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.