britian prepares Flashcards
What did Thomas Gage do?
- he was sent by King to take away weapons of mass militia & arrest their leaders
- figured guns and ammunition were being stored at Concord (a town 20 miles NW of Boston)
- ordered 700 redcoats to march to concord, seize & destroy all ammo
How did Britain prepare?
- sends more troops
- King George III decided to fight
- colonies - rebellion
What did Paul Revere do?
- alerted by Dr. Warren
- In Sons of Liberty
- rode to Lexington to warn Sam Adams & John Hancock
- Went w/ William Dawes
- Silversmith / Dentist
Lexington & Concord
-British arrived at Lexington
-70 minutemen waiting
-Led by Capt John Parker
-shot fired-battle began
-8 minutemen killed & British resumed their march
-ammo had been emptied by the time Brits go there
-word spread
farmers, blacksmths, doctors and clerks took up arms & hid
-as Brits marched back, militia fired & when Brits arrived - last 73 men & 174 wounded
How many districts and colonies were in rebellion against the King?
13 colonies
13 districts
all against the King and capitol
Who was Benedict Arnold & What did he do?
- Capt Benedict joined w/Ethan Allen’s Green Mt. Boys & captured Ft. Ticonderoga
- Ft. had tons of military supplies
- Major victory
- Sold military info to Britain
- Almost gave up west point - discovered
- fled to NYC & started commanding British troops
What does Cry for Help mean?
- volunteens showed up to help colonial militia
- many came
What is Bunker Hill
- on June 16th, 1776, 1,200 militia set up fortifications @ Bunker and breed hills across from Boston Harbor
- redcoats assembled bayonets & charged up hill
- militia was low on ammo=when militia opened fire, forced British to retreat
- on last charge - militia ran out of ammo-retreat
- british won but lost over 1,000 dead or wounded
What are Loyalists
-people who stayed loyal to Britian
What did the Patriots think?
-wanted Brits out, independence wanted
What happened then?
- neighbor against neighbor
- family against family
What does Continental Congress mean?
-many delegates who attended the first congress were sent back for the second congress
Who was Ben Franklin?
- printer & inventor
- on $100 bill
- helped repeal the stamp act
Who is John Hancock?
- wealthy merchant
- funded Sons of Liberty
- elected President of 2nd continental congress
- signed his name big so King could read it without glasses
Who was Thomas Jefferson?
- great thinker and writer
- from Virginia - Virginia legislative body
- author of DOI
- took him 17 days
What does the 2nd Continental Congress govern?
1) printed money
2) set up post office
3) committees w/authority to communicate w/Native Americans & other countries
4) created Continental Army - led by GW
5) the Olive BranchPetition
6) DOI
What is the Olive Branch Petition?
- a formal request presented to King George III
- It assured him of the colonist’ desires for peace & ased him to protect rights
- King refused & hired 30,000 Prussian troops to fight w/redcoats
What happened after the Olive Branch Petition?
The Army takes offense
- Britain’s soldiers stationed in Canada
- our troops took Ft. Ticonderoga
- from June 1775-March 1776 Washington trained up militia into soldiers
- GW positioned his troops in a semi-circle around Boston & unleashed canon fire n Britain nearby
- Brits retreated & victory for colonists
What does Towards Independence mean?
- Jan of 1776 Thomas Paine published a pamphlet called Common Sense
- Greatly influenced mindset of Americans
Drafting of the DOI
- Jefferson selected to write it
- Drew on the Ideas of John Lcke
- Locke believed that people were born w/certain natural rights, like life, liberty & prosperty
- believed that people should form gov. to protect rights
- believed if a government threatened those rights they should be overthrown
The Vote
-on July 2, 1776 Independence
-DOI signed on July 4 1776
-copies went out across country
Tally: Yes: 12
The Declaration
-Preable-explains why congress wrote doc
Preamble Intro
- ***Natural rights-lists all rights of the citizens and all people
- ***List of grievences-lists complaints of colonists against England
- ***Resolution-declares freedom w/full power to declare war, make alliances and trade with other colonies
