proff2

These are the times that try men's souls.. .

—Thomas Paine

The surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, led to the British decision to withdraw from the war. Cornwallis, who claimed to be ill, absented himself

from the ceremony and is not in the picture. Washington, who is astride the horse

under the American flag, designated General Benjamin Lincoln (on the white horse

in the center) as the one to accept the submission of a subordinate British officer.

John Trumbull, who painted The Battle of Bunker Hill and some three hundred other

scenes from the Revolutionary War, finished this painting while he was in London about

fifteen years after the events depicted. A large copy of the work now hangs in the rotunda

of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Source: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, by

John Trumbull (American, 1756-1843). Oil on canvas, 20 7/8 x 30 5/8 in.

7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

1776-1786

WHAT STRATEGIES and tactics did American forces employ in the

war for independence?

WHAT CONCERNS were reflected in the terms of the

Articles of Confederation?

HOW D ID political debate in America change in the years after 1774?

156 111 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

AMER

CAN COMMUN

ES

A National Community Evolves at Valley Forge

A DRUM ROLL ANNOUNCED THE DAWN OF A COLD JANUARY MORNING rtst 1778. Along a two-mile line of rude log cabins, doors slowly opened and the ragged men of the Continental Army stepped out onto the frozen ground of Valley Forge. The reek of unwashed bodies and foul straw filled the air. "No bread, no sol- dier!" The chant began as a barely audible murmur, then was picked up by men all along the line. "No bread, no soldier! No bread, no soldier!" At last the chanting grew so loud it could be heard at General Washington's headquarters, a mile away. The 11,000 men of the American army were surviving on little more than "firecake," a mixture of flour and water baked hard before the fire. Two thousand men were without shoes; others were without blankets and had to sit up all night about the fires to keep from freezing. Washington fired off an appeal to the Con- tinental Congress for supplies. "Three or four days of bad weather," he wrote, "would prove our destruction."

The hard winter at Valley Forge became a national symbol of endurance. After suffering a series of shattering defeats at the hands of a British force nearly twice their number, the soldiers of the Continental Army straggled into winter headquarters in this valley, some twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia, only to find themselves at the mercy of indifferent local suppliers. Con- gress refused to pay the exorbitant rates demanded by contractors for food and clothing. Local farmers preferred to deal with the British, who paid in pounds sterling rather than depreciated Con- tinental currency.

The 11,000 men of the Continental Army were divided into sixteen brigades composed of regiments from the individual states. Many were drawn from the ranks of the poor and disadvantaged. They included landless tenant farmers, indentured servants, and nearly a thousand African Americans, both slave and free. A majority of the men came from rural districts or small towns. Some 2,500 men died that winter. The women encamped at Valley Forge— an estimated 700 wives, lovers, laundresses, cooks, and prosti- tutes—were kept busy nursing the sick and burying the dead. "What then is to become of this army?" Washington worried in December.

Yet the army that marched out of Valley Forge five months later was considerably stronger for its experience there. The men of the Continental Army spent the late winter and spring drilling under the strict discipline of Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben, a Prussian officer who came to America to volunteer for the American cause. But most important were

the bonds forged among the men. In their small cabins they "shared with each other their hardships, dangers, and suffer- ings," wrote Private Joseph Plumb Martin, "sympathized with each other in trouble and sickness, assisted in bearing each other's burdens, [and] endeavored to conceal each other's faults." In short, he concluded, the men fashioned "a band of brotherhood" among themselves. On May Day they celebrated the end of winter and the coming of spring by raising maypoles before the cabins of each state regiment. Led by a sergeant decked out as King Tammany, the great Delaware chief of Amer- ican folklore, and accompanied by thirteen honor guards repre- senting each of the states, the men paraded through the rough streets of camp, pausing at each maypole to dance together. It was a ritual of their new sense of national community.

To some American Patriots—as the supporters of the Rev- olution called themselves—the European-style Continental Army betrayed the revolutionary ideals of the citizen-soldier and the autonomy of local communities. Washington argued strongly, however, that the Revolution could not be won without a national army insulated from politics and able to withstand shifts in the popular mood. Moreover, during the critical period of the nation's founding, the Continental Army acted as a popu-

lar democratic force, counterbalancing the conservatism of the new republic's elite leadership. The national

spirit built at places like Valley Forge sustained the fighting men through years of war and provided momentum for the long process of forging a national political system out of the persistent localism of American politics.

The soldiers of the Continental Army were among the first of their countrymen to think

of themselves as Americans. The Revolutionary years were characterized by

warfare not only between armed American and British forces but also between Patriots and Loyalists, settlers and Indians, masters and slaves. Jealous of their autonomy, the individual colonies shaped a weak central government that just barely managed to keep them unified. Battered and bruised by British armies, the Continental Army pulled off an unexpected and remarkable victory against a large British force in upper New York State that led to financial support from Holland and a mili- tary alliance with France that in the end proved to be a decisive element in winning American independence. The glue that held Americans together during this long struggle was the sense of national community that emerged in places like Valley Forge during the winter of 1777.

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 it 157 THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

A t the beginning of the Revolution, the British had the world's best-equipped and most disciplined army, as well as a navy that was unopposed in Ameri- can waters. But this overwhelming force encouraged them to greatly under-

estimate the American capacity to fight. The British also misperceived the sources of the conflict. Seeing the rebellion as the work of a small group of disgruntled conspir- ators, they defined their objective as defeating this Patriot opposition. They believed

that in the wake of a military victory they could easily reassert political control. But the geography of eastern North America offered no single vital center whose conquest would end the war. When the British succeeded in defeating the Patriots in one area, resistance would spring up in another. The key factor in the outcome of the war for independence was popular support for the American cause.

THE PATRIOT FORCES

Most American men of fighting age had to face the call to arms. From a population of approximately 350,000 eligible men, more than 200,000 saw action. More than 100,000 served in the Continental Army under Washington's command, the rest in militia companies.

These militias—armed bodies of men drawn from local communities— proved important in the defense of their own areas, for they had homes as well as local reputations to protect. But the Revolution was not won by citizen-soldiers who traded plows for guns or backcountry riflemen who picked off Redcoats from behind trees. Because men preferred to serve with their neighbors in local com- panies rather than subject themselves to the discipline of the regular service, the states failed to meet their quotas for regiments in the Continental Army. Indeed, in the face of battle, militia companies demonstrated appalling rates of desertion.

The final victory resulted primarily from the steady struggle of the Continental Army. The American Revolution had little in common with modern national libera- tion movements in which armed populations engage in guerrilla warfare. Washington and his officers wanted a force that could directly engage the British, and from the begin- ning of the war, he argued that victory could be won only with a full commitment to

Jean Baptiste Antoine de Verger, a French officer serving with the Continental Army, made these watercolors of American soldiers during the Revolution. Some 200,000 men saw action, including

at least 5,000 African Americans; more than half of these troops served with the Continental Army.

=1.111111111111.1.1111111. WHAT STRATEGIES and

tactics did American forces employ

in the war for independence?

myhisti?ylab Review Summary

IMAGE KEY for pages 154-155

a. An 18th -century powder horn decorated with a map.

b. An engraving printed by Benjamin

Franklin in 1754 urging the colonies

to unite.

c. The 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution and recognized the independence of the

United States.

d. A drum belonging to William

Diamond (Lexington Historical

Society) and a fife said to have been played at the Lexington fight early in the morning of April 19, 1775.

e. A painting by a French army officer

showing the diversity of American

soldiers.

f. Benjamin West's painting of the

American commissioners who

negotiated the Peace of Paris.

g. Mather Brown's sensitive portrait of

Thomas Jefferson is the earliest

known likeness of him.

h. The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, a painting by John Trumbull.

Patriots British colonists who favored independence from Britain.

Continental Army The regular or professional army authorized by the Second Continental Congress and commanded by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

158 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

A Patriot mob torments Loyalists in this

print published during the Revolution.

One favorite punishment was the

"grand Tory ride," in which a crowd

hauled the victim through the streets

astride a fence rail. In another, men were

stripped to "buff and breeches" and their

naked flesh coated liberally with heated

tar and feathers.

a truly national army. His views conflicted with popular fears of a standing army. Would they not be defeating their own purpose, many wondered, by adopting the corrupt insti- tutions of their British enemies? Led by such views, Congress initially refused to invoke a draft or mandate army enlistments exceeding one year.

The failings of the militias in the early battles of the war, however, sobered Congress, and it responded with greatly enlarged state quotas for the army and terms of service that extended for the duration. To spur enlistment, Congress offered bounties, regular wages, and promises of free land after victory. By the spring of 1777, Washington's army had grown to nearly 9,000 men.

The New England militia companies that made up the original core of the Continental Army included small numbers of African Americans. But in late 1775, under pressure from Southern delegates, the Continental Congress barred blacks from the army. After an appeal from Washington, African Americans already serv- ing were allowed to remain, but new enlistments were forbidden. The northern states continued to recruit African Americans. As the war spread to the South, slaves responded enthusiastically to a British promise of liberty for those who would fight for the crown. Thousands of slaves enlisted. In response, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina grudgingly allowed free persons of color and even slaves into their armed forces. By war's end, at least 5,000 African Americans had served in Patriot militias or the Continental Army, and in the Upper South some slaves won their freedom through military service. In the Lower South, however, where the numer-

ical superiority of slaves inspired fears of rebellion among whites, there was no similar movement.

The Continental Army played an important political role during the war. At a time when Americans identified most strongly with their local communities or their states, the Continental Army evolved into a powerful force for nationalist sentiment. Over 100,000 men from every state served in the Continental Army, contributing mightily to the unity of purpose—the formation of a national political community—that was essential to the process of nation making.

THE TOLL OF WAR

The best estimate is that 25,324 American men died in the fight- ing, approximately 6,800 from wounds suffered in battle, most of the rest from the effects of disease. But since these numbers include only the major battles, the total death toll must have been considerably higher. The Continental Army experienced the heaviest casualty rates, losses in some regiments approaching 40 percent. Indeed, the casualty rate overall was higher than in any other American conflict except the Civil War. In New Eng- land and the mid-Atlantic states the war claimed few civilian lives, for it was confined largely to direct engagements between armies. In the South and backcountry, however, where Patriot and Loy- alist militias waged violent and often vicious campaigns, there were many noncombatant casualties. There are no overall sta- tistics for Loyalist casualties, but British forces suffered at least 10,000 killed or wounded in the major battles of the war.

THE LOYALISTS

Not all Americans were Patriots. Many were confused by the con- flict and waited for a clear turn in the tide of the struggle before

John Singleton Copley's portrait of Mercy Otis Warren captured her at the age of thirty-six, in 1765. During the Revolution, her home

in Boston was a center of Patriot political activity.

John Singleton Copley (American, 1738-1815), "Mrs. James Warren (Mercy Otis),"

ca.1763. Oil on canvas. 49 5/8 x 39 1/2 in. (126 x 100.3 cm). Bequest of Winslow

Warren. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (31.212). Reproduced with permission.

2000 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. All Rights Reserved.

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 , 59

declaring their allegiance. Between a fifth and a third of the population, some- where between a half a million and a million people, remained loyal to the British crown. They called themselves Loyalists but were known to Patriots as Tories, the popular name for the conservative party in England, traditionally supporters of the king's authority over that of Parliament.

A large proportion of the Loyalists were relatively recent migrants to the colonies, born in England, Scotland, or Ireland. Others, such as royal office- holders or Anglican clergymen, were dependent on the British government for their salaries. Many Loyalists were men of conservative temperament, fearful of political or social upheaval. The Loyalists included ethnic minorities who had been persecuted by the dominant majority, such as the Highland Scots of the Carolinas and western New York, or southern tenant farmers who had Patriot land- lords. Loyalists were particularly strong in some colonies. They were nearly a majority in New York and were so numerous in Pennsylvania that an officer of the Continental Army described that colony as "the enemy's country." In Geor- gia, Loyalists made up such a large majority that the colony would probably have abandoned the revolutionary movement had the British not surrendered at Yorktown in 1781.

Patriots passed state treason acts that prohibited speaking or writing against the Revolution. They also punished Loyalists by issuing bills of attainder, a legal process (later made illegal by the United States Constitution) by means of which Loyalists were deprived of civil rights and property. In some areas, notably New York, South Carolina, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, Loyalists faced mob violence.

The British strategy for suppressing the Revolution depended on mobilizing the Loyalists, as many as 50,000 of whom took up arms for Great Britain. Many joined Loyalist militias or engaged in irregular warfare, especially in the Lower South.

As many as 80,000 Loyalists fled the country during and after the Revolution. Although the British government com- pensated many Loyalists for their losses when their property

was confiscated by the states and sold at auction, most were unhappy exiles. "I earnestly wish to spend the remainder of my days in America," William Pepperell, formerly of Maine, wrote from London in 1778. "I love the country. I love the people." Despite their disagreement with the Patriots on essential polit- ical questions, they remained Americans, and they mourned

the loss of their country.

WOMEN AND THE WAR

As men marched off to war, thousands of women assumed the management of farms and businesses. Abigail Adams ran the Adams family's farm at Quincy for years, reporting on opera- tions in frequent letters to her husband John, letters that included commentary on the American struggle for independence and the political structure of the new republic. Some women partici- pated even more directly in Patriot politics. Mercy Otis Warren, sister of the Massachusetts leader James Otis, turned her home into a center of Patriot political activity and published a series of satires supporting the American cause and scorning the Loyal- ists. Thousands of women volunteered to support the war effort by working as seamstresses, nurses, even spies.

Loyalists British colonists who opposed independence from Britain.

Tories A derisive term applied to Loyalists in America who supported the king and Parliament just before and during the American Revolution.

Constitution The written document providing for a new central government of the United States.

160 5 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

Thousands of women also traveled with the armies of both sides. Some camp

followers were prostitutes, but most were wives, nurses, cooks, and laundresses.

These women not only shared the hardships of the soldiers, but also they were

on the battlefields bringing water, food, and supplies to the front lines under wither-

ing cannon and musket fire and nursing the wounded and dying. The Continental

Congress and state legislatures awarded pensions to numerous women wounded in

battle. According to one estimate, several hundred women dressed themselves as men

and enlisted.

QUICK REVIEW

Victories at Trenton and Princeton

♦ 1776: a series of defeats devastat- ed the Continental Army.

♦ Christmas night 1776: Washington crosses the Delaware and launches a surprise attack.

• Victories at Trenton and Princeton

revive the American cause.

myhistOylab Exploring America: Exploring the Geography of the American Revolution

Morristown N. Winter Quarters,

1777

cr)

a_ Ce1/4 * Princeton _jock January 3, 1777 Trenton

December 26, 1776

NEW JERSEY

7 NEW YORK

I .

iz

THE CAMPAIGN FOR NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY

During the winter of 1775-76, the British developed a strategic plan for the war.

From his base at Halifax, Sir William Howe would take his army to New York City,

which the British navy would protect. From there Howe was to drive north along

the Hudson, while another British army marched south from Canada. The two

armies would converge at Albany, cutting New England off from the rest of the

colonies, then turn eastward. Washington, in command of Patriot forces at Boston,

shifted his forces southward toward New York in the spring of 1776.

In early July, as Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, the

British began their operation by landing 32,000 troops on Staten Island. The

Patriots set up fortified positions across the harbor in Brooklyn. In late August

the British attacked, inflicting heavy casualties. The Battle of Long Island ended

in disaster for the Patriots, and they were forced to withdraw across the East River

to Manhattan. The British then offered Congress an opportunity to negotiate, and on Sep-

tember 6, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge sat down on Staten

Island with General Howe and his brother, Admiral Richard Howe. But the meet-

ing broke up when the Howes demanded repeal of the Declaration of Indepen-

dence, setting the stage for another round of fighting. By

November, the Americans were fleeing south across New Jer-

sey in a frantic attempt to avoid the British under General

Charles Cornwallis (see Map 7.1).

With morale desperately low, whole militia compa-

nies deserted. American resistance seemed to be collaps-

ing, and Washington was pessimistic. "Our Troops will

Long Island not do their duty," he wrote painfully to Congress as he

crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. But rather

than fall back farther, which would surely have meant

the dissolution of his entire force, he decided to risk a

ATLANTIC

counterattack. On Christmas night 1776, Washington led

OCEAN

2,400 troops back across the Delaware, and the next morn-

ing defeated the Hessian forces in a surprise attack on

their headquarters at Trenton, New Jersey. The Americans

inflicted further heavy losses on the British at Princeton,

then drove them all the way back to the environs of

New York City. These victories had little strategic importance, but

they salvaged American morale. As Washington settled

into winter headquarters at Morristown, he realized he

had to pursue a defensive strategy, avoiding direct confronta-

tions with the British while checking their advances and

hurting them wherever possible. The most important thing

would be the survival of the Continental Army.

CONNECTICUT

White Plains }okOctober 28, 1776

ilk Harlem Heights September 18, 1776 Statene'llk- Brooklyn Heights

Island August 27, 1776

-4— American troop movements

-4— British troop movements

-101, American victory British victory

MAP 7.1

Campaign for New York and New Jersey, 1775-77

HOW DID American victories at Trenton and

Princeton help turn the tide of the war?

outh N son gton

Paoli

8

DELAWARE

British move to take Philadelphia, July, 1777

C \c‘

/ Germantown October 4, 1777 Philadelphia

captured September 28, 1777

Brandywine September 11, 1777

0

8, 1778

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

West Point CONNECTICUT Winter Quarters

1779-81 • PENNSYLVANIA

NEW JERSEY

L

ng Island

New York

Valley Forge Winter Quarters

1777-78

Lake

Champlain

Bennington August 16, 1777

Chesapeake Bay

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 II 161 -

THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS OF 1777 The fighting with American forces prevented Howe from moving north up the Hudson River, and the British advance southward from Canada was stalled by Ameri- can resistance at Lake Champlain. In 1777, however, the British decided to replay their strategy. From Canada they dispatched General John Burgoyne with nearly 8,000 British and allied German troops. Howe was to move his

force from New York, first taking the city of Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress, and then moving north to meet Burgoyne (see Map 7.2).

Fort Ticonderoga fell to Burgoyne on July 6, but by August the general found himself bogged down and harassed by Patriot militias in the rough country south of Lake George. After several defeats in September at the hands of an American army commanded by General Horatio Gates, Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga. There he was surrounded by a considerably larger force of Americans, and on October 19 he surrendered his army. It would be the biggest British defeat until York- town, decisive because it forced the nations of Europe to recognize that the Americans had a fighting chance to win their Revolution.

The Americans were less successful against Howe. A force of 15,000 British troops left New York in July and landed a month later at the northern end of Chesapeake Bay. In September, at Brandywine Creek outside Phila- delphia, the British outflanked the Americans, inflicting heavy casualties and forcing a retreat. Ten days later they routed the Americans a second time. This cleared the way for the British occupation of Philadelphia.

After this campaign, the Continentals headed into winter quarters at Valley Forge, the bitterness of their defeats muted somewhat by news of Burgoyne's surren- der at Saratoga. The British had possession of Philadel- phia, the most important city in North America, but it would prove of little strategic value to them. The Con- tinental Congress continued to function, so the unified effort suffered little disruption. At the end of two years of fighting, despite numerous military victories, the British strategy for suppressing the Revolution had been

a failure.

A GLOBAL CONFLICT

During these two years of fighting, the Americans were sustained by loans from France and Spain, traditional enemies of Great Britain. Both saw an opportunity to win back North American territories lost as a result of the Seven Years' War. Seeking more support, the Continen- tal Congress sent a diplomatic delegation to Paris headed

by Benjamin Franklin.

CANADA

• Montreal

Jtt

British invade from Canada in an effort

to isolate New England

Fort Ticonderoga July 6, 1777

Lake

Lake

Ontario George

Saratoga Burgoyne surrenders

4. October 18, 1777 aw

NEW YORK Albany

MASSACHUSETTS

-4— American troop movements -4— British troop movements

ilk American victory ilk British victory

MAP 7.2 Northern Campaigns, 1777-78

WHAT WAS the significance of the Battle of Saratoga?

QUICK REVIEW

French Alliance

• Congress negotiates alliance with France against the British.

• France guarantees northern parts of the country to the U.S.

• Warfare between France and Britain breaks out.

Joseph Brant, the brilliant chief of the Mohawks who sided

with Great Britain during the Revolution, in a 1786 painting

by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. After the Treaty of Paris, Brant led a large faction of Iroquois people north into British Canada, where they established a separate Iroquois

Confederacy.

162 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

The American victory at Saratoga, and the fear that Great Britain might enter into negotiations with the revolutionaries, persuaded the French to recognize Amer- ican independence in December 1777. Neither country was to conclude peace with the British "without the formal consent of the other." The treaty was to take effect "should war break out" between France and Great Britain. The alliance was sealed when fighting between the two traditional enemies began in June. Americans also found much support in the Netherlands. Although officially allied with Great Britain, the Dutch maintained a position of neutrality and opened secret negotiations with the Americans for a treaty of trade and friendship. Clandestine trade through the Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean helped sustain the Patriot cause. In 1779 the British shelled the Dutch colony and the next year declared war on the Nether- lands. The Dutch became the second European nation to recognize the United States and its financiers became the most important source of loans for the new nation.

Spain had entered the war in 1779. As early as 1775 Spanish officials in New Orleans were providing substantial ammunition and provisions for American forts in the West, including supplies of beef from herds of cattle driven to New Orleans by vaqueros (cowboys) from Texas. The viceroy of New Spain levied a special tax to pay for these supplies, and borderland colonists in Sonora, Texas, New Mexico, and California contributed their share. But unlike France and the Netherlands, the Spanish refused to establish a formal alliance with the United States.

Thus, the Spanish pursued an independent strategy against the British, seiz- ing the weakly defended Mississippi River towns of Natchez and Baton Rouge in 1779, and winning the important Gulf ports of Mobile in 1780 and Pensacola in 1781. The victory at Pensacola was achieved with the help of several companies of Florida exiles, many of them African Americans.

With France and Spain now in the war, the British rethought their military strategy. Considering their West Indies sugar colonies at risk, they shipped 5,000 troops from New York to the Caribbean, where they succeeded in beating back a French attack. Fearing the arrival of the French fleet along the North American coast, the new British comman- der in America, General Henry Clinton, evacuated Philadelphia in June 1778. Washington's Continentals, fresh out of Valley Forge, went in hot pursuit. In the Battle of Monmouth, fought in stifling New Jersey heat on June 28, the British blunted the American drive and succeeded in mak- ing an orderly retreat to New York City. After a failed American-French joint campaign against the British at Newport, Rhode Island, Washing- ton decided on a defensive strategy. Although the Americans enjoyed sev- eral small successes in the Northeast over the next two years, the war there went into a stalemate.

INDIAN PEOPLES AND THE REVOLUTION IN THE WEST

At the beginning of the conflict, both sides looked for Indian support. Most important was the stance of the Iroquois Confederacy, long one of the most potent political forces in colonial North America. A delega- tion from Congress told the Iroquois that the conflict was a "family quar- rel" and urged them to keep out of it. British agents, on the other hand, pressed the Iroquois to unite against the Americans. Many Indian lead- ers were reluctant to get involved: "We are unwilling to join on either side of such a contest," declared one Oneida chief. "Let us Indians be all of one mind, and live with one another, and you white people settle your own disputes between yourselves."

Fort Detroit •

NEW YORK Lake

Ontario Fort Niagara • 1 American attack

on Iroquois August 1779

V V" rkr V \ Wyoming Valley July 1778

PENNSYLVANIA

Pittsburgh • NEW

JERSEY

• Cahokia

Kaskaskia .*

VIRGINIA

Boonesborough Clark 177 8 September 1778

Vincennes February 1779

119

Ohio lbv“

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 11 163 Ultimately, however, the British proved persuasive. It became clear to Indi-

ans that a Patriot victory would mean the extension of American settlements into

their homelands. Native peoples fought in the Revolution for some of the same

reasons Patriots did—for political independence, cultural integrity, and the pro-

tection of their land and property—but Indian fears of American expansion led

them to oppose the Patriot rhetoric of natural rights and the equality of all men.

Almost all the tribes that engaged in the fighting did so on the side of the British.

In the summer of 1776 a large number of Cherokees, led by the warrior chief

Dragging Canoe (Tsiyu-Gunsini), attacked dozens of American settlements. It required

hard fighting before Patriot militia companies managed to drive the Cherokees into

the mountains. Although the Cherokees eventually made an official peace, sporadic

violence between Patriots and Indians continued along the southern frontier.

Among the Iroquois of New York, the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant (Thayen-

danegea) succeeded in bringing most Iroquois warriors into the British camp,

although he was opposed by the chiefs of the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, who sup-

ported the Patriots. In 1777 and 1778, Iroquois and Loyalist forces raided the north-

ern frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania. In retaliation an American army

invaded the Iroquois homelands in 1779. Supported by Oneida and Tuscarora war-

riors, the Americans destroyed dozens of western villages and thousands of acres

of crops. For the first time since the birth of their confederacy centuries before, the

Iroquois were fighting each other (see Map 7.3).

■ Fort

-4— American troop movements

-4— British troop movements ilk American victory

ilk British victory

L a

ke M

ic hi

g a n

Baltimore. DELAWARE

MARYLAND

SS

MAP 7.3 Fighting in the West, 1778-79

WHAT ROLE did Indian peoples play in the fighting in the West?

MARYLAND

VIRGINIA

164 • CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786 Across the mountains, the Ohio Indians formed an effective alliance under

the British at Detroit, and in 1777 and 1778 they sent warriors south against pio-

neer communities in western Virginia and Kentucky that had been founded in

defiance of the Proclamation of 1763. Virginian George Rogers Clark countered

by organizing an expedition of Kentucky militia against the old French settle-

ments in the Illinois country, which were controlled by the British. They succeeded

in taking the British post at Kaskaskia in the summer of 1778, and in early 1779,

in a daring winter raid on Vincennes, they captured Colonel Henry Hamilton,

British commander in the West.

But Clark lacked the strength to attack the strategic British garrison at Detroit.

Coordinating his Iroquois forces with those in Ohio, Brant mounted a new set of

offensives that cast a shadow over Clark's successes. The war in the West would not

end with the conclusion of hostilities in the East. With barely a pause, the fight-

ing in the trans-Appalachian West between Americans and Indians would con-

tinue for another two decades.

THE WAR IN THE SOUTH

The most important fighting of the Revolution took place in the South (see Map

7.4). General Clinton regained the initiative for Britain in December 1778 by send-

ing a force from New York against Georgia, the weakest of the colonies. The British

Yorkt • Battles of the '. August 30 - October 19 Virginia Capes

•S September 5-9, 1781

• i' %G• o e Co ‘.4

S'

Cowpens January 17, 1781

Kings Mountain October 7, 1780

*Guilford Court H se

1)•

March 15, 1781 NORTH

Na/b, CAROLINA

Camden August 16, 1780

CO British attempt to push through Carolinas and Virginia

SOUTH CAROLINA

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Charleston

GEORGIA

May12, 1780

Savannah December 29, 1778 21••

Clinton,

44.a A cd

Clinton 0 ,„(c, 4/arch /780 T‘ ..

bet

-.4— American troop movements

-4— British troop movements American victory

ilk British victory

MAP 7.4 Fighting in the South, 1778-81

WHAT ROLE did African American slaves play in the fighting in the South?

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 165

In 1845 Artist William Ranney depicted a famous moment during the Battle of Cowpens that took place in January 1781. Lieutenant Colonel William Washington, leader of the Patriot cavalry and a relative of George Washington, was attacked by a squadron of British dragoons. As Washington was about to be cut down, he

was saved by his servant William Ball, who fired a pistol that wounded the attacker. Nothing more is known about Ball, but he was one of a number of African Americans who fought on the Patriot side in the battle.

William Ranney, The Battle of Cowpens." Oil on canvas. Photo by Sam Holland. Courtesy South Carolina State House.

crushed the Patriot militia at Savannah and began to organize the Loyalists in an effort to reclaim the colony. Encouraged by their success in Georgia, the British decided to apply the lessons learned there throughout the South. This involved a fundamental change from a strategy of military conquest to one of pacification. Territory would be retaken step by step, then handed over to Loyalists who would reassert the crown's authority.

In October 1779 Clinton evacuated Rhode Island, the last British stronghold in New England, and proceeded with 8,000 troops for a campaign against Charleston. Outflanking the American defenders, he forced the surrender of more than 5,000 troops in May. It was the most significant American defeat of the war. Patriot resistance collapsed in the Lower South, and American fortunes were sud- denly at their lowest ebb since the beginning of the war.

The southern campaign was marked by vicious fighting between partisan militias of Patriots and Loyalists. The violence peaked in September 1780 with Cornwallis's invasion of North Carolina, where the Patriots were stronger and bet- ter organized. There the British found their southern strategy untenable: plunder- ing towns and farms in order to feed the army in the interior had the effect of producing angry support for the Patriots.

Into 1781 the Continentals and Patriot militias waged what General Greene called a fugitive war of hit and run against the British. Finally in the summer of 1781, deciding he would not be able to hold the Carolinas as long as Virginia remained a base of support and supply for the Americans, Cornwallis led his army north. After marauding through the Virginia countryside, he reached the Chesapeake where he expected reinforcements from New York. The British withdrawal from North Carolina allowed Greene to reestablish Patriot control of the Lower South.

5-10 William Dobein James, The Rise of Partisan Warfare in the South (1778)

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Yorktown

• American and French forces sur- round British encampment.

• British General Cornwallis forced to surrender his army.

• Defeat forced the British to accept American independence.

166 111 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

THE YORKTOWN SURRENDER

While the British raged through the South, the stalemate continued in the North- east. In the summer of 1780, taking advantage of the British evacuation of Rhode

Island, the French landed 5,000 troops at Newport under the command of Gen- eral Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau. But it was not until the spring of 1781 that Rochambeau risked joining his force to Washington's Con- tinentals north of New York City. In August Washington learned that the French Caribbean fleet was headed for the Chesapeake. If he and Rochambeau could move their troops south, they might lock up Cornwallis in his camp at Yorktown. Leaving a small force behind as a decoy, they marched their 16,000 men overland to the Vir- ginia shore in little more than a month.

The maneuver was a complete success. The French and Americans surrounded and besieged the British encampment. French and American heavy artillery ham- mered the British unmercifully until the middle of October. After the failure of a planned retreat across the York River, Cornwallis opened negotiations for the sur- render of his army. Two days later, on October 19, 1781, between lines of victori- ous American and French soldiers, the British troops came out from their trenches to surrender (see Seeing History). Everyone was aware that it was an event of incal- culable importance, but few guessed it was the end of the war. The British still con- trolled New York.

In London a month later Lord North received the news "as he would have taken a ball in the breast," the colonial secretary reported. "Oh God!" North moaned, "it is all over!" The American Revolution had turned into war with France and Spain, and British fortunes were at low ebb in India, the West Indies, Florida, and the Mediterranean. The cost of the war was enormous, and there was little support for it among either the British public or the members of Parliament. George III wished to press on, but North submitted his resignation, and in March 1782 the king was forced to offer the office of prime minister to Charles Watson-Wentworth, Lord Rockingham, who long had favored granting the Americans their independence.

Articles of Confederation Written document setting up the loose confederation of states that comprised the first national government of the United States.

THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED

rip he motion for independence, offered to the Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee on June 7, 1776, called for a confederation of the states. The Articles of Confederation, the first written constitution of the

United States, created a national government of sharply limited powers. This

arrangement reflected the concerns of people fighting to free themselves from a coercive central government. But the weak Confederation government had a dif- ficult time forging the unity and assembling the resources necessary to fight the war and win the peace.

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

The debate over confederation that took place in the Continental Congress dur- ing 1776 made it clear that delegates favoring a loose union of autonomous states outnumbered those who wanted a strong central government. A consensus finally emerged in 1777, and the "Articles of Confederation" were formally adopted by the Continental Congress in November and sent to the states for ratification. The Articles created a national assembly, called the Congress, in which each state had a single vote. Delegates, selected annually in a manner determined by the individ- ual state legislatures, could serve no more than three years out of six. A presiding president, elected annually by Congress, was eligible to hold office no more than

=1111111.1=11== WHAT CONCERNS were

reflected in the terms of the

Articles of Confederation?

myhist(Oylab Review Summary

The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis

A merican artist John Trumbull displayed a preliminary version of Surrender of Lord Cornwallis in

1797 along with three other history paintings of the Revolution, including his depiction of the

signing of the Declaration of Independence, the surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, and

the resignation of General Washington from his military commission at the war's conclusion. Young

Trumbull had been an officer in the Continental Army

and served for a time as Washington's aide-de-camp, IN WHAT ways does Trumbull create a heroic but he had not been at Yorktown. By that time he was painting by the arrangement of his subjects? in London studying with the American expatriate artist

Benjamin West. This painting was done in the heroic

style of nationalist art popular at the time in Great

Britain and Europe. Trumbull was at pains to get the details right. He visited Yorktown to sketch the

landscape and traveled across the United States and France to capture the likenesses of the senior

American and French officers, including Washington and Rochambeau, shown lining the two sides,

colors flying, as the British troops file by. But Trumbull was criticized by the public for getting one

detail appallingly wrong. He depicted Cornwallis on horseback in the center, when in fact the British

commander was not present at the ceremony but was sulking in his tent. Trumbull corrected his

error by changing the color of the central figure's uniform from red to blue, thereby turning Corn-

wallis into General Benjamin Lincoln, who is seen reaching for the sword in the possession of the

British second-in-command, General Charles O'Hara. In 1817 the Senate commissioned Trumbull

to repaint his Revolutionary scenes for placement in the Rotunda of the Capitol. ■

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Powers of the Central Government

under the Articles of Confederation

• No national judiciary.

• No separate executive branch.

♦ Congress sole national authority. • No Congressional authority to

raise troops or impose taxes.

Newfoundland

168 11 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

one year out of three. Votes would be decided by a simple majority of the states,

except for major questions, which would require the agreement of nine states.

Congress was granted national authority in the conduct of foreign affairs,

matters of war and peace, and maintenance of the armed forces. It could raise

loans, issue bills of credit, establish a coinage, and regulate trade with Indian

peoples, and it was to be the final authority in jurisdictional disputes between

states. It was charged with establishing a national postal system as well as a com-

mon standard of weights and measures. Lacking the power to tax citizens directly, however, the national government was to apportion its financial burdens among

the states according to the extent of their surveyed land. The Articles explicitly

guaranteed the sovereignty of the individual states, reserving to them all powers

not expressly delegated to Congress. Ratification or amendment required the agree-

ment of all thirteen states. The Articles of Confederation thus created a national

government of specific yet sharply circumscribed powers.

The legislatures of twelve states soon voted in favor of the Articles, but final rat-

ification was held up for more than three years by the state of Maryland. Represent-

ing the interests of states without claims to lands west of the Appalachians, Maryland

demanded that states cede to Congress their western claims, the new nation's most valu-

able resource, for "the good of the whole" (see Map 7.5). It was 1781 before Virginia,

the state with the largest western claims, broke the logjam by agreeing to the cession.

Maryland then ratified the Articles of Confederation, and in March they took effect.

Hudson BRITISH Bay

NORTH AMERICA

(CANADA)

Quebec

VERMONT MAINE

NEW HAMPSHIRE

SPANISH

LOUISIANA

NORTHWEST TERRITORY

NORTH CAROLINA

SOUTH CAROLINA

GEORGIA

SPANISH FLORIDA

Gulf of Mexico

OCEAN

Northwest Territory Claimed and ceded by Virginia in 1784: overlapping claims ceded by Massachusetts (1785), Connecticut (1786, 1800), ceded by New York (1782)

FA Southwest Territory: Ceded by North Carolina (1790), ceded by Georgia (1802)

El Vermont New York and New Hampshire gave up claims 1790; became a state, 1791

NEW -.--MASSACHUSETTS YORK

--RHODE ISLAND

PENNSYLVANIA CONNECTICUT NEW JERSEY

DELAWARE

VIRGINIA MARYLAND

ATLANTIC

MAP 7.5 State Claims to Western Lands The ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1781 awaited settlement of the western claims of eight states. Vermont, claimed by New Hampshire and New York, was not made a state until 1791, after disputes were settled the previous year. The territory north of the Ohio River was claimed in

whole or in part by Virginia, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. All of them had ceded their claims

by 1786, except for Connecticut, which had claimed an area just south of Lake Erie, known as the Western

Reserve; Connecticut ceded this land in 1800. The territory south of the Ohio was claimed by Virginia,

North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; in 1802, the latter became the last state to cede its claims.

WHAT WAS the reason for the delay in ratifying the Articles of Confederation?

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urlington in NEW-JERSEY ;

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To counterfeit is Deatb.

The Continental Congress printed currency to finance the Revolution. Because of widespread counterfeiting, engravers attempted to incorporate complex designs, like the unique vein structure in the leaf on this eighteen-pence note. In case that wasn't enough, the engraver of this note also included the warning: "To counterfeit is Death."

1 69 THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7

FINANCING THE WAR

Lacking the authority to levy direct taxes, Congress financed the Rev- olution through grants and loans from friendly foreign powers and by issuing paper currency. The total foreign subsidy by the end of the war approached $9 million, but this was not enough to back the cir- culating Continental currency that Congress authorized, the face value of which amounted to $200 million. In an attempt to retire this currency, Congress called on the states to raise taxes, payable in Con- tinental dollars. But most of the states were unwilling to do this. In fact, most had resorted to printing currency of their own, estimated at a face value of another $200 million by war's end. The result of this expansion in the money supply was the rapid depreciation of Conti- nental currency. By the time Robert Morris, one of the wealthiest merchants in the country, became secretary of finance in May 1781, Continental currency had ceased to circulate. In the jargon of the day, things of no value were "not worth a Continental." Yet the paper currency had funded a revolution.

Morris was able to turn things around. He persuaded Congress to charter a "Bank of North America" located in Philadelphia, the first private commercial bank in the United States. Into its vaults he deposited large quantities of gold and silver coin and bills of exchange obtained through loans from Holland and France. He then issued new paper currency backed by this treasure. Once he established con- fidence in the bank, Morris was able to supply the Continental Army through private contracts. He also began making interest payments on the debt, which in 1783 was estimated at $30 million.

NEGOTIATING INDEPENDENCE

Peace talks between the United States and Great Britain opened in July 1782, when Benjamin Franklin sat down with the British emissary in Paris. Congress had issued its first set of war aims in 1779. The funda- mental demand was recognition of American independence and with- drawal of British forces. American negotiators were instructed to press for the largest territorial limits possible, as well as guarantees of Amer- ican rights to fish North Atlantic waters. As for its French ally, Congress instructed the commissioners to be guided by friendly advice, but also by "knowledge of our interests, and by your own discretion, in which we repose the fullest confidence." The French were not happy with this, and partly as a result of French pressure, in June 1781 Congress issued a new set of instructions. The commissioners were to settle merely for a grant of inde- pendence and withdrawal of troops and to be subject to the guidance and control of the French in the negotiations.

Ben Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams, the peace commissioners in Paris, were well aware of French attempts to manipulate the outcome of negotiations and place limits on American power. In violation of both Congressional instructions and treaty obligations to France, they signed a preliminary treaty with Britain in Novem- ber 1782 without consulting the French. In the treaty, Britain acknowledged the United States as "free, sovereign & independent" and agreed to withdraw its troops from all forts within American territory "with all convenient speed." The American commis- sioners pressed the British for Canada but settled for western territorial boundaries extending to the Mississippi (see Map 7.6) with unencumbered navigation of the river.

QUICK REVIEW

Peace of Paris

• Signed September 3, 1783.

• United States got virtually every- thing it sought at peace talks.

• Treaty addressed important eco- nomic issues, but said nothing about slavery.

SPANISH FLORIDA

Gulf of

Mexico Hispaniola Cuba (Spanish)

(Spanish)

Jamaica Belize (British) St. Dominique (British) (French)

Caribbean Sea

Bahamas (British)

Lesser Antilles (British)

Puerto Rico (Spanish)

Lesser Antilles (French)

170 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

MAP EXPLORATION To explore an interactive version of this map, go to http://www.prenhall.com/faraghertIcimap7.6

ARCTIC

OCEAN

■ 1r

tops-0,NEST TERRITOR/ Es RUSSIAN

Labrador Sea

Gulf of Hudson Alaska Bay

I s

.5. New R

C A

Brunswick Newfoundland R r A 4,7

Prince Edward Island ----Cape Breton Island

Nova Scotia

SPANISH

LOUISIANA

UNITED ATLANTIC

OCEAN PACIFIC

OCEAN

STATES

California

Disputed areas:

El Russia, Spain, and Britain III United States and Britain

United States and Spain

SPANISH Texas

NORTH

AMERICA

NEW

SPAIN

PACIFIC OCEAN

MAP 7.6 North America After the Treaty of Paris, 1783 The map of European and American claims to North America was radically altered by the results of the American Revolution.

HOW DM the Treaty of Paris alter the balance of power in North America?

The British guaranteed Americans "the right to take fish" in the waters of the North

Atlantic. Britain received American promises that Congress would erect "no lawful

impediments" to the recovery of debts, end the confiscation of Loyalist property, and

attempt to persuade the states to fairly compensate Loyalist exiles. All in all, it was an

astounding coup for the Americans.

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 it 1 7 1

The preliminary treaty confronted France with an accomplished fact. When French diplomats crit-

icized the American commissioners, they responded by hinting that resistance to the treaty provisions could result in a British–American alliance. There- upon France quickly made an agreement of its own with the British.

Spain did not participate in the negotiations with the Americans. But having waged a successful campaign against the British on the Mississippi and the Gulf Coast, its government issued a claim of sov- ereignty over much of the trans-Appalachian terri- tory granted to the United States by Great Britain. Spain arranged a separate peace with Great Britain, in which it won the return of Florida. The final Treaty of Paris—actually a series of separate agree- ments among the United States, Great Britain, France, and Spain—was signed at Versailles on September 3, 1783.

THE CRISIS OF DEMOBILIZATION

In 1778 Continental officers had won from Congress a promise of life pensions at half pay in exchange for enlistment for the duration of the war. By 1783, however, Con- gress had still not made any specific provisions for officers' pensions. With peace at hand, the officers began to fear that the army would be disbanded before the prob- lem was resolved, and they would lose whatever power they had to pressure Con- gress. In January 1783, a group of prominent senior officers petitioned Congress, demanding that pensions be converted to a bonus equal to five years of full pay. Any further experiments on their patience," they warned, "may have fatal effects." Despite the barely veiled threat of military intervention, Congress rejected their petition.

With the backing of congressional nationalists, a group of army officers asso- ciated with General Horatio Gates circulated a letter arguing for direct military intervention and calling an extraordinary meet* of the officer corps at Newburgh. But General Washington, on whom the officers counted for support, criticized the meeting as "disorderly" and called an official meeting of his own. There was enor-

mous tension as the officers assembled on March 15, 1783. Washington strode into the room and mounted the platform. Turning his back in disdain on Gates, he delivered an address from memory condemning the circular letter. After he left, the officers adopted resolutions rejecting intervention, and a week later, on Wash- ington's urging, Congress converted the promised pensions to bonuses.

Washington's role in this crisis was one of his greatest contributions to the nation. At stake was nothing less than the possibility of a military coup at the very moment of victory. The American Revolution was the first of many successful colonial revolu- tions, and in hindsight it is clear that postindependence military rule was a common outcome in many of them. In December 1783 Washington resigned his commission as general of the army despite calls for him to remain. There is little doubt he could

have assumed the role of an American dictator. Instead, by his actions and example, the principle of military subordination to civil authority was firmly established.

As for the common soldiers, they wanted simply to be discharged. In May 1783, Congress voted the soldiers three months' pay as a bonus and instructed Wash- ington to begin dismissing them. By the beginning of 1784, the Continental Army

had shrunk to no more than a few hundred men.

American artist Benjamin West never completed his painting of the "American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Negotiations with Great Britain, 1783-1785," but he left this "cartoon"

or study. It features portraits of (left to

right) John Jay, John Adams, Henry

Laurens, Benjamin Franklin, and William

Temple Franklin, who served as secretary

for his grandfather. West intended to include the British commissioners, but

the death of one and the uncooperative

attitude of the other aborted the project.

Benjamin West, 1783 "American Commissioners of Pre-

liminary Negotiations". Courtesy, Winterthur Museum.

41) 6-3 George Washington, The Newburgh Address (1783)

c :„

44

The last page of the Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris on September 3, 1783, by David Hartley for Great Britain, and for the United States

by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay.

172 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

5-12 Congress Decides What to Do

with the Western Lands (1785)

THE PROBLEM OF THE WEST

Even during the Revolution thousands of Americans migrated westward, and after the war settlers poured over the mountains and down the Ohio River. Thousands of Americans pressed against the Indian country north of the Ohio River, and destruc- tive violence continued along the frontier. British troops contin- ued to occupy posts in the Great Lakes region and encouraged Indian attacks on vulnerable settlements. Spain refused to accept the territorial settlement of the Treaty of Paris and closed the port of New Orleans to Americans, effectively blockading the Mississippi River. Westerners who saw that route as their pri- mary access to markets were outraged.

John Jay, appointed secretary for foreign affairs by the Confederation Congress in 1784, attempted to negotiate with the British for their complete withdrawal but was told that was not possible until all outstanding debts from before the war were settled. Jay also negotiated with the Spanish for guarantees of ter- ritorial sovereignty and commercial relations, but they insisted that the Americans relinquish free navigation of the Mississippi. Congress would approve no treaty under those conditions, and some frustrated Westerners considered leaving the Confedera- tion. In the West, local community interest continued to over- ride the fragile development of national community sentiment.

In 1784, Congress took up the problem of extending national authority over the West. Legislation was drafted, principally by Thomas Jefferson, providing "Government for the Western Terri- tory." The legislation proposed a remarkably republican colonial policy. The western public domain would be divided into states, fully the equals of the original thirteen, with Congressional guar- antees of self-government and republican institutions. Once the population of a territory numbered 20,000, the residents could call a convention and establish a constitution and government of their own choosing. And once the population grew to equal that of the smallest of the original thirteen states, the territory could petition for statehood, provided it agreed to remain forever a member of

the Confederation. Congress accepted these proposals but rejected by a vote of seven to six Jefferson's clause forever prohibiting slavery in the West.

Passed the following year, the Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for the sur- vey and sale of western lands. The settlement of Kentucky had been characterized by a chaos of overlapping surveys and land claims, a problem the Land Ordinance was designed to solve by creating an ordered system of survey, dividing the land into townships composed of thirty-six sections of one square mile (640 acres) each. Jef- ferson argued that land ought to be given away to actual settlers. But, eager to estab- lish a revenue base for the government, Congress provided for the auction of public lands for not less than one dollar per acre.

In the treaties of Fort Stanwix in 1784 and Fort McIntosh in 1785, congressional commissioners forced the Iroquois and a number of Ohio tribes, respectively, to cede portions of their territory in what is now eastern Ohio. These treaties were not the result of negotiation but intimidation. The commissioners dictated the terms by seizing hostages and forcing compliance. Surveyors were immediately sent west to divide up the land. The first surveyed lands did not come onto the market until the fall of 1788, and in the meantime Congress, desperate for revenue, sold a tract of more than 1.5

Land Ordinance of 1785 Act passed by Congress under the Articles of Confederation that created the grid system of surveys by which all subsequent public land was made available for sale.

Northwest Ordinance of 1787 Legislation that prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territories and provided the model for the incorporation of future territories into the union as co-equal states.

PENNSYLVANIA NEW

JERSEY OHIO (1803)

DELAWARE ILLINOIS (1818)

MARYLAND

VIRGINIA

Ohio 1‘ ' "

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

NORTH CAROLINA TENNESSEE (1796)

SPANISH

LOUISIANA INDIANA (1816)

KENTUCKY (1792)

Northwest Territory

Disputed boundary

■ British fort

I I I- -I

6 miles

6 5 4 3 2 1

7 8 9 10 11 12

18 17 16 15 14 13

19 20 21 22 23 24 /

30 29 28 27 26 25

31 32 33 34 35 36

THE SURVEY SYSTEM A township (36 square miles)

Income from section 16 reserved for school support

16 One section (1 sq. mi.)

Half-section (320 acres)

Quarter- section

(160 acres)

Half-quarter sections (80 acres)

Quarter-quarter-sections (40 acres)

E

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 173 it

MAP EXPLORATION To explore an interactive version of this map, go to httpd/www.prenhall.com/faraghertic/map7.7

BRITISH

NORTH AMERICA

(CANADA)

\ C S uperior MAINE (Mass.)

Fort Michillimackinac Point—au—Fer.

Dutchman's Point

NEW HAMPSHIRE

WISCONSIN (1848)

NEW Fort °Ni'altga: ° Niagara YORK

MASSACHUSETTS

MICHIGAN (1837)

RHODE ISLAND

CONNECTICUT

Fort Detroit ■

MAP 7.7

The Northwest Territory and the Land Survey System of the United States The Land Ordinance

of 1785 created an ordered system of survey, dividing the land into townships and sections.

IN WHAT ways did the Northwest Ordinance affect the admission of new states into the Union? What were the

consequences for western lands?

million acres to the Ohio Company, a new consortium of land

speculators, for a million dollars. Thousands of Westerners chose

not to wait for the official opening of the public lands north of

the Ohio River but simply settled illegally by making squatters'

claims. In 1785 Congress raised troops and evicted many of them,

but once the troops departed the squatters returned. The persis-

tence of this problem convinced many congressmen to revise Jef-

ferson's democratic territorial plan.

In the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Congress established

a system of government for the territory north of the Ohio (see

Map 7.7). Three to five states were to be carved from the giant

QUICK REVIEW

The New Politics

• Ordinary people gained political experience during the Revolution.

• New state legislatures included more men from rural and west- ern districts.

• Political spectrum shifted left.

174 CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

Northwest Territory. Slavery was prohibited. But the initial guarantee of self-gov- ernment in Jefferson's plan was replaced by a congressionally appointed governor and court of judges. Once the free white male population of the territory had grown to 5,000, these citizens would be permitted to choose an assembly, but the governor had the power of absolute veto on all territorial legislation. National interest would be imposed on the local western communities.

The creation of the land system of the United States was the major achieve- ment of the Confederation government. But there were other important accom- plishments. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress led the country through the Revolution and its commissioners negotiated the terms of a comprehensive peace treaty. And by organizing the departments of war,foreign affairs, finance, and the post office, the Confederation government created the beginnings of a national bureaucracy.

REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS IN THE STATES

D espite the accomplishments of the Confederation, most Americans were focused on the governments of their own states. The national govern- ment was distant and had relatively little effect on people's lives. Social

and political identity was located in local communities and states rather than the American nation. People spoke of "these United States," emphasizing the plural. The states were the setting for the most important political struggles of the Con- federation period.

A NEW DEMOCRATIC IDEOLOGY The political mobilization that took place in 1774 and 1775 greatly broadened polit- ical participation. Mass meetings in which ordinary people expressed their opinions, voted, and gained political experience were common not only in the cities but in small towns and rural communities as well. During these years a greater proportion of the population began to participate in elections. Compared with the colonial assemblies, the new state legislatures included more men from rural and western districts—farmers and artisans as well as lawyers, merchants, and large landowners.

This transformation was accompanied by a dramatic shift in the content of polit- ical debate. During the colonial period, when only the upper classes were truly engaged in the political process, the principal argument followed the lines of the traditional Tory and Whig divide in Great Britain. The Tory position, taken by colonial officials, was that colonial governments were simply convenient instruments of royal preroga- tive, serving at the king's pleasure. The Whig position, adopted by colonial elites who sought to preserve and increase their own power, emphasized the need for a govern- ment balancing the power of a governor with an upper house and an assembly. As a result of the Revolution, the Tory position lost all legitimacy and the Whig position was challenged by farmers, artisans, and ordinary people armed with a new and rad- ical democratic ideology. The spectrum of politics shifted to the left.

THE FIRST STATE CONSTITUTIONS

One of the first post-Revolution debates focused on an appropriate governmental structure for the new states. The thinking of democrats was indicated by the title of a New England pamphlet of 1776: The People the Best Governors. Power, this anonymous author argued, should be vested in a single, popularly elected assembly. The people, in the words of this pamphlet, "best know their wants and necessities, and therefore are best able to govern themselves." The ideal form of government, according to

11111011111111= HOW DID political debate in America change in the years after

1774?

myhistc3c6lab Review Summary

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 it 175 democrats, was the community or town meeting, in which the people set their own tax rates, created a militia, controlled their own schools and churches, and regulated the local economy. State government was necessary only for coordination among communities.

Conservative Americans took up the Whig argument of the need for balanced government. The "unthinking many," wrote a conservative pamphleteer, should be checked by a strong executive and an upper house. Both of these would be insulated from popular control by property qualifications and long terms in office. The great-

est danger, according to conservatives, was the possibility of majority tyranny, which might lead to the violation of property rights and dictatorship.

Fourteen states—the original thirteen plus Vermont, an independent repub- lic from 1777 until 1791—adopted constitutions between 1776 and 1780. Each of those political charters was shaped by the debate between radicals and conservatives, democrats and Whigs, and reflected a particular political alignment. Pennsylvania was the first state to adopt a radically democratic constitution, with a unicameral assem- bly elected annually by all free male taxpayers. North Carolina, Georgia, and Ver- mont followed the Pennsylvania model. Indeed, Vermont went even further and became the first state to adopt universal manhood suffrage. At the other extreme, South Carolina and Maryland created a conservative set of institutions designed to keep citizens and rulers as far apart as possible. The other states adopted constitu- tional systems somewhere in the middle.

DECLARATIONS OF RIGHTS

One of the most important innovations of the state constitutions were the guarantees of rights patterned on the Virginia "Declaration of Rights" of June 1776. Written by George Mason—a wealthy planter, democrat, and brilliant political philosopher— the Virginia declaration set a distinct tone in its very first article: 'That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." The fifteen articles of the Virginia Declaration declared, among other things, that sovereignty resided in the people, that government was the servant of the people, and that the people had the "right to reform, alter, or abolish" that government. There were guarantees of due process and trial by jury in criminal prosecutions, as well as prohibitions against excessive bail and "cruel and unusual punishment." Freedom of the press was guaranteed as "one of the great bulwarks of liberty," and the people were assured of "the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience."

Eight state constitutions included a general declaration of rights similar to the first article of the Virginia declaration; others incorporated specific guarantees. A

number of states proclaimed the right of the people to engage in free speech and free assembly, to instruct their representatives, and to petition for the redress of griev- ances—rights either inadvertently or deliberately omitted from Virginia's declara- tion. These declarations were important precedents for the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the federal Constitution of 1789. Indeed, George Mason of Virginia would be the leader of the democrats who insisted that the Constitution

stipulate such rights.

THE SPIRIT OF REFORM

The political upheaval of the Revolution raised the possibility of other reforms in American society. The New Jersey constitution of 1776 granted the vote to "all

inhabitants of this colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds . . . and have resided within the county . . . for twelve months," thus enfranchising women as well

• 5-13 Territorial Governments are Established by Congress (1787)

• 6-1 Constitution of Pennsylvania (1776)

6-2 John Adams, A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1780)

Bill of Rights A written summary of inalienable rights and liberties.

1 76 • CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

By giving the vote to all free inhabitants," the 1776 constitution of New Jersey enfranchised women as well as men who met the property requirements. The num-

ber of women voters eventually led to

male protests. Wrote one: "What tho' we

read, in days of yore, / The woman's occu-

pation / Was to direct the wheel and loom,

/ Not to direct the nation." In 1807, a new state law explicitly limited the right

of franchise to "free white male citizens."

Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom A bill authored by Thomas Jefferson establishing religious freedom in Virginia.

as men. Because married women could own no property in their own names, only single women

voted in New Jersey, but large numbers of them

participated in elections and spoke out on polit- ical issues. There were male protests of this "irregular" situation, and in 1807 the legislature passed a law explicitly limiting the right to vote to "free white male citizens."

The New Jersey controversy was something of an anomaly, yet women's participation in the Revolution wrought subtle but important

changes. In the aftermath of the Revolution, there was evidence of increasing sympathy in the courts for women's property rights and fairer treatment of women's petitions for divorce. And the postwar years witnessed an increase in oppor- tunities for women seeking an education. From a strictly legal and political point of view, the

Revolution may have done little to change women's role in society, but it did seem to help change expectations.

The most steadfast reformer of the day was Thomas Jefferson, who after completing work on the Declaration of Independence returned to Virginia to

take a seat in its House of Delegates. In 1776 he introduced a bill in the Virginia legislature abolishing entail (restriction of inheritance to particular heirs in order that landed property remain undivided) and primogeniture (the inheritance of all the family property by the firstborn son), legal customs long in effect in aris- tocratic England that Jefferson believed had no place in a republican society. Jef- ferson's reform of inheritance law passed and had a dramatic effect. By 1798, every state had followed Virginia's lead.

Jefferson's other notable success was his Bill for Establishing Religious Free- dom. He considered it one of his greatest accomplishments. At the beginning of the Revolution, there were established churches—denominations officially sup- ported and funded by the government—in nine of the thirteen colonies. Many

Anglican clergymen harbored Loyalist sympathies, and as part of an anti-Loyalist backlash, New York, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia had little difficulty passing acts that disestablished the Anglican Church. In Virginia, however, many planters viewed Anglicanism as a bulwark against Baptist and Methodist democ- ratic thinkers, resulting in bitter and protracted opposition to Jefferson's bill. It did not pass until 1786.

Jefferson proposed several more reforms of Virginia law, all of which failed to pass. He would have created a system of public education, revised the penal code to restrict capital punishment to the crimes of murder and treason, and established the gradual emancipation of slaves by law. On the whole, Jefferson and the Revolutionary generation were more successful at raising questions than at accomplishing reforms. The problems of penal reform, public education, and slavery remained for later generations of Americans to resolve.

AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE REVOLUTION

For most African Americans there was little to celebrate, for the American victory guar- anteed the continuation of slavery as an institution. Few people were surprised when thousands of black fighters and their families departed with the Loyalists and the British at the end of the war, settling in the West Indies, Canada, and Africa. Most of

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African Americans and the Revolution

• Revolutionary principles sparked some to challenge slavery.

• More than 50,000 slaves gained

freedom as result of the war.

• By 1800 free black population reached 100,000.

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1786 CHAPTER 7 it 177 these refugees were fugitive slaves rather than committed Loyalists. In Virginia alone, some 30,000 slaves fled during the Revolution.

There was an obvious contradiction in waging a war for liberty while con-

tinuing to support the institution of slavery "How is it," English critic and essay-

ist Samuel Johnson asked pointedly in 1775, "that we hear the loudest yelps

for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?" The contradiction was not lost on

Washington, who during the Revolution began to agonize over the moral-

ity of slavery. He was not alone. Revolutionary idealism, in combination with

a shift away from tobacco farming, weakened the commitment of many

Chesapeake planters to the slave system. After the Revolution, a sizable

number of Virginians granted freedom to their slaves, and there was a

small but important movement to encourage gradual emancipation by

convincing masters to free their slaves in their wills. George Washington was one of them, making a will that not only

freed several hundred slaves upon his death but also included an elab-

orate plan for apprenticeship and tenancy for the able-bodied, and lodg-

ing and pensions for the aged. Planters in the Lower South, however,

heavily dependent as they were on slave labor, resisted the growing calls for

an end to slavery. Between 1776 and 1786 all the states but South Carolina and

Georgia prohibited or heavily taxed the international slave trade, and this issue

became an important point of conflict at the Constitutional Convention in 1787

(see Chapter 8).

Perhaps the most important result of this development was the growth of the

free African American population. From a few thousand in 1750, their number

grew to more than 200,000 by the end of the century. The increase was most notable

in the Upper South. Largely excluded from the institutions of white Americans, the

African American community now had enough strength to establish schools,

churches, and other institutions of its own. At first, this development was opposed

by whites. In Williamsburg, Virginia, for instance, the leader of a black congrega-

tion was seized and whipped when he attempted to gain recognition from the Bap-

tist Association. But by the 1790s the Williamsburg African Church had grown to

over 500 members, and the Baptist Association reluctantly recognized it. The incor-

poration of the word "African" in the names of churches, schools, and mutual ben-

efit societies reflected the pride African Americans took in their heritage.

In the North, slavery was first abolished in the state constitution of Vermont

in 1777, in Massachusetts in 1780, and New Hampshire in 1784. Pennsylvania, Con-

necticut, and Rhode Island adopted systems of gradual emancipation during these

years, freeing the children of slaves at birth. By 1804, every northern state had pro-

vided for abolition or gradual emancipation, although as late as 1810, 30,000 African

Americans remained enslaved in the North. During the era of the Revolution, a small group of African American writers

rose to prominence. Benjamin Banneker, born free in Maryland, where he received

an education, became one of the most accomplished mathematicians and

astronomers of late eighteenth-century America. In the 1790s, he published a pop-

ular almanac that both white and black Americans consulted. Jupiter Hammon, a

New York slave, took up contemporary issues in his poems and essays, one of the

most important of which was his "Address to the Negroes of the State of New York,"

published in 1787. But the most famous African American writer was Phyllis Wheat-

ley, who came to public attention when her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and

Moral appeared in London in 1773, while she was still serving as a domestic slave in Boston. Kidnapped in Africa as a young girl and converted to Christianity dur-

ing the Great Awakening, Wheatley wrote poems combining piety with a concern

This portrait of the African American poet Phyllis Wheatley was included in the col-

lection of her work published in London

in 1773, when she was only twenty years

old. Kidnapped in Africa when a girl,

then purchased off the Boston docks, she

was more like a daughter than a slave to

the Wheatley family. She later married

and lived as a free woman of color before

her untimely death in 1784.

Constitutional Convention Convention of delegates from the colonies that first met to organize resistance to the Intolerable Acts.

178 II CHAPTER 7 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1776-1786

CHRONOLOGY

1775 Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, appeals to slaves to support Britain

1776 July: Declaration of Independence

August: Battle of Long Island initiates retreat of Continental Army

September: British land on Manhattan Island

December: George Washington counterattacks at Trenton

1777 Slavery abolished in Vermont

September: British General William Howe captures Philadelphia

October: British General John Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga

November: Continentals settle into winter quarters at Valley Forge

December: France recognizes American independence

1778 June: France enters the war

June: Battle of Monmouth hastens British retreat to New York

July: George Rogers Clark captures Kaskaskia

December: British capture Savannah

1779 Spain enters the war

1780 February: British land at Charleston

July: French land at Newport

September: British General Charles Cornwallis

invades North Carolina

1781 March: Articles of Confederation ratified

May: Robert Morris appointed secretary of finance

October: Cornwallis surrenders at Yorke

1782 Peace talks begin

1783 March: Washington mediates issue of officer

pensions

September: Treaty of Paris signed

November: British evacuate New York

1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix

Postwar depression begins

1785 Land Ordinance of 1785

Treaty of Fort McIntosh

1786 Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious

Freedom

for her people. Writing to the Mohegan Indian minister Samuel Occom in 1774, Wheatley penned a line that not only applied to African Americans but also to all Americans struggling to be free. "In every human breast God has implanted a prin- ciple, which we call love of freedom; it is impatient of oppression, and pants for deliv- erance. The same principle lives in us."

CONCLUSION

pir he Revolution was a tumultuous era, , marked by violent conflict between Pa-triots and Loyalists, masters and slaves, settlers and Indian peoples. The advocates of independence emerged successfully, largely because of their abil . ty to pull together and consolidate their identification with the national com- munity. Fearful of the power of central authority, however, Americans created a rel- atively weak national government. People identified strongly with their local and state communities, and these governments became the site for most of the struggles over political direction that characterized the Revolution and its immediate aftermath.

But not all problems, it turned out, could be solved locally. Within a very few years, the nation would sink into a serious economic depression that sorely tested the resources of local communities. By the mid-1780s, many American nationalists were paraphrasing the question Washington had asked at Valley Forge in 1777: "What then is to become of this nation?"

THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 5776-1786 CHAPTER 7 1 79

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Assess the relative strengths of the Patriots and the Loyalists in the American Revolution.

2. What roles did Indian peoples and African Americans play in the Revolution?

3. Describe the structure of the Articles of Confederation. What were its strengths and weaknesses?

4. How did the Revolution affect politics within the states?

5. What was the effect of the Revolution on African Americans?

KEY fERMS Articles of Confederation (p. 166) Bill for Establishing Religious

Freedom (p. 176) Bill of Rights (p. 175) Constitution (p. 159)

Continental Army (p. 157)

Constitutional Convention (p. 177) Land Ordinance of 1785 (p. 172) Loyalists (p. 159) Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (p. 172)

Patriots (p. 157) Tories (p. 159)

myhist4hlab Flashcard Review

RECOMMENDED READING Carol Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence

(2005). Uses a topical and biographical approach to introduce to general

readers women's experiences during the Revolution.

Merrill Jensen, The New Nation: A History of the United States during the Confederation, 1 781-1 789 (1950). Still the standard work on the 1780s.

Max M. Mintz, Seeds of Empire: The American Revolutionary Conquest of the Iroquois (1999). The Revolution as a war for the control of Iroquois lands in upstate

New York.

John W. Pulis, Moving On: Black Loyalists in the Afro-Atlantic World (1999). Essays on

their military role and especially on their communities in Canada, Great Britain, and Africa. In each place, they remained second-class citizens.

Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War (1979). A pathbreaking study of

the Continental Army and popular attitudes toward it. Emphasizes the im- portant role played by the officer corps and the enlisted men in the for- mation of the first nationalist constituency.

Henry Wiencek, Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of

America (2003). An award-winning study of Washington's changing attitude

toward slavery.

For study resources for this chapter, go to www.myhistorylab.com and choose Out of Many,

Teaching and Learning Classroom Edition. You will find a wealth of study and review material for this chapter, including pretests and posttests, customised study plan, key-term review

flash cards, interactive map and document activities, and documents for analysis.

m hist lab yWhere it's a good time to connect ' to the past!