4.2 Ideas Help Start a Revolution

OBJECTIVE:•Learn about the Continental Congress and increasing tensions between Britain and her Colonies.•Understand why Americans declared independence from Britain.

Causes (events) Ideas

Declaration of Independence

Results

First and second Cont. CongressFirst C.C. (September 1774)

• Discuss Int. Acts• No Georgia• Produce a “Declaration of

Rights and Grievances”• Agree to meet again in May

of 1775• Conversation revolves

around “Rights as “Englishmen”

Second C.C. May 1775• GA. Present now• Shots had been fired (Lex. /

Concord)• Olive branch• Washington chosen to lead• B. Franklin to France• Print money to pay soldiers• Separation from England on

the table

Second Continental Congress

Independence vs.• John Adams• Appoints General

Washington head of Continental Congress • Prints currency• Sends Benjamin Franklin to France• Battle of Bunker Hill

Reconciliation• William Franklin• John Dickinson• “Olive Branch Petition”

Rejected by George III, who ordered a blockade of the colonies

CASUALTIES:British: out of 2,200 troops, 268 British soldiers and officers KIA, 828 WIA. Americans: 115 KIA, 305 WIA (NPS)

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

• Written by Thomas Paine published in 1776

• 47 page essay attacking the King and Parliament

George Washington owned his own copy!!

“I find Common Sense is working a powerful change in the minds of many men.”- G.W.

Common SenseI have heard it asserted by some, that as America has flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true; for I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.

Common Sense“As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty, and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which when obtained requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness--There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease”

Ideas of Revolution“Common Sense” by Thomas Paine

• Originally an anonymous work

• Firmly introduces call for independence

• Calls for an end to monarchy and the beginning of a republic

Declaration of Independence

• Continental Congress appoints a committee to prepare a declaration

• Thomas Jefferson chosen to express declaration

• Draws on philosophy of the Enlightenment

• Ideas of John Locke, “natural rights”

• Right to resist tyranny– Specific to George III (why?)

Declaration of IndependenceIt should be noted…

1. Power is derived from the consent of the governed = people

2. King’s power is not a “divine right.” Rather, the people have unalienable rights.

3. Original draft was rejected by South Carolina and Georgia because it attacked the slave trade.

4. The call for Equality was not originally meant to include women or minorities.

5. Second Continental Congress called for independence on July 2, 1776, and adopted the Declaration on July 4th.

Declaration of Independence• For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: • For imposing taxes on us without our consent: • For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by

jury: • For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended

offenses:• For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our

towns, and destroyed the lives of our people• He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies

without the consent of our legislature. • He has affected to render the military independent of and

superior to civil power.

Road to Independence• 1775 – Second Continental Congress appoints G.

Washington commander of Boston troops• Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold capture Ft.

Ticonderoga in upper NY• June 1775, Battle of Bunker Hill• July 1775, Olive Branch Petition • Aug. 1775, George III , hires Hessians• Oct, 1775 Falmouth burned by British• Jan 1776 Norfolk burned by British• March 1776 British Evacuate Boston• 1776 Common Sense published, end of “shilly-shallying”

Loyalists vs. Patriots

Maybe 1/3 of colonists were loyalists

Loyalists were stronger in the South

Loyalists included members of King’s govt. in colonies, such as judges, governors, etc. AND many ordinary colonists.

Perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of the colonists were patriots = calling for independence.

Patriots tended to come from those who wanted more economic independence.

*Many Americans tried to stay neutral, esp. Quakers.

African-Americans fought on both sides.

Native Americans tended to side with the British.

Map: The War in the North

The War in the NorthThe early phase of the Revolutionary War was dominated by British troop movements in the Boston area, the redcoats' evacuation to Nova Scotia in the spring of 1776, and the subsequent British invasion of New York and New Jersey. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Advantage? Disadvantage?p108

GREAT BRITAIN• Pop. of 7.5 million• Prof. Army of 50,000• Hessian mercenaries• Royal treasury• Royal navy • Divided parliament• Long lines of supply• Poor generalship• More cannon, arms, &powder• Many Colonials remain loyal• Emancipated slaves join GB

COLONIALS• Pop. Of 2.5 million• Small, untrained militia• No centralized govt.• No treasury• No navy• Angry France, Irish problem for

GB• Defending homes• Washington, Franklin• Few armories, little powder