WEEK 10 AMERICAN STUDIES NOVEMBER 17, 2014 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION PART 1

WHEN DID THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION ACTUALLY BEGIN?

On the 18 th of April in ‘75 Hardly a man in now alive Who remembers that famous day and year... Paul Revere’s Ride

Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775 The date usually given as the start of the Revolutionary war.

British surrender at Yorktown, 1781

Vocabulary Americans Yankees, yanks Rebels Patriots Whigs Republicans, democrats Blue uniforms British, English Brits, Limeys Empire Loyalists Tories Royalists Redcoats, Lobsterbacks

The American Revolution was also a war of-- Americans vs. Americans British vs. British Rich vs. poor Farmers vs. merchants Squatters vs. landlords Whites vs. Indians Slaves vs. masters Sailors vs. the Navy

More Vocab. LAND SPECULATOR Squatter Strike

Allamance, N.C The Regulators fought for farmers’ rights against absentee landlords.

The Green Mountains of Vermont

ETHAN ALLEN Formed a vigilante group, the Green Mountain Boys, in 1770, to protect farmers from land speculators. “It is laboring men that support the World of Mankind. It is the Farmers [who] in reality uphold the State.” “The gods of the hills are not the gods of the valley.”

John Locke, The Labor Theory of Property: Question: How can you claim to own one part of the world when God gave the world to all humanity in common? Answer: You own your own labor. When you work the land, your labor becomes part of the land, and the land becomes yours.

When the British imposed martial law on Boston in 1775, Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys headed west and captured this British fort.

The cannons Ethan Allen captured at Ft. Ticonderoga were hauled over the mountains and used to drive the British out of Boston.

Worcester (wustah), MA 1774 The Real Revolution Debt, rent and taxes were forcing farmers off their land and working men into debtors’ prison. Crowds gathered around court houses, forced them to shut down, and forced the judges to resign The people set up their own courts. The British Empire was forced out of Mass. and never returned

Conclusion—On the 19 th of April, 1775, when the British marched out of Boston to try to disarm the colonists in rural Massachusetts, the revolution was already over and the Yanks had won. It was all over but the shooting.