rw trilogy

RW Trilogy• Part One: Rebellion & War

(Johnny Tremain) (Star Wars)

Part Two:

• British Empire Strikes Back

(Revolution) The Empire Strikes Back)

• Part Three: Return of the Rebel

(Patriot) (Return of the Jedi)

Revolutionary War Notes #2

Part IRebellion & War

Part 1

Rebellion

& WAR

8.1 The War

Begins

Britain Response• British reaction to the Boston Tea Party

was to close down Boston Harbor.• Parliament passed the Coercive Acts. It

was a series of laws meant to punish Massachusetts until it paid back the tea.

• A military governor would rule MA, British officials would be tried outside colony, and Colonists would have to house and feed the troops.

Colonial Reaction(First Continental Congress)

• Each colony sends delegates 9/1774

• They set up Committees of Correspondence because they needed to communicate with each other.

• They called for a Colonial Convention in May of 1775 in Philadelphia to discuss a course of action.

• They called for a militia in each colony.

-----1775-----Minutemen

• Throughout New England, militia were drilling and marching. The volunteers were called minutemen because they were ready to fight at a minute’s notice.

Patrick Henry• March 23, 1775 at St. John's Henrico

Parish Church in Richmond.• Gives a famous speech stating that colonists must fight “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

-----April 19, 1775-----First Shots at Lexington & Concord

• On the night of April 18th, Paul Revere & William Dawes galloped through the countryside spreading the word that the British soldiers were coming.

• Captain Parker led 70 men onto Lexington town green to block passage. A shot was fired and both sides began firing.

• The British then marched to Concord.• Returning to Boston proved to be a disaster as

Colonists fired on the British, killing 74 and wounding 200. The war had begun!

Paul Revere’s

Ride by

Longfellow

-----May 10, 1775-----• Second Continental Congress meets again in

Philadelphia. War seemed unstoppable. Some decided to send a peaceful petition to the King (Olive Branch Petition). They all elected George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.

• THAT SAME DAY, rebel forces of Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen stormed Fort Ticonderoga and took it for the colonies. It held ammunition and most importantly- cannons.

• George Washington takes command of army in June of 1775 and begins training soldiers.

-----June 17, 1775-----Battle of Bunker Hill

• On the night of June 16th, militiamen slipped onto the Charlestown Peninsula near Boston to take control of Bunker Hill.

• They spent their time digging in.• British Governor Gage saw the threat and sent

Commander Howe with 2,200 soldiers to take the hill and end the threat.

• American leader, Colonel Prescott, told his men, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

• On the third attack, the British took the hill. BUT British losses were more than 1,000.

• Americans felt they had won!

General Israel Putnam

Prescott

-----Fall, 1775-----• Congress wanted Canada. Richard

Montgomery and 300 troops were sent to take Montreal and the forts along the St. Lawrence. Montreal fell without a fight.

• Montgomery moved on Quebec. Arnold joined him with 600 troops, but it wasn’t enough.

• The attack was a disaster for the Americans. Montgomery killed, Arnold was wounded. He and the surviving men fled to Fort Ticonderoga.

Winter of 1775-1776

• Henry Knox spends the winter of 1775-1776 transporting on sleds the 59 cannons that were captured at Fort Ticonderoga.

• Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense in January of 1776. It sold over 100,000 copies.

Common Sense

written by Thomas Paine

Assignment: 10 minutes

Read each passage and match it up with the pink main idea.

Cut out the pink piece and glue it on your white sheet.Make sure your name, date, and hour # is on your sheet.

Victory in Boston• On March 4, 1776,

Washington uses the cannons brought to Boston and places them above Boston harbor on Dorchester Heights trapping the British between fire.

• British ships are forced to leave! Victory for now.

The Declaration of Independence

WHAT IS IT?

It is a full and formal declaration adopted July 4, 1776 by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies in North America

announcing separation of those colonies from Great Britain and making them into the United States.

June 7, 1776Congress meets in Philadelphia at Independence Hall.

Richard Henry Lee submits resolution urging Congress to declare Independence.

CONGRESS APPOINTS COMMITTEE

• Thomas Jefferson• John Adams• Benjamin Franklin• Roger Sherman• Robert R.

Livingston

Thomas

Jefferson

Benjamin Franklin

John Adams

Roger Sherman

Robert R. Livingston

•June 12-27, 1776 Jefferson, at request of the committee, writes a draft.

•June 28, 1776 Draft is read in Congress

•July 1-4, 1776 Congress debates and revises the Declaration

On July 2nd, the committee presents the Declaration to

John Hancock (President of the

Continental Congress).

Two delegates never signed at all. As new delegates joined the congress, they were also allowed to sign. A total of 56 delegates eventually signed.

July 9th, 1776

Washington orders that the Declaration of Independence be read before the American Army in New York.

Declaration of IndependenceOutline

I. Preamble (the reasons for writing)

II. Statement of Beliefs (the philosophy behind document)

III. List of Complaints (the offenses of Britain)

IV. Statement of prior attempts to redress grievances.

V. Declaration of Independence

VI. The signatures