How did the colonists manage to triumph in their battle for independence despite Great Britain’s military might? If any of these factors had been different, how might it have affected the outcome of the war?
ConnorGL
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CHAPTER 6
America's War for Independence,
1775-1783
Figure 6.1 This famous 1819 painting by John Trumbull shows members of the
committee entrusted with drafting
the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Continental Congress
in 1776. Note the British flags on
the wall. Separating from the British Empire proved to be very difficult as the
colonies and the Empire were linked
with strong cultural, historical, and economic bonds forged over several
generations.
Chapter Outline
6.1 Britain’s Law-and-Order Strategy and Its Consequences
6.2 The Early Years of the Revolution
6.3 War in the South
6.4 Identity during the American Revolution
Introduction
By the 1770s, Great Britain ruled a vast empire, with its American colonies
producing useful raw materials
and profitably consuming British goods. From Britain’s perspective, it was
inconceivable that the colonies
would wage a successful war for independence; in 1776, they appeared weak and
disorganized, no match
for the Empire. Yet, although the Revolutionary War did indeed drag on for eight
years, in 1783, the
thirteen colonies, now the United States, ultimately prevailed against the British.
The Revolution succeeded because colonists from diverse economic and social
backgrounds united in their
opposition to Great Britain. Although thousands of colonists remained loyal to the
crown and many others
preferred to remain neutral, a sense of community against a common enemy prevailed
among Patriots.
The signing of the Declaration of Independence (Figure 6.1) exemplifies the spirit
of that common cause.
Representatives asserted: “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be
Free and Independent
States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, . . . And
for the support of this
Declaration, . . . we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our
sacred Honor.”
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6.1 Britain’s Law-and-Order Strategy and Its Consequences
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain how Great Britain’s response to the destruction of a British
shipment of tea in
Boston Harbor in 1773 set the stage for the Revolution
• Describe the beginnings of the American Revolution
Great Britain pursued a policy of law and order when dealing with the crises in the
colonies in the late
1760s and 1770s. Relations between the British and many American Patriots worsened
over the decade,
culminating in an unruly mob destroying a fortune in tea by dumping it into Boston
Harbor in December
1773 as a protest against British tax laws. The harsh British response to this act
in 1774, which included
sending British troops to Boston and closing Boston Harbor, caused tensions and
resentments to escalate
further. The British tried to disarm the insurgents in Massachusetts by
confiscating their weapons and
ammunition and arresting the leaders of the patriotic movement. However, this
effort faltered on April 19,
when Massachusetts militias and British troops fired on each other as British
troops marched to Lexington
and Concord, an event immortalized by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as the “shot heard
round the world.”
The American Revolution had begun.
ON THE EVE OF REVOLUTION
The decade from 1763 to 1774 was a difficult one for the British Empire. Although
Great Britain had
defeated the French in the French and Indian War, the debt from that conflict
remained a stubborn and
seemingly unsolvable problem for both Great Britain and the colonies. Great Britain
tried various methods
of raising revenue on both sides of the Atlantic to manage the enormous debt,
including instituting a tax
on tea and other goods sold to the colonies by British companies, but many subjects
resisted these taxes. In
the colonies, Patriot groups like the Sons of Liberty led boycotts of British goods
and took violent measures
that stymied British officials.
Boston proved to be the epicenter of protest. In December 1773, a group of Patriots
protested the Tea Act
passed that year—which, among other provisions, gave the East India Company a
monopoly on tea—by
boarding British tea ships docked in Boston Harbor and dumping tea worth over $1
million (in current
Figure 6.2
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
157
prices) into the water. The destruction of the tea radically escalated the crisis
between Great Britain and
the American colonies. When the Massachusetts Assembly refused to pay for the tea,
Parliament enacted
a series of laws called the Coercive Acts, which some colonists called the
Intolerable Acts. Parliament
designed these laws, which closed the port of Boston, limited the meetings of the
colonial assembly, and
disbanded all town meetings, to punish Massachusetts and bring the colony into
line. However, many
British Americans in other colonies were troubled and angered by Parliament’s
response to Massachusetts.
In September and October 1774, all the colonies except Georgia participated in the
First Continental
Congress in Philadelphia. The Congress advocated a boycott of all British goods and
established the
Continental Association to enforce local adherence to the boycott. The Association
supplanted royal
control and shaped resistance to Great Britain.
AMERICANA
Joining the Boycott
Many British colonists in Virginia, as in the other colonies,
disapproved of the destruction of the tea
in Boston Harbor. However, after the passage of the Coercive Acts, the
Virginia House of Burgesses
declared its solidarity with Massachusetts by encouraging Virginians to
observe a day of fasting and
prayer on May 24 in sympathy with the people of Boston. Almost
immediately thereafter, Virginia’s
colonial governor dissolved the House of Burgesses, but many of its
members met again in secret on
May 30 and adopted a resolution stating that “the Colony of Virginia
will concur with the other Colonies in
such Measures as shall be judged most effectual for the preservation of
the Common Rights and Liberty
of British America.”
After the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Virginia’s
Committee of Safety ensured that all
merchants signed the non-importation agreements that the Congress had
proposed. This British cartoon
(Figure 6.3) shows a Virginian signing the Continental Association
boycott agreement.
Figure 6.3 In “The Alternative of Williams-Burg” (1775), a merchant has
to sign a non-importation
agreement or risk being covered with the tar and feathers suspended
behind him.
Note the tar and feathers hanging from the gallows in the background of
this image and the demeanor of
the people surrounding the signer. What is the message of this
engraving? Where are the sympathies of
the artist? What is the meaning of the title “The Alternative of
Williams-Burg?”
In an effort to restore law and order in Boston, the British dispatched General
Thomas Gage to the
New England seaport. He arrived in Boston in May 1774 as the new royal governor of
the Province of
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Massachusetts, accompanied by several regiments of British troops. As in 1768, the
British again occupied
the town. Massachusetts delegates met in a Provincial Congress and published the
Suffolk Resolves, which
officially rejected the Coercive Acts and called for the raising of colonial
militias to take military action if
needed. The Suffolk Resolves signaled the overthrow of the royal government in
Massachusetts.
Both the British and the rebels in New England began to prepare for conflict by
turning their attention to
supplies of weapons and gunpowder. General Gage stationed thirty-five hundred
troops in Boston, and
from there he ordered periodic raids on towns where guns and gunpowder were
stockpiled, hoping to
impose law and order by seizing them. As Boston became the headquarters of British
military operations,
many residents fled the city.
Gage’s actions led to the formation of local rebel militias that were able to
mobilize in a minute’s time.
These minutemen, many of whom were veterans of the French and Indian War, played an
important
role in the war for independence. In one instance, General Gage seized munitions in
Cambridge and
Charlestown, but when he arrived to do the same in Salem, his troops were met by a
large crowd of
minutemen and had to leave empty-handed. In New Hampshire, minutemen took over Fort
William and
Mary and confiscated weapons and cannons there. New England readied for war.
THE OUTBREAK OF FIGHTING
Throughout late 1774 and into 1775, tensions in New England continued to mount.
General Gage knew
that a powder magazine was stored in Concord, Massachusetts, and on April 19, 1775,
he ordered troops
to seize these munitions. Instructions from London called for the arrest of rebel
leaders Samuel Adams and
John Hancock. Hoping for secrecy, his troops left Boston under cover of darkness,
but riders from Boston
let the militias know of the British plans. (Paul Revere was one of these riders,
but the British captured
him and he never finished his ride. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow memorialized Revere
in his 1860 poem,
“Paul Revere’s Ride,” incorrectly implying that he made it all the way to Concord.)
Minutemen met the
British troops and skirmished with them, first at Lexington and then at Concord
(Figure 6.4). The British
retreated to Boston, enduring ambushes from several other militias along the way.
Over four thousand
militiamen took part in these skirmishes with British soldiers. Seventy-three
British soldiers and forty-
nine Patriots died during the British retreat to Boston. The famous confrontation
is the basis for Emerson’s
“Concord Hymn” (1836), which begins with the description of the “shot heard round
the world.” Although
propagandists on both sides pointed fingers, it remains unclear who fired that
shot.
Figure 6.4 Amos Doolittle was an American printmaker who volunteered to fight
against the British. His engravings
of the battles of Lexington and Concord—such as this detail from The Battle of
Lexington, April 19th 1775—are the
only contemporary American visual records of the events there.
After the battles of Lexington and Concord, New England fully mobilized for war.
Thousands of militias
from towns throughout New England marched to Boston, and soon the city was besieged
by a sea of rebel
forces (Figure 6.5). In May 1775, Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold led a
group of rebels against
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
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Fort Ticonderoga in New York. They succeeded in capturing the fort, and cannons
from Ticonderoga were
brought to Massachusetts and used to bolster the Siege of Boston.
Figure 6.5 This 1779 map shows details of the British and Patriot troops in and
around Boston, Massachusetts, at
the beginning of the war.
In June, General Gage resolved to take Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill, the high
ground across the Charles
River from Boston, a strategic site that gave the rebel militias an advantage since
they could train their
cannons on the British. In the Battle of Bunker Hill (Figure 6.6), on June 17, the
British launched three
assaults on the hills, gaining control only after the rebels ran out of ammunition.
British losses were very
high—over two hundred were killed and eight hundred wounded—and, despite his
victory, General Gage
was unable to break the colonial forces’ siege of the city. In August, King George
III declared the colonies
to be in a state of rebellion. Parliament and many in Great Britain agreed with
their king. Meanwhile, the
British forces in Boston found themselves in a terrible predicament, isolated in
the city and with no control
over the countryside.
Figure 6.6 The British cartoon “Bunkers Hill or America’s Head Dress” (a) depicts
the initial rebellion as an elaborate
colonial coiffure. The illustration pokes fun at both the colonial rebellion and
the overdone hairstyles for women that
had made their way from France and Britain to the American colonies. Despite
gaining control of the high ground
after the colonial militias ran out of ammunition, General Thomas Gage (b), shown
here in a painting made in
1768–1769 by John Singleton Copley, was unable to break the siege of the city.
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In the end, General George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army
since June 15, 1775,
used the Fort Ticonderoga cannons to force the evacuation of the British from
Boston. Washington had
positioned these cannons on the hills overlooking both the fortified positions of
the British and Boston
Harbor, where the British supply ships were anchored. The British could not return
fire on the colonial
positions because they could not elevate their cannons. They soon realized that
they were in an untenable
position and had to withdraw from Boston. On March 17, 1776, the British evacuated
their troops to
Halifax, Nova Scotia, ending the nearly year-long siege.
By the time the British withdrew from Boston, fighting had broken out in other
colonies as well. In May
1775, Mecklenburg County in North Carolina issued the Mecklenburg Resolves, stating
that a rebellion
against Great Britain had begun, that colonists did not owe any further allegiance
to Great Britain, and
that governing authority had now passed to the Continental Congress. The resolves
also called upon the
formation of militias to be under the control of the Continental Congress.
Loyalists and Patriots clashed in
North Carolina in February 1776 at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge.
In Virginia, the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, raised Loyalist forces to combat the
rebel colonists and also
tried to use the large slave population to put down the rebellion. In November
1775, he issued a decree,
known as Dunmore’s Proclamation, promising freedom to slaves and indentured
servants of rebels who
remained loyal to the king and who pledged to fight with the Loyalists against the
insurgents. Dunmore’s
Proclamation exposed serious problems for both the Patriot cause and for the
British. In order for the
British to put down the rebellion, they needed the support of Virginia’s
landowners, many of whom
owned slaves. (While Patriot slaveholders in Virginia and elsewhere proclaimed they
acted in defense of
liberty, they kept thousands in bondage, a fact the British decided to exploit.)
Although a number of slaves
did join Dunmore’s side, the proclamation had the unintended effect of galvanizing
Patriot resistance to
Britain. From the rebels’ point of view, the British looked to deprive them of
their slave property and incite
a race war. Slaveholders feared a slave uprising and increased their commitment to
the cause against Great
Britain, calling for independence. Dunmore fled Virginia in 1776.
COMMON SENSE
With the events of 1775 fresh in their minds, many colonists reached the conclusion
in 1776 that the
time had come to secede from the Empire and declare independence. Over the past ten
years, these
colonists had argued that they deserved the same rights as Englishmen enjoyed in
Great Britain, only to
find themselves relegated to an intolerable subservient status in the Empire. The
groundswell of support
for their cause of independence in 1776 also owed much to the appearance of an
anonymous pamphlet,
first published in January 1776, entitled Common Sense. Thomas Paine, who had
emigrated from England
to Philadelphia in 1774, was the author. Arguably the most radical pamphlet of the
revolutionary era,
Common Sense made a powerful argument for independence.
Paine’s pamphlet rejected the monarchy, calling King George III a “royal brute” and
questioning the right
of an island (England) to rule over America. In this way, Paine helped to channel
colonial discontent
toward the king himself and not, as had been the case, toward the British
Parliament—a bold move
that signaled the desire to create a new political order disavowing monarchy
entirely. He argued for the
creation of an American republic, a state without a king, and extolled the
blessings of republicanism,
a political philosophy that held that elected representatives, not a hereditary
monarch, should govern
states. The vision of an American republic put forward by Paine included the idea
of popular sovereignty:
citizens in the republic would determine who would represent them, and decide other
issues, on the basis
of majority rule. Republicanism also served as a social philosophy guiding the
conduct of the Patriots in
their struggle against the British Empire. It demanded adherence to a code of
virtue, placing the public
good and community above narrow self-interest.
Paine wrote Common Sense (Figure 6.7) in simple, direct language aimed at ordinary
people, not just the
learned elite. The pamphlet proved immensely popular and was soon available in all
thirteen colonies,
where it helped convince many to reject monarchy and the British Empire in favor of
independence and a
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
161
republican form of government.
Figure 6.7 Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (a) helped convince many colonists of the
need for independence from
Great Britain. Paine, shown here in a portrait by Laurent Dabos (b), was a
political activist and revolutionary best
known for his writings on both the American and French Revolutions.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
In the summer of 1776, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and agreed to
sever ties with Great
Britain. Virginian Thomas Jefferson and John Adams of Massachusetts, with the
support of the Congress,
articulated the justification for liberty in the Declaration of Independence
(Figure 6.8). The Declaration,
written primarily by Jefferson, included a long list of grievances against King
George III and laid out
the foundation of American government as a republic in which the consent of the
governed would be of
paramount importance.
Figure 6.8 The Dunlap Broadsides, one of which is shown here, are considered the
first published copies of the
Declaration of Independence. This one was printed on July 4, 1776.
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
The preamble to the Declaration began with a statement of Enlightenment principles
about universal
human rights and values: “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 abolish it.”
In addition to this statement of
principles, the document served another purpose: Patriot leaders sent copies to
France and Spain in hopes
of winning their support and aid in the contest against Great Britain. They
understood how important
foreign recognition and aid would be to the creation of a new and independent
nation.
The Declaration of Independence has since had a global impact, serving as the basis
for many subsequent
movements to gain independence from other colonial powers. It is part of America’s
civil religion, and
thousands of people each year make pilgrimages to see the original document in
Washington, DC.
The Declaration also reveals a fundamental contradiction of the American
Revolution: the conflict between
the existence of slavery and the idea that “all men are created equal.” One-fifth
of the population in 1776
was enslaved, and at the time he drafted the Declaration, Jefferson himself owned
more than one hundred
slaves. Further, the Declaration framed equality as existing only among white men;
women and nonwhites
were entirely left out of a document that referred to native peoples as “merciless
Indian savages” who
indiscriminately killed men, women, and children. Nonetheless, the promise of
equality for all planted the
seeds for future struggles waged by slaves, women, and many others to bring about
its full realization.
Much of American history is the story of the slow realization of the promise of
equality expressed in the
Declaration of Independence.
Click and Explore
Visit Digital History
(http://openstaxcollege.org/l/fcombatants) to view “The
Female Combatants.” In this 1776 engraving by an
anonymous artist, Great Britain is
depicted on the left as a staid, stern matron,
while America, on the right, is shown as a
half-dressed American Indian. Why do you think
the artist depicted the two opposing
sides this way?
6.2 The Early Years of the Revolution
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain the British and American strategies of 1776 through 1778
• Identify the key battles of the early years of the Revolution
After the British quit Boston, they slowly adopted a strategy to isolate New
England from the rest of
the colonies and force the insurgents in that region into submission, believing
that doing so would end
the conflict. At first, British forces focused on taking the principal colonial
centers. They began by easily
capturing New York City in 1776. The following year, they took over the American
capital of Philadelphia.
The larger British effort to isolate New England was implemented in 1777. That
effort ultimately failed
when the British surrendered a force of over five thousand to the Americans in the
fall of 1777 at the Battle
of Saratoga.
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The major campaigns over the next several years took place in the middle colonies
of New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, whose populations were sharply divided between Loyalists
and Patriots.
Revolutionaries faced many hardships as British superiority on the battlefield
became evident and the
difficulty of funding the war caused strains.
THE BRITISH STRATEGY IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES
After evacuating Boston in March 1776, British forces sailed to Nova Scotia to
regroup. They devised a
strategy, successfully implemented in 1776, to take New York City. The following
year, they planned to
end the rebellion by cutting New England off from the rest of the colonies and
starving it into submission.
Three British armies were to move simultaneously from New York City, Montreal, and
Fort Oswego to
converge along the Hudson River; British control of that natural boundary would
isolate New England.
General William Howe (Figure 6.9), commander in chief of the British forces in
America, amassed
thirty-two thousand troops on Staten Island in June and July 1776. His brother,
Admiral Richard Howe,
controlled New York Harbor. Command of New York City and the Hudson River was their
goal. In
August 1776, General Howe landed his forces on Long Island and easily routed the
American Continental
Army there in the Battle of Long Island (August 27). The Americans were outnumbered
and lacked
both military experience and discipline. Sensing victory, General and Admiral Howe
arranged a peace
conference in September 1776, where Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and South
Carolinian John Rutledge
represented the Continental Congress. Despite the Howes’ hopes, however, the
Americans demanded
recognition of their independence, which the Howes were not authorized to grant,
and the conference
disbanded.
Figure 6.9 General William Howe, shown here in a 1777 portrait by Richard Purcell,
led British forces in America in
the first years of the war.
On September 16, 1776, George Washington’s forces held up against the British at
the Battle of Harlem
Heights. This important American military achievement, a key reversal after the
disaster on Long Island,
occurred as most of Washington’s forces retreated to New Jersey. A few weeks later,
on October 28,
General Howe’s forces defeated Washington’s at the Battle of White Plains and New
York City fell to
the British. For the next seven years, the British made the city the headquarters
for their military efforts
to defeat the rebellion, which included raids on surrounding areas. In 1777, the
British burned Danbury,
Connecticut, and in July 1779, they set fire to homes in Fairfield and Norwalk.
They held American
prisoners aboard ships in the waters around New York City; the death toll was
shocking, with thousands
perishing in the holds. Meanwhile, New York City served as a haven for Loyalists
who disagreed with the
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effort to break away from the Empire and establish an American republic.
GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
When the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in May 1775, members
approved the creation
of a professional Continental Army with Washington as commander in chief (Figure
6.10). Although
sixteen thousand volunteers enlisted, it took several years for the Continental
Army to become a truly
professional force. In 1775 and 1776, militias still composed the bulk of the
Patriots’ armed forces, and
these soldiers returned home after the summer fighting season, drastically reducing
the army’s strength.
Figure 6.10 This 1775 etching shows George Washington taking command of the
Continental Army at Cambridge,
Massachusetts, just two weeks after his appointment by the Continental Congress.
That changed in late 1776 and early 1777, when Washington broke with conventional
eighteenth-century
military tactics that called for fighting in the summer months only. Intent on
raising revolutionary morale
after the British captured New York City, he launched surprise strikes against
British forces in their
winter quarters. In Trenton, New Jersey, he led his soldiers across the Delaware
River and surprised
an encampment of Hessians, German mercenaries hired by Great Britain to put down
the American
rebellion. Beginning the night of December 25, 1776, and continuing into the early
hours of December
26, Washington moved on Trenton where the Hessians were encamped. Maintaining the
element of
surprise by attacking at Christmastime, he defeated them, taking over nine hundred
captive. On January
3, 1777, Washington achieved another much-needed victory at the Battle of
Princeton. He again broke with
eighteenth-century military protocol by attacking unexpectedly after the fighting
season had ended.
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
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DEFINING "AMERICAN"
Thomas Paine on “The American Crisis”
During the American Revolution, following the publication of Common
Sense in January 1776, Thomas
Paine began a series of sixteen pamphlets known collectively as The
American Crisis (Figure 6.11). He
wrote the first volume in 1776, describing the dire situation facing the
revolutionaries at the end of that
hard year.
Figure 6.11 Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet The American Crisis, the
first page of which is shown
here, in 1776.
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and
the sunshine patriot will,
in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he
that stands it now, deserves the
love and thanks of man and woman. . . . Britain, with an army to
enforce her tyranny, has
declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but “to bind us
in all cases whatsoever,” and
if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not
such a thing as slavery upon
earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power
can belong only to God. . . .
I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on
the state of our affairs; and
shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that
the enemy have left the New
England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war?
The answer is easy: New
England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been
tender in raising the cry against
these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their
danger, but it will not do to
sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The
period is now arrived, in which
either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must
fall. . . .
By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious
issue; by cowardice
and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils—a ravaged
country—a depopulated
city—habitations without safety, and slavery without hope—our
homes turned into barracks
and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for,
whose fathers we shall
doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet
remains one thoughtless
wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.
—Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis,” December 23, 1776
What topics does Paine address in this pamphlet? What was his purpose in
writing? What does he write
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about Tories (Loyalists), and why does he consider them a problem?
Click and Explore
Visit Wikisource
(http://openstaxcollege.org/l/amcrisis) to read the rest of Thomas
Paine’s first American Crisis pamphlet, as well
as the other fifteen in the series.
PHILADELPHIA AND SARATOGA: BRITISH AND AMERICAN VICTORIES
In August 1777, General Howe brought fifteen thousand British troops to Chesapeake
Bay as part of
his plan to take Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress met. That fall, the
British defeated
Washington’s soldiers in the Battle of Brandywine Creek and took control of
Philadelphia, forcing the
Continental Congress to flee. During the winter of 1777–1778, the British occupied
the city, and
Washington’s army camped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Washington’s winter at Valley Forge was a low point for the American forces. A lack
of supplies weakened
the men, and disease took a heavy toll. Amid the cold, hunger, and sickness,
soldiers deserted in droves.
On February 16, Washington wrote to George Clinton, governor of New York: “For some
days past, there
has been little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week
without any kind of flesh
& the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough
admire the incomparable
patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere [before] this
excited by their sufferings
to a general mutiny and dispersion.” Of eleven thousand soldiers encamped at Valley
Forge, twenty-
five hundred died of starvation, malnutrition, and disease. As Washington feared,
nearly one hundred
soldiers deserted every week. (Desertions continued, and by 1780, Washington was
executing recaptured
deserters every Saturday.) The low morale extended all the way to Congress, where
some wanted to
replace Washington with a more seasoned leader.
Assistance came to Washington and his soldiers in February 1778 in the form of the
Prussian soldier
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (Figure 6.12). Baron von Steuben was an experienced
military man, and
he implemented a thorough training course for Washington’s ragtag troops. By
drilling a small corps
of soldiers and then having them train others, he finally transformed the
Continental Army into a force
capable of standing up to the professional British and Hessian soldiers. His drill
manual—Regulations for
the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States—informed military
practices in the United States
for the next several decades.
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Figure 6.12 Prussian soldier Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, shown here in a 1786
portrait by Ralph Earl, was
instrumental in transforming Washington’s Continental Army into a professional
armed force.
Click and Explore
Explore Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben’s
Revolutionary War Drill Manual
(http://openstaxcollege.org/l/steuben) to
understand how von Steuben was able to
transform the Continental Army into a professional
fighting force. Note the tremendous
amount of precision and detail in von Steuben’s
descriptions.
Meanwhile, the campaign to sever New England from the rest of the colonies had
taken an unexpected
turn during the fall of 1777. The British had attempted to implement the plan,
drawn up by Lord George
Germain and Prime Minister Lord North, to isolate New England with the combined
forces of three armies.
One army, led by General John Burgoyne, would march south from Montreal. A second
force, led by
Colonel Barry St. Leger and made up of British troops and Iroquois, would march
east from Fort Oswego
on the banks of Lake Ontario. A third force, led by General Sir Henry Clinton,
would march north from
New York City. The armies would converge at Albany and effectively cut the
rebellion in two by isolating
New England. This northern campaign fell victim to competing strategies, however,
as General Howe had
meanwhile decided to take Philadelphia. His decision to capture that city siphoned
off troops that would
have been vital to the overall success of the campaign in 1777.
The British plan to isolate New England ended in disaster. St. Leger’s efforts to
bring his force of British
regulars, Loyalist fighters, and Iroquois allies east to link up with General
Burgoyne failed, and he
retreated to Quebec. Burgoyne’s forces encountered ever-stiffer resistance as he
made his way south from
Montreal, down Lake Champlain and the upper Hudson River corridor. Although they
did capture Fort
Ticonderoga when American forces retreated, Burgoyne’s army found themselves
surrounded by a sea
of colonial militias in Saratoga, New York. In the meantime, the small British
force under Clinton that
left New York City to aid Burgoyne advanced slowly up the Hudson River, failing to
provide the much-
needed support for the troops at Saratoga. On October 17, 1777, Burgoyne
surrendered his five thousand
soldiers to the Continental Army (Figure 6.13).
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Figure 6.13 This German engraving, created by Daniel Chodowiecki in 1784, shows
British soldiers laying down
their arms before the American forces.
The American victory at the Battle of Saratoga was the major turning point in the
war. This victory
convinced the French to recognize American independence and form a military
alliance with the new
nation, which changed the course of the war by opening the door to badly needed
military support from
France. Still smarting from their defeat by Britain in the Seven Years’ War, the
French supplied the United
States with gunpowder and money, as well as soldiers and naval forces that proved
decisive in the defeat
of Great Britain. The French also contributed military leaders, including the
Marquis de Lafayette, who
arrived in America in 1777 as a volunteer and served as Washington’s aide-de-camp.
The war quickly became more difficult for the British, who had to fight the rebels
in North America as well
as the French in the Caribbean. Following France’s lead, Spain joined the war
against Great Britain in 1779,
though it did not recognize American independence until 1783. The Dutch Republic
also began to support
the American revolutionaries and signed a treaty of commerce with the United States
in 1782.
Great Britain’s effort to isolate New England in 1777 failed. In June 1778, the
occupying British force in
Philadelphia evacuated and returned to New York City in order to better defend that
city, and the British
then turned their attention to the southern colonies.
6.3 War in the South
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Outline the British southern strategy and its results
• Describe key American victories and the end of the war
• Identify the main terms of the Treaty of Paris (1783)
By 1778, the war had turned into a stalemate. Although some in Britain, including
Prime Minister Lord
North, wanted peace, King George III demanded that the colonies be brought to
obedience. To break
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the deadlock, the British revised their strategy and turned their attention to the
southern colonies, where
they could expect more support from Loyalists. The southern colonies soon became
the center of the
fighting. The southern strategy brought the British success at first, but thanks to
the leadership of George
Washington and General Nathanael Greene and the crucial assistance of French
forces, the Continental
Army defeated the British at Yorktown, effectively ending further large-scale
operations during the war.
GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA
The British architect of the war strategy, Lord George Germain, believed Britain
would gain the upper
hand with the support of Loyalists, slaves, and Indian allies in the South, and
indeed, this southern
strategy initially achieved great success. The British began their southern
campaign by capturing
Savannah, the capital of Georgia, in December 1778. In Georgia, they found support
from thousands of
slaves who ran to the British side to escape their bondage. As the British regained
political control in
Georgia, they forced the inhabitants to swear allegiance to the king and formed
twenty Loyalist regiments.
The Continental Congress had suggested that slaves be given freedom if they joined
the Patriot army
against the British, but revolutionaries in Georgia and South Carolina refused to
consider this proposal.
Once again, the Revolution served to further divisions over race and slavery.
After taking Georgia, the British turned their attention to South Carolina. Before
the Revolution, South
Carolina had been starkly divided between the backcountry, which harbored
revolutionary partisans, and
the coastal regions, where Loyalists remained a powerful force. Waves of violence
rocked the backcountry
from the late 1770s into the early 1780s. The Revolution provided an opportunity
for residents to fight
over their local resentments and antagonisms with murderous consequences. Revenge
killings and the
destruction of property became mainstays in the savage civil war that gripped the
South.
In April 1780, a British force of eight thousand soldiers besieged American forces
in Charleston (Figure
6.14). After six weeks of the Siege of Charleston, the British triumphed. General
Benjamin Lincoln, who
led the effort for the revolutionaries, had to surrender his entire force, the
largest American loss during
the entire war. Many of the defeated Americans were placed in jails or in British
prison ships anchored
in Charleston Harbor. The British established a military government in Charleston
under the command of
General Sir Henry Clinton. From this base, Clinton ordered General Charles
Cornwallis to subdue the rest
of South Carolina.
Figure 6.14 This 1780 map of Charleston (a), which shows details of the Continental
defenses, was probably drawn
by British engineers in anticipation of the attack on the city. The Siege of
Charleston was one of a series of defeats
for the Continental forces in the South, which led the Continental Congress to
place General Nathanael Greene (b),
shown here in a 1783 portrait by Charles Wilson Peale, in command in late 1780.
Greene led his troops to two crucial
victories.
The disaster at Charleston led the Continental Congress to change leadership by
placing General Horatio
Gates in charge of American forces in the South. However, General Gates fared no
better than General
Lincoln; at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina, in August 1780, Cornwallis forced
General Gates to
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
retreat into North Carolina. Camden was one of the worst disasters suffered by
American armies during
the entire Revolutionary War. Congress again changed military leadership, this time
by placing General
Nathanael Greene (Figure 6.14) in command in December 1780.
As the British had hoped, large numbers of Loyalists helped ensure the success of
the southern strategy,
and thousands of slaves seeking freedom arrived to aid Cornwallis’s army. However,
the war turned in the
Americans’ favor in 1781. General Greene realized that to defeat Cornwallis, he did
not have to win a single
battle. So long as he remained in the field, he could continue to destroy isolated
British forces. Greene
therefore made a strategic decision to divide his own troops to wage war—and the
strategy worked.
American forces under General Daniel Morgan decisively beat the British at the
Battle of Cowpens in South
Carolina. General Cornwallis now abandoned his strategy of defeating the
backcountry rebels in South
Carolina. Determined to destroy Greene’s army, he gave chase as Greene
strategically retreated north into
North Carolina. At the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, the British
prevailed on the battlefield
but suffered extensive losses, an outcome that paralleled the Battle of Bunker Hill
nearly six years earlier
in June 1775.
YORKTOWN
In the summer of 1781, Cornwallis moved his army to Yorktown, Virginia. He expected
the Royal Navy
to transport his army to New York, where he thought he would join General Sir Henry
Clinton. Yorktown
was a tobacco port on a peninsula, and Cornwallis believed the British navy would
be able to keep the
coast clear of rebel ships. Sensing an opportunity, a combined French and American
force of sixteen
thousand men swarmed the peninsula in September 1781. Washington raced south with
his forces, now a
disciplined army, as did the Marquis de Lafayette and the Comte de Rochambeau with
their French troops.
The French Admiral de Grasse sailed his naval force into Chesapeake Bay, preventing
Lord Cornwallis
from taking a seaward escape route.
In October 1781, the American forces began the battle for Yorktown, and after a
siege that lasted eight
days, Lord Cornwallis capitulated on October 19 (Figure 6.15). Tradition says that
during the surrender
of his troops, the British band played “The World Turned Upside Down,” a song that
befitted the Empire’s
unexpected reversal of fortune.
Figure 6.15 The 1820 painting above, by John Trumbull, is titled Surrender of Lord
Cornwallis, but Cornwallis
actually sent his general, Charles O’Hara, to perform the ceremonial surrendering
of the sword. The painting depicts
General Benjamin Lincoln holding out his hand to receive the sword. General George
Washington is in the
background on the brown horse, since he refused to accept the sword from anyone but
Cornwallis himself.
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DEFINING "AMERICAN"
“The World Turned Upside Down”
“The World Turned Upside Down,” reputedly played during the surrender of
the British at Yorktown, was
a traditional English ballad from the seventeenth century. It was also
the theme of a popular British print
that circulated in the 1790s (Figure 6.16).
Figure 6.16 In many of the images in this popular print, entitled “The
World Turned Upside Down or
the Folly of Man,” animals and humans have switched places. In one,
children take care of their parents,
while in another, the sun, moon, and stars appear below the earth.
Why do you think these images were popular in Great Britain in the
decade following the Revolutionary
War? What would these images imply to Americans?
Click and Explore
Visit the Public Domain Review
(http://openstaxcollege.org/l/worldupside) to
explore the images in an eighteenth-century British
chapbook (a pamphlet for tracts or
ballads) titled “The World Turned Upside Down.” The
chapbook is illustrated with
woodcuts similar to those in the popular print
mentioned above.
THE TREATY OF PARIS
The British defeat at Yorktown made the outcome of the war all but certain. In
light of the American
victory, the Parliament of Great Britain voted to end further military operations
against the rebels and to
begin peace negotiations. Support for the war effort had come to an end, and
British military forces began
to evacuate the former American colonies in 1782. When hostilities had ended,
Washington resigned as
commander in chief and returned to his Virginia home.
In April 1782, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay had begun informal peace
negotiations in
Paris. Officials from Great Britain and the United States finalized the treaty in
1783, signing the Treaty
of Paris (Figure 6.17) in September of that year. The treaty recognized the
independence of the United
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States; placed the western, eastern, northern, and southern boundaries of the
nation at the Mississippi
River, the Atlantic Ocean, Canada, and Florida, respectively; and gave New
Englanders fishing rights in
the waters off Newfoundland. Under the terms of the treaty, individual states were
encouraged to refrain
from persecuting Loyalists and to return their confiscated property.
Figure 6.17 The last page of the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783,
contained the signatures and seals
of representatives for both the British and the Americans. From right to left, the
seals pictured belong to David
Hartley, who represented Great Britain, and John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John
Jay for the Americans.
6.4 Identity during the American Revolution
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain Loyalist and Patriot sentiments
• Identify different groups that participated in the Revolutionary War
The American Revolution in effect created multiple civil wars. Many of the
resentments and antagonisms
that fed these conflicts predated the Revolution, and the outbreak of war acted as
the catalyst they needed
to burst forth. In particular, the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania had deeply
divided populations. Loyalty to Great Britain came in many forms, from wealthy
elites who enjoyed the
prewar status quo to runaway slaves who desired the freedom that the British
offered.
LOYALISTS
Historians disagree on what percentage of colonists were Loyalists; estimates range
from 20 percent to
over 30 percent. In general, however, of British America’s population of 2.5
million, roughly one-third
remained loyal to Great Britain, while another third committed themselves to the
cause of independence.
The remaining third remained apathetic, content to continue with their daily lives
as best they could and
preferring not to engage in the struggle.
Many Loyalists were royal officials and merchants with extensive business ties to
Great Britain, who
viewed themselves as the rightful and just defenders of the British constitution.
Others simply resented
local business and political rivals who supported the Revolution, viewing the
rebels as hypocrites and
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schemers who selfishly used the break with the Empire to increase their fortunes.
In New York’s Hudson
Valley, animosity among the tenants of estates owned by Revolutionary leaders
turned them to the cause
of King and Empire.
During the war, all the states passed confiscation acts, which gave the new
revolutionary governments
in the former colonies the right to seize Loyalist land and property. To ferret out
Loyalists, revolutionary
governments also passed laws requiring the male population to take oaths of
allegiance to the new states.
Those who refused lost their property and were often imprisoned or made to work for
the new local
revolutionary order.
William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s only surviving son, remained loyal to Crown
and Empire and
served as royal governor of New Jersey, a post he secured with his father’s help.
During the war,
revolutionaries imprisoned William in Connecticut; however, he remained steadfast
in his allegiance to
Great Britain and moved to England after the Revolution. He and his father never
reconciled.
As many as nineteen thousand colonists served the British in the effort to put down
the rebellion, and
after the Revolution, as many as 100,000 colonists left, moving to England or north
to Canada rather than
staying in the new United States (Figure 6.18). Eight thousand whites and five
thousand free blacks went
to Britain. Over thirty thousand went to Canada, transforming that nation from
predominately French to
predominantly British. Another sizable group of Loyalists went to the British West
Indies, taking their
slaves with them.
Figure 6.18 The Coming of the Loyalists, a ca. 1880 work that artist Henry Sandham
created at least a century after
the Revolution, shows Anglo-American colonists arriving by ship in New Brunswick,
Canada.
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
MY STORY
Hannah Ingraham on Removing to Nova Scotia
Hannah Ingraham was eleven years old in 1783, when her Loyalist family
removed from New York to Ste.
Anne’s Point in the colony of Nova Scotia. Later in life, she compiled
her memories of that time.
[Father] said we were to go to Nova Scotia, that a ship was
ready to take us there, so we
made all haste to get ready. . . . Then on Tuesday, suddenly
the house was surrounded by
rebels and father was taken prisoner and carried away. . . .
When morning came, they said
he was free to go.
We had five wagon loads carried down the Hudson in a sloop and
then we went on board the
transport that was to bring us to Saint John. I was just eleven
years old when we left our farm
to come here. It was the last transport of the season and had
on board all those who could not
come sooner. The first transports had come in May so the people
had all the summer before
them to get settled. . . .
We lived in a tent at St. Anne’s until father got a house
ready. . . . There was no floor laid,
no windows, no chimney, no door, but we had a roof at least. A
good fire was blazing and
mother had a big loaf of bread and she boiled a kettle of water
and put a good piece of butter
in a pewter bowl. We toasted the bread and all sat around the
bowl and ate our breakfast that
morning and mother said: “Thank God we are no longer in dread
of having shots fired through
our house. This is the sweetest meal I ever tasted for many a
day.”
What do these excerpts tell you about life as a Loyalist in New York or
as a transplant to Canada?
SLAVES AND INDIANS
While some slaves who fought for the Patriot cause received their freedom,
revolutionary leaders—unlike
the British—did not grant such slaves their freedom as a matter of course.
Washington, the owner of more
than two hundred slaves during the Revolution, refused to let slaves serve in the
army, although he did
allow free blacks. (In his will, Washington did free his slaves.) In the new United
States, the Revolution
largely reinforced a racial identity based on skin color. Whiteness, now a national
identity, denoted
freedom and stood as the key to power. Blackness, more than ever before, denoted
servile status. Indeed,
despite their class and ethnic differences, white revolutionaries stood mostly
united in their hostility to
both blacks and Indians.
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
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MY STORY
Boyrereau Brinch and Boston King on the Revolutionary War
In the Revolutionary War, some blacks, both free and enslaved, chose to
fight for the Americans (Figure
6.19). Others chose to fight for the British, who offered them freedom
for joining their cause. Read the
excerpts below for the perspective of a black veteran from each side of
the conflict.
Figure 6.19 Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de Verger created this 1781
watercolor, which depicts American
soldiers at the Siege of Yorktown. Verger was an officer in Rochambeau’s
army, and his diary holds
firsthand accounts of his experiences in the campaigns of 1780 and 1781.
This image contains one of
the earliest known representations of a black Continental soldier.
Boyrereau Brinch was captured in Africa at age sixteen and brought to
America as a slave. He joined
the Patriot forces and was honorably discharged and emancipated after
the war. He told his story to
Benjamin Prentiss, who published it as The Blind African Slave in 1810.
Finally, I was in the battles at Cambridge, White Plains,
Monmouth, Princeton, Newark,
Frog’s Point, Horseneck where I had a ball pass through my
knapsack. All which battels
[sic] the reader can obtain a more perfect account of in history,
than I can give. At last we
returned to West Point and were discharged [1783], as the war was
over. Thus was I, a slave
for five years fighting for liberty. After we were disbanded, I
returned to my old master at
Woodbury [Connecticut], with whom I lived one year, my services
in the American war, having
emancipated me from further slavery, and from being bartered or
sold. . . . Here I enjoyed the
pleasures of a freeman; my food was sweet, my labor pleasure: and
one bright gleam of life
seemed to shine upon me.
Boston King was a Charleston-born slave who escaped his master and
joined the Loyalists. He made his
way to Nova Scotia and later Sierra Leone, where he published his
memoirs in 1792. The excerpt below
describes his experience in New York after the war.
When I arrived at New-York, my friends rejoiced to see me once
more restored to liberty,
and joined me in praising the Lord for his mercy and goodness. .
. . [In 1783] the horrors
and devastation of war happily terminated, and peace was restored
between America and
Great Britain, which diffused universal joy among all parties,
except us, who had escaped
from slavery and taken refuge in the English army; for a report
prevailed at New-York, that
all the slaves, in number 2000, were to be delivered up to their
masters, altho’ some of
them had been three or four years among the English. This
dreadful rumour filled us all
with inexpressible anguish and terror, especially when we saw our
old masters coming from
Virginia, North-Carolina, and other parts, and seizing upon their
slaves in the streets of New-
York, or even dragging them out of their beds. Many of the slaves
had very cruel masters, so
that the thoughts of returning home with them embittered life to
us. For some days we lost
our appetite for food, and sleep departed from our eyes. The
English had compassion upon
us in the day of distress, and issued out a Proclamation,
importing, That all slaves should
be free, who had taken refuge in the British lines, and claimed
the sanction and privileges of
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
the Proclamations respecting the security and protection of
Negroes. In consequence of this,
each of us received a certificate from the commanding officer
at New-York, which dispelled all
our fears, and filled us with joy and gratitude.
What do these two narratives have in common, and how are they
different? How do the two men describe
freedom?
For slaves willing to run away and join the British, the American Revolution
offered a unique occasion
to escape bondage. Of the half a million slaves in the American colonies during the
Revolution, twenty
thousand joined the British cause. At Yorktown, for instance, thousands of black
troops fought with
Lord Cornwallis. Slaves belonging to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick
Henry, and other
revolutionaries seized the opportunity for freedom and fled to the British side.
Between ten and twenty
thousand slaves gained their freedom because of the Revolution; arguably, the
Revolution created the
largest slave uprising and the greatest emancipation until the Civil War. After the
Revolution, some of
these African Loyalists emigrated to Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa.
Others removed to Canada
and England. It is also true that people of color made heroic contributions to the
cause of American
independence. However, while the British offered slaves freedom, most American
revolutionaries clung to
notions of black inferiority.
Powerful Indian peoples who had allied themselves with the British, including the
Mohawk and the
Creek, also remained loyal to the Empire. A Mohawk named Joseph Brant, whose given
name was
Thayendanegea (Figure 6.20), rose to prominence while fighting for the British
during the Revolution. He
joined forces with Colonel Barry St. Leger during the 1777 campaign, which ended
with the surrender of
General Burgoyne at Saratoga. After the war, Brant moved to the Six Nations reserve
in Canada. From
his home on the shores of Lake Ontario, he remained active in efforts to restrict
white encroachment onto
Indian lands. After their defeat, the British did not keep promises they’d made to
help their Indian allies
keep their territory; in fact, the Treaty of Paris granted the United States huge
amounts of supposedly
British-owned regions that were actually Indian lands.
Figure 6.20 What similarities can you see in these two portraits of Joseph Brant,
one by Gilbert Stuart in 1786 (a)
and one by Charles Wilson Peale in 1797 (b)? What are the differences? Why do you
think the artists made the
specific choices they did?
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PATRIOTS
The American revolutionaries (also called Patriots or Whigs) came from many
different backgrounds and
included merchants, shoemakers, farmers, and sailors. What is extraordinary is the
way in which the
struggle for independence brought a vast cross-section of society together,
animated by a common cause.
During the war, the revolutionaries faced great difficulties, including massive
supply problems; clothing,
ammunition, tents, and equipment were all hard to come by. After an initial burst
of enthusiasm in 1775
and 1776, the shortage of supplies became acute in 1777 through 1779, as
Washington’s difficult winter at
Valley Forge demonstrates.
Funding the war effort also proved very difficult. Whereas the British could pay in
gold and silver,
the American forces relied on paper money, backed by loans obtained in Europe. This
first American
money was called Continental currency; unfortunately, it quickly fell in value.
“Not worth a Continental”
soon became a shorthand term for something of no value. The new revolutionary
government printed a
great amount of this paper money, resulting in runaway inflation. By 1781,
inflation was such that 146
Continental dollars were worth only one dollar in gold. The problem grew worse as
each former colony,
now a revolutionary state, printed its own currency.
WOMEN
In colonial America, women shouldered enormous domestic and child-rearing
responsibilities. The war
for independence only increased their workload and, in some ways, solidified their
roles. Rebel leaders
required women to produce articles for war—everything from clothing to foodstuffs—
while also keeping
their homesteads going. This was not an easy task when their husbands and sons were
away fighting.
Women were also expected to provide food and lodging for armies and to nurse
wounded soldiers.
The Revolution opened some new doors for women, however, as they took on public
roles usually
reserved for men. The Daughters of Liberty, an informal organization formed in the
mid-1760s to oppose
British revenue-raising measures, worked tirelessly to support the war effort.
Esther DeBerdt Reed of
Philadelphia, wife of Governor Joseph Reed, formed the Ladies Association of
Philadelphia and led a
fundraising drive to provide sorely needed supplies to the Continental Army. In
“The Sentiments of an
American Woman” (1780), she wrote to other women, “The time is arrived to display
the same sentiments
which animated us at the beginning of the Revolution, when we renounced the use of
teas, however
agreeable to our taste, rather than receive them from our persecutors; when we made
it appear to them
that we placed former necessaries in the rank of superfluities, when our liberty
was interested; when our
republican and laborious hands spun the flax, prepared the linen intended for the
use of our soldiers; when
exiles and fugitives we supported with courage all the evils which are the
concomitants of war.” Reed and
other elite women in Philadelphia raised almost $300,000 in Continental money for
the war.
Click and Explore
Read the entire text of Esther Reed’s “The
Sentiments of an American Woman”
(http://openstaxcollege.org/l/estherreed) on a page
hosted by the University of
Michigan-Dearborn.
Women who did not share Reed’s elite status nevertheless played key economic roles
by producing
homespun cloth and food. During shortages, some women formed mobs and wrested
supplies from those
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
who hoarded them. Crowds of women beset merchants and demanded fair prices for
goods; if a merchant
refused, a riot would ensue. Still other women accompanied the army as “camp
followers,” serving as
cooks, washerwomen, and nurses. A few also took part in combat and proved their
equality with men
through violence against the hated British.
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
179
Key Terms
confiscation acts state-wide acts that made it legal for state governments to seize
Loyalists’ property
Continental currency the paper currency that the Continental government printed to
fund the
Revolution
Dunmore’s Proclamation the decree signed by Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of
Virginia, which
proclaimed that any slaves or indentured servants who
fought on the side of
the British would be rewarded with their freedom
Hessians German mercenaries hired by Great Britain to put down the American
rebellion
Mecklenburg Resolves North Carolina’s declaration of rebellion against Great
Britain
minutemen colonial militias prepared to mobilize and fight the British with a
minute’s notice
popular sovereignty the practice of allowing the citizens of a state or territory
to decide issues based on
the principle of majority rule
republicanism a political philosophy that holds that states should be governed by
representatives, not a
monarch; as a social philosophy, republicanism required civic virtue
of its citizens
thirteen colonies the British colonies in North America that declared independence
from Great Britain in
1776, which included Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland,
the province of
Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island and Providence Plantations, South Carolina, and Virginia
Yorktown the Virginia port where British General Cornwallis surrendered to American
forces
Summary
6.1 Britain’s Law-and-Order Strategy and Its Consequences
Until Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, most colonists still thought of
themselves as proud
subjects of the strong British Empire. However, the Coercive (or Intolerable) Acts,
which Parliament
enacted to punish Massachusetts for failing to pay for the destruction of the tea,
convinced many colonists
that Great Britain was indeed threatening to stifle their liberty. In Massachusetts
and other New England
colonies, militias like the minutemen prepared for war by stockpiling weapons and
ammunition. After the
first loss of life at the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775,
skirmishes continued throughout
the colonies. When Congress met in Philadelphia in July 1776, its members signed
the Declaration of
Independence, officially breaking ties with Great Britain and declaring their
intention to be self-governing.
6.2 The Early Years of the Revolution
The British successfully implemented the first part of their strategy to isolate
New England when they
took New York City in the fall of 1776. For the next seven years, they used New
York as a base of
operations, expanding their control to Philadelphia in the winter of 1777. After
suffering through a terrible
winter in 1777–1778 in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, American forces were revived
with help from Baron
von Steuben, a Prussian military officer who helped transform the Continental Army
into a professional
fighting force. The effort to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies
failed with the General
Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga in October 1777. After Saratoga, the struggle for
independence gained a
powerful ally when France agreed to recognize the United States as a new nation and
began to send much-
needed military support. The entrance of France—Britain’s archrival in the contest
of global empire—into
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
the American fight helped to turn the tide of the war in favor of the
revolutionaries.
6.3 War in the South
The British gained momentum in the war when they turned their military efforts
against the southern
colonies. They scored repeated victories in the coastal towns, where they found
legions of supporters,
including slaves escaping bondage. As in other colonies, however, control of major
seaports did not mean
the British could control the interior. Fighting in the southern colonies devolved
into a merciless civil war
as the Revolution opened the floodgates of pent-up anger and resentment between
frontier residents and
those along the coastal regions. The southern campaign came to an end at Yorktown
when Cornwallis
surrendered to American forces.
6.4 Identity during the American Revolution
The American Revolution divided the colonists as much as it united them, with
Loyalists (or Tories)
joining the British forces against the Patriots (or revolutionaries). Both sides
included a broad cross-section
of the population. However, Great Britain was able to convince many slaves to join
its forces by promising
them freedom, something the southern revolutionaries would not agree to do. The war
provided new
opportunities, as well as new challenges, for slaves, free blacks, women, and
Indians. After the war, many
Loyalists fled the American colonies, heading across the Atlantic to England, north
to Canada, or south to
the West Indies.
Review Questions
1. How did British General Thomas Gage attempt 3.
Which of the following is not true of a
to deal with the uprising in Massachusetts in
republic?
1774?
A. A republic has no hereditary ruling class.
A. He offered the rebels land on the Maine
B. A republic relies on the principle of popular
frontier in return for loyalty to England.
sovereignty.
B. He allowed for town meetings in an
C. Representatives chosen by the people lead
attempt to appease the rebels.
the republic.
C. He attempted to seize arms and munitions
D. A republic is governed by a monarch and
from the colonial insurgents.
the royal officials he or she appoints.
D. He ordered his troops to burn Boston to the
ground to show the determination of 4.
What are the main arguments that Thomas
Britain.
Paine makes in his pamphlet Common Sense? Why
was
this pamphlet so popular?
2. Which of the following was not a result of
Dunmore’s Proclamation? 5.
Which city served as the base for British
A. Slaves joined Dunmore to fight for the
operations for most of the war?
British.
A. Boston
B. A majority of slaves in the colonies won
B. New York
their freedom.
C. Philadelphia
C. Patriot forces increased their commitment
D. Saratoga
to independence.
D. Both slaveholding and non-slaveholding
whites feared a slave rebellion.
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
181
6. What battle turned the tide of war in favor of 11. Describe the British
southern strategy and its
the Americans? results.
A. the Battle of Saratoga
B. the Battle of Brandywine Creek 12. Which of the following
statements best
C. the Battle of White Plains represents the division
between Patriots and
D. the Battle of Valley Forge Loyalists?
A. Most American
colonists were Patriots,
7. Which term describes German soldiers hired with only a few
traditionalists remaining
by Great Britain to put down the American loyal to the King and
Empire.
rebellion? B. Most American
colonists were Loyalists,
A. Patriots with only a few
firebrand revolutionaries
B. Royalists leading the charge
for independence.
C. Hessians C. American colonists
were divided among
D. Loyalists those who wanted
independence, those
who wanted to remain
part of the British
8. Describe the British strategy in the early years Empire, and those who
were neutral.
of the war and explain whether or not it D. The vast majority of
American colonists
succeeded. were neutral and
didn’t take a side between
Loyalists and
Patriots.
9. How did George Washington’s military tactics
help him to achieve success? 13. Which of the following
is not one of the tasks
women performed during the
Revolution?
10. Which American general is responsible for A. holding government
offices
improving the American military position in the B. maintaining their
homesteads
South? C. feeding, quartering,
and nursing soldiers
A. John Burgoyne D. raising funds for the
war effort
B. Nathanael Greene
C. Wilhelm Frederick von Steuben
D. Charles Cornwallis
Critical Thinking Questions
14. How did the colonists manage to triumph in their battle for independence
despite Great Britain’s
military might? If any of these factors had been different, how might it have
affected the outcome of the
war?
15. How did the condition of certain groups, such as women, blacks, and Indians,
reveal a contradiction
in the Declaration of Independence?
16. What was the effect and importance of Great Britain’s promise of freedom to
slaves who joined the
British side?
17. How did the Revolutionary War provide both new opportunities and new challenges
for slaves and
free blacks in America?
18. Describe the ideology of republicanism. As a political philosophy, how did
republicanism compare to
the system that prevailed in Great Britain?
19. Describe the backgrounds and philosophies of Patriots and Loyalists. Why did
colonists with such
diverse individual interests unite in support of their respective causes? What
might different groups of
Patriots and Loyalists, depending upon their circumstances, have hoped to achieve
by winning the war?
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Chapter 6 | America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
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