America Secedes from the
Empire 1775-1783
Congress Drafts George
Washington
• The Second
Continental Congress
met in Philadelphia on
May 10, 1775
• It adopted measures
to raise money for an
army and a navy
• It also selected
George Washington
to command the army
Independence Hall
Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings
• In May 1775, a tiny
American force called
the Green Mountain
Boys captured the
British garrisons at Forts
Ticonderoga and Crown
Point
• In June 1775, the
colonials seized Bunker
Hill (actually Breed’s Hill)
• After Bunker Hill, King
George III rejected the
Olive Branch Petition
and declared colonies in
open rebellion
"View of the Attack on Bunker's Hill with
the Burning of Charlestown" by Lodge
Revolution
in the North,
1775–1776
Paine and the Idea of
“Republicanism”
• In 1776, Thomas Paine
published the pamphlet
Common Sense
• Paine argued that there
should be a “republic”
• The British “mixed
government” contained
republican ideals that
balance the power of the
king, nobility, and
commons
Engraving of Thomas Paine,
after a painting by Charles
Willson Peale of Philadelphia
Jefferson’s “Explanation” of Independence
• On June 7, 1776, Richard
Henry Lee urged for complete
independence, an idea that
was finally adopted on July 2,
1776
• Jefferson came up with a list
of grievances against King
George III and persuasively
explained why the colonies
had the right to revolt
• Jefferson’s “explanation” of
independence also upheld the
“natural rights” of humankind
• The Declaration of
Independence was approved
on July 4, 1776
King
George III
John Trumbull's painting,
Declaration of Independence
Patriots and Loyalists
• After the Declaration of
Independence,
Loyalists and Patriots
were more sharply
divided, and Patriots
often confiscated
Loyalist property to
resell it
• Loyalists were generally
conservatives
• Patriots were generally
the younger generation
and did not belong to
the Anglican Church
“A Tory is a thing whose head is in
England, and its body in America, and
its neck ought to be stretched.”
General Washington at Bay
• After the evacuation
of Boston in March
1776, the British
focused on New York
as a base for
operations
• On December 26,
1776, Washington
and his troops
crossed the Delaware
River and surprised
and captured 1,000
Hessians at Trenton
Washington Crossing the Delaware by
Emanuel Leutze, 1851
Burgoyne’s Blundering Invasion
• General Burgoyne, unable
to advance or retreat,
surrendered his entire force
at The Battle of Saratoga,
on October 17, 1777
• The importance of
Saratoga lay in the fact that
afterwards, France sensed
America might actually win
• France, in 1778, offered a
treaty of alliance, that gave
America everything that
Britain had offered, plus
recognition of
independence
General John
Burgoyne
Engraving
of Franklin,
1777
New York–
Pennsylvania Theater,
1777–1778
Chief Joseph Brant
George Rogers Clark's Campaign, 1778–1779
War in the
South,
1780–1781
General
Nathanael
Greene
Yorktown and the Final Curtain
• British General Cornwallis
fell back to Chesapeake
Bay at Yorktown to await
seaborne supplies and
reinforcements
• Admiral de Grasse offered
to join the Americans in an
assault of Cornwallis via the
sea
• George Washington, along
with Rochambeau's army,
and Admiral de Grasse
cornered Cornwallis
• Cornwallis was forced to
surrender at Yorktown on
October 19, 1781
Surrender at Yorktown
Routes of
Washington and
Rochambeau in
1781
Peace at Paris
• In 1782, a Whig ministry replaced
the Tory regime of Lord North
• Conditions of the Treaty of Paris
of 1783:
– British formally recognized the
independence of the United States
– Florida is given to Spain
– Britain granted generous boundaries
to the U.S.
– Americans were to retain a share in
the priceless fisheries of
Newfoundland
– The Loyalists were to no longer be
persecuted
– Congress was to recommend to the
state legislatures that confiscated
Loyalist property be restored
– The states vowed to put no lawful
obstacles in the way of Loyalist
property collection
Benjamin West's painting of the
delegations at the Treaty of Paris:
John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Henry Laurens, and
William Temple Franklin.
Questions for Wood & Nash Essays
1. How did the Revolution alter the lives of
various groups–men and women; Indians
and slaves; loyalists and patriots–in different
ways?
2. Do the British measures leading up to the
Revolution in retrospect look reasonable?
3. If so, how can one explain the American
response to them?
4. Would you characterize the Revolution as a
conflict that looked forward or backward?