Chapter 5

1. Spectrum of feelings re: independence and purpose of war
- Complete independence vs. Modest reforms for reconciliation; delegates agree
on middle ground.
- Early reform sentiments become independence because of war cost, England’s
recruitment of NA, and English rejection of the Olive Branch Petition.

2. Olive Branch Petition
-Last conciliatory appeal to King passed by delegates at the 2nd continental
congress.
- British enact “Prohibitory Act” instead; Closes American ports to trade.

3. Common Sense
-Authored by revolutionary propagandist Thomas Paine; first written support of
Independence from Great Britain.
- Changes American outlook towards war; Common sense to break with Great Britain
and its constitution.
- Increases support for Independence of colonists.

4. Declaration of Independence
- Formal Justification of break with England; July 2-July 4, 1776.
- Written at 2nd Continental Congress by Jefferson.
- Little in document is new; expresses ideas of colonies expressed by other
states and organizations.
- 2 parts: 1st – Contract Theory of John Locke, government is to protect life,
liberty, and property’ 2nd – Enumeration of Crimes of King.
- Inspired foreign movements and support (French)
- Encourages Patriots to reject peace.

5. Continental Army/Commander in Chief
- Difficult for US government to raise an army and supply forces; no access to
British markets.
- Finance war difficulties: Congress can not levy taxes, must raise from states
who have little to give.
- Government must print money, as well did state governments; Inflation;
government borrows from foreign nations.
- Few volunteers from army; states appeal with bounties or draft into army.
- Congress creates Continental Army 1775 with one chief – George Washington –
instead of separate stated controlled forces.
- Washington is admired and respected by all patriots and dealt well with
difficulties of army: morale, a strong willed Continental Congress.
-Washington is a symbol of stability in an unstable nation that leads a small
army to success.

6. Role of Native Americans
-Iroquois are declared neutral in Revolution, but sympathize with British hoping
to stop movement of whites onto tribal lands.
-Joseph and Mary Brant: Mohawk leaders who convince their tribes to support the
British.
- Iroquois alliance with Great Britain shows division in tribe; 3 of 6 tribes
support British.
- Patriots strike against NA with strength in response to NA alliance with
Britain.

7. Saratoga
- Turning point of the American Revolution for colonists, defeat British.
- Leads to an American alliance with France; France recognizes the US as a
sovereign nation.

8. Yorktown/Cornwallis/Treaty of Paris 1783
- Washington, Rochambeau, and de Grasse defeat British lead by General
Cornwallis by land and sea at Yorktown, October 17, 1781.
- Cornwallis’ defeat at Yorktown lead to outrage in England toward the war; Lord
Shelburne succeeds Lord North as Prime Minister.
- American alliance with France restricts a treaty with Britain – France will
not agree until its ally Spain wins back Gibraltar – and so Americans break
alliance with France and make peace with Britain in 1782.
- Treaty of Paris: British and American final peace settlement with French and
Spanish agreement to peace.
*Favorable terms to the United States: Britain recognizes the
United States as independent and cedes land from Canada to Florida, and the
Atlantic to the Mississippi.
- British occupational forces leave New York, 1783.

9. War’s impact on loyalists, women, NA
- During Revolution 1/3 to 1/5 of American were loyal to Britain: officers of
imperial government, those who fear an independent American, and others who
expected Britain to win.
- Loyalists were hounded by Patriots during the war and harasses by judicial and
legislative actions; many move to England or Canada – est. Quebec – some return
after Revolution.
- Anglican suffer during Revolution because they are identified with Britain,
and loose funding from both the states and Britain; weakened greatly by the end
of the war.
- Quakers suffer politically and socially for pacifist beliefs during
Revolution, are weakened.
- Revolution improves position of Roman Catholic Church who support Patriots,
and who are no longer persecuted; even gain a bishop to the Vatican after the
war.
- African American greatly affected by the Revolution: Many are set free in the
South by British troops, and a majority are introduced to ideas of liberty which
they apply to themselves.
- Americans and British attempt to keep NA out of the Revolution, and most
tribes remain neutral.
- Some NA support British and attack Americans in the West along the frontier;
destroy crops.
- Revolution weakens NA: Greater demand for Western land and expectation of
American to expand, hatred of NA who allied with the British, and paternalistic
view by Americans develop.
- End of Revolution does not end white-NA conflicts; NA continue attacks on
frontier, and white strike back to end NA restriction of white expansion West.
- Revolution greatly affects women: Women are in charge of farms and businesses
while men are away at war, some women have nothing to fall back on and become
poor; lead riots.
- Some women went of to army camps to be with their husbands and serve as
auxiliary, supply, cooks, and cleaners; improve morale.
- Some women served in the army.
- Revolution does little to change roles of women in peace time; but assumptions
of women are called into question by issues of, “Rights of Man.”
- Some women advocate women’s rights, Judith Sergeant Murray – women should have
same opportunities to education as men.
- Revolution has little effect on roles of women in society.
- Unmarried women have some rights, married women have no rights; husbands are
autocrats of the family.
- Revolution even leads to some setbacks for women – widows.
- Revolution strengthens patriarchic structure of the family; women accept
positions subordinate to men, but women do challenge their status in the family
and in society.
- Reevaluation of American life after the Revolution placed more value on women
as mothers; mothers were to teach children Republican virtues of the new United
States; women receive increased respect.

10. Republicanism
- All power directly from people; nature of citizenry decides success of
government, ideally virtuous independent property owners.
- Ideal of “small freeholder” central to American politics.
- Republicans believe in equality of opportunity, talents determine role in
society.

11. New State Governments (written, look at handling of executive and
legislature)
- States target to avoid problems of the British system in constitutions.
- Constitutions would be written down to avoid corruption.
- Executive would have limited power of appointment, and veto, and no
involvement in state legislatures; judiciary is also protected from executive
interference.
- Constitutions expand power of the legislature and move toward direct popular
rule.
- Factiousness and instability of new state governments in 1770s – legislatures
end executive can accomplish little – leads to reforms, lead by Massachusetts;
too much democracy.
- Writing of state constitutions changes from state legislatures to
Constitutional conventions to prevent easy change by the legislatures of the
constitutions.
- New constitutions strengthen the executive with appointment and veto power.

12. Place of Religion in new states
- New states move in direction of complete religious freedom; most American
believe religion should play some role in government, but do not want to favor
one denomination.
* States take away privileges and funding they once gave to
churches; Virginia passes a Statute of Religious Freedom that separates church
and state.

13. Place of Slavery in new states
- Slavery is abolished in states where slavery was weak – New England, and
Pennsylvania.
- Slavery is amended in the South; all but 2 states prohibit importation of
slavery
- Slavery survived in all Southern and Border states because of great economic
investment of white Southerners, racist assumptions of African American
inferiority, and an inability to envision an alternative; “wolf by the ears.”
*Whites do not feel African Americans can be integrated into
American society as equals.
- Another reason slavery is not eliminated is because most Southerners believe
their economy is dependent on a large servile labor force, black or white, and
is slavery is abolished, a new class of unpropertied free people would have to
take their place, a contrast to the ideal of republicanism of a population of
independent property owners; a threat to democracy to abolish slavery.

14. Articles of Confederation
- Adopted by the second Continental Congress in 1777 as a plan of union.
- Political structure of the AOC is similar to existing one at the time;
Congress is central authority of national authority, with expanded powers to
declare war, conduct foreign policy, and borrow or issue money; can levy taxes
directly on the people or raise troops – taxes and troops must come from the
states.
- No executive
- Each state has one vote in congress – 9 needed to pass a measure, all 13 to
amend the AOC.
- Disagreements over the AOC: Small states want equal representation, large
states, based on population; States with Western land wanted to keep them, but
states without wanted lands to be given to the Confederation.
- AOC go into effect in 1781
- AOC lacks powers to deal with interstate issues or enforce policy on the
states, and is unable to negotiate effectively with other nations.

15. Land Ordinances
- Land Ordinance of 1785
*Acreage of the Old Northwest (modern-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan)
should
be sold; proceeds to pay national debt.
*Region split into townships six miles square, split into 36
sections of 1 sq. mi.
-- 16th section set aside to be sold ffor the benefit of public
schools.
- Northwest Ordinance of 1787 <
a. Old Northwest regions would first begin as a territory,
subordinate to the fed. gov't.
b. Territories would become a state when it had 60,000 inhabitants;
equal status w/ other
states.
i. Significance: By not subordinating states,
it ensured peace between east
west.
ii. Bill was farsighted: principles were carried over to other
frontier areas.
c. Forbade slavery in Old Northwest—north of the Ohio River.
i. Major advantage gained by the North; future states would not
be slave and
thus ally themselves with the South.
ii. Southerners could cross state lines and reclaim fugitive slaves.

16. Battle of Fallen Timbers/Treaty of Greenville
- Violence between whites and NA reached it height in the Northwest territory in
the 1790s.
- NA refuse agreement with whites to cede lands (limit white settlement), Miami
tribe – lead by Little Turtle – refuse any agreement.
- Battle of American forces and Miami NA, where American forces defeated the NA.
- Miami sign the Treaty of Greenville ceding new lands to the US, in exchange
for formal acknowledgement of their claim to the land they retained; first
recognition by the US government of Indian sovereignty.
*US government recognizes NA lands can only be cede by the
tribes themselves.
- Conflicts in Northwest Territory suggest tenuousness of American control of
Western territories.

17. Shay’s Rebellion
- W. Mass., impoverished backcountry farmers losing farms through mortgage
foreclosures and tax delinquencies; many were ex-Revolutionary war veterans.
- Led by Captain Daniel Shays, debtorss demanded cheap paper money, lighter
taxes, and suspension of mortgage foreclosures.
- In 1786, Shays organized farmers to march on several cities: closed
courthouses and prevented the courts from seizing any more farms or throwing
debtors into prison.
- Next, marched to Springfield where state's Supreme Court was in session and
where the arsenal was kept.
*Jan. 1787, Shays and 1,200 farmers marched on the arsenal.
i. Military opened fire; Shays was arrested but
later pardoned.
- Significance:
>
*Propertied class feared that the Revolution had created a "mobocracy."
*Many prominent citizens cried out for a stronger central gov't.

*Rebellion was latest in series of west vs. west rebellions in
American history
i Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) in Virginia,
Leisler’s Rebellion (1691) in New York,
Paxton Boys (1764) in Pennsylvania, Regulator Movement (1771) in North Carolina.