The Imperial Crisis

 The Seven Years War, or the French and

Indian War which ended in 1763 was an
unexpected victory for the British.
 Actually began in 1754 in America and
lasted for nine years.
 An unknown Virginia militia major
discovered French forces in western
Virginia in what is today the Pittsburg
area or the Three Forks.
 On his own authority the unknown major,
George Washington, chose to attack the
French and unknowingly launched the
first World War.
 Two Chief Effects:
 to provide the British with a colonial empire
which led to British acquisition of what had
been the French colonial possession of Canada
and Spanish Florida.
 a substantially augmented, huge national debt.
 British military tradition was:
 to maintain a large, well equipped and
maintained navy
 patrol the natural protective moat around
England consisting of the English Channel, the
North Sea and the Irish Sea.
 The Navy would serve to keep the dogs from
the door long enough to raise an army to
conduct the land campaign and then to
disperse the army and to suspend the war
time taxes immediately after the war was over.
 In the wake of the French and Indian War
with the huge accumulated debt the
British government, while it did disband
the army, could not dispense with the war
time tax.
 The British now had to fund, finance and
service the debt amassed during the war.
 The most important aspect of the debt
was that the British wanted to service not
pay off the debt: to service a debt means
to pay the interest so that if the need
arises in the future more loans can be
acquired.
 Today people frequently speak of how
our national debt is going to effect our
children and grandchildren but that is
inaccurate.
 To speak of servicing the debt in Britain
today is to address the national debt that
began to accrue during the Seven Years
War and has never been paid off.
 To keep the same physical structure to
which they had grown accustomed the
British could not eliminate the war time
taxes.
 British government consisted of three
main institutions by 1763:
 the monarchy – hereditary kings
 the House of Lords – hereditary nobles
 the House of Commons – democratic election
 While it may not sound like much to us
today the 10% of males who could vote in
England was quite considerable especially
when compared with the remainder of the
world.
 Sizeable land owners were allowed to
vote for those who held seats in the
House of Commons: only those who
could prove they had a substantial
income were allowed to vote.
 Eligibility to vote became a serious matter
because the same people eligible to vote
were the same people who were going to
be paying taxes to service the debt from
the French and Indian War.
 When the elected members of the House
of Commons realized their constituents
were going to be the ones paying the
taxes and when those constituents
realized they were going to be paying the
taxes both began to look for alternatives.
 Someone suggest taxing the colonists of
North America.
 They started the war;
 They were the chief beneficiaries of the war;
 They had never been taxed
 They were part of the empire
 Why not tax them.
 Passed in 1764
 Sought to levy a new import tax (tariff) on
molasses on the North American English
speaking colonies
 Molasses had been taxed, basically, since
the colonies were establish but Americans
had not paid that tax because they had
very quickly become extremely proficient
smugglers so they could avoid the tax.
 The Sugar Act actually lowered the tax on
molasses while improving the
enforcement of the collection of the tax.
 While the Sugar Act, with its improved
enforcement, was going to significantly
affect many wealthy colonists including
one prominent Boston firm, Thomas
Hancock and Nephew, it applied to every
colonist who used sugar.
 The nephew, John Hancock, eventually
succeeded his uncle as the controller of
the most substantial mercantile firm in
New England.
 John Hancock inherited his fortune from
his uncle who had made his fortune
importing goods from England AND
from smuggling, among other things,
molasses.
 When the British colonists in North
America heard of the new Sugar Act they
conducted protests, and resistance in the
form of boycotts.
 Parliament decided they would repeal the
tax but they did not abandon the taxing
project on the Americans totally.
 In 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act.
 The idea was to narrow the distribution of
a tax’s burden (incidence of tax).
 Molasses had a broad tax base because
everyone used molasses – candy, syrup
and, perhaps most importantly, rum.
 The Stamp Act established a tax on
various types of paper used:
 for newspapers
 Legal documents
 to print college diplomas
 to print playing cards.
 The only people who could afford to file
legal documents on a regular basis,
receive a college diploma, etc. were
wealthy and well connected.
 Parliament’s idea was to narrow the
number of colonists affected by the tax to
avoid wide spread protests by taxing the
wealthy.
 The Stamp Act, however, met with broad
resistance.
 Parliament next decided to hire an army
of agents to go to the English colonies in
North America to distribute this paper
and ensure the tax was collected.
 Resistance was conducted on three levels:
 on the local and most popular level the Stamp
Act was met with boycotts;
 several colonial legislatures also protested the
Stamp Act by forming formal protests or
resolutions;
 the highest level resistance was conducted by
the colonies acting in conjunction with one
another to protest through a congress of the
colonies.
 The Virginia House of Burgesses was
established in 1619 and was the popularly
elected element of the Virginia colonial
government.
 Patrick Henry who was in his first week
as a member of the Burgesses proposed a
set of resolutions against the Stamp Act.
 Henry argued that from the beginning the
king had conceded to Virginias certain
rights.
 Henry also pointed out that the Virginia
charters of 1611 and 1613 had guaranteed
Virginians the same rights, privileges and
protections as residence of the home
islands.
 Among the rights were:
 the right to a trial by a jury;
 and the promise that only Virginians would be
able to tax Virginias.
 Henry further stated that anyone
attempting to enforce the Stamp Act in
Virginia should be considered an enemy –
an outlaw - of His Majesty's colony.
 A criminal is someone who has broken
the law.
 An outlaw is someone who is beyond the
law’s protection.
 If anyone encountered an outlaw they
could do anything to the outlaw they
wanted without suffering any type of
discipline from the government.
 When Henry proposed this there were
cries of outrage from the older, more
experienced members of the House of
Burgesses: the Speaker, the Treasurer of
the colony, the chief committee chairman.
 The resolutions passed when the vote was
taken.
 As was common in Virginia in 1765,
Henry, a tobacco planter, had to return
home immediately after the vote was
taken.
 The next day the speaker called for
another vote on the “fifth” resolve and the
Burgesses at that point decided not to
include the fifth as its official position.
 It was, however, too late: a ship left port
immediately after the original vote which
visited several other colonies and passed
the word concerning the Virginia
Resolves including the fifth.
 This was the highest, most sophisticated
level of resistance.
 Congress:
 In the 18th century the word congress referred
to a meeting of ambassadors;
 Two congresses had met in Europe:
 1688 the Congress of Westphalia decided the
Thirty Years War;
 1815 the Congress of Vienna which decided how
to redraw the internal map of Europe after
Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.
 After Massachusetts called for a congress to
address the Stamp Act nine colonies sent
ambassadors to New York to attend this
Stamp Act Congress.
At the congress the nine colonies passed a set of
resolves.
 Mild compared to Henry’s original Virginia
Resolves
 Written by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania

 These moderate resolutions laid out the

colonies constitutional position:
 We admire the king and his family and we love the
Protestant succession
 We have the same rights as you subjects in Great
Britain: the right to trial by jury and the right to be
taxed by their own representatives among others
 Because we cannot be represented in Parliament
we should be taxed only by our colonial
legislatures
 Why not allow the colonies to have
representation in the Parliament?
 Distance and difficulties in transportation.
 Four to six weeks, depending on the weather,
to travel from Boston to London
 Even longer coming back because of the
current and wind acting against sailing ships
 Again and again over the next ten years as
Parliament attempted to ratchet up its control
over the colonies, the American colonies
repeated this same basic argument, because they
were not and could not be represented in
Parliament the colonies should be taxed only by
our colonial legislatures.
 Despite the resolutions at the colonial
legislature and congressional level what
really affected the effectiveness of the
resistance was the boycott.
 Remember, the members of the House of
Commons were the wealthy.
 Estimates indicates tens of thousands of
Englishmen were thrown out of work as a
result of the boycotts.
 As layoffs continues pressure built on the
House of Commons to do something.
 The House of Commons voted to repeal
the Stamp Act in 1766.
 Constitutional issue:
 The British had no written constitution
 Written constitutions were invented by
Americans in response to this quarrel.
 “Constitution” did not refer to a written
document but to the collection of habits,
customs and basic laws adopted over many
centuries.
 The concern was that once the precedent was
set it would become the standard.
 Immediately after the vote to repeal the
Stamp Act was taken Parliament passed
the Declaratory Act of 1766.
 His majesty’s subject in the North American
colonies are subject to the King and Parliament
of Great Britain which are entitled to legislate
for them, “in all cases whatsoever.”
 If Parliament was able to legislate on behalf of
the colonists, “in all cases whatsoever” what
rights would the colonists have?
 This meant Parliament was sovereign and the
colonists were subject to that authority and
therefore had no rights outside those allowed
by Parliament itself.
 Over the course of the following ten years:
 Parliament would insist on its right to legislate “in
all cases whatsoever.”
 the colonists would insist Parliament did not have
the right to legislate for the colonists, especially
when it came to taxing them without their
representation in Parliament.
 The colonists did not want Representation in
Parliament.
 The colonists realized they would never have the
numbers in the Parliament to make a difference.
 What they wanted was for their local assemblies to
be equal with Parliament in matters concerning
local rule and taxes.
 Explain how much money you (Parliament) expect
from us and we will make arraignments to raise it
ourselves at a local level.
 Where does authority lie?
 New York’s example: during the French
and Indian War, New York’s assembly
tried to explain, New York had supplied
more men and more money that
Parliament had requested from that
colony.
 If an institution exists which can “legislate
in all cases whatsoever” the colonists are
nothing more than slaves – that was the
exact word the assemblies used, slaves.
 One English author pointed out that it
was ironic that the “owners of slaves”
should try to lecture the English
concerning slavery.
 There were no slaves on the islands
 The common thought was “The air in English
is too free for a slave to breath.”
 Edmund Randolph
 Leader during the Early Republic Period:
governor of Virginia, introduced the proposed
“Virginia Plan” at the Federal Convention in
Philadelphia
 Explained that because the colonists held
slaves they knew better than the English the
effects and result of slavery and were,
therefore, more determined than anyone not
to be slaves themselves
 Parliament, in 1765, passed the
Quartering Act which allowed for the
quartering of British soldiers at colonial
expense.
 The colonists protested on the basis that
the English Constitution and Bill of Rights
did not allow for taxation without
representation and did not provide for
raising a standing army without
Parliamentary consent.
 The colonists also pointed out there had
NEVER been a permanent military
presence prior to the conclusion of the
French and Indian War.
 The New York assembly refused to
appropriate funds to pay for the
quartering of the British troops.
 1500 British troops had to remain aboard
ship.
 Parliament then suspended both the
governor and the assembly.
 New York eventually agreed to pay and
the Act expired on 24 March 1767.
 No other colony except Pennsylvania
allocated funds to pay for the quartering
of troops in their colony.
 Parliament passed the Townshend Acts as a
reaction to the resistance of the colonies to the
Quartering Act of 1765 and were intended to:
 raise funds to pay salaries of the governors and judges
to separate them from colonial influence;
 enforce the trade regulations imposed by Parliament;
 to further emphasize the right of Parliament to legislate
in all cases whatsoever.
 The Townshend Acts
 Revenue Act of 1767
 Indemnity Act
 Commissioners of Customs Act
 Vice Admiralty Court Act
 New York Restraining Act.
 Samuel Adams, over the course of the next
several years as more British regulars were sent
to Massachusetts, became expert at taking local
predicaments and exploiting them by forcing
confrontations with British soldiers.
 05 March 1770 a group of British soldiers
responded to a request for assistance from a
sentry walking post at a customs house on
King Street.
 A large crowd of Bostonians arrived and
began to taunt the British with insults, rocks,
ice and shouts of “Fire! Go ahead and Fire!”
 Although no one knows for sure who
actually fired the first shot, the British officer
in charge ordered his men not to fire, but in
the confusion the British soldiers ended up
firing into the crown killing five Bostonians.
 Thirteen were arrested and charged with
murder: eight soldiers, one officer, and four
civilians.
 Soldiers defended by “patriot” lawyer John
Adams.
 The American colonists placed a boycott on
items taxed by the Townshend Duties (Acts) and
in 1770 four of the five Duties were repealed.
 The Tea Act of 1773 placed no new tax on the
colonists, it provided for a tax break for the East
India Tea Company which was loosing money
importing tea into the American colonies
because of widespread and proficient smuggling.
 The Tea Act provided that the tax on tea would
be collected at the source (in India) instead of in
the colonies: this allowed
 for direct importation of tea into the colonies (the tea no
longer had to go from India to England to America);
 and it actually reduced the cost of tea in the colonies;
 however it also allowed for a government controlled
monopoly on the importation of tea into the colonies.
 When the first of the ships loaded with
tea arrived in Boston harbor in 1773 the
longshoremen who were supporters of
Sam Adams and the “radicals” refused to
unload the ships.
 The captains of the ships wanted to leave
but loyalist governor Thomas Hutchinson
refused to provide them with the
necessary papers.
 The ships could legally remain in harbor
no longer than 17 December: the colonists
feared the tea would be offloaded and
sold to finance soldiers, governors, judges
and other crown officials.
 On 16 December at a mass meeting
several inflammatory speeches were
made.
 John Rowe: "Who knows how tea will mingle
with salt water?“
 Sam Adams:
 “… angry words must now give way to deeds.”
 "This meeting can do nothing more to save the
country."
 As if on queue and in a very disciplined
manner a group of the Sons of Liberty,
disguised as Mohawk Indians, rushed to
Griffin's Wharf, boarded all three tea
ships, and spent several hours of the night
dumping every bit of East India tea into
Boston harbor.
 Written by Thomas Jefferson – at that time a
young member of the Virginia House of
Burgesses – in 1774.
 Written as instructions to the Virginia
delegation to the “Continental Congress”
which Massachusetts had requested meet.
 Jefferson had decided the colonists needed to
make clear to Parliament that the colonists
did not have any interest in observing any
policy adopted by Parliament regardless.
 No niceties toward the King and his family
 The congress should inform the king he is the
people servant: he holds office for the good of his
people
 Makes the point that out of the various parts of the
British empire each part had a legislature separate
and apart from all the others and the problem was
one part – Parliament – was trying to legislate over
the North American colonies.
 Parliament was foreign to “our constitutions” and
“unknown to our laws.”
 Parliament’s response to the Tea Party were
the “Coercive Acts” but which Sam Adams
the “Intolerable Acts.”
 A body of four acts:
 Boston Port Act: closed the port of Boston to all
commerce until the town paid for the lost tea to the
East India Company, and paid the forgone duties
to the Crown;
 The Massachusetts Government Act
 The Administration of Justice Act
 Provided exemption from any high crimes committed
in Massachusetts by royal officials in the course of
their duties;
 Provided for the trials of royal officials to be moved
from Massachusetts to Great Britain
 The Quartering Act: applied to all colonies and
required the quartering of British troops in
unoccupied building at colonial expense at location
determined by British officials.
 Remade the Massachusetts government
 The governor would be appointed by the
king instead of being elected.
 The upper house of the assembly would
be appointed by the government instead
of appoint by the lower house which was
elected by the people.
 Town meetings – which had been in place
since the beginning – could be held only if
the governor pre-approved their agenda.
 Since General Gage was not both military
commander and governor the
government was a military dictatorship
instead of republican.
 John Hancock and Sam Adams made it know
they would participate in the Continental
Congress.
 General Sir Thomas Gage who was governor
was informed Hancock and Adams were in
Lexington and that the colonial militia had a
large store of gunpowder and weapons at
Concord.
 On 19 April 1775 a force of British soldiers
and marines move out to capture the leaders
and munitions stores.
 The colonists warned Adams and Hancock
who “escaped” but eight colonists were
wounded and ten wounded at Lexington.
 At Concord the colonists forced the British to
retreat back to Boston: all told the British
suffered 99 killed and 174 wounded.
For almost a decade American colonists had
been in conflict with the British Parliament
over:
 taxation,

 representation and

 the question of the power of Parliament to

“legislate in all cases whatsoever.”
 Boston:
 Sam Adams moderator of the Boston town
meetings
 The Puritans were attempting to make trouble
for their Anglican overlords in the mother
country.
 Virginia:
 Tidewater region with its planters
 Selfish, well-to-do planters did not want to
pay taxes
 Parliament thought that if matters really
came to a head there would be
overwhelming support for the king in
North America
 Outside of the loyalist (Tory) former
governor Thomas Hutchison and his
immediate followers there were two main
groups in Boston:
 those radically opposed to the British
 those who opposed British tactics but who also
opposed the radicals.
 John Adams (Sam Adams’ cousin) had
been a member of the later group but
when he heard of the Boston Port Act he
switched sides and became a member of
the radicals because closing the port
violated a basic English principle,
punishing those innocent without a trial.
 In addition to the Coercive (Intolerable)
Acts adopted by Parliament in 1774 it also
passed the Quebec Act.
 After the French and Indian War England
had won control of Canada – what we
know as Quebec.
 Quebec was populated by Frenchmen
who were Catholic: Parliament had
decided with the king’s consent in 1774,
not to impose the state church and local
institutions common to English rule.
 The Quebec Act also extended the
boundaries of Quebec from the St.
Lawrence River all the way south to the
Ohio River.
 This transferred “Ohio,” “Indiana,”
“Illinois,” “Michigan” and “Wisconsin”
from Virginia to Quebec.
Puritans and particularly Sam Adams saw
Parliament's tolerance toward the French in
Canada as another attempt by the crown
and the Church of England (Anglican
Church) to undermine the Puritan
movement.
Massachusetts then called for a Continental
Congress to which the other colonies, except
Georgia, sent official representatives in the
fall 1774.
 Falls 1774 to early 1775
 Dominated by moderates who were led
by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania
 Dickinson and John Jay of New York
drafted the Olive Branch Petition which
attempted to work out a compromise that
would allow the colonies to remain in the
empire
 However after the events that occurred in
Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775
almost all hope of any type of
compromise was lost.
 Once back in Boston the British found
themselves surrounded by some 15,000
militiamen from all over New England.
 Attempted to secure alliances
 Washington name Commander in Chief
 Adapted Jefferson’s decimal currency
 Declaration of Causes and Necessities of
Taking up Arms
 King George issued a proclamation on 23
August 1775 stating that all colonists who
were opposing Parliament were in
rebellion.
 Every “right minded” subject of his
throne was responsible for resisting
people in rebellion and for bringing them
to justice.
 Ben Franklin: “Gentlemen, Gentlemen.
We must all hang together or we shall
certainly all hang separately.”
 Americans blamed Parliament for the
problems, not the king.
 Hoped Parliamentary allies might win the
argument concerning the treatment of the
colonies.
 Americans wanted to remain part of the
empire:
 they were patriotic toward England
 they were more free than any other people in
the world
 the provided access to world wide markets
 a declaration of independence meant war
 even winning the war might mean
dictatorship by the general
 One goal that many had for the army was
the conquest Canada.
 The true hope was that Canadians would
join them in their resistance and
revolution.
 Despite being a conquered people
Canadians knew of the “Protestant”
propaganda coming out of the British
colonies: “These United Protestant
Colonies”.
 Canadians did not think they were being
oppressed.
 Most Americans wanted a big set-piece
battle in which the Americans would win
their struggle.
 Washington’s strategy early on was:
 Gradual wear down and weaken the enemy
 Long lines of communication/supply for
English
 Popular English resolve is weak
 English has enemies in Europe
 Written by Thomas Paine in early 1776.
 American independence is essential and
makes common sense.
 Does it make sense that a small island off
the coast of Europe should rule a
continent 3,000 miles away?
 Did it make common sense to be ruled by
a monarch? Didn’t monarchy always end
up with an unqualified king? Sometimes
a child or someone mentally deficient.
 Widely read, the most popular
publication of the 19th Century: with a
population of 2.5 million as many as
400,000 copies were sold.
 April 12, 1776 - The North Carolina
assembly is the first to empower its
delegates in the Continental Congress to
vote for independence from Britain.
 On June 7, Richard Henry Lee, a Virginia
delegate to the Continental Congress,
presents a formal resolution calling for
America to declare its independence from
Britain: “ … these colonies are and of right
out to be free and independent states.”
 Congress authorized a five man committee to
draft a resolution calling for independence.
 Everyone is entitled to self-government – “all
men are created equal”
 Government is created by men to protect
their rights and when government fails that
objection men are free to replace it with one
that meets their needs
 Lists several ways in which the king had
failed – not Parliament because the colonists
had long sense rejected Parliament's
authority over them
 The British people had been warned and had
taken no action so were enemies in war and
in peace friends
 So, “… these colonies are and of right ought
to be free and independent states.”
1. Popular Uprising: April 1775 to July 1776
2. Northern Offensives: July 1776 to October
1777
3. Turning Point: Late Fall 1777 to Early
Spring 1778
4. Southern Offensives: 1778 to October 1781
5. Peace Negotiations: October 1781 to
September 1781
April 1775 to July 1776
British goal: Suppress insurgent uprising
American goal: Turn popular revolt into
organized rebellion

 KEY EVENTS:
 Lexington & Concord (April 19, 1775)
 Bunker (Breed’s) Hill (June 1775)
 British evacuate Boston (March 1776)
 Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
July 1776 – October 1777
British goals: Destroy Continental army;
isolate radicals of New England.
American goals: Protect weak forces by
retreat; local counterattacks when
advantageous

 KEY EVENTS:
 The New York Campaign (July – Oct., 1776)
 Trenton (Dec. 25, 1776)
 British capture Philadelphia (Sept. 1777)
 Battle of Saratoga (Oct. 1777)
 August to October 1776: Washington
retreats before the British under the
command of Howe abandoning New
York
 November 16, 1776: With the fall of Fort
Washington, Greene the commander of
Fort Lee was ordered to withdraw.
 November 20, 1776: Howe ordered
Cornwallis to move against Fort Lee on
the New Jersey side of the Hudson River
and Washington retreats across New
Jersey to Pennsylvania.
 December 19, 1776: British forces went
into winter quarters in New Jersey –
Hessians at Trenton and the British at
Princeton
 On Christmas day Washington crossed
the Delaware River under cover of
darkness and defeated the Hessians at
Trenton on 26 December and the British
on 02 January 1777, lifting American
spirits and saving the army.
 In the fall 1777, British forces move south
from Canada in an effort to finally and
conclusively cut off New England.
 Battle of Freeman’s Farm: 19 September 1777
the British advance is halted with serious
casualties forcing the British commander,
Burgoyne to establish a defense behind
redoubts. American General Benedict Arnold
relieved of his command after the battle.
 Battle of Bemis Heights: 07 October 1777
results in a solid victory for American forces.
Benedict Arnold returns to the battlefield
despite his earlier relief. British troops
attempt to retreat north but are cut off and
surrounded.
 17 October 1777 – with supplies running out,
with a large number of wounded and with
winter approaching British General
Burgoyne surrenders his entire force ending
the threat in the north.
 Howe who was supposed to move north
up the Hudson River, but without
notifying Burgoyne, moved his army by
ship landing on the northern coast of the
Chesapeake Bay and drove on
Philadelphia where the Continental
Congress was meeting.
 Washington was defeated at Brandywine
Creek and forced to evacuate
Philadelphia.
 Entering Valley Forge:
 Had experienced many setbacks
 Times that tried men souls
 Some success
 Untrained and largely undisciplined
 Following Valley Forge:
 Trained, Disciplined Force
 Treaty of Alliance with France
 Commissary
 With France in the war Howe – who
returned to New York during the winter –
ordered Clinton to move the British forces
occupying Philadelphia back to New York
City.
 On 28 June the Americans contacted the
British rear guard and conducted an
unorganized piecemeal attack.
 While tactically a British victory strategically
it was a draw and had, for the first time,
demonstrated that the Continental Army
could stand and fight against British
regulars.
 Last battle of the northern offensives as the
British turned their attention to the southern
colonies.
Early 1778 - October 1781
British goals: Subdue the South;
coordinate with British troops in West
Indies
American goals: Use guerilla tactics to
weaken British; wait for French aid for
decisive blow

 KEY EVENTS:
 British capture Savannah (Dec. 1779)
 British capture Charleston (May 1780)
 After initial success Cornwallis force to
retreat toward Virginia
 Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown (Oct.
1781)
 Charles Town
 Camden
 King’s Mountain
 Backwoods Scots and Irish defeat loyalist forces
 Cowpen’s
 Guilford Courthouse:
 proved to be the high-water mark of British military
operations in the Southern Campaign. Weakened by
this campaign against Greene, Cornwallis abandoned
the Carolinas hoping for success in Virginia.
 Wilmington
 When the British navy could not extract Cornwallis
from Wilmington Cornwallis continued his overland
movement finally being cornered at Yorktown.
 Yorktown, September 28 – October 19, 1781:
Cornwallis surrenders to Washington leaving the
only major British force in North American
confined to New York City.
 Prior to Spain’s official entry into the
American Revolution Bernardo Gálvez,
the Spanish governor of Tejas, wrote
Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and
Charles Henry Lee and received
emissaries from them.
 Gálvez secured the port of New Orleans
allowing only Spanish, French and
American vessels to navigate the
Mississippi River permitting access to
arms, ammunition, military supplies, and
money by the Americans.
 Spain declared war on England in June
1779.
 With supply a problem, between 1779 and 1782
10,000 cattle were rounded up on ranches belonging
to citizens and missions of Bexar and La Bahía and
Texas rancheros and their vaqueros trailed these
herds to Nacogdoches, Natchitoches, and Opelousas
for distribution to Gálvez's forces.
 In the fall of 1779 Gálvez advanced and defeated the
British in battles at Manchac, Baton Rouge, and
Natchez.
 On March 14, 1780, after a month-long siege with
land and sea forces, Gálvez, with over 2,000 men,
captured the British stronghold of Fort Charlotte at
Mobile.
 On May 10, 1781 Gálvez completed the Gulf Coast
campaign by forcing the surrender of Fort George at
Pensacola.
 On May 8, 1782 Gálvez and his Spanish forces
captured the British naval base in the Bahamas at
New Providence.
 Following the war Gálvez helped draft the terms that
ended the war and was cited by the American
Congress for his aid during the war.
 The French assisted the Americans not
because they cared about American
independence but as a way to get back at
the British for the French defeat during
the Seven Years War.
 The French provided about four million
dollars, men and – probably most
importantly – their navy.
 As the Americans and French ground
forces were in the process of surrounding
Cornwallis at Yorktown, the French navy
defeated the British navy at the Battle of
Chesapeake which prevented Cornwallis
from being evacuated by the British navy.
October, 1781 – September, 1783
British Goals: end the war
American Goals: Contain British
garrisons; attack British shipping

 KEY EVENTS:
 Fighting in the south continues between
loyalists and patriots leading to some of the
blooding, most ruthless actions of the entire
war.
 Treaty of Paris (Sept. 1783)
 Ratified by the American Congress on 14
January 1784.
 The British ratified the treaty on 09 April
1784.
 Ratified and signed copies exchanged on
12 May 1784.
“His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said
United States, Viz New Hampshire,
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia, to be free Sovereign and independent
States;”
 John Richard Alden, A History of the
American Revolution
 Edmund S. Morgan and Helen M.
Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to
Revolution.
 J. Patrick Mullins, The Stamp Act Crisis:
The First Defense of Freedom in America.
 Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty,
Vol. III, Parts IV, V, VI, VII & VIII.