1. Objectives
Discover the role that African Americans played in the American Revolution.
Find out how the war affected women and other civilians.
Learn about the progress of the fighting on the western frontier and at sea.

2. Terms and People enlist – sign up for duty
civilian – person not in the military
continental – paper money printed by the Continental Congress
George Rogers Clark – Virginian who led American troops against the British on the western frontier

3. Terms and People (continued)
Bernardo de Gálvez – governor of Louisiana who played a major role in Spanish attacks against the British
John Paul Jones – American naval commander who won a key battle against the British
privateer – armed civilian ship given its government’s permission to attack enemy ships and keep their goods

4. How did the effects of the war widen?
While Continental soldiers faced battle in the thirteen colonies, many people in other places also felt the war’s effects.
American Revolution
Native
Americans
Western
settlers
Women
African
Americans

5. African Americans fought on both sides during the American Revolution.
Patriots
British

6. Free African Americans fought for the Patriots from the beginning, seeing action at several key battles.
Lexington and Concord
Bunker Hill
Saratoga
Some enslaved people also supported the Americans after escaping from their owners.

7. If they fought for the British, however, enslaved people were offered something of immense value.
Freedom
To gain their freedom, thousands of enslaved Americans fled their owners and joined the British.

8. At first, George Washington refused to accept African American soldiers.
Washington reversed his policy, however, after so many African Americans began to join the British forces.
By the end of the war, more than 7,000 African Americans had fought for the Patriots.

9. Women, too, were affected by the war, often taking on new responsibilities.
At home, women:
planted crops
tended livestock
ran businesses
Men who
enlisted were
away for at
least one year

10. Some women followed their husbands into battle.
They provided supplies, food, and water. They cared for the wounded.
Some, like Molly Pitcher, stepped in to fight when her husband fell.

11. Congress had no power to tax, and the states had little money.
Soldiers and civilians alike were affected by the financial burdens of paying for the war.
Congress had no power to tax, and the states had little money.
Amount printed
Continental
Value
Congress printed continentals to pay expenses, but the money soon lost its value.

12. Those on the western frontier also felt the war’s effects.
British
Native
Americans
Most Native Americans sided with the British, fearing an American victory would bring more settlers onto their lands.

13. A deadly epidemic added to the crushing effects of war.
Many Indian groups, however, were bitterly divided about which side to support. Some split into warring factions.
A deadly epidemic added to the crushing effects of war.
Infighting
Western
raids
Smallpox
Native Americans

14. George Rogers Clark pushed west to strike British forts on the frontier.
Clark won key battles against the British and their Native American allies.
These victories allowed settlers to remain on the frontier.

15. Clark and other Americans were given help by the Spanish, who declared war on Britain in 1779.
Patriots

16. Gálvez also gave refuge to American ships in New Orleans harbor.
Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Louisiana, played a key role in Spanish attacks that captured British forts along the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.
Spanish
British
Gálvez also gave refuge to American ships in New Orleans harbor.

17. The Americans needed the help
The Americans needed the help. Their small navy was no match for the British fleet, which dominated the seas.
Thirteen
colonies
British ships blockaded most American ports

18. A much-needed naval victory was won off the English coast when John Paul Jones refused to give up a long and difficult fight, forcing a British ship to surrender.
Privateers also helped the Americans, seizing supplies and goods from British merchant ships.