CHAPTER FIVE The American Revolution

CHAPTER FIVE The American Revolution
SPRING 2012 Brooklyn College HISTORY 3401: AMERICA TO 1877 TR BRENDAN O’MALLEY, INSTRUCTOR 1779 British Political Cartoon of King George III King George III by Allan Ramsay, painted in 1762 (just two years into his rule)

A New Kind of War A Revolutionary Struggle: How was it possible for the poorly armed and haphazardly organized Americans defeat the most powerful military force in the world? The transition from a conventional war to a revolutionary struggle that mobilized the entire society is a key factor. How to Govern? While simultaneously fighting a war, Americans also wrestled with how they would govern themselves. Should any ties with Britain be retained? How should a new nation be structured? Should revolutionary ideas of individual rights and freedoms also apply to women, slaves, and Indians in addition to white males?

The States United: Defining American War Aims Second Continental Congress: Just a few weeks after Lexington and Concord, in May 1775, the Continental Congress met for the second time in Philadelphia. Delegates from every colony except for Georgia (who had yet to send a representative) agreed to support the war effort and create the Continental Army. Divisions: Within the Congress, there was not agreement on the larger war aims. One extreme, led by Sam and John Adams of Massachusetts and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia demanded independence. On the other extreme was John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who hoped for a quick reconciliation. General Outlook: Most Americans saw independence as too radical, too much of a leap into the unknown. But as the first year of the war dragged on, the cost started to seem to too high for reconciliation. And the British greatly alienated colonists by recruiting slaves, Indians, and German mercenaries known as “Hessians” to fight against them.

The States United: Defining American War Aims Common Sense: Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, published in January 1776, helped to catalyze public opinion around the idea of independence. Selling over 100,000 copies in just a few months, it used clear and vivid language and reasoning to argue for a clean break with England. It could be understood by people who had just rudimentary educations. Thomas Paine ( ): Paine had come to America only two years before, having failed in his career as an excise officer (tax collector) back in England, and decided to migrate to Pennsylvania on the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin, who himself remained in England until 1775. Barely surviving the transatlantic voyage, Paine recovered and became editor at the Pennsylvania Magazine through his connection to Franklin.

Excerpts from Common Sense On Hereditary Succession of Kings: “To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and an imposition on posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and though himself might deserve some decent degree of honors of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.” Culture Ties to England: “But admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy, extinguishes every other name and title: And to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the peers of England are descendants from the same country; wherefore by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France.”

Excerpts from Common Sense Britain as the Parent Country: “But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young; nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so, and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers off civil and religious liberty from every Part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.”

The States United: The Declaration of Independence Independence Declared: The Second Continental Congress had been meeting since May 1775, but became more focused on independence in the early summer of 1776, putting a draft committee together to work on a declaration. On July 2, it passed a resolution declaring the colonies ought to be “free and independent states” that “are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown.” Two days later, the Declaration was approved. Articles of Confederation: The declaration triggered a process by which the colonies attempted to legally transform themselves from “colonies” into “states.” By 1781, most had written and approved new state constitutions. On the national level, a new central government was formed and approved in November 1777 under a document called the “Articles of Confederation”; it was weak and highly decentralized.

The States United: The Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson ( ): The thirty-three-year-old Virginian drafted the Declaration mostly by himself, with some help from John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Its first half declares Lockean ideas of the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (Locke actually uses “possessions” rather than “pursuit of happiness” in his Second Treaty on Government). The second half is a long list of grievances not against Parliament, but against the person of King George III (which was firmly against earlier plans to have America become an independently governed region that nominally remained under the monarchy. Portrait of Jefferson in 1791

The States United: Mobilizing for War Continental Currency: One of the main tasks of the Continental Congress was to finance the war, but it could not impose direct taxes on the colonies and the colonists were generally too poor to buy bonds. So it printed massive amounts of “Continental currency,” which quickly became almost valueless. Ultimately the war was finance by borrowing from other nations. Recruiting Soldiers: Soldiers were scarce after the initial 1775 surge. Each state’s militia briefly remained under state control for the first few months until this proved to difficult to be too disorganized. George Washington ( ): Congress realized the need for a centralized military command, and thus put a highly respected Virginian, very wealthy aristocratic planter (he grew wheat, not tobacco, as his primary crop), a representative in the House of Burgesses, and soldier from the French and Indian War, in charge. While not a gifted strategist, Washington was admired for his courage in battle, his physical endurance, calmness, and dignity.

The States United: Mobilizing for War Washington’s Foreign Advisors Marquis de Lafayette ( ): The young French nobleman, a highly trained soldier even though he was only nineteen years old, sailed to the U.S. to take a command as a major general, arriving in the middle of He proved invaluable in helping Washington with strategy and training. Baron von Steuben ( ): A widely respected Prussian military officer who had fought in the Seven Years’ War and served on the personal staff of Frederick the Great, he traveled to Paris in 1777 to meet America's foreign commissioners, Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, and offer them his military services. The Continental Congress was impressed by Von Steuben experience and his refusal to accept any salary while in service, and sent him to Valley Forge.

The War for Independence British Advantages: Best-equipped army and most powerful navy in the world; resources of an empire; and a coherent command structure. American Advantages: fighting on own soil; more committed to the fight than the opponent; and substantial foreign aid after 1777. The First Phase – New England Spring 1775 – Spring 1776: British authorities thought they were quelling a localized uprising around the Boston area, not a real war. Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775): The Americans fortified themselves atop a hill (actually Breed’s Hill, not Bunker Hill) in Charleston, an ideal artillery position to barrage Boston. The Americans were driven off the hill and had to retreat, but they inflicted significant losses on the British: 226 dead and 828 wounded, compared to 140 dead and 310 for the colonists. Early in 1776, the British decide Boston is a poor place to stage a war and evacuate to Halifax on March 17. Not a Local Conflict: A failed American attempt to invade Canada in late 1775 and early 1776, and the crushing of a loyalist uprising in North Carolina in February 1776 convinced the British authorities that this was not just a local uprising.

The War for Independence The Second Phase – The Mid-Atlantic Region During this phase, from 1776 to 1778, the British were in a good position to win, but made some tactical errors that missed the opportunity. General William Howe: In the summer of 1776, 32,000 British soldiers in hundreds of ships made their way down from Canada to New York, all under the command of Gen. William Howe ( ). Howe offered American forces an option: surrender with a royal pardon or be crushed by an overwhelming force. The Americans chose to fight. Battle of Brooklyn: Howe’s force had been staging on Staten Island, but crossed to Long Island on August 22, and then attacked Washington’s smaller force of 19,000 on August 27, soundly defeating them in a bloody battle in the Gowanus/Park Slope area. Washington’s surviving remnants barely escaped across the East River into Manhattan. Strangely, Howe delayed in applying the fatal blow, allowing the American troops to fortify themselves in northern Manhattan. Howe eventually drove them out, across New Jersey, and into Pennsylvania by winter.

The War for Independence The Second Phase – The Mid-Atlantic Region Trenton and Princeton: Having been pushed across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania, Washington staged a surprise sneak attack on an outpost of Hessians stationed at Trenton, New Jersey, on Christmas Night, 1776, by crossing the icy river. He followed up by attacking Princeton on January 3, 1777, which he also won, but he could not hold onto either positions for long, and took refuge in the Morristown hills. But his army was still intact. The 1777 Campaigns: Howe devised a plan to split the U.S. in two by capturing the Hudson Valley. His force would travel northward and meet the northern army of Gen. John Burgoyne as it came down from Canada. Weirdly, Howe abandoned the plan and turned south and captured the rebel capitol of Philadelphia, thinking it would bring the war to a quick end. But the Continental Congress escaped and reformed in York, Pennsylvania. Washington’s attempt to retake the capitol at Germantown on Oct. 4 failed, so he and his troops set up winter camp in Valley Forge, outside of Philadelphia.

CHAPTER FIVE: The American Revolution

The War for Independence The Second Phase – The Mid-Atlantic Region Saratoga: Howe’s move to take Philadelphia left Burgoyne’s force coming down from Canada alone in its attempt to gain control of the Hudson Valley. After several defeats at the hands of the Americans and not having many supplies left, Burgoyne’s forces ensconced themselves in a fort at Saratoga. American General Horatio Gates surrounded Burgoyne’s force and made them surrender on October 17, 1777. Iroquois Confederacy: Although officially neutral, it had a faction that was pro-English—led by Mohawk brother and sister Joseph and Mary Brant—that brought down the wrath of the Americans after Saratoga. The Iroquois were greatly weakened by the American victory in the region. Aid from Abroad: Count de Vergennes, the French foreign minister, was holding off to see if the Americans had a chance of winning the fight before sinking money into it. The major victory at Saratoga was proof enough for him that the Americans had a shot. Ben Franklin was key in negotiating the aid.

The War for Independence: The Final Phase – The South ( ) Britain’s Southern Strategy: Instead of fighting a full-scale war against the American army, the British decided to take the conflict to the south, where loyalist sympathies seemed to be strongest. But they ultimately had overestimated the extent of loyalist sympathy. British Victories: The British won some conventional battles, capturing Savannah, Georgia, in December 1778; Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1780; and crushing a patriot force at Camden, South Carolina, in August 1780. Patriot Guerillas: But the presence of troops actually rallied Southerners to the cause of independence, and many launched intense campaigns of guerilla-style warfare against the British, including Thomas Sumter, Andrew Pickens, and Francis Marion (the “Swamp Fox”). They contributed to the breaking of the will of British leadership to keep fighting. Benedict Arnold: In fall 1780, the Americans were shocked to learn that a high-ranking general had been passing secrets about West Point to the British.

The War for Independence The Final Phase – The South ( ) Lord Cornwallis & Nathanael Greene: The new British commander of the southern forces won at Camden, defeating American Gen. Horatio Gates, but unfortunately for Cornwallis, Gates was then replaced by the Americans’ most brilliant general, Nathanael Greene ( ).Greene confused Cornwallis by breaking his force up into nontraditional small and fast units. Greene beat Cornwallis at Cowpens on Jan. 17, 1781. Guilford Courthouse: In this battle on March 15, 1781, Cornwallis’s forces actually pushed Greene’s forces from the field, but in doing so, incurred such heavy losses as to make Cornwallis abandon the Carolina campaign. Yorktown: Cornwallis’s commander, General Clinton, ordered Cornwallis to take up a defensive position on the Yorktown peninsula. There, American forces were able to surround Cornwallis’s army, and French warships were able to seal off escape by sea. Cornwallis was forced to surrender on October 17, 1781.

The War for Independence: Wining the Peace America’s Diplomats: The three principle negotiators in France were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay (the last man was a former President of the Continental Congress and New York Supreme Court justice who had just come from a mission to garner Spanish support). Vergennes’s Demand: The Americans were instructed to act in concert with the French, but the French Foreign Minister Vergennes would not allow negotiations to go forward until the British gave Gibraltar back to France’s ally, Spain, which was not going to happen. The Americans thus proceeded without France, and signed a treat on November 30, Franklin skillfully smoothed over tensions with Vergennes. Treaty of Paris: On the whole, the treaty was remarkably favorable to the United States. It offered formal recognition of the new country, and ceded all territory south of Canada, east of the Mississippi, and north of Florida. The treaty was widely celebrated.

War and Society The Loyalists: One estimate puts Loyalists as a fifth of the white population; another puts them at a third. Some were imperial officials, some were wealthy merchants, and other merely sought to curry favor with who they thought would win. After the war, many were persecuted by judicial and legislative actions, and many were banished. As many as 100,000 fled the country, with the bulk fleeing to Canada, with smaller groups going to England and the Caribbean. Many of the the old colonial merchant elites were left in disarray. The War’s Effects on Religion: The Anglican Church—the official Church of England—was greatly weakened by the war, losing its official government status in Virginia and Maryland. Quakerism was also weakened by its pacifist stance. But other Protestant denominations—Presbyterian, Baptist, and Congregational— were strengthened by their support for the Patriot cause. Catholics, too, benefitted from their support for the Revolution. The Vatican gave the U.S. its first Catholic bishop in 1789, John Carroll, in the diocese of Baltimore.

War and Society: The War and Slavery Slavery and Revolution in the South: Many slaves found freedom because of a British tactic to disrupt the American war effort: slaves who came over to the British side and fought would be given their freedom. Nearly a third did so in South Carolina. Slaveholders feared that revolutionary ideology would foment slave rebellion, although none succeeded. Laws were passed in Virginia and Maryland did allow slaveholders to “manumit” or free their slaves. Yet overall, white support for slavery survived. Slavery and Revolution in the North: Revolutionary fervor and evangelical Christianity helped to fuel the spread of anti-slavery sentiment. States such as Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were among the first to ban the overseas slave trade; abolitionists pressured states to pass manumission laws; and lastly, northern states began making slavery illegal within their borders, with Pennsylvania doing so first in 1780, and New York and New Jersey being the last, in 1799 and respectively. An Irony: A big irony of the Revolution was thought some people were fighting to obtain their own freedom while preserving the enslavement of others.

War and Society: Native Americans and Revolution Neutrality: Most tribes did not take sides in the war, uncertain of the outcome. Most viewed the British as moderately better, having tried to rein in the expansion of settlers with the Proclamation of 1763, while the Patriots advocated expansion into Indian lands. Some Attacks: Some did join the British, while some mounted attacks of their own, such as Cherokee Chief Dragging Canoe, who launched attacks against areas of the western Carolinas and Virginia in the summer of 1776, which led to bloody retaliatory attacks by the white settlers. Weakened Position: The Patriot victory led to a greatly weakened position, as the new nation did not hide the fact that it sought to expand into western lands. Some Patriots though the Indians should be treated as conquered people because of the aid several tribes gave to the British, while others, like Thomas Jefferson, took a paternalistic view: these “noble savages” might be redeemed if they were willing to adopt white norms of society.

War and Society: Women’s Rights and Roles New Roles: Women were often forced to assume new roles when their husbands, fathers, and sons went off to war for long periods, such as running a farm or generating an income. Some did not stay home, but joined Patriot camps to cook, clean, and tend to the wounded. Some even fought disguised as men, such as Deborah Sampson of Massachusetts. Abigail Adams ( ): She corresponded voluminously with her husband during the Revolution, famously writing, “I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.”

War and Society: Women’s Rights and Roles Patriarch Strengthened: Despite Abigail Adams’s request, little was done to strengthen woman’s rights during the revolutionary period. Married women were under “coverture” of their own: her property became her husband’s, she could not vote or initiate legal transactions, or have legal control of her children. The only area of improvement was in her ability to initiate a divorce. The Revolution shored up and strengthened the patriarchal order of the society. “Republican Motherhood”: Some women argued for women’s education was made during the early republic since mothers needed to be able to educate their sons and teach them the virtues and knowledge needed for republic citizenship.

War and Society: The War Economy Disruption of Trade: The closure of British ports to American ships during the war led American merchants to develop new trade networks with the Caribbean and South America, and by the 1780s, even China. Manufacturing: Americans began to create a limited amount of their own manufactured goods, although this increase was still quite small. England still dominated in this field and would continue to do so through much of the nineteenth century. Interstate Trade: Trade between the states increased greatly, to a much greater volume than had happened between colonies.

The Creation of State Governments Assumption of Republicanism: Almost all Americans agreed that the new government would be republican (most of the monarchists had left!). The interests of small freeholders (meaning small rural landholding farmers) would predominate. Thomas Jefferson was particularly attached to this vision. He believed large landed aristocrats outnumbered by dependent workers would lead to instability. Rhetoric of Equality: According to the founding fathers, there may not be an equality of condition in the new republic, but there would be an equality of opportunity. Some people would naturally become richer, but all would have to earn their success. Reality of Inequality: The U.S. was never a republic of small freeholders, having a huge number of dependent workers—white, black, Indian, and male and female—from the beginning. While the rhetoric suggested that people’s position by birth didn’t matter, it definitely always has in an individual’s ultimate success. Nonetheless, U.S. society was still far more fluid than European ones.

The Creation of State Governments: First State Constitutions Connecticut and Rhode Island: These states already had constitutions that were republican in all but name. References to the king and England merely had to be deleted. But the other eleven colonies needed new documents. Writing It Down: All states agreed to have written constitutions, noting that the unwritten English Constitution led to too much corruption. Curbing the Executive: All states greatly limited the powers of the governor, reducing or eliminating their power to veto, to appoint officials, or dismiss the legislature. All states forbade the governor from holding a seat in the state legislature, avoiding an English parliamentary system. Pennsylvania even did away with the office of governor. Not Pure Democracy: Most states (except for Georgia and Pennsylvania) had two-chamber (bicameral) legislatures, with an upper house representing the “higher orders” of society. All states had some degree of property requirements for voting. What was the reasoning behind property requirements?

Revising State Governments Fear of Instability: By the late 1770s, many involved in governing the states thought that the new constitutions allowed for too much popular power, making the governments unstable, and thus looked to revise them. Massachusetts: This state did not ratify its first constitution until 1780, so it was able to address the new concerns. If the constitution was to be amended, a special constitutional convention would be need to be called. The legislature itself could not amend the document. The constitution also made the governor’s position stronger, restoring full appointment and veto powers. Other states soon followed the Massachusetts example. Religious Toleration: In 1786, Virginia enacted the Statute of Religious Liberty, written by Thomas Jefferson, which called for separation of church and state. Slavery: In places in the North where it was already weak, it was gradually abolished. Even in the South there were some pressures to reform or eliminate it. But it persisted because of racism, the huge economic investment many slaveholders had in it, and because leaders like Jefferson and Washington—who were morally disturbed by it— could not imagine an alternative.

The Search for a National Government: The Confederation Articles of Confederation: Approved by the Continental Congress in 1777, it provided for a government much like the one already in place: the Congress remained the only body of national authority. Under the Articles, there was no executive or judiciary branches on the national level. Ratification: Small states wanted equal representation, while larger states wanted representation based on population. The small states won this debate. All thirteen states had to ratify the Articles, and New York and Virginia had to give up their claims on western lands and turn them over to the national government. They finally went into effect in 1781.

The Search for a National Government: The Confederation What It Could Do: Conduct wars and carry out foreign relations; and appropriate, borrow, and issue money. What It Could Not Do: Regulate trade, draft troops, or levy taxes directly on the people. For tax money and drafting troops, Congress had to make a formal request to state legislatures, which often refused these requests. How It Worked: Each state had one vote, and nine of the thirteen had to vote for a measure for it to be approved. All thirteen states had to approve an amendment to the Articles. Overall: The Confederation did not have enough power to deal with the nation’s problems, lacking the ability to address interstate problems or enforce its will on the states.

The Search for a National Government: The Confederation Diplomatic Failures: The British did not honor the parts of the Treaty of Paris calling for them to evacuate their forces from frontier regions of the United States, with their forces remaining in forts along the Great Lakes. The British also restricted American access to British ports for the purpose of trade. John Adams was sent as a minister to London in 1784, but he made no headway, in part because the British were unsure if he represented one country or thirteen different ones. Spanish Treaty: In 1786, Confederation diplomats negotiated a treaty with Spain recognized the American border to Florida, but the treaty was rejected by Congress since it called for the restriction of American access to the Mississippi for twenty years, which Southerners could not abide.

The Search for a National Government: The Confederation Western Lands Questions: The Confederation was successful in dealing with the problem of lands in the “Northwest,” the area south of the Great Lakes. The Ordinances of 1784 and 1785: These created a system for organizing and selling off this land in a rectangular grid pattern, and providing for the territories ultimate application for statehood, creating ten even districts that could become states. The grid eliminated confusion and disputes over ownership, but also encouraged a dispersed settlement pattern that made community formation difficult. Unfortunately, these ordinances proved more helpful to land speculators rather than individual settlers. The Northwest Ordinance: In 1787, Congress replaced the older ordinances with a new one that dispensed with the ten districts and created one large one, which could potentially could create three to five states. An area could apply for statehood once it reached 60,000 people. It also guaranteed freedom of religion and outlawed slavery throughout the Northwest Territory.

The Search for a National Government: The Confederation Indians and Western Lands: The Northwest Ordinance assumed that the land would be ready for white settlement and that Indians would be willing to leave it. In 1784, 1785, and 1786, Confederation officials tried to have Iroquois, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokees sign treaties ceding their lands. The Iroquois Confederacy repudiated the treaty, while other tribes never acknowledged it in the first place. Violence in the 1790s: The Miami, led by Chief Little Turtle, inflicted two losses on U.S. forces in 1790 and The United States tried to reach an agreement with him, but he refused to budge until all white settlers retreated from west of the Ohio River. Battle of Fallen Timbers: The Indians would not negotiate until General Anthony Wayne brought a force of 4,000 out into the Ohio Valley to crush Indian forces in A year later, the Miami signed the Treaty of Greenville, which ceded substantial new lands to the U.S., but in exchange, required the U.S. to acknowledge Indian tribes as sovereign nations.

Debts, Taxes, and Daniel Shays Postwar Depression: This stretched from 1784 to 1787, and was greatly exacerbated by a shortage in the supply of money. The Congress itself also had a tremendous debt incurred to foreign powers while fighting the war, and had no real means of paying it back. “Continental Impost”: Robert Morris—the head of the Confederation’s treasury—as well as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison all called for a 5 percent impost on imported goods to be collected by the national government to pay down the debt. The idea was rejected by Congress in both 1781 and 1783. State Debt: States had debt as well, and relied on higher taxes to service them. Rural farmers. Already burdened by debt, considered such measures unfair. They pressured the state legislatures to issue to issue paper money to make it easier for them to pay back their debts. In Massachusetts, this group felt they were being squeezed to enrich wealthy war bond holders back in the east. Shays’s Rebellion: In the late 1780s, rural farmers in Western Massachusetts rioted in protest of higher taxes. Dissidents rallied behind Daniel Shays, a former captain of the Continental Army. Using armed force, they prevented the collection of debts and stopped courts from holding foreclosure proceedings. In January 1787, a state militia from the east at last dispersed Shays’s men, and he was captured and slated for execution, although ultimately pardoned.

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