1. The Road to Revolution & Defining Documents
APUSH
Unit 2

2. The First Continental Congress: September 5, 1774
The Congress declared:
Prominent Politicians:
GOAL:
The Congress declared:
defiance of laws
provisional government
defense strategy
Boycott British goods
2. Prominent Politicians:
Samuel and John Adams (Mass)
John Jay (New York)
Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and George Washington of VA
3. GOAL: Resistance would cause Parliament to transfer all authority, with exception of trade regulation, to the American colonies.
Note: With the exception of Georgia, all conies sent delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in response to the “Intolerable Acts.”
Some moderates favored compromise
Delegates sent petition to the king allowing Parliament to:
Regulate Colonial commerce
Consider recent laws unconstitutional

3. Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775
Arrests ordered:
Dawes and Revere:
Confrontation at Lexington:
Confrontation at Concord:
Mass. Governor ordered to arrest leading radicals.
Dawes and Revere alert towns
Confrontation at Lexington
700 Redcoats v. 70 minutemen
8 minutemen die, 1 Brit injured
Confrontation at Concord
273 Redcoat casualties
Start of Revolutionary War

4. Map of the Battle of Lexington and Concord

5. The 2nd Continental Congress, May 10, 1775
Result of Lexington and Concord:
2nd Congress Meets:
Wrote Olive Branch Petition:
After L & C: 20,000 minutemen swarm Boston
2nd Congress Met
No intention of independence
Adopted measure to raise $
Selected Washington to lead army
Wrote Olive Branch Petition :
Cease-fire in Boston
Repeal of Coercive Acts
Guarantees of Am. Rights

6. Thomas Paine’s Psychological Revolution
1776 Publication:
Told Colonists:
1776:
Paine publishes Common Sense
Over 150,000 copies were sold.
Told Colonists:
Condemned the monarchy and aristocracy.
Stop war of inconsistency; fight for independence
America can sustain herself without the help of England
Independence is possible
America will not just be a new nation but new kind of nation. This revolution will have an historical impact on other colonies around the world.

7. The Declaration of Independence: July 4, 1776
Influence & Author:
Preamble:
Second section of the Declaration:
Conclusion
Influence: Jefferson and other founding fathers were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment
Darkness of the past ages can be corrected by “human reason”
While the government (or state) is supreme, it bound to follow “natural laws based on the rights people have simply because they are human.
Preamble:
Jefferson explains the necessity of independence for the preservation of basic natural rights and laws
Based these ideas off of John Locke and his thoughts about a “social contract.”
Second section
Lists a series of “abuses and usurpations” by the king and his government.
Claims that the British monarchy violated the social contract it had with its colonies thereby justifying the actions the colonies are taking.
Conclusion
Document ends with a formal declaration of war
Even before completing the Declaration of Independence, a committee was established to draft the first Constitution in the United States – the Articles of Confederation.