Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• After the fighting at Lexington and

Concord, 20,000 militiamen from Massachusetts gathered around Boston

• General Gage moved his men to Boston, which was nearly surrounded by water

• On May 10, 1775, Americans attacked Fort Ticonderoga on the New York side of Lake Champlain – Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured the fort and its artillery

• On the same day in Philadelphia, John and Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Ben Franklin, Patrick Henry and George Washington, and the Second Continental Congress met and agreed to form a Continental Army

• George Washington was chosen as its commanding general

• Acting like a government, congress also authorized the printing of paper money to pay the troops

The Continental Army is Formed

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• Boston – June, 1775, tensions were mounting

as Americans seized Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill behind Charlestown

• Fortifications were built on Breed’s Hill alarming the British who decided to attack the Americans

• General William Howe and 2,200 troops crossed the bay and marched up Breed’s Hill

• On top of the hill, the militia waited – according to legend, Colonel William Prescott ordered his men not to fire until “you see the whites of their eyes”

• When the British were close enough, the militia opened fire on the British, forcing them to retreat – the British regrouped and charged again

• After running out of ammunition, the militia were forced off the hill

• The British won, but at a terrible price – more than 1,000 redcoats were killed or wounded compared to the 400 militia casualties

• An inexperienced militia had just held its own against the most powerful army in the world

The Battle of Bunker Hill

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• Even as the smoke from Bunker Hill

cleared, most colonists still hoped for peace

• Even some Patriot leaders thought themselves as loyal subjects of the king and blamed Parliament for the conflict

• July, 1775 - In an effort to restore peace, moderates in congress sent the Olive Branch Petition to King George III in London

• King George rejected the petition and announced new measures to punish the colonies;– He used the British navy to block American ports– He sent thousands of hired German mercenaries called Hessians

• While the militia felt they were equal to the British troops, Washington knew better

• The British were professionals and well equipped

A Last Attempt at Peace

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• The militia had little training and

had barely enough powder to fight one battle

• During the summer of 1775, Washington arrived in Boston and began gathering supplies for his poorly equipped militia

• In the fall, he approved a daring plan to invade and capture Quebec – hoping to draw the Canadians into the fight against the British

• Benedict Arnold led his men across Maine and into Canada – arriving in November 1775

• Despite harsh winter conditions, the Americans attacked Quebec but failed to capture it

• After several months they returned home defeated

A Last Attempt at Peace

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• In Massachusetts, the Continental Army

had surrounded the British in Boston• Neither side was willing to back down – but

help for Washington was on the way• Cannon captured from Fort

Ticonderoga were being hauled over the snow-covered mountains – after two long months, the cannon arrived in Boston in January, 1776

• Washington moved his troops and the cannons to Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston

• On March 17, 1776, fearing a bombardment, General Howe loaded his 9,000 troops onto 100 ships and withdrew from Boston

• Fearing for their safety, more than 1,000 loyalists left Boston with the British troops

• Some Patriots were calling for loyalists to be hanged as traitors – many loyalist’s lost their homes and property

The British Retreat from Boston

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• Early in 1776, most Americans were

still reluctant to make a final break with England

• A new immigrant from England named Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense to help convince Americans that a complete break with Britain was necessary

• Common Sense sold more than 100,000 copies in three months making a strong case for American independence;

• - Paine ridiculed the idea that kings ruled by divine will – he argued all monarchies were corrupt

• - He also disagreed with the idea that the American economy needed Britain arguing that “our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe”

• Paine’s Common Sense was one of the most influential political documents in history

Common Sense is Published

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• A majority of the delegates still did

not support independence• Even so, in May, 1776 Congress

adopted a resolution - authorized each of the 13 colonies to establish its own government

• On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a key resolution:

• - called the colonies “free and independent states”

• - declared “all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain . . . is totally dissolved”

• Unwilling to vote on the resolution to dissolve political ties, Congress appointed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence

A Time for Decision

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• The committee included; Ben

Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston

• Jefferson was chosen to write the Declaration for two reasons;– He was an excellent writer– He was a Virginian, and they

would need Virginia’s support for the independence movement to succeed

• Within two weeks Jefferson had most of the Declaration written

• On July, 2, 1776, despite strong opposition, Lee’s resolution passed and the colonies considered themselves independent

A Time for Decision

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• Two days later on July 4, 1776,

Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence

• As the president of the Congress, John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration

• The core idea of the Declaration was based on John Locke’s philosophy that people have unalienable rights – rights the government cannot take away

• Jefferson argued that governments that disregard these rights lose their right to govern

• People have the right to abolish these governments by force if necessary and form new governments– “People” meant only whites though

– women and enslaved persons were not included

The Declaration is Adopted

Chapter 6 - The Road to Revolution

Chapter 6.4 – Declaring Independence• The Declaration gave reasons for

breaking with Britain and declared the colonies to be free and independent from Britain

• Realizing they were committing treason, the delegates were urged to stand together in mutual defense

• The Declaration closed with this pledge: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred Honor”

• All they had to do now was win their freedom on the battlefield

The Declaration is Adopted