1. 4.2 Ideas Help Start a Revolution
OBJECTIVE:
Learn about the Continental Congress and increasing tensions between Britain and her Colonies.
Understand why Americans declared independence from Britain.

2. Road to Independence March 1776 British Evacuate Boston
April 1775 Lexington/Concord
1775 – Second Continental Congress appoints G. Washington commander of Boston troops
Allen and Arnold capture Ft. Ticonderoga
June 1775, Battle of Bunker Hill
July 1775, Olive Branch Petition
October1775, George III rejects the Olive Branch
Oct, 1775 Falmouth burned by British
January 1776 Common Sense published 4:20
Jan 1776 Norfolk burned by British
March 1776 British Evacuate Boston
1776 Common Sense published, end of “shilly-shallying”

4. Declaration of Independence
Causes (events)
Ideas
Declaration of Independence
Results

5. Declaration of Independence
Causes
Lexington/Concord
Olive Branch Petition
Breeds Hill
Falmouth and Portsmouth burned
Common Sense
Ideas
No tax w/out representation
“Tyranny”
“Natural Rights”
(Locke)
Declaration of Independence
Results
Choose sides (A civil war as well?)
Conflict more violent
Now wish to drive British out
Wider War

6. First and second Cont. Congress
First C.C. (September 1774)
Second C.C. May 1775
GA. Present now
Shots had been fired
Lex. / Concord
Ft. Ticonderoga
Olive branch
Washington chosen to lead
Print money to pay soldiers
B. Franklin to France
Separation from England on the table
Discuss Int. Acts
No Georgia
Produce a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances”
Agree to meet again in May of 1775
Conversation revolves around “Rights as “Englishmen”

7. Second Continental Congress
Still attempting Reconciliation
William Franklin
John Dickinson
“Olive Branch Petition”
Rejected by George III in October of 1775
ordered a blockade of the colonies

9. CASUALTIES: British: out of 2,200 troops, 268 British soldiers and officers KIA, 828 WIA. Americans: 115 KIA, 305 WIA (NPS) June 1775

10. Written by Thomas Paine published in 1776
47 page essay attacking the King and Parliament
George Washington owned his own copy!!
“I find Common Sense is working a powerful change in the minds of many men.”
- G.W.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

11. Common Sense
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America has flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true; for I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.

12. “Common Sense”
The nearer any government approaches to a republic the less business there is for a king. It is somewhat difficult to find a proper name for the government of England. Sir William Meredith calls it a republic; but in its present state it is unworthy of the name, because the corrupt influence of the crown, by having all the places in its disposal, hath so effectively swallowed up the power, and eaten out the virtue of the house of commons that the government of England is nearly as monarchical as that of France or Spain.

13. Common Sense
“As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty, and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or a petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which when obtained requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness--There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease”

14. How did the various English colonists come to see themselves as “Americans”? Stamp act Congress (Oct 1765) Non Importation (boycotts, tar and feather)1767 Committees of Correspondence (1773) First Continental Congress (Sept 1774) Second Continental Congress (May 1775)

15. Ideas of Revolution “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine
Declaration of Independence
Continental Congress appoints a committee to prepare a declaration
Thomas Jefferson chosen to express declaration
Draws on philosophy of the Enlightenment
Ideas of John Locke, “natural rights”
Right to resist tyranny
Specific to George III (why?)
“Common Sense” by Thomas Paine
Originally an anonymous work
Firmly introduces call for independence
Calls for an end to monarchy and the beginning of a republic

16. Declaration of Independence
It should be noted…
Power is derived from the consent of the governed = people
King’s power is not a “divine right.” Rather, the people have unalienable rights.
Original draft was rejected by South Carolina and Georgia because it attacked the slave trade.
Army refuses to enlist black soldiers/Lord Dunmore
The call for Equality was not originally meant to include women or minorities.
Second Continental Congress called for independence on July 2, 1776, and adopted the Declaration on July 4th.

17. Declaration of Independence
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

18. Loyalists vs. Patriots
Perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of the colonists were patriots = calling for independence.
Patriots tended to come from those who wanted more economic independence.
*Many Americans tried to stay neutral, esp. Quakers.
African-Americans fought on both sides.
Native Americans tended to side with the British.
Maybe 1/3 of colonists were loyalists
Loyalists were stronger in the South
Loyalists included members of King’s govt. in colonies, such as judges, governors, etc. AND many ordinary colonists.

19. Map: The War in the North
The early phase of the Revolutionary War was dominated by British troop movements in the Boston area, the redcoats' evacuation to Nova Scotia in the spring of 1776, and the subsequent British invasion of New York and New Jersey.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

21. Advantage? Disadvantage?p108
COLONIALS
Pop. Of 2.5 million
Small, untrained militia
No centralized govt.
No treasury
No navy
Angry France, Irish problem for GB
Defending homes
Washington, Franklin
Few armories, little powder
GREAT BRITAIN
Pop. of 7.5 million
Prof. Army of 50,000
Hessian mercenaries
Royal treasury
Royal navy
Divided parliament
Long lines of supply
Poor generalship
More cannon, arms, &powder
Many Colonials remain loyal
Emancipated slaves join GB