American Revolution (Part 2)

Common Sense

A pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that claimed the colonies had a right to be an independent nation.

Thomas Paine

Author of Common Sense

Declaration of Independence

Signed in 1776 by US revolutionaries; it declared the United States as a free country from Great Britain.

Thomas Jefferson

Author of the Declaration of Independence, Founding Father, and member of the Continental Congress.

Loyalists

American colonists who remained loyal to Britain and opposed the war for independence.

Haym Salomon

American financier for the colonies during the Revolution. He loaned money to the US to help them fight Great Britain.

Mercenaries

Foreign soldiers who fought for money

Battle of Trenton

On Christmas day at night, Washington's soldiers began crossing the Delaware River. The next morning, they surprise attacked the Hessians and won the battle.

Battle of Saratoga

Turning point of the American Revolution. It was important in convincing the French to give the U.S. military support and it lifted American spirits. It also ended the British threat in New England.

Marquis de Lafayette

French soldier who joined General Washington's staff and became a general in the Continental Army. He contributed soldier and his own money to the Patriot cause.

Baron Friedrich von Steuben

Prussian soldier who helped train American forces at Valley Forge in the American Revolutionary War.

Bernardo de Galvez

Helped during the Revolution by buying Spanish weapons and supplies for the colonial army AND allowing Patriots to use port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River.

John Paul Jones

American naval commander in the American Revolution. Famously said "I have not yet begun to fight."

George Rogers Clark

Leader of a small Patriot force that captured British-controlled Fort Vincennes in the Ohio Valley in 1779. Secured the Northwest Territory for America

Francis Marion

A military officer who used surprise hit and run attacks (guerrilla warfare) against the British in the South. He was known as the “Swamp Fox”.