Revolutionary War Notes

Choosing Sides in the Revolutionary War

  • The Revolutionary War involved various groups: the rich, the poor, slaves, Native Americans, and women.

Reasons for Delayed Declaration of Independence

  • Fighting began in Spring 1775, but independence wasn't declared until later.
  • Breakthrough in Ideology:
    • Thomas Paine and Common Sense (document 7-1) challenged the existing political structure.
    • Abigail and John Adams discussed Common Sense (document 7-2), contributing to the ideological shift.
  • The rise of Popular Committees and Class Conflict:
    • Correspondence between Washington and planters highlighted the rise of poor whites within the independence movement.

Common Sense

  • Common Sense was addressed to the inhabitants of America and covered topics such as:
    • The origin and design of government in general, with remarks on the English Constitution.
    • Monarchy and hereditary succession.
    • The present state of American affairs.
    • The present ability of America, with miscellaneous reflections.

Common Sense: A Structural Critique

  • Common Sense offered a structural critique, suggesting that reform could not resolve the issues.
  • Independence was presented as the only solution.
  • It included a vision for building a republic to replace the old colonial system.

Common Sense Excerpt Themes

  • Critique of hereditary monarchy.
  • Argument against loyalty based on commercial reasons.
  • Assertion that a small island (Britain) should not rule a continent.

Declaration of Independence: Resolutions and Failures

  • Relations with Great Britain resolved: Independence, though it still needed to be won on the battlefield.
  • Nature of the political system in the new nation remained unresolved.
    • State Constitutions varied significantly in their degrees of popular participation (Maryland and Pennsylvania examples).

The War: British Strategy

  • Britain's Strategy:
    • Isolate New England via control of NY and Canada.
    • Address the problem of Virginia via aid to loyalists in the Carolinas.
  • Challenge: Win but reintegrate; avoid a total war of decimation.

The War: Patriot Strategy

  • Patriot Strategy: Survive.
  • Washington pursued a cautious approach to avoid losses.
  • Failed attack on Quebec in September 1775, based on the false belief that the French would support them.

War Timeline: 1776-1778

  • 1776-78: Conflict centered in Massachusetts, NJ, NY, and PA.
  • Mid-1778: War shifted to the South.
  • British Strategy in the South:
    • Exploit divisions between wealthy and poor whites and masters and slaves.
    • Belief in more loyalists in the South.
    • Expectation that marginalized slaves and Natives would support the British.
    • Aim to retain valuable land for agriculture.

War Timeline: 1779-1781

  • 1779-1780: British initially successful but later faced failures.
  • Problem: Some Natives (Creek) and slaves on the British side, and Tory violence, drove many into the Patriots’ camp.
  • 1781: Cornwallis retreated to Yorktown off Chesapeake.
  • Washington, aided by French forces, surrounded the British military and forced surrender.

The American Rattlesnake

  • Depicts victory at Yorktown (James Gillray), document 7-4, Reading American Past.
  • Caption: "Two British Armies I have thus Burgoyn’d, And room for more I’ve got behind.”
  • A sign is posted over the vacant third coil reads, “An Apartment to Lett for Military Gentlemen.”

Picking Sides: Neutrality

  • Neutrality:
    • Religious pacifists, especially Quakers (Patriots sometimes expropriated their property).
    • Majority of neutral colonists.
    • Estimated 1/3 of the population.

Loyalists

  • Estimated 20% to 25% of the population.
  • Included:
    • Wealthy individuals (merchants and colonial officials).
    • Anglican clergymen.
    • Rural folk and ethnic minorities like the Germans.
    • Local issues mattered: Tenant might be a Tory if the landlord was a Patriot.

Britain's Ineffective Use of Loyalists

  • Britain did not effectively utilize the loyalists, despite approximately 20,000 fighting for them.
  • Patriots isolated and neutralized them.
  • 60,000-100,000 loyalists left the US rather than reconcile with the new government.

Loyalists: J. Hector St. John

  • Reading 7-3: J. Hector St. John described the distresses of Frontier Farming.
  • A farmer on the NY frontier fled to London in 1782.
  • He had some wealth and mentioned his servants.
  • Dilemma: Loyalty to the mother country or region?
  • Self-preservation seemed to be the best rule of conduct.
  • He questioned whether risking his family was worth loyalty.

Continental Army and Local Militias

  • Approximately 250,000 served in the Continental army and local militias over the course of the war.
  • Largest number at one moment was 90,000.
  • Continental army was voluntary, but there were state quotas to fill.
  • Local militias had required service.
  • "Replacements" could be used to avoid service.

African Slaves: British Side

  • Lord Dunmore’s 1775 Proclamation: Slaves would be freed if they aided the British.
  • Approximately 100,000 slaves in the South flocked behind British lines.
  • Dunmore’s proclamation was not all-inclusive; he primarily wanted adult males.
  • Some slaves were sent back to their plantations.

Lord Dunmore’s 1775 Proclamation

  • Virginia. By his Execellency the Right Honourable John Earl of Dunmore, his Majesty's Lieutenant and Governour- General of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, and Vice- admiral of the same. A proclamation Declaring martial law and to cause the same to be. Norfolk, 1775.

Document 7-5, Boston King

  • Slave Boston King escaped his master and joined the British.
  • Even after obtaining his freedom, he faced difficulties, poor treatment, and possible servitude.
  • Britain was pressured to return slaves to their former masters.
  • In the end, Britain withstood the pressure and elected to liberate slaves.

British and Slaves at War

  • The British navy raided the South and liberated slaves (1776-7).
  • The number of blacks serving swelled when the conflict moved south.
  • Dunmore’s “Ethiopian” regiment’s banner read: “liberty to slaves.”
  • There was a belief amongst blacks that Britain’s campaign aimed to emancipate them.

Patriot Views on British Policy of Using Slaves

  • Some Patriots thought Dunmore’s proclamation reflected a general British policy.
  • Some southerners only began supporting independence when they believed the institution of slavery was threatened.

Treaty of Paris and Slavery

  • The Treaty of Paris required slaves who had enlisted with the British to be returned to their owners.
  • The British ignored this requirement, and 3000 slaves left with loyalists on a flotilla.
  • Perhaps 20,000 departed with the British after the war for England & Canada.
  • Some slaves were re-enslaved in the Caribbean.

Slaves and Free Blacks on Patriots’ Side

  • Some Patriots saw a contradiction between fighting for freedom and maintaining slavery.
  • In 1775, Washington banned free blacks from military service.
  • Low white recruits inspired reversal: free blacks enlistment.
  • 5,000 free blacks and slaves served, mostly in the North.
  • Southerners generally did not free their slaves.
  • Replacement service in militias promoted slave enlistment.
  • Slaves fought for masters with the promise of freedom.

State Policies on Slaves

  • States allowed black enlistment (including slaves) because they had trouble filling quotas for the Continental Army.
  • Maryland was the only colony with significant slaves that allowed this.
  • The state paid the owner the slaves’ value.
  • NY gave slave-owners land in exchange for slaves’ service.
  • Slaves were granted freedom if they survived.
  • Virginia and N. Carolina enlisted free blacks (further south, generally no).
  • Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas used seized slaves as enlistment bounties for whites.

Native Americans

  • Initially, many tribes remained neutral.
  • By 1778-9, most were forced to join in, as significant war occurred in the west.
  • They fought on both sides (some tribes, e.g., Iroquois, even split).

Native Americans Fight with the British

  • Preponderance of Natives fought with the British due to:
    • Fear that a colonist victory would lead to faster westward expansion; desire to protect land.
    • Washington/Jefferson and others speculated in western lands; Jefferson wanted Natives west of the Mississippi.
  • Colonists attacked Iroquois who sided with Britain with a vengeance, as evidenced by the scorched-earth policy on Iroquois villages in NY.

Women

  • Daughters of Liberty.
  • 20,000 women served in the Patriot military.
  • Vast majority in service positions such as cooks and nurses.
  • Some fought, sometimes in disguise.
  • Women also played a crucial role in raising funds and tending the home/business.

Women's Political Voice

  • Women were still viewed as lacking political voice.
  • A loyalist husband was held accountable for his wife’s crimes.
  • Men had to take an oath of loyalty, and if they did not, land would be confiscated to finance the war.
  • Women (assumed a-political) did not have to take the oath.
  • Women petitioned for 1/3 of the confiscated property of their husband, as they would have received as a widow under common law.

Abigail Adams: Remember the Ladies

  • Abigail Adams and women. Reading: document 7-2. p. 110.

  • Her husband John’s response: p. 111.

French Alliance

  • The French Alliance: United due to the 7 Years’ War.
  • French wanted to break English dominance in America.
  • French aid began in 1776 with military supplies; they formally joined in 1778.
  • Aid included supplies, men, money, and a navy.

French Military Support

  • France forced Britain to fight in multiple theaters (e.g., Caribbean).
  • The French alliance gave Americans naval power (key in Yorktown).
  • In 1779, Spain joined as an ally of France, hoping to drive Britain from Florida.

War and the Economy

  • Despite an \8,000,000 loan from France, economic problems persisted.
  • Loss of British markets hurt colonial farmers and merchants.
  • The Royal Navy also prevented trade with other nations.

Currency Devaluation

  • Printed currency not backed by gold or silver.
  • Currency devalued. Phrase: “not worth a Continental.”
  • Depreciation problem: “Continentals” to gold ratio:
    • 1777: 33 to 11
    • 1781: 146146 to 11
  • Increase in the price of goods:
    • In 1779, prices increased 80% in a 2-month period.

Hoarding & Breaking into Warehouses

  • Between 1776-9, there were over 30 incidents where crowds accused merchants of holding scarce goods off the market.
  • Warehouses were broken into.
  • Local committees fixed prices on basic consumption goods.

Regulations in New England and Philadelphia

  • 1777 Convention of NE States restricted price increases: “Act to prevent monopoly and oppression.”
  • 1778 Philadelphia: local consumption was prioritized before allowing exports.
  • 1779 Philadelphia committee aimed for “just” prices”: residents voted for price regulations.

Peace of Paris (1783)

  • Boundaries were set at the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, ignoring the Native Americans’ role in aiding the British and their habitation of the western region.
  • Britain agreed to remove troops (but still remained after a decade).
  • Americans gained fishing rights in the Atlantic off Canada.
  • Americans agreed to recommend the return of Tory properties that had been confiscated and not to prosecute loyalists.
  • Native Americans and the British were the big losers here.

Territory Divisions: Treaty Paris, 1783

  • Refer to the image depicting territory divisions as per the Treaty of Paris, 1783.

Chapter 7 Comparative Questions

  • Comparative Questions relating to Paine, the Adamses, King, and the American Rattlesnake Cartoon. Comparative Questions, Reading the American Past, p. 122:
    1. How might Thomas Paine and Abigail and John Adams have responded to the dilemmas of ordinary citizens described by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur?
    2. To what extent did Boston King disagree with ideas expressed by Paine and the Adamses? How might Paine and the Adamses have responded to King's alliance with the British?
    3. To what extent did "The American Rattlesnake" cartoon support or disagree with ideas expressed by Paine, the Adamses, and King?
    4. To what extent did the revolutionary experiences documented in this chapter support the ideals of a government of laws advanced in Paine's Common Sense? To what extent did those experiences provide evidence of a commitment to equality? To self-interest?
    5. Judging from the documents in this chapter, what were the perceived achievements and limitations of independence? How did they compare to the promises and aspirations of Paine and the Adamses?