Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston January 17, 1706 to Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger. Benjamin was the 10th of the seventeenth chilchren from Josiah Franklin. Benjamin's parents couldnt afford to send him to school so he only went one year. His father knew that Benjamin liked to read so he send him at the age of 12 to his older brother, James, who was a printer in there Benjamin composed pamphlets between other things. When he was 15, James started a newspaper but James didnt let Benjamin express in the Newspaper his point of view so Benjamin wrote to him by the name of a widow "Silence Dogood". This articles ecame very famous, after time Benjamin told his brother that didnt took it well. Later James wassent to jail because of his views, so Benjamin took care of the newspaper but his brother instead of thanking him he beat him up and this caused Benjamin to run away when he was 17.

After escaping he tried to find a job on a printer, but instead he got on a boat to Philadelphia and in there he got a job as an apprentice printer and met his fututer wife Deborah Read. Benjamin started his own printer business with borrowed money and he got very good contracts and did jobs for the government. On 1728 Benjamin adopted a child called William and started a newspaper called "Pensylvania Gazette". Benjamin married Deborah on 1730. he helped building the Pensylvania Hospital.

Benjamin Franlin had a deep interest in science. So in 1750 he started experimenting and creating things. He invented the Franklin Stole, the harmonica, the spectacles, oval shaped swimming fins, ad dicovered electricity. He was intersted too on politics and served as a representative of Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. He was selected on the second continental congress and was also selected on the commitee that was drafting the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin was sent to France as an embassador and played a great role on the Treaty of Paris. Before his death he wrote an Anti-Slavery Tratise. He died  April 17,1790 and he was 84.

Women and Slaves in the American Revolution

 





Through history women and slaves have somthing in similar,both had no rights,but this had an end,for  women it all started this way Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams,she was in the right of saying that all women in the country needed rights.Womens roles became more valued for their aid in the revolution war and they got this name called "Republican Motherhood"or mothers for the new nation.They began with this ideas of the Revolution stimutlated hopes and expectations for equality and freedom.In some cases they gained the right of voting,however the voting  was limited gain of status.The right of suffrage was achieve gradually,during the nineteeth century and early tweenth century,this was culminate in 1920.Lots of years passed but they got what they wanted those rights that all human being has.

In the other hand slaves,although the slave trade itself was banned and in the northern states slavery was abolished ,this doesnt completely remove slavery and make them consider a "real person".Slavery was difficult to get removed,actually this disagreement brought United States go under a bloody Civil War.The South wanted slavery,the North disagree with that,so they both separated,was a bloody and horrible Civil War South vs North,Brothers and Sisters against themselves.When the South won United States unify again,and slavery was abolish,but this didnt mean that rascism was going to flourish.

Abigail Adams

Abigail was born a November 11 of 1744 in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Her parents were William Smith and Elizabeth Quincy. Abigail had 1 brother and 3 sisters. She didnt recieved a formal education but she studied the Bible, history, philosophy, essays, and poetry. Her mother and grandmother taught her social grace, homeworking, and handwork skills.Abigail got married at the age of 19 on October 25, 1764 to John Adams. They had 3 children, two girls and one boy. The Adam's fist lived on a farm in Braintree and later on they moved to Boston. 


During war time Abigail had to fend for her own with her husband as a delaget of the continental army. She had to runa farm on her own, raise her children, and had to ran her household. Later on as she became the wife of the vice president and then the first lady she became the confident and political advisor of John Adams. Abigail expressed her ideas to her husband and always supported him. She fended for the women rights by telling her husband to 'dont forget the ladys' when writting the constitution but this wasnt approved. Abigail died on October 28, 1818, and is buried in the United First Parish Church of Quincy beside John Adams. She was not only the first lady but the mother of one president too (John Quincy Adams, 6^th President). Abigail opposed to slavery, and thought education should be equal for boys and girls.

The Treaty Of Paris

The Revolutionary War ended when General Cornwallis surrender....although small battles still happening between the Americans and the British,for two more years.In February of 1863 King George III issued this Proclamation of Cessasion of Hostilities,this was lead to the Treaty of Paris of 1863.This Treaty was signed in Paris on September 3 1783,well this Treaty was the one that formally ended the war,and make offcially the Americans Independent.Was those this means,the revlutionary war finally ended after 8 years of war,guns,killings etc.


Who were the Representants of United States?
The representants were John Adams,Benjamin Franklind and John Jay,all whom signed the Treaty that help this war end,and making them independent. In addition,giving formal recognition to the United States of America.
The nine articles in the Treaty stated:
Established U.S. boundaries
Specified certain fishing rights
Restored the rights and property of Loyalists
Allowed creditors of each country to be paid by citizens of the other
Opened up the Mississippi River to citizens of both nations
Provide for evacuation of all British forces,make the soldiers of Britain leave the United States and go back home.

U.S Flag History

 Betsy Ross used to tell her family that one day George Washington, Robert Morris, and, George Ross asked her to sew the first flag this occurred at her house on the late May of 1776. At that moment Washington was the head of the Continental Army. In June of 1776 George Washington showed her a rough design of the flag at the time Betsy was a widow and had to stand for herself in her business (she made flags). Before all these happened the Colonies and the Militia had many flags. One was the "Rattlesnake Flag" it had a rattlesnake in the center and 13 stripes (white and red) and it said "Don’t treat on me" this flag was used by the continental army, another flag used b the Continental Army was a green tree and had a white background and it said "An appeal to heaven". Other flag was the one used by the Loyalists which had the 13 red and white stripes and had at the left upper side the British flag. 

They realized they needed an official flag this story tells that Betsy Ross the flag in late May or early June of 1776. On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress, seeking to promote national pride and unity, adopted the national flag. "They said: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

                                  

Deborah Sampson

Deborah Samson Gannet,better known as Deborah Sampson,she was an American  women who impersonated a man in order to serve the Continental Army.During the Revolution she was the only woman to fight int  the revolutionary war.

She served 17 months in the army,with the name of Robert Shurttiff of Uxbridge,Massachusetts,was wounded on war and discharged honorably at West point.

When she turned 18 and was released indenture serfdom with the Thomas Family,she became a school teacher rejecting the suggestion of getting marry.Eventhough later on she did  get married.

Betsy Ross

Betsy Ross was born the fist of January in1752 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By the name of Elizabeth Grinscom. She was the great-granddaughter of a British carpenter called Andrew Grinscom. She attended a Quaker school and in there she learned needlework. She married John Ross, an Anglican, in 1773. Betsy Ross joined the "Free Quakers" or " Fighting Quakers" because the were not as pacifist as the typical Quaker steryotype. Later on John and Betsy Ross opened a business based on her skill on needlework. 

John her first husband was killed in January 1776 in a militia duty  on Philadelphia, Betsy continued the business by herself. She reamarried on 1777 with Joseph Ausburn who was a sailor, he died in prison after being in a ship that was captured by the British. Betsy got married once more this time with John Claypoole, who was in prison with Joseph, he died in 1817.She had 7 children. Betsy lived until 1836, dying on January 30. She is who supposedly was the first one who made the first U.S.A flag (the one with the 13 stars and 13 stripes) but there is some doubt about this fact. Anyways she is a great example of a strong woman, she went through man things such as widowhood, single motherhood and, managing a business by herself.

Battles Of Saratoga

 The Battle of Saratoga I ,in late September of the year 1777,when the General  Burgoyne and his men reached Albany in September,the city was protected by 7,00 patriots under the orders of Horatio Gates.The Patriots had used the land  in their advantage,they decided to wait and let the British do their first move.Finally in September 19 1777,general Burgoyne and his troops attacked the Patriots at Freeman's Farm.The patriots have the help of the troops of Benedict Arnold,but they couldn't hold the British.

 Patriots had 320 men killed or wounded,the retired themselves to Bemis Heights.There were 600 British killed or wounded,survivors moved two miles north of Freeman's Farm where they set up their camp headquarters. British continue with the assaulting to the Patriots.

Second Battle:

Was on October 7 1777,the British attacked the Patriosts at Bemis Heights.The Patriots were ready for that time to fight with the British.The Patriot defense was General Gates', General Arnold's, and General Daniel Morgan's troops.General Burgoyne had no choice of retired from Saratoga,the British had suffered 600 losses compared to the Patriot loss of only 150 men. On October 17, 1777, General Burgoyne with less than 5,000 men surrendered to a Patriot Army of 20,000 men.

The Battles of Saratoga were important,this helped the french ally with the Americans and the goal of the British to take control of America had died.

Second Continental Congress

The Second Continental Congress was held out on Philadelphia the 10 of March f 1776. John Hancock from Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania asssist to this reunion as delagates. They did the second Continental Congress after the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The congress included 65 delagates in total. They decided very important things during this meeting. Some of these things were:

• Separating from Britain 
• On May 15,1776 to put the Colonies in state defense 
• To organize the militia from the colonies better
• They decided to form an army called "The American Continental Army"
• On June 14,1776 to appoint George Washington as the commander- in-chief of the army (He was selected unanimously)
• They discussed the possibility of printing paper money later on it was approved and been done later durig the year.

The Second Continental Congress was one of the most important meetings on the U.S History.

Paul Revere

Paul Revere was born inBoston January the first of 1735, he was son of a silversmith. Revere learned to do many things like copper plates, tools, and sometimes fake teeth he worked as a silversmith also and was a soldier for a short time during the French and Indian war. He had two marriages. First he married Sarah Orne with whom he had eight children after her death he married  Rachel Walkerin 1773, and together they had another eight children.

Paul became a strong defender of the Revolution during the 1770's actually he was a member of the 'Sons of Liberty'. He participated with other 50 Patriots on the Boston Tea Party. Paul Revere became a messenger so that he could help on the Am. Revolution and he rode to Concord, Massachusetts on April 16, 1775 to tell them to move their arms, two days after he rode to Lexington to alert the people that the British troops would soon arive there. Thanks to Paul Revere the Patriots were ready. During the war Paul made supplies that could help the fighting. He died on May 10,1818 on the city of Boston,Massachusetts.

Thomas Gage

Thomas Gage was born in Sussex, England 1721. He was the second son of the Viscount Gage. He joined the british army. In 1754 he was sent to America. Late in 1758 he married a daughter of Peter Kemble. In 1760 Thomas Gage became the military governor of Montereal and the surrounding area. In 1763 he became the command in chief of the British army in America. Gage would be in America until the harsh time would be over and parliament would keep imposing taxes during this time to the American colonies. 

Thomas Gage established troops at Boston. After the Boston Massacre he returned to England.In 1774 he became governor Massachusttes. He sent British troops to seize patriot supplies in the battles of Lexington and Concord the 19 April 1775, motivating even more the Am. Revolution. Following the Battle of Bunker Hill the 17 June 1775, he was recalled to England and blamed for allowing the American colonies to rebel. He became general in 1782. He died in England, April 2, 1787.

The American Revolution: Trailer # 1

The Battles of Lexington and Concord

      

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military actions of the Revolutionary War.   The Battles of Lexington and Concord had major effects on not only the 13 colonies, but the whole world.General Pitcairn was sent to Massachusetts with 700 British soldiers to destroy some military supplies at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock.Paul Revere's was supposed to warn the patriots in Lexington,but he couldn't  get there,he was capture before he could get to Concord,but two others riders Samuel Prescott and William Dawes,make it and they warn  the others.

Meanwhile at Lexington, an army of minutemen, that were lead by Captain John Parker, marched to the battlefield.The battle had not even begun until a single shot was fired,by an uknown person.With this shot is how the Revolution started,this shot was called "The Shot Heard Around the World".The British went to Concord and destory the miliatry supplies,although Hancock and Adams escaped.Now the British were short on men, and more minutemen had gathered behind Punkatasset Hill,Colonel Barret was comanding them.The redcoats were under constant attack on their way back to Boston.for example: Men and Women at Lexington were hidden in their houses and fired them from the windows and doorways,or patriosts hidden in the swaps fired to the brtish as they passed by.
When British reached Boston they have lost seventy three(died) twenty two were capture and one hundred ninety one were injured.The British finally found hope when a relief force of 1000 men arrived,under the orders of Lord Percy.

The Patriots, lost fewer soldiers,only forty-nine died four men were captured, and thirty-nine were injured.Eventhough the British destroy the supplies in Concord this was a big loss for them considering the number of deaths.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord may be seen like insignificant battles, but they had a great impact,the Revolutionary War had finally begun. This battles also affected to the whole word,because other groups were influenced with this battles,looking for freedom too.

The First Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress was in 1774. They met in Philadelphia to protest against the Intolerable Acts. Representatives from all the colonies came except Georgia. The leaders included Samuel Adams and John Adams of Massachusetts and George Washington and Patrick Henry of Virginia.

The Congress voted to cut the trade with Britain unless the Parliament abolished the Intolerable Acts. The first continental congress approved resolutions telling the colonies to begin training the citizens for war.  They also wanted define America's rights, limit the Parliament's power, and agree on tactics to resist the acts of the government. By the time the first meeting of the Continental Congress ended, the colonies and Britain were no longer friends. 

The Boston Massacre and Trial

The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British soldiers on March 5, 1770.The 5 victims were:

-Samuel Gray

-Crispus Attucks

-Patrick Carr

-James Caldwell and

-Samuel Maverick

The trials....
In late autumn of the same year of the Boston Massacre, 1770 when public excitement had decrease , Captain Preston and his soldiers were sentenced for murder before a court in Boston.Josiah Quincy, Jr., and John Adams were counsel for the prisoners. They were known as ardent patriots, their acceptance of the task of defending these prisoners offended many of their compatriots.

Robert Treat Paine(a signer of the Declaration of Independence) was the counsel for the crown. Preston and six of the soldiers were absolve by a Boston jury.The other two the soldier who killed Attucks, and another who shot Maverick were convicted of man-slaughter only, and for that they were each branded in the hand with a hot iron, in open court, and discharged.The trial was victory for the colonists.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

Definition: Secret organization of American colonists formed initially to protest the Stamp Act. The idea found success in many colonies, after the initial organizations in Boston and New York. After the Stamp Act was repealed a year after it was passed, the Sons of Liberty disbanded. But the patriotic spirit and the name remained. Groups of men, such as the ones who dumped the tea into Boston Harbor, were called sons of liberty.

Who were the Sons and Daughters of liberty?

The group was called the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. They were part of a secret society in pre-revolutionary America. The Sons of liberty were made of many who would later sign the declaration of idependence.

The group was active in anti-British activity, including forming public meetings, destroying British goods etc.

They were the ones that form part of this group:

Charles Thomson, Haym Solomon, Thomas Young, Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, Benjamin Edes, Alexander McDougal, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, Isaac Sears, John Lamb, James Otis, Marius Willet, John Adams, Sam Adams and Silas Downer.

The Americans saw them as patriots while the British considered them terrorists.

The men took an active role in protesting, smuggling etc. The women participated in boycotting British goods, finding alternatives to British goods etc in an effort to help make America more self sufficient. Abagail Adams was a member of this group by the way.

Charles Townshend

Born in 1674 .He father was Horatio Townshend (1^st Viscount of Raynham).He was educate in Cambridge.He became 2^nd Viscount of Raynham in 1687. In September, 1714, King George I named Townshend to the post of Secretary of State for the Northern Department.Townshend was ,arriad twice,fisrt with Elizabeth Pelham and had 5 children with her when she died in 1711 he married Dorothy Walpole who gave him 7 children (5 boys and 2 girls)

  

Townshend disliked king Charles II. He spent his last years in Raynham and got interested in agriculture.He was the one who found ut turnips could be rotated with wheat,barley ,and clover to make soil fertile.He died in Raynham on June 21,1738.

The Sugar,Quartering and Stamps Acts

Colonial Merchants grow rich from trade 1764-The new prime minister George Grenville propose to rise money by colecting taxes on duties that already existed.

Grenville and the Sugar Act

Because the French and Indian War had left Britain with an empty pocketbook, Parliament also desperately needed to restock the Treasury. Led by Grenville, Parliament levied heavier taxes on British subjects, especially the colonists. First, in 1764, Grenville’s government passed the Sugar Act, which placed a tax on sugar imported from the West Indies. The Sugar Act represented a significant change in policy: whereas previous colonial taxes had been levied to support local British officials, the tax on sugar was enacted solely to refill Parliament’s empty Treasury.

Function

The Molasses Act and Sugar Act were intended to help the competitiveness of West Indies molasses and sugar in the New England colonies. These products cost the West Indies much more to produce than in most other markets. The West Indies, being a major trading partner of Britain at the time, requested Parliament help prevent the American colonies from buying cheaper molasses and sugar.

Enforcement

Northern colonists were more afraid of the methods that Great Britain took to enforce the Sugar Act than the actual cost of the tax itself. The British Navy began patrolling the shipping lanes to the colonies and customs agents became more aggressive in collecting import duties. The Southern colonies could produce most of their own crops and only viewed this as another annoying regulation.

Protest

While the colonies did not approve of the legislation, most of the outrage came from Virginia. The Virginia House of Burgess, a precursor to Congress, took upon itself the duty to respond to the King and express the colonies' displeasure with the tax. Protests were only ordered if the King refused to hear the colonists' complaints about the right to freedom from British taxation.

Effects

The Sugar Act did not actually cause as much protest as some people are led to believe. Attempts to protest the British government could not garner enough steam as only a few of the 13 colonies were detrimentally affected. Protests and public outrage would start with the passage of the Stamp Act, which placed a $1 million tax on paper products, the following year.

In 1765 parlament pass another unpopular law Quartering Act:
Which required residents of some colonies to feed and house British soldiers serving in America. These acts outraged colonists, who believed the taxes and regulations were unfair. Many also questioned why the British army needed to remain in North America when the French and Pontiac had already been defeated.  In addition to providing housing for troops, communities were also required to provide food and drink, and they would not be compensated. In communities where supplies were limited, this was a major source of friction, as people resented being forced to turn food and drink over to soldiers. Some communities, notably in New York, refused to abide by the terms of the Quartering Act. The law expired in 1767. With growing unrest in the Colonies and concerns that the Colonial public was getting out of control, a second Quartering Act was passed in 1774. This act only addressed the issue of housing, not including mandates to provide food and drink. Some Colonists viewed this as an invitation to open insurrection, classifying it among the “Intolerable Acts” passed by the British government in retribution for Colonial protests and uprisings.

In March 1765 parlament has another bill,the Stamp Act,it was to raise money from the clonies,the stamp Act require colonist to pay tax of almost everything that was printed material.

Many of these items were paper goods, such as legal documents and licenses, newspapers, leaflets, and even playing cards.The act declared that those who failed to pay the tax would be punished by the vice-admiralty courts without a trial by jury.

 Instituted in November, 1765. Every newspaper, pamphlet, and other public and legal document had to have a Stamp, or British seal, on it. The Stamp, of course, cost money. The colonists didn't think they should have to pay for something they had been doing for free for many years, and they responded in force, with demonstrations and even with a diplomatic body called the Stamp Act Congress, which delivered its answer to the Crown. Seeing the hostile reaction in the colonies, the British government repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766 but at the same time passed the Declaratory Act, which said that Great Britain was superior (and boss of) the American colonies "in all cases whatsoever." The Stamp Act gave the colonists a target for their rage. Indeed, the Sons of Liberty was formed in response to this Act. The Stamp Act Congress also gave the colonists a model for the Continental Congress.

The French and Indian War "The Seven Years War"

A long and brutal battle between two European superpowers, France and England, for control of the upper Ohio River valley. Fort Duquesne, guardian of the gateway to the west, was renamed Fort Pitt and within two years would become England's mightiest fortification in America. Although the bloody struggle for domination in the New World would not come to an end until the British victory on Quebec's Plains of Abraham and the total defeat of New France, the wheels had been set in motion for the colonies' fight for independence.

The French and Indian War was precipitated through a series of altercations over rights to land in the Upper Ohio Valley. In April 1754, a force of French and Indians traveling down the Allegheny River, with orders from the governor-general of New France to claim this prized territory for France, encountered a small garrison at the forks of the Ohio. This was a strategic location for both the French, who sought unfettered access between their North American settlements on the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, and the British who craved fresh territory for their colonies' expansion. Both coveted the lucrative fur trade with the Indians beyond the Allegheny Mountains. The garrison in question was Fort Prince George, established some months earlier by the young Colonel George Washington while scouting for Virginia's Ohio Land Company. Declaring the area "extremely well-situated for a fort, having command of both rivers," Washington established a British settlement that would eventually develop into the city of Pittsburgh.

Fort Prince George was an unimposing trading post surrounded by a stockade, but it undoubtedly served as an obstacle to the French. Overpowered, the occupants surrendered and were permitted to vacate the fort with their tools and arms intact. The French then set about building their own massive fortification that they named Fort DuQuesne in honor of their governor-general. From this vantage point, they held sway over the Ohio Valley. However, their supremacy would be short-lived.

Tensions escalated as the British returned time and again trying to reclaim the site. Under George Washington's command, a small force engaged and defeated a scouting party of French and Indians near Fort Duquesne. Unable to proceed against the superior French forces in the fort, Washington erected Fort Necessity at nearby Great Meadows. Within a few months, the French countered and the assault forced Washington to surrender Fort Necessity and return to Virginia. This was the first major battle in the French and Indian War. Washington would return the following year, in July 1755, as a volunteer aide-de-camp for General Braddock to again attempt to rouse the French from Fort Duquesne. The battle proved a disaster for the British troops who were unaccustomed to the terrain, the weather, and the guerilla tactics of the Indians. General Braddock was killed in the melee but gave his name to the road his soldiers carved out of the western Pennsylvania wilderness.

On May 15, 1756, with official declaration of hostilities that extended far beyond Pennsylvania, the Seven Years' War began between France and England. Involving all the major European powers, it was the first global conflagration that engulfed all the territories colonized by the French and English from North America to Europe, the West Indies, Africa and India. But the principle struggle remained in North America, where events would not bode well for the English until the elder William Pitt came to power as British Prime Minister in 1756. By the end of 1757, with increased British resources, greater demands on the colonists, and the French facing national bankruptcy, the tide began to turn.
In the summer of 1758, General John Forbes commanded an expedition of nearly 7,000 men over the Alleghenies, carving out a highway that would later be known as Forbes Road. An advance column under Major James Grant made an unsuccessful attempt to take over Fort Duquesne. Aware that Grant's troops were closing in, the French and Indians rushed out from the fort to prevent their advance from the area that is now known as Grant Street in Pittsburgh. Discovering that the French were now in a much weaker position, General Forbes' immense force descended on the fort in mid-November. They met no resistance, as the French had already burned and abandoned Fort Duquesne, and fled on the rivers.

The years 1758-1759 also brought British victories in New France that culminated with the defeat of Quebec. On February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed by Great Britain, France and Spain, ending hostilities abroad and signaling British domination in North America. By terms of the treaty, France ceded Canada and all its territory east of the Mississippi River to England, and Spain yielded Florida to England. The treaty signified the colonial and maritime supremacy of Great Britain. But that success would prove costly. The British Parliament's attempt to cover its overwhelming war debts and to pay for a continuing military presence in America by direct taxation of the colonists soon caused strained relations with the colonies and presaged the War of Independence.

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