American Pageant Chapter 7 Strengths & Weaknesses

1. American Pageant Chapter 7 Strengths & Weaknesses

2. Imperial Strengths • Population: 7.5 million in Britain, 2.5 million in the colonies • Money wealth & naval power • Professional army 50,000 men • $$$ to hire foreign soldiers – 30,000 Germans (Hessians) • 50,000 Loyalists and some Indians tribes

3. Imperial Weaknesses • Ireland smoking volcano that would require British troops • France wants revenge • London Govt. confused and inept (George III and Lord North) • Many Britons had no desire whatsoever to kill American cousins • Whig party opposed Lord North’s Tory Party and openly cheered early American victorious. (This encourages the Americans that if they can just hold out the Whigs might come into power and deal generously with them)

4. Imperial Weaknesses ctd. • Second rate Generals who brutally treated their soldiers (800 lashes on bare back for striking an officer) • Provisions were poor • They had to conquer- colonists only need a draw • Britain operating 3,000 miles from home. Military orders take months to arrive from London • American geographical expanse was enormous w/ no cities that the British could capture and end the war (London, Paris) • Americans were willing to trade space for time

5. American Pluses • Outstanding Leadership: Washington & Franklin • Possibility of foreign aide (France) • Fighting a defensive war • Self sustaining agriculture • Tough self reliant people • Marksmen who their weapons instead of pointing them like the British • Moral advantage of fighting a just cause

6. American Minuses • Badly organized for war • Lacking in unity • Continental Congress directing the war is a debating society with feeble power • Not till 1781 was there a written constitution (Articles of Confederation) • Sectionalism: jealousy amongst states • Little metallic $$$ - Congress fears taxing- prints “Continental” paper money…”Not worth a continental” depreciated currency • Families rocked by inflation caused men to desert the army • Lack of fire arms and gun powder: Franklin proposed going back to bow & arrow

7. American Minuses ctd • Clothing & Shoes were scarce (2,800 barefoot and barely clothed soldiers at Valley Forge) • Militiamen numerous but unreliable • 5,000 blacks enlisted in American armed forces • 1775 Lord Dunmore the royal governor of VA. Issues a proclamation promising freedom for any enslaved black in VA who joined the British army • 300 slaves join “Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment” in first month, thousands would follow. (Madison slave story pg.138) • At end of war British evacuate 14,000 “Black Loyalists” to Nova Scotia, Jamaica, and England

8. American Minuses ctd. • Moral is hurt by war profiteering: people who sold to invaders because they could pay in gold • Bostonians make profits of 50 to 200% on Army garb while soldiers at Valley Forge froze. • Only a select minority of American colonials were attached to cause of Independence with a spirit of selfless devotion

10. Title: Prince Amir Saud laying a wreath at George Washington's grave. Date: January 14, 1947

11. Chapter 8 America Secedes from the Empire

12. Congress Drafts George Washington • Bloodshed of Lex/Con in April 1775 is call to arms • 2nd C.C. meets in Philadelphia the next month (May 10, 1775) this time all 13 colonies are present • Conservative element still strong despite bloodshed in Mass. • Still no strong sentiment for Independence • Still hope that if they can continue fight they can convince King & Parliament to a “redress of grievances”

13. John Adams convinces congress to raise $ to create army & navy • Adams also recommends G.W. to head army of about 20,000 in Boston • By appointing a Virginian he hoped to bind the middle and southern colonies to the cause • A Virginian aristocrat who could check the “excess of the masses” • He had never been above the rank of colonel in the militia • Not a great military mind: he would lose more then he won • He had a “it”: strong leader, character, patience, courage, self discipline

15. Bunker Hill & Hessian Hirelings • American Contradiction: affirming loyalty to King while at same time raising an army and shooting down “his majesty’s soldiers” • Fight like this from April 1775 to July 1776 • Ticonderoga and Crown Point: Ethan Allen & Benidict Arnold capture British Garrisons providing valuable gunpowder & artillery for siege of Boston • July 1775 Colonials seize Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill)

16. British Blunder at Bunker Hill • British make full frontal attack and get mowed down by sharpshooting Americans. • When gunpowder runs out they abandon the hill • British “win victory” at Bunker Hill but suffer an enormous loss of life • British: 226 Dead and 828 wounded • Americans: 140 Killed 271 wounded

17. Olive Branch Petition • OBP: professes loyalty to crown and begs for a stop to future hostilities • Aug. 1775: Instead of answering petition King proclaimed colonial rebellion: Treason • Sep 1775: Hire German Hessians as mercenaries. They had reputation for butchery • Colonists disappointed that king would bring outsiders into a family fight • Dec. 22 Parliament passes “American Prohibitory Act” orders all trade w/ colonies stopped

18. Abortive Conquest of Canada • Attempt to take Canada puts colonists on the offensive • Want to deprive British of base for striking at them • Gen. Richard Montgomery captures Montreal • Gen. Benedict Arnold meets him in Quebec his men eat dogs and shoe leather during their march through the woods from Maine • Dec. 31, 1775 Americans are beaten Montgomery is killed & Arnold is wounded in the leg • French Canadian leaders were treated fairly by Quebec act and did not welcome the anti-catholic invaders • March 1776 British forced out of Boston (Evacuation Day is still celebrated every March 17)

19. Thomas Paine: Common Sense • Loyalty to crown deeply ingrained • Jan 1776 Washington officers were still toasting “God Save the King” Things Start to Change • Harsh acts like burning of Falmouth Maine (Oct 1775) & Norfolk, Virginia (Jan 1776) • Common Sense is published • Each time an American died so did part of moderation • The news of fighting, death, and suffering starts to spread from New England. Soldiers from the Middle & Southern colonies began to march toward Boston. As they left home so did the spirit of compromise • John Adams “The cancer is too deeply rooted and too far spread to be cured by anything short of cutting it out entire”

21. Congress Acts • Late March 1776: Congress authorizes “armed vessels to cruise on the enemies of these colonies” • In March S.C. & GA. Give their delegates freedom to vote for Independence. Followed in April by N.C.. In first week of May R.I. Takes it a step further and declares its own independence. May 15 VA. Delegates are instructed to propose to congress that they declare the colonies “free and independent states” • In April Congress agrees to open colonial trade to all the world but Britain

22. Richard Henry Lee • On June 7 he offers a motion for independence. • Fri June 8 and Mon June 10 this motion is debated congress hears debate an d floors motion until July 1st . They wanted a unanimous vote. • Put together a committee to draft declaration: John Adams, Ben Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, & Thomas Jefferson (33 years old)

23. By June 28 all of the colonies except NY had authorized their delegates to approve independence • On July 1 congress votes: Penn and S.C. delegates opposed and Delaware with only two members present were divided. • On July 2 the third member of the Delaware delegation is present and votes in favor along with Penn and S.C., only NY did not voted and stayed uncommitted • On July 4th – the Declaration of Independence is approved by Congress after some revisions

24. “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” – John Adams

25. Patriots & Loyalists • Loyalists = Tories (Lord North’s Party) • Patriots = Whigs (Opposition Party in Parliament) • “A Tory is a thing whose head is in England, and it’s body in America, and it’s neck ought to be stretched” • Battle for “hearts & minds” • Militias remarkably effective agents of revolutionary ideas

26. Loyalists • 20 % of American population • What if king had won? Whose names would be in the History books as heroes/villains • Loyalists = conservative, educated, wealth, and older generation • “Young people make revolutions” • Loyalists = Kings officers and beneficiaries of the crown who knew were their $ came from • Anglican church communities = most numerous loyalist populations (NYC, Charleston, Penn, & NJ which GW called “The enemies country”)

27. Loyalists ctd. • While GW troops starve at Valley Forge Penn farmers sell produce to British for gold • New England had fewest loyalists • Loyalists roughly handled after Dec of Ind. • Imprisoned, hung, tarred & feathered, • 80,000 loyalists are driven out or flee to British lines • Estates were sold to finance war • 50,000 serve in British army • Act as spies, incite Indians, force patriots to stay home and protect families

28. Monument to Benedict Arnold’s Leg which was shot twice in BattleSaratoga, NY