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Date
Vocabulary Builder
The American Revolution
Section 2
Common Sense
Thomas Jefferson
Loyalists
Patriots
unalienable
Thomas Paine
tyranny
Declaration of Independence
DIRECTIONS Answer each question by writing a sentence that contains
at least one word from the word bank.
1. What did Thomas Paine write to encourage the colonists to declare indepen-
dence?
2. What did the Second Continental Congress do to formally declare the colonies
free from Great Britain?
3. What group of colonists faced hostility as a result of their views regarding the
Declaration of Independence?
4. Who was the main author of the Declaration of Independence, and what three
main points did he make in the document?
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
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The American Revolution
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Answer Key
The American Revolution
Vocabulary Builder
3. Marquis de Lafayette; French statesman
and officer who viewed the American
Revolution as important to the world, he
helped finance the Revolution and served
as major general
4. John Paul Jones; American naval officer
famed for bravery, his most famous victory was the defeat of the British warship
Serapis, during which he declared, “I have
not yet begun to fight!”
SECTION 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Second Continental Congress
Continental Army
First Continental Congress
minutemen
Battle of Bunker Hill
where Americans retreated; tragic victory
for the British; where the British suffered
more than a thousand casualties
a Virginian; commander of the
Continental Army
a civilian group; a volunteer group;
colonists
British soldiers; wore red uniforms
made up of delegates from 12 colonies;
met in Philadelphia; was far from unified;
chose not to break from Britain
SECTION 4
Answers will vary but one example is:
Dear Son,
I want to pass on a little of the history that I
remember from before you were born. During
the Revolutionary War, the British thought
that they could do a better job of defeating
the Americans by fighting more in the southern colonies. The British freed slaves in the
south to help them fight. This worked for the
British for a while. The Patriot forces tried to
push the British out of South Carolina but
failed because the attack was poorly planned.
Horatio Gates led the Patriot forces in this
battle. At this battle the American Patriots lost
their southern army. Soon, General Nathanael
Greene arrived in the Carolinas to reorganize
the Patriot army. They did not stop fighting
though. They started using guerrilla warfare. Francis Marion led Marion’s Brigade,
a group of soldiers who used surprise raids
against British communications and supply lines. The British now controlled most of
the South. Benedict Arnold, who was a great
American soldier, turned traitor. It looked bad
for the Patriots. The French General Comte
de Rochambeau helped General Washington
plan strategies. During the Battle of Yorktown,
the Patriots began to wear down the British
defenses. Finally the British surrendered. The
real end of the Revolutionary War was the
Treaty of Paris of 1783 because it recognized
U.S. independence.
SECTION 2
1. Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense to
encourage the colonists to declare
independence.
2. The Second Continental Congress formally declared the colonies free from
Great Britain with the Declaration of
Independence.
3. Loyalists faced hostility as a result of
their views regarding the Declaration of
Independence.
4. Thomas Jefferson was the main author
of the Declaration of Independence. The
three main points he made are: 1) all men
possess unalienable rights; 2) Britain had
violated the colonists’ rights with unfair
laws and interference; 3) the colonies had
the right to break from Britain.
SECTION 3
1. Battle of Trenton; a Revolutionary War
battle led by George Washington in New
Jersey on Christmas night that was a
major defeat for the British
2. Battle of Saratoga; site in eastern New
York of a Revolutionary War battle
that was the turning point of the war
and brought France, Spain, and the
Netherlands into the war on the Patriots’
side.
1. d
2. a
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
31
The American Revolution