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.