Resistance & Revolution
1763-1783


  LECTURE OUTLINE

   I. New British Policies & Colonial Resistance
       A. Proclamation of 1763
            1. Mechanism to manage colonists
            2. Hoped to pacify area Indians
       B. Sugar Act (1764)
            1. Purpose = raise $ (not regulate trade)
            2. Heavy emphasis on enforcement
                  • policy of "salutary neglect" disappeared
                  • large # of soldiers stationed in colonies
                  • use of writs of assistance substantial
       C. Stamp Act (1765)
            1. Stamp Act Congress
                  • nine colonies represented
                  • first unified effort against Britain
            2. "Taxation w/o representation"
                  • actual vs. virtual representation
                  • distinction between tax laws & others
            3. Repeal & subsequent Declaratory Act
       D. Townshend Duties (1767)
            1. Sharply increased tension
            2. Repealed in 1770 except tax on tea
            3. Tea tax symbolic of Crown's authority
       E. Boston Massacre (1770)
            1. Boston = hotbed of colonial unrest
            2. Seething anger sparked by minor scuffle
            3. Mob of Bostonians cornered British patrol
            4. Five citizens killed (inc. Crispus Attucks)
            5. Paul Revere's propagandized engraving
       F. Gaspee incident (1772)
       G. Tea Act (1773)
       H. Boston Tea Party (1773)
       I. Intolerable Acts, inc. Coercive Acts (1774)
  II. First Continental Congress (September 1774)
       A. Purpose = discuss relations w/ England
       B. Declaration of Resolves
III. Lexington & Concord (April 1775)
       A. Br. mission = arrest colonial leaders & seize arms
       B. Longfellow: Revere's legendary "midnight ride"
       C. 700 disciplined Redcoats vs. 70 ragged Minutemen
       D. Emerson: "...the shot heard round the world"
IV. Second Continental Congress (May 1775)
       A. Preparations for war
            1. Army under General George Washington
            2. Navy under Commodore Esek Hopkins
            3. Foreign aid (money & munitions) sought
            4. Authorized attack on Canada (the 14th colony)
       B. Battle of Bunker/Breed's Hill (June 1775)
            1. Heaviest British battle losses of entire war
            2. Marked point of no return for rebel colonists
            3. Olive Branch Petition refused by Crown
       C. Financing the war (Robert Morris & Haym Salomon)
            1. Gov't certificates (war bonds)
            2. State levies (money & goods)
            3. Foreign loans (esp. France)
            4. Print paper money (severe inflation)
  V. Early 1776
       A. Hessian soldiers hired by Britain
       B. Thomas Paine's Common Sense
       C. Colonies adopt constitutions
            1. Principle of popular sovereignty (people rule)
            2. Concept of limited gov't (restricted powers)
            3. List of "unalienable rights" (no gov't interference)
            4. Separation of powers (inc. checks & balances)

& HISTORY

 

       D. Declaration of Independence
            1. Thomas Jefferson + four others
            2. John Trumbull's clever painting
            3. Contains four content areas
            4. Initial vote (July 1) not unanimous
 VI. The Revolutionary War
       A. Why the British would win
            1. Overwhelming military superiority
            2. Enormous financial resources
       B. Why the British could lose
            1. Logistics woes (ocean & vast enemy terrain)
            2. American heart (home soil & inspiring cause)
       C. New York Campaign (Sep 1776)
            1. Obvious early military target
            2. Lieutenant Nathan Hale's foiled spy mission
            3. First submarine warfare (Turtle vs. HMS Eagle)
            4. Continental Army defeated; no British pursuit
       D. Battle of Trenton (Dec 1776)
            1. First major American victory
            2. Emanuel Leutze's famous painting
       E. Battle of Saratoga (Oct 1777)
            1. Considered war's turning point
            2. France persuaded to enter war against England
            3. America spurned broad British peace offer
       F. Southern Colonies (late 1778)
            1. Northern setbacks & perceived southern pluses
                  • superior sea power
                  • large Loyalist presence
                  • aid from slaves promised freedom
            2. Fighting ceased in North; war's worst in South
            3. Savannah (Dec 1778) & Charleston (May 1780)
            4. American guerrilla warfare (as in The Patriot)
            5. Cornwallis trapped at Yorktown (Oct 1781)
       G. Treaty of Paris (signed Sep 1783; ratified Apr 1784)
            1. Britain retains only Canada in North America
            2. Benjamin West's "unfinished" painting
       H. Reasons for British defeat
            1. Underestimated American power & will
            2. Loyalists did not provide expected support
            3. Foreign assistance, esp. French alliance
            4. British military's poor performance inc. logistics


  WHAT'S MY LINE?

  • Proclamation of 1763
  • George Grenville
  • writs of assistance
  • virtual vs. actual representation
  • Sugar Act
  • Currency Act
  • Stamp Act
  • "taxation without representation"
  • Sons of Liberty
  • Declaratory Act
  • Townshend Duties
  • Boston Massacre
  • Crispus Attucks
  • Gaspee incident
  • Tea Act
  • Boston Tea Party
  • Samuel Adams
  • Paul Revere
  • Intolerable Acts
  • Coercive Acts
  • First Continental Congress
  • Declaration of Resolves
  • Minutemen
  • Redcoats
  • Thomas Gage
  • John Hancock
  • Lexington and Concord
  • Committees of Correspondence
  • Patrick Henry
  • Second Continental Congress
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • George Washington
  • Robert Morris
  • Haym Salomon
  • Battle of Bunker Hill
  • Olive Branch Petition
  • Esek Hopkins
  • Hessians
  • Common Sense
  • Declaration of Independence
  • John Trumbull
  • Loyalists
  • Nathan Hale
  • Turtle
  • Battle of Trenton
  • Emanuel Leutze
  • Battle of Saratoga
  • Valley Forge
  • Benedict Arnold
  • Battle of Yorktown
  • Charles Cornwallis
  • "Yankee Doodle"
  • Treaty of Paris
  • Benjamin West

RECOMMENDED SUPPLEMENTAL READING
1776
by David McCullough

  PRIMARY SOURCES / DOCUMENTS

  • "Yankee Doodle" (c. 1755)
  • Thomas Paine: Common Sense (1776)
  • Thomas Jefferson et al.: Declaration of Independence (1776)
  • John Trumbull: Selected paintings of the American Revolution (events 1775-1783; paintings 1795-1824)


  EXTENDED RESPONSE

1.  John Adams, a delegate to the First Continental Congress, later remarked, "...the
     revolution was complete, in the minds of the people, and the Union of the colonies,
     before the war commenced." Explain what you think Adams meant by this statement.

2.  "Differences created conflicts while similarities were overlooked." Validate this theme
     of the American revolutionary period.

3.  "Despite the view of some historians that the conflict between Great Britain and its
     thirteen North American colonies was economic in origin, in fact the American
     Revolution had its roots in politics and other areas of American life." Assess the
     validity of this statement.

4.  "The American Revolution was not so much won by the American colonists as it was
     lost by the British." Analyze this statement.

5.  Briefly discuss the Declaration of Independence, including its formation and
     significance. Defend the decision of the colonial leaders to deliver such a strong
     proclamation to Great Britain in lieu of continued efforts at reconciliation. Why did
     Thomas Jefferson choose to attack the King rather than Parliament when he penned
     the Declaration?

6.  "This history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and
     usurpation, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over
     these States." Evaluate this accusation against King George III in the Declaration
     of Independence.


  CHEAT SHEET

1.  The First Continental Congress met to:
     a. discuss deteriorating relations with England
     b. adopt the Declaration of Independence
     c. protest the Stamp Act as "taxation without representation"
     d. declare war on Great Britain

2.  All of the following events sharply reduced the possibility for a negotiated agreement
     between England and her North American colonies except the:
     a. decision by the Crown to employ Hessian mercenaries against the colonists
     b. significant casualties suffered at Bunker Hill
     c. refusal of King George III to punish Redcoats responsible for the Boston Massacre
         slayings
     d. publication of Thomas Paine's Common Sense

3.  The Battle of Saratoga was especially important because it:
     a. effectively removed the British naval threat from the Great Lakes region
     b. was the first major colonial victory of the war
     c. caused France to enter the war against Great Britain
     d. resulted in the capture of several key colonial leaders

4.  The Declaration of Independence states that a just government is based on the:
     a. strength of its laws
     b. cooperation between church and state
     c. actions of its political leaders
     d. consent of the governed

5.  The primary means by which Congress financed the Revolutionary War was:
     a. taxing the wealthy
     b. borrowing from other nations
     c. selling war bonds
     d. printing paper money as needed
Typical of American glorification of bigness and modern technology, each of the heads on Mount Rushmore is approximately 60 feet tall.  According to scale, this would compute to a human of some 465 feet in height!  The memorial rises more than 500 feet above the valley.  Thomas Jefferson's image is noticeably the most youthful of the four Presidents.  He appears to be in his early 30s, when he authored the Declaration of Independence—long before he ever reached the White House.  Click on the faces to TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE further.


  REWIND & FAST FORWARD

 "It will not be believed that such a force as Great Britain has employed for
 eight years in this country could be baffled in their plan of subjugating it by
 numbers infinitely less; composed of men sometimes half-starved, always in
 rags, without pay, and experiencing at times every species of distress which
 human nature is capable of undergoing." —George Washington
Music: "Yankee Doodle" performed by the 2nd Maryland Infantry & Camp Chase Fife & Drum Corps