Chapter 8 Key Terms & People to Know APUSH

Second Continental Congress

Representative body of delegates from all thirteen colonies; drafted the Declaration of Independence and managed the colonial war effort (1775-1781)

Battle of Bunker Hill

fought on the outskirts of Boston, on Breed's Hill, the battle ended in the colonial militia's retreat, though at a heavy cost to the British (June 1775)

Olive Branch Petition

Conciliatory measure adopted by the Continental Congress, professing American loyalty and seeking an end to the hostilities; King George III rejected the petition and proclaimed the colonies in rebellion (July 1775)

Hessians

German troops hired from their princes by George III to aid in putting down the colonial insurrection; hardened the resolve of American colonists, who resented the use of paid foreign fighters

Common Sense

Thomas Paine's pamphlet urging the colonies to declare independence and establish a republican government; widely read pamphlet helped convince colonists to support the revolution (1776)

Declaration of Independence

Formal pronouncement of independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson and approved by congress; allowed Americans to appeal for foreign aid and served as an inspiration for later revolutionary movements worldwide (July 4, 1776)

Declaration of the Rights of Man

declaration of rights adopted during the French revolution; modeled after the American Declaration of Independence (1789)

Loyalists

American colonists who opposed the Revolution and maintained their loyalty to the King; sometimes referred to as "Tories"

Patriots

colonists who supported the American Revolution; also known as "Whigs"

Ethan Allen

led a tiny American force along with Benedict Arnold that surprised and captured the garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on the scenic lakes of upper New York

Benedict Arnold

a general who led a tiny American force along with Ethan Allen that surprised and captured the garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on the scenic lakes of upper New York; wounded in one leg while fighting in Quebec; ambitious, greedy, unscrupulous, and suffering from a well-grounded but petulant feeling that his valuable services were not fully appreciated so he plotted with the British to sell out the key stronghold of West Point, which commanding the Hudson River, for 6,300 pounds and an officer's commission

Richard Montgomery

a general, formally of the British army, who pushed up the Lake Champlain route and captured Montreal; joined at Quebec by the bedraggled army of General Benedict Arnold

Thomas Paine

the radical author of Common Sense, who had come over from Britain a year earlier and began his incendiary tract with a treatise on the nature of government and anticipated Thomas Jefferson's declaration that the only lawful states were those that derive "Their just powers from the consent of the governed"

Abigail Adams

wife of noted Massachusetts Patriot John Adams who raised her voice on behalf of women, but only in private—in a personal letter to her husband

Richard Henry Lee

(Virginia) moved that "these United Colonies are, and ought of right to be, free and independent states"

Lord Charles Cornwallis

a British general who abandoned over four thousand former slaves in Virginia, and many black loyalists who boarded ships from British-controlled ports expecting to embark for freedom instead found themselves sold back into slavery in the West Indies

Patrick Henry

declared "Give me Liberty or give me death!" in an outcry before the Virginia Assembly

William Franklin

Benjamin Franklin's handsome and illegitimate son who was the last royal governor of New Jersey and upheld the Loyalist cause

Thomas Jefferson

a tall, freckled, sandy-haired Virginia lawyer of thirty-three, who despite his youth was already recognized as a brilliant writer and drafted the Declaration of Independence

Battle of Long Island

battle for the control of New York; British troops overwhelmed the colonial militias and retained control of the city for most of the war (August, 1776)

Battle of Trenton

George Washington surprised and captured the garrison of sleeping German Hessians, raising the morale of his crestfallen army and setting the stage for his victory at Princeton a week later (December, 1776)

Battle of Saratoga

decisive colonial victory in upstate New York, which helped secure French support for the Revolutionary cause (October, 1777)

Model Treaty

Sample treaty drafted by the Continental Congress as a guide for American diplomats; reflected the Americans' desire to foster commercial partnerships rather than political or military entanglements (1776)

Armed Neutrality

loose alliance of nonbelligerent naval powers organized by Russia's Catherine the Great, to protect neutral trading rights during the war for American independence (1780)

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

treaty signed by the United States and the pro-British Iroquois granting Ohio country to the Americans (1784)

Privateers

privately owned armed ships authorized by Congress to prey on enemy shipping during the Revolutionary Army; more numerous than the tiny American navy, they inflicted heavy damages on British shippers

Battle of Yorktown

George Washington, with the aid of the French Army, besieged Cornwallis here, while the French naval fleet prevented British reinforcements from coming ashore; Cornwallis surrendered, dealing a heavy blow to the British war effort and paving the way for an eventual peace (October, 1781)

Treaty of Paris

Peace treaty signed by Britain and the United States ending the Revolutionary War; The British formally recognized American independence and ceded territory east of the Mississippi while the Americans, in turn, promised to restore Loyalist property and repay debts to British creditors (1783)

William Howe

a professional soldier and Washington's adversary who was no military genius and remembered the horrible slaughter at Bunker Hill, where he had commanded

John Burgoyne

"Gentleman Johnny" an actor-playwright-soldier who pushed down the Lake Champlain route from Canada

Benjamin Franklin

negotiated a treaty with France and was determined that his very appearance should herald the diplomatic revolution the Americans hoped to achieve; shocked the royal court because he was dressed very plainly without a wig on; one of the authors of the Model Treaty

Comte de Rochambeau

commanded a powerful French army of six thousand regular troops and arrived in Newport, Rhode Island; arrival caused suspicion by the Americans because they were new allies with the French, which resulted in several conflicts with minor bloodshed

Nathaneal Greene

"Fighting Quaker" a Quaker-reared tactician, who distinguished himself by his strategy of delay and exhausting his foe in vain pursuit; lost battles but won campaigns and finally succeeded in clearing most of Georgia and South Carolina of British troops

Joseph Brant

a Mohawk chief who was also a convert to Anglicanism and believed, not without reason, that a victorious Britain would restrain American expansion into the West; traveled with British ravaging large areas of backcountry Pennsylvania and New York until checked by an American force in 1779

George Rogers Clark

an audacious frontiersman who conceived the idea of seizing the forts Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes by surprise; floated down the Ohio River with about 175 men and captured these forts in quick succession

Admiral de Grasse

operated with a powerful fleet in the West Indies and advised the Americans that he was free to join with them in an assault on Cornwallis at Yorktown; eventually led to Cornwallis being completely cornered and forced to surrender

Colonel Barry St. Leger

commanded a smaller British force that came in from the west by way of Lake Ontario and the Mohawk Valley

Horatio Gates

an American general who General Burgoyne had to surrender his entire command to at Saratoga on October 17, 1777

Catherine the Great

took the lead in organizing the Armed Neutrality; Russian

John Paul Jones

a hard-fighting young Scotsman who was one of the most famous daring officers of the naval establishment of only a handful of nondescript ships

John Jay

an American peace negotiator of New York who was deeply suspicious of Old World intrigue and saw signs indicating that the Paris Foreign Office was about to betray America's trans-Appalachian interests to satisfy those of Spain