Chapter 6: The War for Independence

I. The Outbreak of War and the Declaration of Independence, 1774-1776

A. The Boston Tea party laid a foundation for the approaching crisis between the
British and Americans
B. The Americans showed their willingness to fight and die for their freedom and
liberties
C. Mounting Tensions
1. 1774
a) In May, Thomas Hutchinson was replaced by General Thomas
Gage as governor of Massachusetts
(1) Gage dissolved the Massachusetts legislature
b) The legislature defied Gage and assembled anyway and called
itself the Provincial Congress
c) In October, The legislature created the Committee of Safety, led
by John Hancock and special companies called Minutemen
(1) Committee of Safety - Any of the extralegal committees
that directed the revolutionary movement and carried on the
functions of government at the local level in the period
between the breakdown of royal authority and the
establishment of regular governments
(2) Minute Men - Special companies of militia formed in
Massachusetts and elsewhere beginning in late 1774
2. The Continental Association's boycott of British goods
a) Local committees sometimes assaulted loyalists and destroying
their property
b) Increasing polarized atmosphere, combined with a drift towards
military confrontation, drove a wedge between American loyalists
and patriot anti-British American Whigs
D. The Loyalists’ Dilemma
1. 1774-1775
a) Loyalists and whigs started to part company
b) Loyalists
(1) Were farmers, officeholders and professionals
(2) Many were recent immigrants to the colonies, who felt
more secure under the protection of the Crown than with
more established Americans
(3) Numbered close to half a million men and women
(a) some 20 percent of the colonies' free population
E. British Coercion and Conciliation
 1. 1774
a) British parliamentary elections (fall of 1774)
(1) Strengthened Prime Minister Lord North, allowing
parliament to probit the New England Colonies
(a) From trading outside the British Empire or sending
ships to North Atlantic fishing grounds
b) Parliament endorsed Lord North’s Conciliatory Proposition
pledging not to tax the colonies if they would voluntarily
contribute to the defense of the empire
(1) Conciliatory Proposition - Plan where Parliament would
"forbear" taxation of Americans in colonies whos
assemblies imposed taxes considered satisfactory by the
British government
(a) If it specified a maximum colony contribution and
offered ten years earlier the colonists may have
found the offer acceptable
(i) However, it was too late
c) North’s government sent orders to general Gage to take action
against the Massachusetts rebels
d) These Orders started the first clash between the American and
British Forces
F. The Battles of Lexington and Concord
1. 1775
a) In April general Gage assembled 700 men to march to Lexington
and Concord to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock
(1) The committee of safety was located in Concord
b) The patriots got word of the march and sent out riders one of them
being Paul Revere to warn their fellows
(1) Adams and Hancock escaped
c) Once the British reached Lexington there were 70 armed men,
there intentions were not clear, most likely there in a show of
defiance
d) The British started to disperse when a shot was fired, (no one
knows who fired) the British then fired at the Americans
(1) 18 Americans were wounded or killed
e) The British went on to Concord but on there way their rearguard
was attacked by patriots at Concord’s northbridge
f) They panicked and retreated to Boston, on there way minutemen
shot them from both sides of the road all the way back
(1) 273 British soldiers were either dead, wounded, or missing
(2) 100 Americans were either dead, wounded, or missing
 g) The Battles of Lexington and Concord spread quickly through
the colonies
(1) The Battles of Lexington and Concord - The first two
battles of the American Revolution
G. The Second Continental Congress, 1775-1776
1. The Second Continental Congress
a) assembled in Philadelphia, and became the National Government
in the succeeding months
b) Organized the Continental Army, authorized the formation of a
navy and printing of paper continental dollars
c) Olive Branch Petition - Petition adopted by the Second
Continental Congress as a last effort toward peace that avowed
America's loyalty to George Ill and requested that he protect them
from further aggressions
H. Commander-in-Chief George Washington
1. John Adams selected George Washington as the Commander in Chief
a) John Adams hoped the choice of a Virginian would widen the
conflict
b) Washington's qualifications: good judgment, understanding of
power, air of authority
c) Washington had the respect and admiration of his troops
I. Early Fighting in the War
1. Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775
a) Gage wanted to command the Boston harbor, however, the
Americans seized higher ground first on Breed’s hill
b) The British drove the Americans away at a great cost, losing over
1000 soldiers, but the Americans lost under 400
2. 1775-1776
a) During the winter the Americans brought sixty cannons from Fort
Ticonderoga to Boston, mounting them overlooking Boston Harbor
b) This put the British in an indefensible position and caused them to
retreat, which gave the patriots control of the New England
c) In subsequent fighting at Great Bridge, near Norfolk, and Moore's
Creek Bridge in North Carolina patriots defeated loyalists
d) Two American armies attacked Montreal and Quebec
(1) Montreal was quickly captured, however, Benedict Arnold
failed to capture Quebec
J. Independence
 1. The rejection of the Olive branch Petition and the barring of all exports
from the American colonies by King George III made the colonists
abandon their loyalty.
2. Common sense published by Tom Paine in Jan 1776, persuaded
Americans towards independence.
3. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, gave Congress a resolution, that the
united colonies should be there own states
4. Congress created a committee to make the Declaration of Independence
the committee chose Thomas Jefferson to compose the first draft
a) The Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776
5. Declaration of Independence - The document by which the Second
Continental Congress announced and justified its decision to renounce the
colonies' allegiance to the British government
6. Contract theory of government - The belief that government is
established by human beings to protect certain rights—such as life, liberty,
and property—that are theirs by natural, divinely sanctioned law and that
when government protects these rights, people are obligated to obey it
K. Republicanism
1. Republicanism - A complex, changing body of ideas, values, and
assumptions, closely related to country ideology, that influenced American
political behavior during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
2. Self-government: the best foundation for society and individual freedom
3. Called for the consent of the governed
4. Suspicious of excessively centralized government.
II. The Combatants
A. The American forces were composed of a regular Continental Army and militia
B. Professional Soldiers
1. George Washington wanted to discipline the Continental Army in order to
defeat the British troops and impress the other European powers and
establish the legitimacy of the United States
2. British troops and German mercenaries gave Americans the clearest model
of a professional army
3. Military life was tough with harsh punishments
4. Both British and American authorities had trouble supplying their troops
5. Soldiers of the continental army developed a community of their own
6. Benedict Arnold was the most notorious case officers disgruntlement, he
felt that he was not treated well so he committed treason
C. Women in the Military
1. Women accompanied both sides, some were prostitutes, most were
married or common-law consorts of ordinary soldiers.
 2. These women cooked and washed for troops, sometimes load artillery, and
provided nursing care
D. African American and Native American Participation in the War
1. British Commander in Chief Sir Henry Clinton offered slaves who joined
the royal troops any occupation they wished
2. 5000 African Americans fought for the Americans
3. The Indians mostly helped the British in hope of getting their land back
but the were not the best assets as the attacked the wrong people
sometimes
4. However, some Indians did help the American troops such as the Oneidas
and the Tuscaroras
III. The War in the North, 1776-1777
A. The war went through three phases
1. Phase 1: In the first, from the outbreak of fighting in 1775 to 1778, most
of the important battles took place in New England, New York,
NewJersey, and Pennsylvania
2. Phase 2: France entered the war helping the Colonists would rage from
1778 to 1781 mainly in the South, at sea, and on the western frontier.
3. Phase 3: from late 1781 to 1783, saw little actual fighting, America
assured victory, eventually, the treaty of Paris was passed, causing the end
of the war and resulting in American Independence
B. The British Army Hesitates
1. British focused on subduing New England, they replaced Gage with Sir
William Howe as Commander in Chief, and his brother Richard Howe
was made as admiral of the navy
2. Howe made New York City headquarters their base of operations
3. He landed his troops in Long Island, in the battle of Brooklyn heights they
drove the Americans from Brooklyn heights
a) Afterward, British forces overwhelmed Washington’s troops and
drove them out of Manhattan
4. On Christmas night Washington launched a surprise attack on Hessian
mercenaries at Trenton, a week later Washington overwhelmed a British
force at Princeton
5. Why did the Howes not annihilate the Continental Army while they had
the chance?
a) They did not want to risk making the Americans permanent
enemies
C. The Year of the Hangman, 1777
 1. The British wanted the Rebellion, the made a plan to separate New
England from the states and crush the rebellion in that most recalcitrant
area
a) This went poorly as the plan was poorly planned and poorly
executed
2. Redcoats and German mercenaries were assembled in Canada during the
winter of 1776-1777 under the command of “Gentleman Johnny”
Burgoyne
a) Burgoyne’s army recaptured Fort Ticonderoga on July 5
3. The Whig militiamen wiped out the 800 men, that Burgoyne sent to
Vermont to get horses
4. The battle of Saratoga was won by the Americans, this would help
convince the French to support the fight on the American side
5. Rather than supporting Burgoyne, William Howe made plans to destroy
Washington’s army and capture Philadelphia
a) Howe sailed to Chesapeake Bay marching south to Pennsylvania,
he was met by Washington’s army at Brandywine Creek
b) The Americans put up a good fight but lost with twice as many
casualties as the British
c) Howe captured Philadelphia and settled down for the winter
6. The Congress retreated to York Pennsylvania, and the Continental Army
set camp at Valley Forge where the troops would
a) Where the troops would suffer through cold, disease, and
starvation, losing as many as 2,500 soldiers
b) Yet the troops managed to transform themselves into disciplined
professional soldiers under the command of General von Steuben
IV. The War Widens, 1778-1781
A. The United States Gains an Ally
1. Alliance with France
a) Benjamin Franklin helped
b) Commercial and military
c) France would not ask for North American land
d) Prevented peace with Britain
2. League of Armed Neutrality
a) Protected trade with US from Britain
b) Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Austria, Poland, Portugal
3. British Hired Henry Clinton
a) Inconclusive Battle of Monmouth Courthouse
(1) Last in the North
B. Fighting on the Frontier and at Sea
 1. Fighting in Tennessee
a) Indians were allied with British
b) George Clark helped capture the Mississippi
2. Fighting in Pennsylvania
a) British allied with Iroquois
3. Fighting at sea
a) American ships were smaller and fewer
b) American ships used gorilla warfare at sea
c) John Paul Jones
(1) Repurposed French ships
(2) Hit and run tactics
(3) Defeat the Serapis
C. The Land War Moves South
1. British strategy
a) Shifted the focus to the south
(1) Loyalists supported in south
(2) Seized Savannah and Georgia successfully
(3) Lost the battle of kettle creek
(4) Clinton brought the troops from North through sea route
2. American army unsuccessful for the most part
a) French support didn’t prove helpful
b) Lost the battle of Charleston
D. American Counterattacks
1. General Greene and Morgan’s competent Leadership
a) Both used unorthodox and clever strategies
b) Won the battle of Cowpens,South Carolina
2. Patriot guerrilla forces
a) Led by FrancisMarison
b) Disrupted the British communications between Charleston
headquarters and garrisons
3. Surrender of British army
a) British could not hold their territories for long
b) British General Cornwallis marched to York town, Virginia to cut
supplies to continental army
c) French soldiers joined continental force to fight British
d) The allied army’s surprise attack left British with no other option at
Yorktown
e) On October 19, 1781, the British army surrendered
V. The American Victory, 1782-1783
A. The Peace of Paris of 1783
 1. Peace negotiations
a) Took place in Paris
b) Americans demanded independence & handsome territorial
concessions
(1) Wanted all of Canada
2. Peace of Paris
a) September 3, 1783
b) Embodied Anglo-American treaty of peace
c) Gave everything except Canada
d) Britain acknowledged United States was "free, sovereign and
independent."
e) Didn’t provide U.S. access to Gulf of Mexico
(1) Caused diplomatic friction
f) Addressed economic issues
(1) Access to eastern Canadian waters
(2) British forces must leave all American owned property
B. The Components of Success
1. End of War 1783
a) Despite peace treaty slaves were taken
b) Continental army disbanded
c) Washington resigned
2. Winning Factors of the War
a) Washington’s leadership
b) French assistance
c) British contributed to their own downfall
(1) Bureaucratic inefficiency
(2) Hesitant command
(3) Overconfidence
VI. War and Society, 1775-1783
A. The Women’s War
1. Ladies' Association of Philadelphia
a) Established in 1780
b) Demonstrate women's patriotism
c) Raised money to buy shirts for the army
d) Similar associations formed in other states
2. Republican Ideology
a) Changing status of women
(1) Assigned roles once exalted and subordinate.
(2) Their job was to nurture wise, virtuous, and public-spirited
men
 B. Effect of the War on African Americans and Native Americans
1. The revolutionary war helped put an end to slavery in the North.
a) The black men were welcomed as volunteers in the continental
army
2. Slavery became integral part in the south as the white planters considered
them as crucial postwar recovery.
3. Most of the African Americans left with British settled in West Indies and
Canada and some of them went back to Africa.
4. The Revolutionary war was a disaster for the Native Americans.
a) They couldn’t leave with the British at the end of the war.
b) Many of them died in the war and the rest suffered a great loss.
c) The Americans invaded them repeatedly in the southern
Appalachian Mountains and the Iroquois country in western New
York.
d) The British surrendered the east of Mississippi with the Peace
treaty of 1783 without their consent and Americans claimed their
country by conquest.
C. The Price of Victory
1. Both American and British troops needed supplies to survive the war, this
resulted in the increase of prices seven or eightfold
2. The value of the printed paper money, which was supposedly redeemable
by future tax revenue went down because the quantity of paper money
rose faster than the supply of goods and services
3. The landlords and the lucky speculators became rich while the ordinary
and patriotic people suffered. These conditions led to more than 30
protests
4. The wealth of private individuals declined by an average of 0.5 percent
annually which shows the economic implications of the War for
Independence

VII. Conclusion
A. People thought the war was something momentous and revolutionary
1. The Americans had definitely fired a shot heard around the world