6.4 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.

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

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

Ticonderoga and Croup Point un upper NY• June 1775, Battle of Bunker Hill• Aug. 1775, George III declares colonies treasonous, hires

Hessians• Oct, 1775 Falmouth burned by British• Oct 1775 American invasion of Canada fails• Jan 1776 Norfolk burned by British• March 1776 British Evacuate Boston• 1776 Common Sense published, end of “shilly-shallying”

Ethan Allen, Benedict

Arnold, and Fort Ticonderoga

Knox’s Trail;Ticonderoga to

Boston

Second Continental Congress

• Appoints General Washington head of Continental Army

• Prints currency• Sends Benjamin Franklin to France• Battle of Bunker Hill• Beginning to act like a government

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/period.htm

Battle of Breeds Hill(AKA Bunker Hill)

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/42bunker/42visual1.htm

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

Olive Branch PetitionLast attempt at reconciliation:

• William Paca• Samuel Chase• Thomas Stone• Matthew Tilghman(see Marylanders’ signatures at bottom)

Excerpt from Final Draft of the Olive Branch Petition

"Attached to your Majesty's person, family, and Government, with all devotion that principle and affection can inspire; connected with Great Britain by the strongest ties that can unite societies, and deploring every event that tends in any degree to weaken them, we solemnly assure your Majesty, that we not only most ardently desire the former harmony between her and these Colonies may be restored, but that a concord may be established between them upon so firm a basis as to perpetuate its blessings, uninterrupted by any future dissensions, to succeeding generations in both countries, and to transmit your Majesty's name to posterity."

Olive Branch PetitionIt did not work. It was rejected by George

III, who ordered a blockade of the colonies.

Instead, King George III increased pressure on the colonies by:1.Ordering a naval blockade2.Sending German mercenaries, Hessians, to fight in America.

The Continental Congress responds by:1.Organizing the militia in Boston into an army under Washington.2.Sending Benedict Arnold to Invade Quebec. This invasion fails.

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/period.htm

George Washington's copy of Common SenseThat America's patriot leaders read Thomas Paine's inflammatory Common Sense soon after it was published in early 1776 is indicated by this first edition, owned by George Washington himself. (Boston Athenaeum)

George Washington's copy of Common Sense

VIDEO

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Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

“Common Sense” by Thomas Paine

• Originally an anonymous work• Firmly introduces call for

independence • Rejects the idea of the “divine

right of kings”• Calls for an end to monarchy and

the beginning of a republic

Declaration of Independence • Continental Congress appoints Ben Franklin, John

Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and Thomas Jefferson

• Jefferson chosen to compose the declaration

• Draws on philosophy of the Enlightenment

• Ideas of John Locke, “natural rights”

• Lists the grievances, or complaints of the colonies

• Right to resist tyranny

• July 2, 1776 the resolution passes Congress

• July 4, 1776 the Declaration is adopted.

CausesLexington/Concord

Olive Branch PetitionBreeds/Bunker Hill

Falmouth and Portsmouth burnedCommon Sense

IdeasNo tax w/out representation

“Tyranny”“Natural Rights”

(Locke)

Declaration of Independence

ResultsChoose sides (A civil war as well?)

Conflict more violentNow wish to drive British out

Wider War