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Fighting for Independence: The Costs and the Benefits

Fighting for Independence: The Costs and the Benefits. Lexington and Concord. April 19, 1775 British troops move toward Concord to destroy supplies Revere rides through countryside, warns Hancock and Adams in Lex. British arrive in Lex, 70 minutemen blocking path

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Fighting for Independence: The Costs and the Benefits

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  1. Fighting for Independence: The Costs and the Benefits

  2. Lexington and Concord • April 19, 1775 • British troops move toward Concord to destroy supplies • Revere rides through countryside, warns Hancock and Adams in Lex. • British arrive in Lex, 70 minutemen blocking path • Shots fired, 8 Amers dead, 10 wounded • 1 Brit wounded

  3. Lex and Concord • Brits move to Concord, Amers waiting • Brits forced to retreat back to Boston • Militiamen fight thruout countryside • @ end of day: • 93 Amer. casualties • 273 Brit casualties

  4. George Washington was Commander in Chief of Colonial Army • 1/3 of colonists were Patriots, 1/3 Loyalists or Tories, 1/3 were neutral

  5. Strengths of Brit: • Well-equipped, disciplined, trained army • British navy was world’s finest • Help from 50,000 loyalists • Af. Amers b/c British promised freedom to those who served British cause • Inds • 30,000 hired mercenaries- foreign soldiers paid to fight, also called Hessians b/c from Hesse in Germany

  6. Weaknesses of Brit: • War not popular in Brit. • Underestimating opponent • Brit troops fighting in hostile terr and Brit commanders resisted adapting tactics to conditions in Amer

  7. Strengths of Amer: • Weaknesses for Brit, strengths for Amer • Fighting on own terr., familiar w/ tactics that worked in Fr. And Ind. War. • France greatly aided colonists economically • Better firearms • Weaknesses of Amer: • Lacked well-supplied, stable, effective fighting force • Lack of naval skills

  8. “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” -Thomas Paine

  9. Trumbull - Battle of Bunker Hill Brits win @ Bunker Hill w/ 1,054 cas. Amers - 397

  10. Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware ecjqnwe AKLPSDqaojes iwhq uq eqjbwe qjhwejhasdhjaSDHJASDjh ASDHJ A SJ • Washington led huge victory in Battle of Trenton • Surprised and captured nearly entire Hessian force and only suffered 5 casualties • Hessians were hired mercenaries • Also won Battle of Princeton • Victories caused volunteer companies to collect all over country

  11. Battle of Saratoga (Oct. 17, 1777)- Sig.- biggest American victory yet and convinced French to ally themselves with the Americans • Meant more supplies, loans of money, troops, and a navy • Plus, Brit now had to defend itself in Europe • Year later Spain joined as France’s ally, as did the Netherlands

  12. Battle of Saratoga

  13. Washington’s troops at Valley Forge in Penn. in winter 1777-78 suffered cold w/ few blankets, ragged clothing, almost no food • 1/3 of troops unfit to fight b/c lacked coats or shoes

  14. Battle of Yorktown (Oct. 18, 1780)- huge final victory for Amers • Last battle of Rev. • Combined Amer-French force twice the size of Brit force surrounded and forced them to surrender

  15. Treaty of Paris (1783)- involved Brit, US, France, Spain; • 6 major provisions: • Brit recognized ind. of USA • Northern border b/w US and British Canada set from N. Eng. to Miss. R., along Great Lakes • Miss. R. ested as boundary b/w new US and Spanish terr. to west. Navigation on river to be open to Amer and Brit citizens • Fla., which Brit gained from Span after Fr. and Ind War, returned to Spain. Border b/w Fla and US was set • Brit agreed to withdraw its remaining troops from US terr. • Congress pledged to recommend to the states that the rights and property of American Loyalists be restored and no future action be taken against them • However, persecution of Tories continued after the war

  16. Impact of Rev.: • Challenged some of traditional ideas about women: women took charge of farms and businesses • Promoted antislavery cause in the North • Most northern states abolished slavery in late 1700s and early 1800s • Also passed laws severely limiting legal rts and pol power of Af Amers • In south, made slavery more restrictive

  17. For Inds, outcome was disaster • Power of Iroquois League destroyed • Fact that some groups aided British used for many years as justification to fight Inds • Spread idea of liberty, both at home and abroad • “all men are created equal” challenged traditional idea of human inequality accepted throughout the world • Would come to inspire peoples throughout the world

  18. The Spirit of '76 by Archibald McNeal Willard

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