A Little Rebellion
"Tlie disti'nctions between Virgiiuans,
Pennsylvamans, New Yorkers, New Englanders are
no more. I am not a Virginian but an American."
-PATRICK HENRY, speech in the First Continental Congress, 1774
■
What did the Indians think of the colonists?
At first the Indians greeted the colonists
in peace. Many settlers owed their lives Evefl th�gh it'�
common'to think of
j
to the Indians and the valuable
knowledge they shared on hunting, Indians as scalp�
takers, colonists also
fishing, and planting crops. Some
·useif\:he tactic to
Indians also traded furs and food for
controt the "Indian '
guns, metal hatchets, brass kettles, and
problem.: Some
steel needles. Many tried to live in c,olonies offered
harmony with the strange newcomers. rewards for dead
But any peace was a fragile one. As more Indians or their scalps.
Europeans came and settled on Indian
land, tensions rose. In New England suspicions and accusations
erupted into two bloody and costly wars. The first occurred in
1637, when Puritans burned Pequot villages in the Connecticut
River valley. The Indians fought back, but were nearly wiped out.
The Pequot War was a taste of what was to come in King Philip's
War in Massachusetts nearly forty years later, in 1675. The mood
had changed since the Pilgrims and Wampanoags signed their
peace treaty in the 1620s. Chief Massasoit's son Metacom, called
King Philip by the English for his adoption of European dress and
customs, was eager to strike back at the Englishmen who were
destroying his land. When he did, the fighting was brutal and
bloody. There was scalping on both sides, and King Philip himself
was killed.
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Why did some colonists live with the Indians?
Almost from the time Indians and Europeans came into
contact in America, Indians took colonists as captives. Most
were taken during battles or as a kind of payment for Indians
killed or sold into slavery by the colonists. Some captives
became slaves, but others were adopted into the Indians' tribe.
Of these, one of the most famous was a seven-year-old girl
named Eunice Williams.
Eunice lived with her family in Deerfield, Massachusetts, a
settlement that was raided and burned many times before
Eunice, her family, and about a hundred others were captured
by Mohawk and Abenaki raiders in 1704. The captives who
weren't killed were made to march hundreds of miles to
Canada. During the march, Eunice became separated from her
family. Her surviving family members were freed two years
later, but Eunice wasn't seen again by an Englishman until she
was sixteen. By then she had married an Indian man and
couldn't be convinced to come home. Though she visited
Massachusetts several times, she lived with her adopted tribe
until she died at age eighty-nine.
SETTING IT STRAIGHT
Did frontiersman Daniel Boone wear a coonskin cap?
No, though he's often shown that way in pictures, movies, and
television shows. But cap or no, Daniel Boone (1734-1820)
deserves his fame as a legend of the American frontier. Even
during his lifetime, Boone was the very picture of the rugged
outdoorsman. He became one of the first and best-known
"long hunters," or mountain men, who spent months,
sometimes years, in the wilderness hunting deer, beaver,
buffalo, and other animals for their skins. Life as a mountain
man was dangerous; Boone was captured several times by
Indians and either escaped or was released. He was a friend to
some Indians and a foe to others, as he saw fit.
One of Boone's most important jobs was opening the
Wilderness Road through the narrow Cumberland Gap in the
CHAPTER 2 29
Appalachian Mountains in 1775. The road would lead settlers
from North Carolina to land called Kentucky. Working his way
along Indian and bison trails, Boone and thirty other men
rolled away rocks, hacked down trees and brush, and put
blazes, or marks, on trees so settlers would know which way to
go. At the end of the three-hundred-mile trail, they settled a
town called Boonesborough. By 1800 there were seven hundred
thousand settlers west of the Appalachians. They outnumbered
the Indians in the area by eight to one.
What's the best pet for a free and democratic
society?
A "watchdog," or a free press that informs the public if and
when its government officials are up to no good.
The foundations of freedom of the press in America were laid
in 1735, when a New York printer named John Peter Zenger
was put on trial for libel. (Libel is a published statement that
unjustly says something bad about a person and thereby
causes him or her harm, like loss of a job.) Zenger printed that
the royal governor of New York took bribes, stole people's land,
and rigged elections. Saying those things was harmful to the
governor. But those things were true.
In those days it was against the law to say anything bad about
the king of England or his representatives in the colonies.
Zenger's lawyer argued that his client could not be convicted
because everything he printed was true. The jury agreed and
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acquitted Zenger, or found him not guilty. The decision showed
that the jurors didn't feel bound to English civil law, even
though tlie colonists were British citizens. The case also laid
the foundation for our democratic freedom of the press by
saying that true statements cannot be considered libel. That
freedom to speak out was an important weapon in the protests
that led up to the American Revolution.
Who fought the French and Indian War?
It wasn't the French against the Indians, but the French and
their Indian allies, or friends, against the British and their
Indian allies. The war was fought because both European
countries claimed the same valuable land around North
America's Great Lakes and Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Whoever won the war would dominate the continent.
At the start of the war, there were about 1,500,000 British
citizens and about 90,000 French citizens in the colonies. The
French, though outnumbered, were better fighters and had
most of the Indians on their side. The Indians sided with the
French because they were the lesser of two evils. The French
mostly wanted to trade and trap beaver, not colonize and take
over land. Additionally, French missionaries went to live with
the Indians and learned their customs and language, whereas
the British generally took over land, mistreated the Indians,
and ignored their cultures.
The first shots of the French and Indian War were fired in 1754
when a twenty-one-year-old lieutenant colonel named George
Washington was sent to Fort Duquesne in western
Pennsylvania to force out the French-they were on British
territory. But the French had no intention of leaving, and they
promptly defeated the young and inexperienced colonel and
his 150 men. Washington returned the following year under
British General Edward Braddock, and again the British met
defeat. Braddock died; Washington escaped after two horses
were shot out from under him and four bullet holes were
made in his coat.
CHAPTER 2 31
The war went in favor of the French until William Pitt took
over the British army in 1758. Pitt appointed new commanders,
who won a string of victories and eventually the war. The
Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, sent France packing from North
America, except for two tiny islands off the coast of Canada.
The French territory west of the Mississippi River went to
Spain (which had helped France briefly in the war), and
everything else-all of Canada, America east of the Mississippi,
and some Caribbean islands-went to the British .
. .. •y.
ge�Utt 'hiitoJY, lllt. Wasbingtaft1
Qipd� .anti .tJ®ilY.� �jers •. t<> ·. •
Is that washi'Jgt(ffl_ �nvt the. fits�
-� to bis famj\y, e,;t;t� •• .[Link]
but. m 1789 was �lledto �
�. $0,. beloved ·t,y Jlis c®n®men t
im ki�g, · · · ingfon vehem
t&remai& · •· ·· · ·· · · ·�
, eight years.
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How did sugar and stamps help start the American
Revolution?
It wasn't the sugar and the stamps themselves, but the taxes
placed on them that got the colonists fired up.
After the French and Indian War, Britain had huge debts to pay.
The king and the British Parliament, or the group of officials
chosen to help the king make laws, assumed that the colonists
would help pay the debt, since it was racked up partially in
their defense. The result was the Sugar Act of 1764, which
placed taxes on sugar, coffee, wine, and other items imported
to the colonies from Britain. The even stronger Stamp Act,
passed in 1765, taxed everything printed on paper, from
newspapers to playing cards.
The colonists didn't object to doing their part, but they did
object to not being asked about it. They were angry at being
told what to do by a mother country three thousand miles
away. They were especially angry at being taxed without being
represented in Parliament. King George III, who had come to
the throne in 1760, was stubborn and vain, though it was really
Parliament that held the power in Britain.
A group of colonists called the Sons of Liberty refused to be
treated like second-class citizens. These patriots started riots
and encouraged the boycotting not just of paper goods but of
all British imports. British merchants complained, as they lost
money when colonists refused to buy their goods. Britain
repealed the Stamp Act in 1766, but the fight was just getting
warmed up.
Why was the naming of the Boston Massacre only a
half truth?
The event did take place in Boston, so it's the "massacre" that's
the falsehood.
What has come down in history as the Boston Massacre was a
skirmish prompted by rising tensions between the British and
CHAPTER 2 33
the colonists. Not
having learned a
thing from the
colonists' anger at
the Sugar and
Stamp Acts, in
1767 Parliament
imposed the
Townshend Acts.
These taxed lead,
tea, paper, paint,
and glass imported
into the colonies.
Paul Revere's famous engraving of the "massacre" on King Street
Once again the colonists boycotted, refusing to buy these
products. But this time British troops were ordered to enforce
the laws. There were four thousand Redcoats, or British
soldiers, in Boston, a city of only sixteen thousand. In 1770
Redcoats in front of Boston's Customs House were taunted by a
mob of angry colonists who began throwing snow, ice, and
stones at the soldiers. The Redcoats panicked. One of them
heard, or thought he heard, the word "fire"-and fire he did.
Other Redcoats joined in, killing five colonists, including a
former slave named Crispus Attucks.
A massacre? Hardly. (A massacre is when a great number of
people are killed in an especially violent or cruel way.) Yet
some patriots used the incident to their advantage. Samuel
Adams and Paul Revere of Boston published their own versions
of the event: Revere's included an engraving of orderly British
troops firing into a group of peaceful, unarmed colonials.
Copies of the image spread like wildfire, and within days the
incident was known as the Boston Massacre. Colonists were
outraged. As a result, the Redcoats were removed from the city
and the colonies. But the peace was fragile at best.
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CHAPTER 2 35
How did Boston Harbor become the biggest teapot
in history?
It was December 1773, and the rabble-rousing patriot Sam
Adams was at it again. He and his wealthy friend John
Hancock were hatching a plan to protest the Parliament's tea
tax and its unfair policies on the sale of the tea that colonists
drank every day. (Parliament granted the British East India
Company the right to sell tea directly to the colonies without
paying the taxes colonial merchants had to pay. This
advantage allowed the company to undersell colonial
merchants and effectively cut them out of the profitable tea
trade.) When three tea-laden British ships arrived in Boston
Harbor, a group of about a hundred Bostonians, including
Adams, Hancock, and Paul Revere, refused to let the tea land.
They disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded
the ships. Then they spent three hours splitting open 342
chests of expensive tea and dumping them into the water,
while a large crowd looked on.
The Boston Tea Party, as it was quickly named, spurred "tea
parties" in other colonies. It also created a more visible division
between the Patriots (also called Whigs), who supported liberty,
and the Loyalists (also called Tories), who were loyal to the
British crown. Over in England, the Tea Party made King George
and Parliament very angry. As punishment, Parliament passed
even stricter laws for rebellious Massachusetts. These
Intolerable Acts, as the colonists called them, banned town
meetings, required colonists to provide food and shelter to
British troops, and closed Boston Harbor until the waterlogged
tea was paid for. The closing of the harbor put many
Bostonians out of work. Even worse, it threatened starvation by
keeping food from entering the city.
Though the Intolerable Acts were aimed at Massachusetts,
people in the other twelve colonies realized that Britain would
not hesitate to treat any of them just as harshly. The colonies
bonded together as never before, each sending food and other
goods to help the people of Boston. Patriots and Loyalists alike
3(6 DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT AMERICAN HISTORY
®
knew it was only a matter of time before the first shots were
fired in the American Revolution. King George knew it, too.
"The die is now cast," he said. "The colonies must either
submit or triumph."
As colonists' frustrations with Britain mounted, int,ercolonfaC
"commitees of correspondence" were established. These committees kept
one another informed of events and were the first real contact and
support among the colonies. Until this time, the colonies had been much
more closely tied to London than to one another.
How did the colonists tolerate the Intolerable Acts?
They didn't. The Intolerable Acts would backfire against Britain
even more than the other laws and taxes had. The Intolerable
Acts helped the colonists realize they had common problems,
and a meeting was called to bring patriots together to discuss
their growing concerns. Fifty-five delegates from every colony
but Georgia convened in Philadelphia in 1774 as the First
Continental Congress. (Georgia had an especially strong royal
governor whom the Georgians didn't want to defy, though they
did vow to support the actions taken at the meeting.) Among
the delegates were George Washington, Patrick Henry, John
Adams, Samuel Adams, and eventually Benjamin Franklin-an
assembly John Adams noted in his diary was comprised of "a
collection of the greatest Men upon this Continent."
The First Continental Congress was an important turning point
in the minds of the delegates. The congress passed a
declaration of the rights of the colonists (which were merely
the rights due all British citizens) and wrote a polite petition to
King George asking him to consider their grievances. It also
formed a Continental Association in which the members
pledged not to import British goods and to stop exporting
goods to Britain. The delegates agreed to return the following
May if they hadn't made any headway with the king by then.
As it turned out, King George refused even to look at their
request.
CHAPTER 2 37
Who fired the first shot of the American Revolution?
No one knows. Each side-the British Redcoats and the
Massachusetts Minutemen (so named because they were said
to be ready to pick up their guns on a minute's notice)
pointed the finger at the other.
The first shot of the revolution was fired in Lexington,
Massachusetts, early on the morning of April 19, 1775. With
tension rising in the colonies, Massachusetts patriots had
begun stockpiling ammunition in the town of Concord, about
eighteen miles outside Boston and about seven miles from
Lexington. The British learned of the stash of munitions and set
out to seize it. They also intended to seize Samuel Adams and
John Hancock, whom they viewed as the patriot ringleaders. To
save both the munitions and the men, Paul Revere kept watch
over British movements around Boston. When he could tell
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AMERICAN HISTORY
what the British were up to, he would take an early warning
message to Lexington, where Adams and Hancock were hiding,
and to Concord. Revere sent a spy to nose around the British
and then relay a message from the steeple of Old North Church
in Boston. The spy was to light one lantern if the Redcoats were
coming by land, two if they were coming by sea.
When Revere heard that two lanterns were lit the night of April
18, he was off. He and another rider, William Dawes, took
different routes to Lexington. They alerted every house with the
message, "The Regulars are coming out!" (He didn't say, "The
British are coming!" Most colonists still considered themselves
British.) As they spread the news, about seventy Minutemen
gathered on Lexington green to confront the Redcoats, who
arrived early in the morning. The British troops, about 700 of
them, were hoping to march right past the Minutemen. But an
unordered shot rang out and both sides began firing. When the
shooting stopped, eight Minutemen were dead.
The Redcoats marched on to Concord, where they found about
350 Minutemen waiting. Nearly 100 colonists were killed or
CHAPTER 2 39
wounded in the two battles. Between the battles and their
return to Boston, the British suffered 250 dead or wounded.
Listen, my children,. and you. snall hear
0/Jhe midnight''ri<fe of Paul Revere/ ,.
0f1 the. e�ghteenth of Apr;jl, in �venty-ftve,
Hafdw.a man is .now alive ·
Who reme171bers tbat famous,1 dgy, and year.
e �nowr why Hehry Wadsworth Longfellow c
Paul. Revere in. "Paul Revere"s Ride" (1860)/
ful April nig�t, eseedally �ince Revere was ca�forea be
plet�d. his ,missio�: (P�rhtps,"�.evere"·just .fit lo��,felto
emf2� In any case, there \,Ver� three riders carrying th�
·ngton and €oncord-Revere,. Dawes, and
scottijoined Revere ahd Dawes:just,.otltsi
ree could get on to 'Concord, they were s
.was Prescott who, since he knewtfie area
'�opte <;ff Concold once lhey•�Scapeo.
AMERICAN ENGLISH
When you hear about Yankee Doodle going to town, do you ever wonder
what a Yankee is, anyway? If so, you're not alone. No one knows for sure
where the curious word Yankee comes from. People have suggested that it
started with Indian words (but no such words have ever been found) or
from the Dutch name Jan Kees (meaning, basically, John Cheese), or from
a Dutch pirate named Yankey. Whatever its origin, it was not a
complimentary term in colonial days. British officers used Yankee as a
rude word for the Americans they disliked. American revolutionaries began
to call themselves Yankees just to defy the British, and the name stuck.
Today the rest of the world considers any American a Yankee. Within
America the term has come to refer to a northerner, especially one from
New England.
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SETTING IT STRAIGHT
In 1 775 did most colonists want to be independent
from Britain?
No, believe it or not. Even though shots had been fired three
weeks before, declaring independence from Britain was still a
radical idea when the Second Continental Congress convened
in May 1775. It was an entirely new concept for people
anywhere to govern themselves-especially people who had
been raised to revere English customs, royalty, and history. So
despite the colonists' outrage at the taxes and unfair policies
they'd been subjected to, most of them still hoped to reach a
peaceful settlement with Britain.
In a last-ditch attempt to reconcile with King George, Congress
wrote an "Olive Branch" petition. (An olive branch is a symbol
of peace.) Meanwhile, Congress agreed to raise an army in case
the petition failed, and elected the tall, dignified George
Washington its commander in chief.
Six months later Congress learned that King George had again
refused their petition. The king's snub, along with the
publication of a little book called Common Sense in January
1776, pushed many colonists over the edge. By the beginning of
summer, Congress was ready to formally declare independence
from Great Britain.
Ill €9,nmoQSense 1utho� Thom�s Paine (1737-1809) articu�ed
what was • . . welt, common iense, about the many reasons the colonies
should be independent from Brjtain. Jhe best-selling pamphlet said that
mooarchy was no good, ttiat .Bntain:ftaxes and restrictions were bad for
tne American economy, and "t�at it was siUy for a �ny island to rule a
corttinent'three thousand miles away. Ah Englishman who came to
America in 1774, l?aine quic;kly became involved in the patriot cause. He
. [Link] the things many c oloni!t$ .were feelinq. in their hearts about
wanting to be free and . put tl:!em intowords. Paine also wrote a series .of
olutionary War-related pamphlets titled lhe Cfii�, one of whjcn
rted with the now-famous line ''These are the times that try men's
CHAPTER 2 41
Why was Thomas Jefferson chosen to write the
Declaration of Independence?
Thomas Jefferson, at age thirty-three one of the youngest
delegates to the Second Continental Congress, was known to
be an enlightened thinker and a talented writer. Congress
appointed him to the committee to draft a declaration of
independence, and his fellow committee members felt he was
the best suited for the job. In just seventeen days, Jefferson
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produced an inspiring document that expressed the reasons
for America's action and gave its soldiers and citizens an
eloquent statement of what they were fighting for:
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident," Jefferson wrote,"that
all Men are created equal,that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights,that among these are
Life,Liberty,and the Pursuit of Happiness...."
The Declaration of Independence states that a fair government
recognizes and protects the rights of individuals,including life,
liberty,and the pursuit of happiness. It also lists the
wrongdoings of King George and Parliament,and says that
because the king wouldn't listen to the colonists' complaints,
the colonists were going to form a new,independent nation.
Congress did edit Jefferson's draft (members ordered forty
changes to his text,deleting 630 words and adding 146),but
most of the words are [Link] revised declaration was adopted
on July 4, 1776.
Jefferson closed the document with the words,''And for the
support of this Declaration ...we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives,our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." He wrote
these words with utter seriousness, because the men who
adopted and signed the Declaration of Independence were
risking their [Link] British citizens,they could be tried and
hanged for their treasonous actions.
The ideas about individual rights and freedom presented in the
Declaration of Independence were not new ones, though they found a
unique audience in America. The concepts came from a movement in
Europe called the Enlightenment. Jefferson and other colonists read the
works of the Enlightenment thinkers. That prompted them to read about
the ancient democracies of Greece and Rome. The colonists realized that
they could manage their own affairs-tHey'd been doing it since the
House of Burgesses started in 1619, and they did it on their own farms.
These brave, independent-minded people were prepared to act on
enlightenment ideals in a way no other people in the world could have
at the time.
CHAPTER 2 43
Whose name became another word for treason?
Benedict Arnold's. A brave soldier, Arnold (1741-1801} might
have been an American hero if he hadn't become a traitor. In
the early days of the war, Arnold was a bold commander who
contributed to the important American victory at Saratoga. Yet
he felt overlooked by his continental superiors and began to
take bribes to spy for the British. After the Americans
discovered that he had been part of a plot to capture the
American fort at West Point, New York, Arnold fled and became
a British officer who led vicious raids against the Americans.
After the war he and his family were granted a royal pension
and given land in Canada.
MAJ □ R MILESTONES IN THE AMERICAN
REV □ LUTl □ N 1 775-1 7B3
1775
APRIL 19 The first shots of the American Revolution are fired
as Redcoats pass through Lexington, Massachusetts.
JUNE 15 The Second Continental Congress votes to raise a
continental army and appoints George Washington its
commander. Washington accepts the job but refuses a
salary.
JUNE 17 The first major battle of the war, the Battle of Bunker
Hill, is actually fought at Breed's Hill just outside Boston.
1776
JANUARY 9 Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense.
JULY 2 The Continental Congress votes for independence.
JULY 4 The Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of
Independence.
DECEMBER 25 Washington secretly leads troops across the
Delaware River from Pennsylvania into New Jersey and
surprises a camp of British forces at Trenton early the next
morning. Washington's men kill 22, wound 92, and capture
more than 900, losing none of their own army.
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1777 '·
SEPTEMBER 26 British General William Howe takes control of
Philadelphia, which Congress had fled two weeks before.
OCTOBER 11 General John Burgoyne surrenders 5,700 Britisl:i
and hired German troops at Saratoga, New York. This
significant American victory encourages Europeans to aid
the revolution.
DECEMBER 11 Washington and his troops make winter
quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Of the 10,000 troops
at Valley Forge, about 3,000 will die of starvation, disease,
and exposure.
1778
FEBRUARY t6 Americans sign alliance treaty with France.
NOVEMBER 7 Congress passes the Articles of Confederation
(though they were not adopted until 1781).
1779
SEPTEMBER 2s In the only major sea battle of the war,
American Captain John Paul Jones captures the British
warship Serapis off the coast of England. In one of the most
famous exclamations of the revolution, Jones supposedly
tells a British captain who asks for his surrender, "I have
not yet begun to fight!"
1780
MAY t6 British capture Charleston, South Carolina, and take
5,400 Americans prisoner in the heaviest defeat of the war.
1781
OCTOBER 11 British Major General Lord Cornwallis sends a
drummer boy to surrender to American and French forces at
Yorktown, Virginia. Thro days later the British soldiers give up
their arms and officially surrender. Except for minor
skirmishes that will follow, the war is effectively over.
1783
SEPTEMBER s British and American representatives sign the
Treaty of Paris, officially ending the war and recognizing
the United States of America as an independent nation.
CHAPTER 2 45
Just whom did Jefferson mean when he wrote "all
men are created equal"?
Did he mean women? Indians? Or blacks? We'll never know.
Few people in Jefferson's time considered these people to be
the equal of free white men. In Jefferson's draft of the
declaration, he included a long section denouncing slavery as a
"cruel war against human nature." But neither South Carolina
nor Georgia, two major slave states, would sign the declaration
unless that section was removed.
Yet despite Jefferson's opposition to slavery, he, and many of
the men now called the Founders, did own slaves. It was a
complex situation. Jefferson opposed slavery in theory, but in
practice he knew he needed slaves to work his plantation.
When it came time to establish the government for the new
nation, no one could think of a practical way to solve this
problem. So unfortunately the Founders wouldn't solve it at all.
They would leave it for later generations to untangle.
AMERICAN VOICES
,, IN THE NEW CODE OF LAWS ... I DESIRE YOU REMEMBER THE
LADIES.... IF PARTICULAR CARE AND ATTENTION ARE NOT PAID
TO THE LADIES WE ARE DETERMINED TO FOMENT A REBELLION AND
WILL NOT HOLD OURSELVES BOUND BY ANY LAWS IN WHICH WE
HAVE NO VOICE OR REPRESENTATION. tt
-ABIGAIL ADAMS ('?44-1818} in a March 1??6 !etter to her husband,
John Adams, who was attending the Second Conhnenta! Congress.
Abigail Adams was a smart, strong, independent-minded woman who had
been educated at home & herfather. In a hme when women had no voice
or representalt°on and were ruled & theirfathers or husbands, Abigail
,jien advised her husband in political matters.
Did blacks fight in the revolution?
They sure did. Some fought for the British. Early in the war, the
British offered freedom to any slave who left his Patriot master
to join their army. Tens of thousands of slaves ran away to take
®
4€:, DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT AMERICAN HISTORY
them up on their offer, though slaves of Loyalist masters were
returned to their owners. By the end of the war, thousands of
slaves had gained their freedom by fighting for the British.
On the American side, blacks fought bravely at Lexington and
Concord and at Breed's Hill. At first Washington forbade the
enlistment of black men. As the war continued, however,
Washington and other commanders began to accept black men
and boys into service. About five thousand black soldiers from
every state except Georgia and South Carolina served in the
Continental army during the war. Some were free blacks, but
most were slaves. These soldiers changed many whites' minds
about slavery. By the end of the war, Massachusetts and New
Hampshire had abolished slavery, and Connecticut, Rhode
Island, and Pennsylvania had adopted plans for gradual
emancipation.
What roles did women and children play in the fight
for independence?
At least one woman-Deborah
Samson-disguised herself as a
man and fought for a year and a
half until she fell ill and doctors
discovered she was a woman.
As many as twenty thousand
other women and children
accompanied the army, cooking,
washing, nursing, and helping
keep camps clean. In some
Deborah Samson presents a letter to
General Washington.
regiments there were as many
wives and children as soldiers!
Just as important to the war effort was the home front, or the
people who contributed to the cause from their homes instead
of on the battlefield. Many women did things they'd never
done before, running farms and businesses while their
husbands were away. With their older children, they sewed
clothes for soldiers, fed and cared for wounded troops who had
CHAPTER 2 47
fought near their homes, and helped make cartridges for
muskets. Some even acted as unofficial spies.
Some young men, aged twelve to sixteen, enlisted in the army
and became drummers or fifers (a fife is an instrument like a
flute) to keep the soldiers marching in time. Many young boys
aiso made good spies. Because they were small, they could slip
in and out of small spaces and they weren't
suspected by the British. Both boys and girls
served as couriers, or messengers, who
spread news and propaganda among
groups of militia camped
nearby. Young people
knew the paths and
backwoods areas around
their homes very well, and
some served as local
guides for
Continental army
regiments-or offered their
services to the British army and
purposely got them lost or
(�)\\'f1;;:
bogged down in a swamp!
Sometimes these daring
\
young patriots slashed
the tops of British wagons
or drilled holes in barrels to
ruin the enemy's food supplies.
How did the colonists beat the best army in the
world?
It was amazing that a small group of colonies would even try
to go up against the British army. But the British had some
major strikes against them. They were trying to control a war
from three thousand miles away. They also underestimated the
military ability of the rebels, who made up for their lack of
48 DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT
®
AMERICAN HISTORY
soldiers, supplies, and experience by fighting in ways that were
almost unheard-of at the time-ambushing, sniping, and
deceiving.
But the major reason for the American victory was the French
involvement in the war. Without French soldiers, money, and
supplies-as much as 90 percent of the gunpowder used in the
war came from France-the Americans could not have won.
French King Louis XVI didn't believe in individual rights and
freedom from monarchy (he was a king, after all), but he
pitched in because he did like the idea of making England look
bad. And, he figured, he might even get back some of the land
his country lost in the French and Indian War. The American
armies were also greatly helped by a nineteen-year-old French
. nobleman, the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834). Lafayette
volunteered to serve in the colonial army at his own expense
because he believed in the American cause. Lafayette fought
well and bravely and became a general on George
Washington's staff.
·If buttercups buiied after tt,e bee;
If boats were on land, churches on sea;
If pon;es rode men and grass ate cows;
And cats should be chased to holes by the. mouse;
If the mommas sold their babies to the gypsies for half a crown;
Summer were spring and the t'other way rc,und;
Then all the world· would be upside down.
"The World Turned Upside Down" was a popular song of tbe revolutionary
era. A British band played the tune as Major General Cornwallis's army
. surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. In 111any way;, the world
did seem upside down-a young colonial upstart had defeated a powerful
and established European nation.
CHAPTER 2 49