AHIS 100

The American Revolution

Dr. Kane

mkane2@albany.edu

Office Hrs: W 10:30-11:30 & F 11:30-12:30

Social Science 60S


maevekane.net/ahis100/lecture-slides

October 7

outline for today's class

  • lead up - 1760-1775
  • colonial fears and divisions
  • British and American tactics
  • multiple fronts 1778-1781
  • a questionable peace

tensions rising to 1775

  • Americans still think of themselves as British citizens
  • Acts of Parliament 1760-1774 restrict American powers under Crown-in-Parliament
  • Currency Act strangles American economy
  • Olive Branch Petition and Act for Suppressing Rebellion - Fall 1775
  • All protest and armed resistance declared treason

why would Loyalists remain loyal?

(more than one right answer)

      A. they owed money to British merchants and feared their debts being called in
      B. Britain is the most powerful nation on earth - why leave?
      C. Loyalists were mostly elites and feared the violent protest tactics of lower-class mobs
      D. they believed their rights as British citizens could be protested by peaceful means

the Loyalist perspective

    • Britain is the most powerful nation on earth!
    • mercantilism of 1760s and 1770s has broken economic ties outside of Britain
    • rights as British citizens
    • secession and civil war is unthinkable - more than a century since English Civil War
    • protest is treason!

colonial divisions

  • 30% Patriot - 30% Loyalist - 40% neutral
  • the American Revolution as civil war?
  • Indian support for British
  • enslaved African support for British - slavery is illegal in Britain
  • "the Massachusetts problem"

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation - November 1775

  • Royal Gov of Virginia
  • declares martial law (rights of British citizens!)
  • promises freedom for enslaved people who fight for British
  • draws 100,000 enslaved people
  • Dunmore retreats to England in 1776 and abandons all but 300
  • pushes southern colonies to rebellion

Importance of New York

  • American surrender June 1776
  • Loyalist stronghold - things turned out pretty ok in the 7 Yrs War
  • cut off radical New England
  • heart of all American banking and trade
  • path to British Canada

All men are created equal?

"There will be no end of it. New claims will arise. Women will demand a vote. Lads from twelve to twenty one will think their rights not enough attended to, and every man, who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks, to one common level" -- John Adams

Importance of running away

  • George Washington most experienced non-Loyalist military commander - oh no!
  • Lessons of the Seven Years' War
  • Valley Forge and Crossing of the Delaware in memory
  • Battles of Saratoga - Sept and Oct 1777

why does France enter the war in 1778?

      A. the French want revenge for their losses in the Seven Years' War
      B. the French hope to gain financially from assisting the Americans
      C. the French want to support a new democracy against the tyranny of British monarchy
      D. the French want to protect the rights of French Catholics in British-held Quebec

the American revolution in Indian country

  • Indian alliance with British
  • Proclamation Line of 1763
  • Sullivan Campaign 1779
  • military importance of Iroquois
  • first American interaction with another nation

the Southern Campaign - 1778-1781

  • wars of occupation are very difficult to win
  • British occupation of cities with no surrounding control or supply
  • increasing reliance on Loyalist militia
  • Siege of Yorktown - French naval blockade

Treaty of Paris 1783 - a questionable peace

  • American abandonment of French allies
  • British abandonment of Indian allies
  • American (non)payment of pre-war debts
  • British right to trade in US
  • American money and credit worthless by 1780