Amsco AP US History Chapter 5

First Continental Congress (1774)

All of the colonies except Georgia sent representatives to determine how the colonies should react to the threat to their rights and liberties (caused by Intolerable Acts)

Patrick Henry

Radical from Virginia; delegate at Continental Congress. "Give me liberty or give me death!"

Samuel Adams

Radical from Massachusetts; delegate at Continental Congress; started Committees of Correspondence

John Adams

Radical from Massachusetts; delegate at Continental Congress; acted as lawyer for British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre

George Washington

Moderate from Virginia; delegate at Continental Congress; position of respect in colonial army

John Dickinson

Moderate from Pennsylvania; delegate at Continental Congress; writer of "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania"

John Jay

Conservative from New York; delegate at Continental Congress

Joseph Galloway

Conservative from Pennsylvania; delegate at Continental Congress; proposed a plan that would have reordered relations with Parliment (plan lost by one vote)

Suffolk Resolves

These rejected the Intolerable Acts and called for their repeal; they also urged the colonies to make military preparations and organize boycotts

economic sanctions

a.k.a boycotts

Declaration fo Rights and Grievances

A petition to the king urging him to make right colonial grievances and restore colonial rights

Paul Revere

Warned militiamen that the British were coming along with William Dawes (Battle of Lexington and Concord)

William Dawes

Warned militiamen that the British were coming along with Paul Revere (Battle of Lexington and Concord)

Minutemen

Another word for the colonial militia

Lexington

British soldiers tried to seize colonial military supplies; 8 colonial minutemen were killed

Concord

British soldiers tried to destroy colonial military supplies; on the return to Boston, the British suffered 250 casualties when abushed by milita men

Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill)

Americans lost to British, but British suffered heavy casualties in this first true battle of the war (June 17, 1775)

Second Continental Congress (1775)

(May 1775) Representatives adopted the Declaration of the Causes and Necessities for Taking Up Arms and sent the Olive Branch Petition to the king

Declaration of the Causes and Necessities for Taking Up Arms

A letter to the world explaining why the colonies were rebelling and that it was necessary

Olive Branch Petition

(July 1775) Last ditch effort for peace; colonists pledged their loyalty and asked the king to go to Parliment and protect their colonial rights

Prohibitory Act (1775)

(1775) Declaration of the king saying the colonies were in rebellion

Thomas Paine; Common Sense

(January 1776) Pamphlet that argued in clear, logical language that the colonies should break with Britain

Declaration of Independence

Richard Lee first introduced a resolution declaring the colonies to be independent; but this declaration, written by Thomas Jefferson is most well known; ratified on July 4th 1776

Thomas Jefferson

Writer of the Declaration of Independence

Patriots

Most of this group came from New England or Virginia and wanted freedom for the colonies

Loyalists (Tories)

The majority of this group tended to be wealthy and conservative and many of the clergy and government officials were in this group; pro-British

Valley Forge

Washington's troops spent a harsh winter here after losing Philadelphia to the British (1777-1778)

Continentals

Paper money issued by Congress which was almost worthless due to inflation

Battle of Saratoga

(October 1777) Turning point of the war; led to the French joining the colonists

absolute monarch

Although France had this kind of government; King Louis decided to help the colonies succeed in their rebellion in order to weaken the British

Battle of Yorktown

(1781) Last battle of the Revolutionary War; support from French helped a lot

Treaty of Paris (1783)

Treaty which stated that:

1. Britain would recognize the existence of the US

2. The Mississippi River would be the western border of the US

3. Americans would have fishing rights off the coast of Canada

4. Americans would pay debts owed to British merchants and honor Loyalist claims for property confiscated during the war