Important People Flashcards
Thomas Paine 1776
Wrote a book called “Common Sense” which promoted the idea that all kings of England, esp. king George were bad. He also said that the states must separate and become their own nation. His book became a bestseller and convinced many Americans that they needed to become free.
Thomas Jefferson
from Virginia. Wrote the Declaration of Independence which was adopted in July, 1776. He was an American founding father and became the third president of the United States.
Benjamin Franklin
American patriot. Called the Boston tea party an act of violent injustice
Sons of Liberty
Broke into the homes of tax collectors, beat and burned the hated tax stamps
Minute Men
They were a group of militia who are a group of citizens enrolled for military service and called out periodically for drills but serving only in emergencies. The minutemen did not receive much training but served as militias for the colonists. Called this because they were ready to fight everyday.
George Washington
- Young office from Virginia who arrived with more soldier to help the Britain military take over the Ohio river Valley. He found the area under French control. He fought the french with his troops but ultimately surrendered. The defeat was the state of the French and Indian war.
- appointed the first commander of the Continental army by the second continental congress and led the colonists to victory over the British.
- First president of the United States of America
Parliament
made laws for british people
Paul Revere
- was a silversmith
- called the Son of Liberty
- when the british were preparing for action to seize the stockpile of weapons collected by the militias in Concord, MA, Revere enlisted the aid of Robert Newman who was on the lookout for the British and would holdup a lantern to signal that they were coming across the land and two when they were crossing the Charles river
- One day, when Revere saw the lanterns, he warned everyone
- when he was put in jail, citizens were warned by another soldier
Patrick Henry
- a representative of Virginia
- Believed that the separation of the colonies from the British was necessary
Marquis de Lafayette
- wealthy Frenchman
- bought a ship and arrived in America with a group of well-trained soldiers
- Volunteered to serve in the army for free
- Became a skillful military leader
General Cornwallis
General for the British army who surrendered to George Washington on October 9, 1781 in Yorktown, Virginia.
Baron Friedrich von Steuben
Military officer from Prussia (modern day Germany) who helped train the colonial soldiers, turning them into a well-trained fighting force.
Tadeusz Kosciusko
soldier from Poland who helped train the American amry
William Bradford
Pilgrim leader (separatists) who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony with a settlement at Plymouth in 1620
Roger Williams and Thomas Hooker
Puritan Ministers who did not agree with the Puritans and left the Massachusetts bay Colony to begin their own. In 1636, Roger Williams founded the Rhode Island colony and Thomas Hooker founded the Connecticut Colony.
