Term
| Second Continental Congress |
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Definition
• In Philly, PA
• One month after the American revolution started, met every day
• George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams were some of the men who attended
• Agreed to establish a professional army, along with the current volunteers
• Basically ran as a central gov for colonists who now called themselves states |
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Term
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• Written by the delegates who did not want the war to start, they wanted to remain part of Great Britain and considered themselves good/loyal British citizens
• Olive branch =symbol of peace
• Sent a letter to King George III of England, because they believed Parliament was there enemy ( based on all the previous laws they created)
• After 3 months King George III responded with an angry letter and rejecting their proposal to stop the war beginning
- Said that every man that signed petition had committed treason, and should be punished |
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Term
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Definition
• Had hard childhood
• Never had formal education
• Educated himself and made many breakthroughs in science. Recognized as being top inventor/scientist in the world ( invented electric battery)
• Edited some parts of the Declaration of Independence
• Taught himself how to speak, read, write French
• Went to France as representative for colonies, he needed to convince the French to help America fight British |
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| When he visited France at first French did not want to help the American Patriots, because they believed that the Americans were not strong enough to win any major battles against Great Britain. While waiting for the French to change their minds he became very popular at the Kings Palace (Versailles) |
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Term
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Definition
• Recently immigrated to America from Great Britain, and had only been in the colonies for a little while
• Shortly after the Olive Branch Petition was sent, he wrote “Common Sense”
• Common Sense was a pamphlet that criticized the idea of loyalty to Great
• He wrote about how King George III was a tyrant who did not care about the colonists
• He popularized the idea of gaining independence from GB (influenced colonists toward independence) |
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Term
| Declaration of Independence |
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Definition
• July 4, 1776 day it went into effect
• Members of the second continental congress met for 14 months before they decided that they needed to be independent from GB
• Written by Thomas Jefferson, who was a trained lawyer with good writing skills
PART 1 : statement of individual rights
“All men are created equal.”
PART 2: list of grievances against the King
PART 3: formal declaration of their independence from GB |
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Term
| The Battle of Bunker Hill |
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Definition
• Boston
• Showed just how disadvantaged the American revolutionaries were against Britian
Volunteers positioned themselves on the top of the hill behind baracades, and at first they were winning. Because of the weapons they had both sides needed to be fairly close to each other to aim because muskets were not very accurate. The British were in rigid formation lines while the Americans hid behind the hill, trees, etc. Americans eventually lost because they ran out of gun powder and musket balls so they ran away. |
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Term
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• Made up of the colonists (revolutionaries)
• 3,000 men consisting of volunteers, slaves/free blacks, and eventually French
• Men were not paid, not given enough food, or new uniforms |
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• 50,000 men initially grew to 85,000 total
• Consisted of Native Americans who wanted to protect their land from the colonists, Hessians (hired German army), and slaves who they promised freedom to |
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• Colonists who remained loyal to GB
• Many were wealthy merchants, plantation owners, or worked for British gov.
• 20,000 of them fled the country when the patriots took their land away from them
Benjamin Franklin’s son was royal governor of New Jersey and worked for gov while his dad was one of the leading Patriots. His son was later thrown into prison, and Franklin did not help him. |
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Term
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• Lexington and Concord—where war was started
• British were on hill tops in remote forts and Patriots on sea level
• Washington surprised attacked the forts ( had no idea war had started), took their canons |
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Term
| Articles of Confederation |
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Definition
• Constructed by confederation congress
• Created a weak central gov, because states would not agree if gov was too powerful, based on the past problems w/ GB
• Took four years for the 13 states to ratify, because they were still suspicious (1781)
The articles:
- Did not allow colonists to be drafted into the war
- Gov. could not text unless all delegates agreed to making tax law
- State delegates would choose men in confederation congress
- Congress would send out how much each state had to pay for the war ( most states refused to pay) |
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• What used to be 2nd continental congress
• Had power to settle disputes between states, declare wars, make treaties with other nations, operate post offices, and coin/print money |
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• Across northeast river from Manhattan
• Washington’s men outnumbered 3 to 1
• Patriots were pushed against river, but when nightfall came the fighting had to stop ( they would return to camp to eat/sleep)
• At night Washington used a small boat to evacuate, they crossed river to Manhattan and took refuge in the city |
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• December 26, 1776
• British in barracks they built
• Patriots wanted to surprise attack British because they knew that they had been drinking to celebrate xmas, also Brits did not believe in fighting during winter
• In the middle of the night, Washington and his men crossed the snowy/icy Delaware River, once on land they had to march 9 miles to Hessians camp. They shot and killed them, and Washington left quickly (guerilla warfare) |
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• October 1777
• 8,000 men on British side led by John Burgoyne |
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• 1781
• Occurred over a period of 60 days
• Charles Cornwallis on British side left Charleston and traveled to Va to capture Jefferson, he wanted to be picked up by British Fleet or given more men on his way to Va. At the same time the French were heading to Yorktown to prevent the British fleet from picking up Cornwallis, they had 22,000 men they defeated the British and they returned to NY. Cornwallis sent a letter to Washington saying he was to “sick” to surrender, but really Cornwallis saw Washington as a poor farmer not worthy of his time. Washington refused to accept his sword of surrender, so he also sent out someone else to accept surrender. |
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Term
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• 1783
• Two years after war ended
• Negotiated by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
• America becomes independent from GB
• Kept confederation congress weak, each state created their own state governments |
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Term
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Definition
• 1786
• Daniel Shay- former officer in continental army, became farmer in Massachusetts
• Massachusetts had a property tax, which meant that farmers had to pay for their land, Shay and the rest of the farmers could not afford to pay tax on their property which meant that the gov. would take it away and sell it. He started a rebellion against Massachusetts vs. an army created by wealthy merchants. Shay’s rebellion ultimately failed, and made the weak central gov. decide they needed to become stronger. |
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Term
| Constitutional Convention |
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Definition
• Philly ( May –August)
• Delegates elected Washington to be president of convention
• 55 delegates attended, but only 12 states sent delegates. Rhode Island refused because they knew that they would not be properly represented based on their small population
• Asked the confederation congress for their permission to strengthen the Articles of Confederation
• Closed all windows/doors and no one was allowed in, delegates feared that someone would hear what they were discussing and take it out of context
• Decided that Articles could not be revised, so just threw them away completely
• Agreed they wanted a republican form of gov. ( federal system)
• Many delegates did not want slavery to exist, but about ½ insisted it would continue to exist |
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Term
| Constitution of the United States |
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Definition
• 1787
• Very short
• Federal system: power shared between states and central gov
• Separation of powers: 3 basic branches of gov (federal, legislative, and judicial)
• Checks and balances: created to make sure that no one branch can have more power than the other
• Congress:
- 1. House of Representatives
-At first this was going to be the only type of legislative gov,
- Each representative would have one vote from each state (size of population determines how many votes each state gets)
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• Senate:
- Two representatives from each state( which gave Rhode Island the same amount of power as the biggest state then, which was VA)
- Created so smaller states could be represented
• Could be ratified when 9 out of the 13 states agreed
• Took almost a year to be ratified ( 1788)
• Waited till July 4, 1788 to put into effect because that is when American gained Independence from GB |
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Term
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1. They left whether or not slavery should be allowed to the states
2. Make anti-slavery delegates somewhat happy. Statement in the constitution that within 20 years of the ratification of the US constitution that slave trade must stop. Can’t import recently kidnapped blacks in Africa to be sold in US, but you can sell/ buy slaves who were already living in US. |
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• Each enslaved person would count as 3/5ths of one person
• Constitution calls for a census to be taken every 10 years to see how many people live in each state—who gets more delegates |
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• They were against the ratification of the constitution, wanted to stick with confederation congress and there weak form of central government ( which they are most comfortable with)
• Had problem with the President have so much power
• Patrick Henry- member of the house of burgesses
• Didn’t like bill of rights
• He was afraid the states would lose their liberty
• John Hancock- didn’t trust the negotiating in Philly |
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Term
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• Those in favor of the constitution
• John Adams
• Thomas Jefferson |
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• 85 separate essays written and published in American newspapers with the purpose of convincing people that the new constitution was a good thing
• Written by 3 delegates who also participated in the writing of the constitution
1. John Jay- wrote 5 essays
2. James Madison- wrote 30 essays
3. Alexander Hamilton- wrote 50 essays
• The papers told the truth ( no propaganda), by freely acknowledging the constitution would give states less power than the articles of confederation gave
• Discussed the separation/ balance of power
• Hamilton explained what would happen if the president became “power hungry,” he could be removed from office through impeachment |
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Term
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Definition
• First amendment to the constitution
• Protects us from our gov wrong doings
• How constitution can be changed thru amendment process:
1. Propose amendment to congress
2. Both houses of the congress have to agree/ pass amendment by 2/3rds vote
3. Goes to state legislatures ( 3/4ths to vote yes for it to be amendment)
• Constitution has been amended 27 times |
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