The Revolution

Chapter 6

Pick A Side

• 1/5th Patriots – New England & VA• 2/5th Loyalists – NY and Carolinas• 2/5th Neutral – Pennsylvania: Quaker

pacifists• African-Americans fought on both sides

depending on who was promising freedom. In the South, more slaves joined the British army.

Patriot Forces

• Most American males served in local militia (protection from Indians)

• Patriots seized control of community militias – becomes harder to be neutral

• Continental Army – suffered casualty rates as high as 40%

• Issues• Shortages of food and pay • Discipline & training

Loyalists

• British colonial officials, Anglican clergy, Indians and others

• About 50,000 fought for the King and 80,000 fled the country after the war

Early Battles

• British want to cut New England off from other colonies

• Drive Washington out of NYC and into New Jersey

• Christmas Eve Patriot victory at Trenton – Crossing the Delaware River

• British strategy fails at Battle of Saratoga

Battle of Saratoga

• Ends British strategy• France signs Treaty of Alliance • France helps with naval support

and British must withdraw troops from mainland to protect their colonies in Caribbean

• Continental ships raid British merchant ships

Valley Forge

• Winter of 1777• Bitter struggle for survival• Unites Patriots

End of War

• Britain shifts attention to South• Captures Charleston• Plundering of Americans to feed

the army upsets colonists – turns more to Patriots

Battle of Yorktown

• Patriots trap British while French close the trap by preventing evacuation by sea

• Support of Parliament ends• Peace negotiations begin in 1782

Treaty of Paris 1783

• Ben Franklin, John Adams, John Jay• Withdrawal of British troops• Land to Mississippi River and

fishing rights in Atlantic

Articles of Confederation

• One branch – legislative – one house Congress

• Every state has one vote • 3/4th must agree for a law• Unanimous approval required for

changes to government• Government could not tax• Ratification delayed 3 yrs by MD over

western land claims – 8 states ceded land to federal government

Articles of Confederation

• Debt• Congress financed the Revolution

mainly by issuing $200 million in paper currency

• States also issued another $200 million

• Runaway Inflation• Need to pay soldiers and also pensions

for officers

Newburgh Conspiracy

• Army in NY waiting for treaty to be completed before disbanding

• Loss of faith in government leads to talk of a military coup

• Gen. Washington’s response• "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my

spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country."

• Shames conspirators into refraining from mutiny

Western Land issues

• Land Ordinance of 1785• Surveyed land in Ohio Valley for sale

by government

• Northwest Ordinance of 1787• 3-5 states• Banned slavery north of the Ohio

River

State Governments

• Most had 2 house legislatures, a governor and a court system

• States wrote guarantees of freedoms patterned after Virginia’s Declaration of Rights

• States abolished aristocratic inheritance customs like primogeniture & entail

• Separation of church and state• PA dropped property requirements for voting

Rights of Minorities

• Slaves & Free Blacks• PA, MA, CT, NY & NJ abolish slavery by 1805

– gradually dies out in NH & RI• Upper South relaxes ban on emancipation• Free blacks build community of churches,

schools• Women

• Seen as the educators of patriotic values in children

Economic Woes

• Economic depression• Inflation • High prices led to food riots• Britain dumped surplus goods • Lack of hard currency – farmers

ask for laws requiring creditors to accept goods and commodities

Shays’ Rebellion • Daniel Shays – MA farmer• Farmers in western MA close courts to prevent

foreclosures and imprisonment of debtors • release debtors from prisons

• Governor orders militias from eastern MA to put down rebellion

• Faced with a strong military presence backed by the state, the rebellion disintegrates

• Underlying problems remain & lead some to call for a stronger federal government