Is it Fair?

As we all know (mentioned on previous posts) the colonists, now known as Americans, have been fighting for freedom. Though the question is: who’s freedom are they really fighting for. During this era the Declaration of Independence was very contradictory to the real life in America.

Why was it contradictory you may ask? Well first of all, aren’t people created equal? So why aren’t women and slave or simply African- Americans included? They are humans and should have the same rights as everyone else?

As you know women have contributed in so many ways especially during the Revolution. Women have helped cure the ill, make clothes, and in some cases fight in the war. The slaves have been doing most of the work in the plantations especially in the South. If it weren’t for the slaves then the plantations wouldn’t have prospered as much as it did.

Why did women only gain respect, but not any legal rights? Why were slaves re-enslaved and treated just as cruely? It’s no wonder why the loyalist called the Patriots hypocrites. I guess that I would also call them that. They were spreading the idea of freedom, but I apparently it seems like this freedom was for white males only. Some kind of freedom.

The bright side to this is that years later slavery was abolished and women now have rights (in some cases more rights then men).

Battle of Camden

Date: 16th August 1780

Place: South Carolina

Sides: British and Germans vs. the Americans

Generals: Major General Lord Cornwallis vs. Major General Horatio Gates
Size of the armies: The British were1,500 hundred regulars and 500 militia. The American army included 1,500 Continental troops and some 1,500 militia.
Outcome: British victory

Since Charleston was under the power of the British, Maj. General Horatio Gates wanted to double up his winnings and territory. So Gates immediately marched for Camden, South Carolina to capture the British. Back in Charleston, Lt. General Charles Earl Cornwallis learned of Gates' march and went to Camden. On evening of August 15, the two armies ran into each other. The next morning, they started to fight. The British were obviously bigger than the Patriots, about 1/3 bigger and better equiped. So Gates had to retreat forty miles on the same day. Not such a good day right?

The War comes to its End

Cornwallis's Surrender

George Washington rapidly marched with his troops to the south, where he planned to trap Cornwallis's army at Yorktown, Virginia. This victory consisted of a combined assault of Patriot forces led by George Washington and French forces. On 1781 Washinton led his army out of Williamsburg to surround Yorktown. The french army took positions on the left, while the Americans took positions on the right. French General  Lafayette trapped the British in the peninsula. But George Washington's plan was going to work if and only if the French fleet arrived at the precise moment. The French fleet was extremely important because it was going to prevent the British navy to evacuate the army by the sea and it was also preventing the British from getting the support that was coming from the north. George Washington was not sure if the fleet was going to arrive in time, he could just wish they were going to. The fleet appeared on September 5th, 1781 just in time. This coordination was pure luck, because at that time there was no long-distance communication.

Trapped by land and by sea, Cornwallis surrendered his army on Oct 19th, 1781. Cornwallis's surrender prompted the British to put an end the conflict.

Patriots Drive the British Back

After being defeated in the Battle of Saratoga and after the alliance between the French and the Patriots, the British decided they had to stop with the nonsense and put a stop to the rebellion of their American Colonies. Toward the end of the war, the British shifted their attention to the south. In late 1778 and 1780, the British had won most of the battles and captured a lot of major sea ports on the south. In 1778, they easily captured Savannah in Georgia. In 1780, they captured Charleston and 5000 Patriot soldiers in South Carolina. At last, they captured Camden in South Carolina too. General Lord Cornwallis was able to capture all these ports with the help of the German mercenaries. Everything was going right for the British, but what they didn't know was that the Patriots were not giving up just yet.

Simultaneously, Bernardo de Gálvez, spanish governor of Louisina, captured Mobil, Alabama and Pensacola, West British Florida. This expanded spanish power in North America and divided the British army.

At last, the Patriots crushed the loyalist militia at King Mountain in South Carolina. On 1781, the Continental Army inflicted heavy losses on the British Army on two battles: Cowpens and Guildford Court House. Frustrated, Lord Cornwallis decided to march north, where he walks directly into a trap.

The Frontier War

After the French and Indian War, there was another war called Pontiac's Rebellion. After this rebellion the king proclaimed that no one could settle west of the Appalachian Mountains, through the Proclamation of 1763. He had set that land as an indian reserve. This angered the colonists because it wouldn't permit colonial expansion. This measure was supposedly taken because the indians feared that the colonists would take away their territory by expanding westward, and at the same time it was a way of keeping the colonies at the east coast (where it would be easier to be controlled by England). Defying this proclamation, the colonies started to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains around the 1770's. 

Most indians sided with British and they were urged by England to attack the colonies. The indians eventually attacked, but the colonists wouldn't tolerate that. They started attackinh and killed neutral indians.They kept on disregarding the peace treaties they made with the indians. Little by little, the colonists managed to take more land. 

After many fights with the British, the Patriots finally convince some Native Americans to abandon the British allies, allowing the Patriots to recapture a fort they had lost. Of course, not all Native Americans were willing to help the Patriots and they started attacking Patriot's frontieer posts in New York. The Patriots simply decided to stop trying to convince them and so they burned 40 Iroqouis towns. The Indians, in return, continued their attacks with awful consequences, forcing many Patriots to retreat to the east.

European Allies

The victory of Saratoga encouraged many European countries to show their support one way or another. France recognized American Independence and entered the war, openly allying to the colonies. France had been helping the Patriots in many ways, but always secretly because they didn't believe that they would win. Of course France would welcome an opportunity to weaken their enemies' empire. Before the Saratoga Battle, they had been sending secret ships with ammunitions and weapons, and pratically this secret help was what kept the Patriots going. Some french volunteers even provided military expertise (training the soldiers), such as Marquis de Lafayette. After annnounceing publically their allience, they even sent troops to fight beside Patriots against British troops. 

In 1779, British suffered another blow, when Spain entered the war. However they didn't enter as an ally to the Americans, but to France. They also wanted to weaken the British empire, but they feared that, if they encouraged the colonies' independence from Britain, their own colonies in America would want independence too. The Spanish governor of Louisiama, Bernardo de Gálvez, provided money and supplies to the Patriots, at the same time they prevented British ships from entering the Mississippi River.

The Netherlands also tried to help somehow and they tried to beat the East India Company. This disrupted England's economic stability.

The Battle of Saratoga

Date: October 17^th, 1777

Place: Saratoga on the Hudson River in New York State.

Sides:  British and German troops vs. the Americans

Generals: Major General John Burgoyne vs. Major General Horatio Gates and Brigadier Benedict Arnold

Armies: 5,000 British, Canadians, and Indians vs.  12,000-14,000 militia and American troops

Uniforms: The British wore showy red coats that could be seen from a mile away and the Germans wore blue coats. Meanwhile, the Americans dressed as best as they could. They simply wore their normal clothing. Until later on did the Continental army start to wear blue coats and the militia continued to wear rough clothing.

Outcome: The Americans forced General Burgoyne to surrender.

The Battle of Saratoga in September and October 1777was a decisive American victory ending with the surrender of an entire British army of 9,000 men invading New York from Canada. Battle of Saratoga was actually two battles about 9 miles south of Saratoga, New York. 

The surrender of General John Burgoyne, who was surrounded by much larger American militia forces, took place after his retreat to Saratoga. The capture of an entire British army secured the Americans from mroe attacks out of Canada and prevented New England from being isolated. A huge result was that France  entered the war on behalf of the Americans, dramatically improving the Americans' chances in the war.

Battle of Trenton

Date: December 25^th, 1776

Location: Trenton, New Jersey by the Delaware River

Fighters: Americans vs. Hessians and British troops

Generals: General George Washington vs. Colonel Rahl

Armies: 2,400 Americans with 18 guns vs. 1,400 Hessians with 6 light guns

Outcome:  Victory for Washington and his American troops

So, what is this you may ask? Well these are some important facts about the Battle of Trenton that took place on Christmas Day in 1776. The background story is that the Patriots or Americans, however you may call them, were driven out of New York by the British and had to retreat to somewhere close to the Delaware River during the summer of 1776. This was a huge disadvantage for the Americans.

Summer passed by and winter came along. The Continental Army (the American troops) didn’t have any uniforms, some men didn’t have any shoes or proper protection against the harsh winter. Many had to wrap pieces of clothes around their feet for protection. It seemed like the army wasn’t going to be able to endure the winter for long. Washington came up with the idea to attack the Hessians at Trenton. The Patriots had to march a long distance and cross the river. It is said that a person could trace the path that they took because of the blood that some men left in the snow. Can you imagine walking for miles, with no shoes, and the independence of your country resting on your shoulders? Not something that many are up for.

This surprise attack, well obviously surprised the Hessians and the British troops. Colonel Rahl was fatally wounded and the British had to surrender. Another thing that helped the Patriots is that the Hessians were low on ammunitions and supplies which also made them retreat.

Washington’s army crossing the Delaware River in the freezing weather is something important for the U.S and many have seen the famous painting of it.

The Unalienable Rights

Signing of the Declaration

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Does this sound familiar? Don't be surprised if it does because this little piece is actually part of the Declaration of Independence or also the Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, as it was known back in 1776. As most people know the United States declared its independence from Britain on July 4, 1776.

So what exactly are the "unalienable rights"?  Well, an unalienable right is a basic human right which cannot be taken away by government, in Benjamin Franklin's view, they also cannot be given away by the person.   Some of these rigths are mentioned in the Declaration such as the right of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. A government is established to secure these rights. The possession of property and having it protected is also one of the natural, inherited and unalienable rights of men. 
As you can see all men were created equal and for many different reasons some men to seen more important then others in someone's eyes, but what we all should remember is that no one os above another person, no matter who.

"Common Sense" by Thomas Paine

On January 1776 a short, but powerful book was published. It expressed the ideas that most colonists had. This book was publishes with the name of "Common Snese" written by Thomas Paine. Paine was a recent immigrant from Britain that used to be a tax collector and artesant. This book was written with a simple, but forceful and direct language and its three main proposals were:

1) Independence from Britain.

2) A Republican state government.

3) Union of the new states.

Paine also denounced the king as a tyrant and the aristocrats as parasites and a fraud. He believed that the common people should be able of choosing the whole goverment. He was sure that America would be able to trade with other countries once free from the empire. He argued that a republic would reward merit, not inherited privileges. He concluded that no one wants their liberty taken away.

This book in the most sold and circulated book in American History. It was very popular because, aside from the fact that it expressed the ideas of most colonists, it was written in a from that was very easy to read for the common people. Besides that, Paine believed that it was absurd for an island to rule a continent.

Many ideas of this book actually appeared in the Declaration of Independence.

Second Continental Congress of the 13 Colonies

 Unlike the First Continental Congress, all 13 colonies were represented in the  Second Continental Congress.

The Second Continental Congress was a unicameral delegation, having only one legislative chamber, representing the 13 colonies during the American Revolutionary War. The group met for the first time in Pennsylvania States House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 10 May 1775. The Second Continental Congress spent that year stretgthing its power, assuming the role of legislative and executive authority of the 13 colonies.

The Second Continental Congress meeting started with the battle of Lexington and Concord.The New England militia were still camped outside of Boston trying to drive the British out of Boston. The Second Continental Congress established the militia as the Continental Army to represent the thirteen states. They also elected George Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

The Lexington and Concord Battles

The British government realized that maybe the colonists were a real threat, and so General Thomas Cage was ordered to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams, two of the leaders in Massachusetts. If the order would have been received a day earlier, it would have been much easier to arrest the leaders because the entire Massachusetts Congress would have been in session. Adams and  Hancock were advised  to leave town immediately and decided to go to Lexington. Another troop was sent to seize all the stockpiled arms in Concord. 

This attack was supposed to be kept a secret, but by morning 70 Patriots had gathered in Lexington Green waiting for the troops. Somebody fired the first shot, known as "The Shot Hear Around The World". 8 Patriots died. 

Then the Redcoats (British soldiers) marched on to Concord. Minuetemen, or Patriot militia who earned their name from the quickness in which they got ready, were waiting in Concord and fired at the British. About 200 Redcoats were killed or wounded. Exhausted, the British troops finally got to Boston in the late afternoon. The Patriots seized the New England Colonies.

Intolerable Acts

Tarring and Feathring

After all the forms of protest, especially the Boston Tea Party, Parliament was angered by the Bostonian actions. In order to teach the colonists a lesson, they created the Coercive Acts. This acts were passed with the purpose to punish colonists in Boston for the destruction of private property (Boston Tea Party) and to restore British authority and power in Massachusetts. The Coercive Acts were called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists, they rejected the idea that the British could shut down trade and change colonial government at will. The Intolerable Acts included five acts:

1) Boston Port Act: it closed the port of Boston until the East India Company had been paid for the  destroyed tea. No ship could enter or leave Boston.

2)Massachusetts Government Act: this act altered the government of Massachusetts and gave even more power to Parliament. Town meetings were now been held just once every year.

3) Administration of Justice Act: it stated that any soldier who committed a crime at the colonies would go to trial in England. George Washington called this the "Murder Act" because it allowed the British to torment colonists and then escape justice. Some colonists thought this act wasn't needed because British soldiers had had fair trial before, during the Boston Massacre.

4) Quartering Act: the king sent troops to the colonies to make them obey and so colonies were forced to give them shelter.

 5) Quebec Act: this act enlarged the property of the Providence of Quebec, and land was taken away from some colonies.

In Massachusetts, the colonists reacted violently. Everyone who worked for the government, talked in their favor or accepted their laws were assaulted. Tarring and Feathering was a common punishment used by the colonists. It consisted in pouring hot tar over the person and then throwing feathers at him. This methosdwas both painful and humiliating.

Boston Tea Party

Well just in case you were wondering, the Boston Tea Party wasn't really a tea party held in Boston. In reality it was a form of protest that the Bostonians did because tea was taxed.
Let us explain to you the whole story of this historic event.
The British East India Company was having dome financial issues, so in order to help them , Parliament passed a law letting the company sell the tea directly to the colonies making the tea cheaper.  The price of the tea wasn't really the problem for the colonists. The real problem was that the colonists wanted to someone representing them in Parliament. Though Parliament didn't quite get the picture, instead they just thought that the colonists were stubborn.
The Bostonians got mad by this new law, so they took matters into their own hands. At 9:00 p.m.  of December 16, 1773, a group of Bostonians disguised as Native Americans boarded the British merchant ship Dartmouth. These people had a main goal:  destroy the ships' cargo of British East India Company tea. The disguised Bostonians destroyed 342 barrels of tea estimated to be worth between £10,000. Back then that was a lot of money. These people just wanted to make their point, which they did in the end.

The Townshend Acts

Charles Townshend

We previously wrote about how the colonists were angered by the Townshend Acts, but what were the Townshend Acts? As we know, colonists didn't like the idea of having to pay taxes. Charles Townshend came up with the idea of taxing colonists indirectly, such as taxes on imports. Parliament needed to raise money fast to get out of England's debt and so they agreed. They levied taxes on them for everyday products, such as paint, glass, tea, lead and paper. These products were not produced in America and the colonists weren't allowed to buy goods from any country that wasn't Great Britain. This is how colonists started smuggling all this products that had taxes on them. The British had to find a way of  making the tea exported from England cheaper than the smuggled Dutch tea, and they achieved that by passing the Indemnity Act. This act dissolved the taxes imposed on the tea imported to England, and that way it could be exported more cheaply to the colonies. At first, the money raised this way would be used to mantain the troops in the colonies, but Parliament had a better idea. They would use this raised money to pay the salaries of judges and colonial governors. We have to remember that these salaries were once paid off by the colonial assemblies, so the fact that Parliament was now responsible for paying them meant that the colonists had no power over  the judges and colonial governors anymore.

The Boston Massacre

March 5th, 1770: a day that live in history forever. The colonists in America would not accept Parliament levying  more and more taxes on them. They had not accepted the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act, so Charles Townshend thought it would be wise to charge custom duties on every-day products. From that moment on, glass, tea, paper and paint were being taxed. Colonists refused to do so, and they started smuggling.  Colonists were also forced to make housing available for the British troops, who sometimes just moved into their homes evethough there were encampments for them. On top of that, colonists where angered because the British were taking all the good jobs at the colonies. So, on March 5th  a British soldier, who was looking for a job, stopped at a public house in Boston. There was a group of colonists there, who got angered by the presence of the British and so they followed the soldier to the street. They started throwing ice, stones and snowballs. A British Captain came to the rescue with aproximately 8 more soldiers. The Captain ordered to hold their fire, but one soldier felt so threatened that he fired his gun. More shots were fired later, and five unarmed colonists were killed. This was later called the Boston Massacre. After going to trail, the charges were dismissed against all the soldiers, except two of them.

Stamp Act

What is the Stamp Act? Well, this is one of the many acts or bills that the English Parliament passed to raise money from the taxes that the colonists would pay.It was passed by the British Parliament on March 1765. The Stamp Act has intended to raise money, due to all the spenses from the French and Indian War, on about every printed piece of paper they used that Parliament would tax. Such as legal documents, newspapers, land deeds, even playing cards.  These items had a stamp on the them and each cost would differ. In the past, taxes in the colonies had been to regulate commerce, not to raise money, so this bothered many colonists. Not so long after did these opposing colonists protest against these taxes leading to the American Revolution.

The War that Lasted 7 Years

This war is also known as the French and Indian War.  Though what most don't know that this war wasn't the French fighting the Native Americans. In reality it was a conflict between France and England. The French and Indian War lasted from 1754 to 1763. It was the last war fought between Europeans in North America before the American Revolution. This war marked the end of the French Empire in North America and the beginning of English domination. The outcome of the feud was Britain took over all the French territory with the Treay of Paris in 1763. Britain took control of French lands in Canada, east of the Mississippi Rivers and Spain was given New Orleans.  So now when someone mentions this war between France and England, you're not going to be asking yourself, "What about the Indians?"