In 1777, the British were still in excellent position to quell the rebellion. Had it not been for a variety of mistakes, they probably could have won the war. During early 1777, British officials considered a number of plans for their upcoming campaign. One they apparently decided upon was to campaign through the Hudson River Valley and thereby cut off New England from the rest of the colonies.
General William Howe was to drive north from New York City while General John Burgoyne was to drive south from Canada. Meanwhile, British General Barry St. Leger would drive down the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York. The major problem was not with the plan but with its execution. Historians continue to debate whether Howe was ill-informed or simply acted on his own. Whatever the reasons, Howe decided to capture Philadelphia, the seat of the Continental Congress, rather than to work in concert
with Burgoyne and St. Leger. Howe hoped that by seizing Philadelphia, he would rally the Loyalists in Pennsylvania, discourage the rebels by capturing their capital, and bring the war to a speedy conclusion. Washington tried to thwart Howe's plan, but Howe out-maneuvered him at Brandywine Creek and then at Germantown. While Howe's forces settled into winter quarters in Philadelphia, the Continental Army went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. There, the army faced deprivation in the
extreme. Meanwhile to the north, Burgoyne and St. Leger suffered significant defeats at Oriskany, New York; Bennington, Vermont; and finally at Saratoga, New York. These American victories were critical for they helped convince France to recognize American independence and brought the French directly into the war as military allies. The French Treaty was also a result of a new British peace proposal, announced by Lord North in late 1777. The French were concerned that the Americans would
agree to North's proposal since it offered them virtual autonomy within the British Empire. The French Alliance changed the face of the war for the British; the American war for independence was now in essence a world war. Even so, as many of the documents listed to the right suggest, winning the war even after the French Treaty was still not a certainty. For additional documents related to these topics, search Loc.gov using such
key words as Howe, Burgoyne, Gates, Saratoga, Philadelphia, Brandywine, Germantown, Valley Forge, France, and Vergennes (the French Foreign Minister). Search Washington's Papers and the Journals of the Continental Congress by date (of specific battles, for example), and use the terms found in the documents to the right of the page. Part of
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Written by: Rebecca Brannon, James Madison UniversityBy the end of this section, you will:
Suggested SequencingUse this Decision Point with the Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776 Primary Source to allow students to analyze the divide of colonists over loyalty to the crown. The American Revolution was many things—a tax revolt, an international debate over good government and consent, and a revolution in pursuit of sovereignty. But at its heart, it was also a civil war between colonial Americans. The colonists increasingly had to take sides in this civil war. While some found it easy, others struggled to choose. John Adams famously said Americans divided into three equal groups: the staunch Patriots, the Loyalists, and those remaining neutral. Yet a better estimate would put Loyalists at about 20 percent of the population. These were the colonists who were ultimately willing to fight for the Loyalist cause, or at least to publicly express their loyalism even when it was not popular. Perhaps another 30 percent to 40 percent of the population were Patriots who visibly supported the Revolution in some way. Others were determined to remain neutral, even as that became harder in the midst of a civil war. The choice was complex. No clear deciding factor predicted who would become a Patriot, a Loyalist, or neither, and generations of historians have tried to find a common pattern without success. Groups such as Scotch-Irish immigrants in the newly settled backcountry regions leaned Loyalist at times because they opposed the eastern elites who ran the colonies. When sizable numbers of those elites became Patriots and led the government, some Protestant religious minorities and recently settled farmers decided that they trusted a far-off king more than the local elites, who were more likely to enact policies for the benefit of easterners than those who lived in the west. Neutrals had differing motivations. Religious beliefs certainly influenced many. Quakers, Mennonites, and other pacifists (people opposed to all war) were neutrals and had their patriotism questioned as a result. Although many ordinary Anglicans (members of the Church of England, the official state church in several colonies) became Patriots despite their religious beliefs, the vast majority of Anglican clergymen were Loyalists. Many Anglicans wanted to remain loyal to the monarch as the head of state and head of the Church of England. This association of Anglicanism with Loyalism tarred the church for many years after the Revolution. Some Protestant minorities, especially Presbyterians, were slightly more likely to choose Loyalism than others. Some neutrals did not much care who governed them so long as the government largely left them alone; others simply did not want to be on the losing side. It was a great risk to stake out a position, and the truth is most humans usually try to take the safe course. In places where the war stayed a distant concern, people found it easier to be neutral, or barring that, lukewarm in their support of either side. But where troops arrived on the doorstep, pressure grew rapidly to take a side and vigorously support it. In the port city of Boston, Patriots were motivated by political ideology, but also by economic concerns. In occupied New York City, artisans were under pressure to choose the Loyalist cause to keep working in the city. Farmers in the backcountry South who had tried to stay out of politics found one side or the other plundering their food and horses—and promptly chose the other side. (a) John Malcolm, a customs official loyal to the British Crown, is tarred and feathered by men in Boston in this 1774 print attributed to Philip Dawe. (b) In The Alternative of Williams-Burg, a merchant has to sign a nonimportation agreement or risk being covered with the tar and feathers suspended behind him. Can you tell whether each artist supported the Patriot or Loyalist cause? Historians have not found any connection between educational level, occupation, position in society, or economic status and the choice to be a Patriot or a Loyalist. Well-educated doctors, lawyers, and newspaper publishers all could be found on both sides. Families were split by the Revolution. Benjamin Franklin, a newspaper publisher and Enlightenment scientist, became a Patriot. He had secured a royal post for his son William Franklin as governor of New Jersey, and William chose to be a Loyalist. The two never spoke again. Enslaved Africans and African Americans usually chose to support the British cause. In 1775, the last royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation offering male slaves their freedom in return for taking up arms to defend the king’s cause. In many ways, Dunmore’s Proclamation was the product of a truly desperate royal official who used it as a last-gasp way to raise troops and cause chaos. The British actually hesitated to support Dunmore’s Proclamation because they were aware it alienated planters who might otherwise support the king’s cause. (It might also unnerve otherwise-loyal colonists in the Caribbean colonies, who did not join the independence movement but depended on slavery to generate wealth.) Yet as the War for Independence wore on, and British and Loyalist troops swept through the South from 1779 on, slaves took the gamble. More than 20 percent of the enslaved population voted with their feet and ran to British lines in South Carolina and Georgia during the war to claim their freedom. At the end of the war, these black Loyalists pressed the British to honor their promise of freedom, which they grudgingly did, providing transportation for them and many white Loyalists to the British colony of Nova Scotia in today’s Canada. Free blacks, on the other hand, lived lives similar to those of poor white colonists, and they often chose the Patriot side for similar reasons. Crispus Attucks worked as a sailor and on the docks, and he joined fellow dockworkers on March 5, 1770, to protest now-hated British policies. In the Boston Massacre that night, he became the first African American to die for the American Revolution. New England states offered male slaves freedom in return for their military service, although their owners had to agree to allow them to serve. Historians estimate that approximately five thousand African Americans served in the Continental Army during the war. For all the debate over political ideals in the lead-up to the War for Independence, much of what motivated most people may have been more practical. Many were persuaded more by their own personal concerns about their farm goods or the need to feed their families than they were by political ideas. When the Revolutionary War ended, the debate shifted to the kind of government the Americans were creating. Review Questions1. What best describes the Patriots before and during the American Revolution?
2. What best describes the Loyalists before and during the American Revolution?
3. Which of the following generalizations is true about Loyalists, Patriots, and neutrals?
4. How did the Revolutionary War affect the U.S. relationship with the Church of England?
5. Which of the following is not true about the relationship between African Americans and the Loyalist Cause?
6. If the Patriots had lost the war, what would have been a likely consequence for them?
Free Response Questions
AP Practice QuestionsRefer to the excerpt provided. 1. Which of the following would best contextualize the sentiments in the excerpt provided?
2. Which group would most likely support the argument in the excerpt provided?
3. A historian might use the sentiments from the excerpt provided to support the
Refer to the excerpt provided. 4. Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the excerpt provided?
5. Which of the following places the sentiments in the excerpt in proper historical context?
6. Which of the following post-war developments ensured a continuation of the sentiments provided?
Primary Sourceshttp://americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/war/text2/oliveraddresssoldiers.pdf http://americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/war/text2/painecrisis1776.pdf Peter Oliver. Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion. 1781. https://books.google.com/books/about/Peter_Oliver_s_Origin_Progress_of_the_Am.html?id=08IL5DO_q94C Suggested ResourcesBrannon, Rebecca. From Revolution to Reunion: The Reintegration of the South Carolina Loyalists. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2016 Brown, Wallace. The King’s Friends: The Composition and Motives of the American Loyalist Claimants. Providence: Brown University Press, 1965. Calhoon, Robert M. The Loyalists in Revolutionary America, 1760–1781. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973. Chopra, Ruma. Unnatural Rebellion: Loyalists in New York City During the Revolution (Jeffersonian America). Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011. Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Piecuch, Jim. Three Peoples One King: Loyalists, Indians, and Slaves in the Revolutionary South, 1775–1782. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2008. Which statement best describes the United States in the 1920s quizlet?Which of the following best describes the United States in the 1920s? The nation experienced a period of prosperity, but serious economic problems were on the horizon.
Which of the following best describes the impact of railroads during the Industrial Revolution?Which of the following best explains the impact of railroads during the Industrial Revolution? Railroads increased the need for coal, steel, and steam engine production.
Which of the following occurred in the late 1800s as a result of rapid industrialization?Which of the following was a result of the rapid industrialization of the US in the late 1800s? Union membership increased as workers sought better pay and conditions.
How did the nervous generation react to changes in America during the 1920s?How did the "nervous generation" react to changes in America during the 1920s? They upheld traditional values and customs. What was a cause of the Great Depression? Growing panic and pessimism among consumers led to decreased production in the automotive, construction and other key sectors of American industry.
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