristocracy”
• Breakup of large estates
• Governments became more responsive to
citizens’ needs
 Land Redistribution
• Size of new nation
doubled after the war
• Land Ordinance provided
for sale and survey of
Northwest Territory
• Northwest Ordinance
allowed for forming states
This surveyor’s sketch shows how
township sections were created by the out of the territory
Land Ordinance of 1785
 The Role of Women
• Women took over many
traditionally male tasks
during the war
• Some fought in disguise in
Continental Army
• Role of Abigail Adams
• Women received more
educational opportunities

Abigail Adams
African Americans in the War
• Some Americans saw
British “tyranny” as a form
of slavery
• Slavery criticized on moral
and economic grounds
• British promised freedom to
slaves who fought for them
• Blacks also fought for
Continental Army

Slave James Armistead spied for

George Washington
 The Role of Native Americans
• Declaration accused George III of inciting
“Indian savages”
• Most Native Americans sought to stay out of the war
• Some tribes sided with the colonies
• Others allied with England to try to keep colonists
from taking their land
 Creation of the
“American Character”
• “New nationalism”
• People began to see themselves as Americans rather
than British subjects
• Citizens of a nation rather than individual colonies
• War had led many to travel to and meet people from
places they wouldn’t otherwise
• Impact of Revolutionary ideals both at home
and worldwide
 Discussion Questions
1. What did the Americans gain from the Treaty of
Paris? Why did the British see an advantage in
giving the Americans such generous terms?
2. What roles did women, African Americans, and
Native Americans play in the war?
3. How did the Revolution create a new
“American character”?