The Americans Win Independence

Notes: Chapters 4.3 – 4.4

The War Moves to the Middle States• Summer 1776 – Battle of NY • Fewer than 8,000 remained in

Washington’s Army • December 25, 1776 – Battle of Trenton • 8 days later, Washington defeated

1,200 British at Princeton• August 1777, General Howe captures

Philadelphia

Victory at Saratoga• Burgoyne planned a complex scheme to isolate

New England with General Howe • Burgoyne’s army was tired, hungry and worn-

down from their trek • General Howe was too preoccupied with life in

Philadelphia • October 17, 1777 – American troops surround

Burgoyne at Saratoga • France now agreed to openly support the

Revolution • Of the 10,000 soldiers who camped at Valley

Forge, over 2,000 died

Colonial Life During the Revolution• Congress caused massive

inflation by printing more and more paper money

• Had to deal with profiteering • September 8, 1778 – Continental

Army finally paid in gold coin• 5,000 African American slaves

served in the Continental Army

European Allies Shift the Balance

• February 1778, Frederich Von Steuben volunteered his services to General Washington

• Taught Colonial Soldiers to stand at attention, execute field maneuvers, fire and reload quickly, and wield bayonets

• Marquis de Lafayette also offered his assistance to Washington

• Stayed with Washington at Valley Forge, asked for French reinforcements in 1779, led a command in Virginia

The British Move South• May 1780, Generals Clinton and

Cornwallis capture Charles Town, South Carolina

• Many escaped slaves joined the British • January 1781, Continental Army forced

British to surrender in Cowpens, SC• Cornwallis lost ¼ of his troops in victory at

Guilford House, NC• April 3, 1781 – General Greene wrote a

letter to Lafayette • Cornwallis moved his 7,500 troops into

peninsula between James and York rivers

British Surrender at Yorktown

• Lafayette suggested the American and French armies join forces with the 2 French fleets

• French forces blocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay

• 17,000 French and American troops surrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula

• October 17, 1781 – Cornwallis finally surrendered

• Continental Congress sent excellent team of negotiators to bargain the treaty

• September 1783 – Treaty of Paris is signed

The War Becomes a Symbol of Liberty• Rise of egalitarianism began during

the war • Women still struggled to gain any

political rights whatsoever • Most African Americans were still

enslaved• Settlers from the U.S. moved west and

began taking tribal lands left unprotected by the Treaty of Paris