Abbey Whitewood

Period 6/7

Chapter 6

Huguenots

Description: The Huguenots were French Protestants.

Historical Significance: The tide of the Reformation reached France early in the sixteenth century and was part of the religious and political fomentation of the times. It was a respectable movement involving the most responsible and accomplished people of France. It signified their desire for greater freedom religiously and politically. The Huguenot Church grew rapidly. The Huguenots alternated between high favor and outrageous persecution. Inevitably, there were clashes between Roman Catholics and Huguenots, many erupting into the shedding of blood. During the 1560s, the clashes worsened. Celebrating the marriage of honerable people, thousands of Huguentos came to Paris where soldiers and organized mobs fell upon the Huguenots, and thousands of them were slaughtered.

Chapter 6

Edict of Nantes

Description: A law granting religious and civil liberties to the French Protestants, promulgated by Henry IV in 1598 and revoked by Louis XIV in 1685.

Historical Significance: The edict upheld Protestants in freedom of conscience and permitted them to hold public worship in many parts of the kingdom, though not in Paris and granted them full civil rights and established a special court composed of both Protestants and Catholics. The edict also restored Catholicism in all areas where Catholic practice had been interrupted. It was much resented by Pope Clement VIII, by the Roman Catholic clergy in France, and by the parlements. On Oct. 18, 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and deprived the French Protestants of all religious and civil liberties. Within a few years, more than 400,000 Huguenots emigrated—to England, Prussia, Holland, and America—depriving France of its most industrious commercial class.

Chapter 6

Coureurs de bois

Description: A French Canadian woodsman or Métis who traded with Indians for furs.

Historical Significance: Although they stimulated the growth of the fur trade and the exploration of Canada, their defiance caused problems for the government of New France and contributed to poor relations with the Native Americans, to whom they sold liquor. Toward the end of the 17th cent. it was estimated that one third of the able-bodied men of the colony were coureurs de bois, although this may be an exaggeration.

Chapter 6

Voyageurs

Description: professional canoemen who transported furs by canoe during the fur trade era

Historical Significance: The French voyageurs recruited Indians into their fur business. Eventhough the numbers of fur traders was numerous and was a successful business, the fur trade had drawbacks. Indians recruited into the fur business were decimated by the white man's diseases and debauched by his alcohol. Slaughtering beaver by the boatload also violated many Indians' religious beliefs and sadly demonstrated the shattering effect that contact with Europeans wreaked on traditional Indian ways of life. 

Chapter 6

King William's War

Description: War fought largely between French trappers, British settlers, and their respective Indian allies from 1689-1697. The colonial theater of the larger War of the League of Augsburg in Europe.

Historical Significance: King William's war, the first of the French and Indian wars, caused the British to take measures with the intention of protecting the colonies, like the samp act. These acts estranged the relationship between the colonies and the mother country.

Chapter 6

Queen Anne's War

Description: Second in a series of conflicts between the European powers for control of North America, fought between the English and French colonists in the North, and the English and Spanish in Florida.

Historical Significance: Queen Anne's conflict resulted in the transfer of the French claims to the British. Next, some of the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht were ambiguous, and concerns of various Indian tribes were not included in the treaty, which resulted in future conflicts in the French and Indian Wars. Smuggling led to the 1738 War of Jenkin's Ear. This incident was used as a pretext for war and American colonists attacked Spanish possessions in the Caribbean.

Chapter 6

War of Jenkins's Ear

Description: Small-scale clash between Britain and Spain in the Carabbean and in the buffer colony, Georgia. It merged with the much larger War of Austrian Succession in 1742. 

Historical Significance: Settlers cooperated with Indian forces to repel Spanish threats and ultimately enjoyed success despite early defeats. The colony fulfilled its original purpose as a buffer for British North America against foreign attacks and solidified English claims on the continent. Georgia remained in English possession.

Chapter 6

King George's War

Description: North American theater of Europe's War of Austrian Succession that once again pitted British colonists against their French counterparts in the North. The peace settlement did not involve any territorial realignment, leading to conflict between New England settlers and the British government. 

Historical Significance: Following the King George's conflicts British colonists in New England and British merchants resented the return of Louisbourg to the French after they had captured the stronghold in a 46-day siege. This resentment was one of the early seeds of the American Revolution. Also, the French and English wanted dominance in North America and to monopolize the highly lucrative trade options from a European perspective. Finally, the problems of the colonist's relations with French Canada, and Spanish Louisiana and Florida still remained unsettled after the King George's War. The conflicts of the French and Indian Wars would soon erupt again with the Seven Years War also known as the French Indian.

Chapter 6

Acadians

Description: French residents of Nova Scotia, many of whom were uprooted by the British in 1775 and scattered as far south as Louisiana, where there descendants became known as "Cajuns."

Historical Significance: Prior to the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, the Acadians lived for almost 80 years in Acadia. After the Conquest, they lived under British rule for the next forty-five years. During the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War), British colonial officers and New England legislators and militia carried out the Great Expulsion of 1755–1763. They deported approximately 11,500 Acadians from the maritime region. Approximately one-third perished from disease and drowning. Although one historian compared this event to contemporary ethnic cleansing, other historians suggested that the event is comparable with other deportations in history.

Chapter 6

French and Indian War 

Description: Nine-year war between the British and the French in North America. It resulted in the expulsion of the French from the North American mainland and helped spark the Seven Years' War in Europe.

Historical Significance: The French and Indian War is important because it ended the period of Salutary Neglect of the English colonies in North America. The British government began to tax the colonies in new ways to repay for the expense of their defense, and to support the troops posted in the colonies. The colonists felt that they should be able to settle west of the Appalachian mountains. Instead the British wanted to keep it unsettled so they could profit from the fur trade developed by the French there. The colonists bitterly resented the Line of Demarcation that kept them out of the new territory.

Chapter 6

Seven Years' War

Description:  The war of Britain and Prussia, who emerged in the ascendant, against France and Austria, resulting from commercial and colonial rivalry between Britain and France and from the conflict in Germany between Prussia and Austria.

Historical Significance: France lost all it's territory east of the Mississippi River in North America, plus everything it had previously held up in Canada, ending it's position as a major colonial power in the New World. Prussia became a serious contender in terms of the "Great European Powers" by holding the province of Silesia- which used to be Austria's. And England further shored up it's prominence as the world's leading colonial force by strengthening it's grip on land in India and North America. 

Chapter 6

Albany Congress

Description: Intercolonial congress sommoned by the British government to foster greater solonial unity and assure Iroquois support in the escalating war against the French. 

Historical Significance: Representatives met daily at Albany, New York from June 19 to July 11 to discuss better relations with the Indian tribes and common defensive measures against the French. They did conclude a treaty with the tribes represented, but the treaty failed to secure peace with all the Native American tribes during the French and Indian War. The Congress is notable for producing Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan of Union, an early attempt to form a union of the colonies. Part of the Plan was used in writing the Articles of Confederation, which kept the States together from 1781 until the Constitution.

Chapter 6

Regulars

Description: Trained professional soldiers, as distinct from militia or conscripts. During the French and Indian War, British generals, used to commanding experienced regulars, often showed contempt for ill-trained colonial militiamen. 

Historical Significance: These men were well trained and suffered because of the ill-trained colonists ways of behind-the-tree methods of fighting. The British regulars fired from a line, allowing them to be exploited and taken advantage from by the colonists. 

Chapter 6

Battle of Québec

Description: The first major defeat of the Revolutionary War for the Americans. 

Historical Significance: General Arnold and General Montgomery failed in invasion attempt of Canada. The Americans were forced out of Canada and it was the last attempt by the Americans to get the Canadian population on their side.

Chapter 6

Pontiac's Uprising

Description: Bloody campaign waged by Ottawa chief Pontiac to drive the British out of Ohio Country. It was brutally crushed by British troops, who resorted to distributing blankets infected with smallpox as a means to put down the rebellion.  

Historical Significance: Pontiac's Rebellion demonstrated to the Native Indian tribes that they had power in numbers which led to alliances between tribes to fight their common enemy - the white settlers. Meanwhile, the British came to the conclusion that they needed the Native Americans to supply the furs for their lucrative fur trade and established the massive boundary called the Proclamation Line which halted the westward expansion by colonists. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 officially recognized that indigenous people had certain rights to the lands they occupied. Finally, the colonists were expected to pay a tax to meet the costs of establishing and manning the borders of the Proclamation Line which led to the belief that the King had sided with the Indians despite Pontiac's Rebellion, against the interests of the settlers eventually leading the Revolution.

Chapter 6

Proclamation of 1763

Description: Degree issued by Parliament in the wake of Pontiac's uprising, prohibiting settlement beyond the Appalachians. Contribuyed to rising resentment of British rule in the American colonies. 

Historical Significance: The Proclamation of 1763 closed lands north and west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlement. The goal of the British was to put a stop to conflicts that had arisen between the Native Americans and the colonists due to the French and Indian War. However, many colonists had purchased land or had been given land grants in that area in exchange for their military service during the war. Settlers began ignoring the Proclamation Line. Eventually, the colonists were able to get the line moved further west. This event was just the beginning of rising tensions between Great Britain and the colonies.

Chapter 6

Louis XIV

Description: Louis XIV of France ranks as one of the most remarkable monarchs in history. He reined for 72 years, 54 of them he personally controlled French government. During his reign France stabilized and became one of the strongest powers in Europe.  

Historical Significance: The 17th century is labeled as the age of Louis XIV. Since then his rule has been hailed as the supreme example of a type of government - absolutism. He epitomized the ideal of kingship. During his reign France became the ideal culture since he put great care into its enhancement so he could boast it to the world. The country changed drastically from savage mediaeval ways to a more refined, exquisite living - evident from his palace in Versailles.

Chapter 6

Samuel de Champlain

Description: Founded Québec as the first permanent French colony in North America. 

Historical Significance: He was important in helping persuade the French government that further explorations in North America might lead to the discovery of a Northwest Passage that would lead to Asia. He was especially significant for his explorations creating charts that helped other explorers.

Chapter 6

Edward Braddock

Description: Unsuccessful British commander in North America in the early stages of the French and Indian War. 

Historical Significance: He attempted to capture Fort Duquesne in 1755. He was defeated by the French and the Indians. At this battle, Braddock was mortally wounded.

Chapter 6

William Pitt

Description: English statesman who brought the Seven Years' War to an end.  

Historical Significance: Although he spent most of his career in the minority party within parliament, and was frequently at odds with the king, he nevertheless succeeded famously in many of his endeavors through persistence and masterful leadership when given the opportunity to direct affairs. He was also a great hero with the common people, and the criticisms of government for which he was famous often reflected the sentiments of the common Englishman. Pitt is credited more than any other person with leading Britain to victory during the critical Seven Year's War in the mid-eighteenth century. Britain's victories in this war led to her complete dominance over rival France in North America, India, and at sea, and formed the foundation of the British Empire.

Chapter 6

James Wolfe

Description: British general whose success in the Battle of Quebec won Canada for the British Empire.

Historical Significance:  He led the successful attack against Quebec in 1759, all but ending the French and Indian War. Wolfe's risky decision to attack the western side of the city by scaling the poorly defended cliffs along the Saint Lawrence River caught the French by surprise. Forced to abandon the security of the city walls, the less disciplined French forces were quickly defeated. In the battle, Wolfe received injuries to his wrist and chest, and died on the battlefield. He subsequently became a British national hero.

Chapter 6

Pontiac

Description: Indian Chief

Historical Significance: He led post war flare-up in the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes Region in 1763. Also, his actions led to the Proclamation of 1763 of which angered the colonists.

Chapter 7

Republicanism

Description: Political theory or representative government, based on the principle of popular sovereignty, with a strong emphasis on liberty and civic virtue. 

Historical Significance: Influential in eighteenth-centur American political thought, it stood as an alternative to monarchial rule. 

Chapter 7

Radical Whigs

Description: Eighteenth-century British political commentators who agitated against political corruption and emphasized the threat to liberty posed by arbitrary power. 

Historical Significance: Their writings shaped American political thought and made colonists especially alert to encroachments on their rights. 

Chapter 7

Mercantilism

Description: Economic theory that closely linked a nation's political and military power to its bullion reserves.

Historical Significance: Mercantilism generally favored protectionism and colonial acquistion as means to increase exports. British used mercantilism as a means to control the trade between the colonies and other countries. In order to be in control of all trade, Britain enacted laws reinforcing the idea of mercantilism. 

Chapter 7

Sugar Act

Description: Duty on imported sugar from the West Indies. 

Historical Significance: It was the first tax levied on the colonists by the crown and was lowered substantially in response to wide-spread protests. Some leaders in the colonies started to boycott, or to quite buying, British goods. They told everybody to boycott them as well. They did that because they thought that the British would make the prices lower. The colonists became more united because they opposed the Sugar Act.

Chapter 7

Quartering Act

Description: Required colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops. 

Historical Significance: Many colonists resented the act, which they perceived as an encroachment on their rights. Resistance to the Quartering Act was strongest in New York. In January 1766, the assembly there refused to fund the full amount requested by the Crown. The New Yorkers reasoned that it was unfair to expect them to pay the full cost of Thomas Gage’s growing army. Bickering between the assembly and British officials continued into the fall, when the legislature voted to not fund at all. In October 1767, the New York assembly was suspended until the soldiers' needs were fully funded. This crisis later passed, but an immense amount of bitterness remained and many colonists became suspicious about British intentions.

Chapter 7

Stamp Act

Description: Widely unpopular tax on an array of paper goods, repealed in 1766 after mass protests erupted across the colonies. 

Historical Significance: Colonists developed the principle of "no taxation without representation" that questioned Parliament's authority over the colonies and laid the foundation for future revolutionary claims. 

Chapter 7

Admiralty Courts

Description: Used to try offenders for violation the various Navigation Acts passed by the crown after the French and Indian War. Colonists argued that the courts encroached on their rights as Englishmen since they lacked juries and placed the burden of proof on the accused. 

Historical Significance: Customs officials and merchants could bring action in whichever court they thought would bring the most favorable resort. This presented an apparent injustice from the perspective of those charged. They argued that the lack of a trial-by-jury was an infringement of their "constitutional" rights. However the distinction was minor in practice because all of the judges were drawn from the local population. A provision of the Currency Act established a "super" Vice-Admiralty court in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This new court did not supersede the authority of the existing courts. Rather it was to be used on occasions when officials felt that the local courts might rule against them. This court could be used not only to prosecute, but to persecute those thought to be enemies of Great Britain.

Chapter 7

Stamp Act Congress

Description: Assembly of delegates from nine colonies who met in New York City to draft a petition for the replea of the Stamp Act. 

Historical Significance: As a quasi-official gathering of colonial leaders to protest imposition by Parliament in 1763 of the Stamp Act, an effort to tax the colonies directly. The colonial position was that Parliament had no jurisdiction to do that. The Congress led to the first non-importation agreement, which hurt the colonies little but hurt British merchants a lot because England was experiencing a business depression at the time. It also helped ease sectional suspicions and promote intercolonial unity. 

Chapter 7

Nonimportation Agreements

Description: Boycotts against British goods adopted in response to the Stamp Act and, later, the Townshend and Intolerable Acts. 

Historical Significance: The agreements were the most effective form of protest against British policies in the colonies. They began with the Stamp Act being repealed, eventually, based on appeals from Merchants who lost money shipping goods to a land that would not receive them. Not incidentally, the customs offices in the colonies could not collect taxes on goods that were either not allowed ashore at all, or were never sold. Non-importation agreements reached ultimate effect in response to the Townshend Revenue Act, when in 1768 Boston passed an act. Every port city and nearly every region would soon adopt acts like this one. Finally, in 1774, the first Continental Congress of the colonies would pass The Association, a colony-wide prohibition against any trade with Great Britain.

Chapter 7

Sons of Liberty

Description: Patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing nonimportation agreements. 

Historical Significance: When Samuel Adams founded the Sons of Liberty it was a very significant event because the members helped cause events like the Boston Teas Party, Boston Massacre, riots, mobs and protests. All of these caused more tension between the colonies and Britain which ended up leading to the American Revolution. In a way, the Sons of Liberty were like an added spark to the upcoming fire that would start the revolution where the colonies would be fighting for their freedom and their rights.

Chapter 7

Daughters of Liberty

Description: Patriotic groups that played a central role in agitating against the Stamp Act and enforcing nonimportation agreements.

Historical Significance: The Daughters of Liberty displayed their loyalty by supporting the nonimportation of British goods during the American Revolution. They refused to drink British tea and used their skills to weave yarn and wool into cloth, which made America less dependent on British textiles. In 1774, these women helped influence a decision made by Continental Congress to boycott all British goods, which was due in large part to the Daughters of Liberty, who were determined to reach demands for homemade clothing.

Chapter 7

Declaratory Act

Description: Passed alongside the repeal of the Stamp Act, it reaffirmed Parliament's unqualified sovereignty over the North American colonies.

Historical Significance: As a result of the Declaratory Act, British Parliament began issuing several Acts against the colonies. The colonies could do virtually nothing against them simply because Britain said that they were "for the good of the empire." After the Declaratory Act, Britain passed such acts as the Quartering Act of 1766, which required colonists to house British soldiers at their own expense, and the Townshend Acts, which taxed all imports into colonies. The Declaratory Act of 1766 simply gave Britain the right to issue such following acts.

Chapter 7

Townshend Acts

Description: External, or indirect, levies on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea, the proceeds of which were used to pay colonial governors, who had previously been paid directly by colonial assemblies. 

Historical Significance: The British had passed similar measures before the Townshend Acts with Navigation Acts and the Sugar Act. Had the Sugar Act been enforced, the trade of Massachusetts and other New England colonies would have been virtually ruined. Due to the British policy of Salutary Neglect, the law was not enforced and, as the taxes were not collected, no one cared whether they were legal or not. The Townshend Acts made it very clear that this tax and the other Townshend taxes were to be collected. It  inevitably sparked another round of protests in the colonies. 

Chapter 7

Boston Massacre

Description: Clash between unruly Bostonian protestore and locally stationed British redcoats, who fired on the jeering crowd, killing or wounding eleven citizens. 

Historical Significance: The Boston Massacre was a signal event leading to the Revolutionary War. It led directly to the Royal Governor evacuating the occupying army from the town of Boston. It would soon bring the revolution to armed rebellion throughout the colonies.

Chapter 7

Committees of Correspondence

Description: Local committees established across Massachusetts, and later in each of the thirteen colonies, to maintain colonial opposition to British policies through the exchange of letters and pamphlets.  

Historical Significance: Committees of Correspondence were the American colonies' first institution for maintaining communication with one another. They were organized in the decade before the Revolution, when the deteriorating relationship with Great Britain made it increasingly important for the colonies to share information. In March 1773, the Virginia House of Burgesses proposed that each colonial legislature appoint a standing committee for intercolonial correspondence. The exchanges that followed helped build a sense of solidarity. When the First Continental Congress was held in September 1774, it represented the logical evolution of the intercolonial communication that had begun with the Committees of Correspondence.

Chapter 7

Boston Tea Party

Description: Rowdy protest against the British East India Company's newly acquired monopoly on the tea trade. Colonists, disguised as Indians, dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor, promoting harsh sanctions from the British Parliament.

Historical Significance: The significance and impact of the Boston Tea Party would not only be one of the first acts of defiance against the British, but would also put to the test the British, and in particular, Parliament and the King, and their position as having a right to govern and represent a people that they were losing touch with and who were becoming increasingly independent of the Mother Country. It would represent the colonist’s frustration not at occupation but of representation and foster the idea of future self-governance.

Chapter 7

"Intolerable Acts"

Description: Series of punitive measures passed in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, closing the Port of Boston, revoking a number of rights in the Massachusetts colonial charter, and expanding the Quartering Act to allow for the lodging of soldiers in private homes. 

Historical Significance: In response, colonists covented the First Continental Congress and called for a complete boycott of British goods. 

Chapter 7

Quebec Act

Description: Allowed the French residents of Quebec to retain their traditional political and religious institutions, and extended the boundaries of the providence southward to the Ohio River. 

Historical Significance: Mistakenly perceived by the colonists to be part of Parliament's response to the Boston Tea Party. Opposition formed in a number of quarters. Colonies with western land claims were firmly cut off from what they hoped would be future development and wealth. Strong protests arose in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia. Individual land speculators and investment companies also had their dreams dashed, and added their voices to the clamor.

Chapter 7

First Continental Congress

Description: Convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that convened in Philadelphia to craft a response to the Intolerable Acts.  

Historical Significance: Delegates established Association, which called for a complete boycott of British goods. Secondly, a declaration of colonial rights was drafted and sent to London. Much of the debate revolved around defining the colonies' relationship with mother England. Finally, the delegates decided to reconvene in May 1775 if their grievances were not addressed. This is a major step in creating an ongoing intercolonial decision making body, unprecedented in colonial history.

Chapter 7

The Association

Description: Nonimportation agreement crafted during the First Continental Congress calling for the complete boycott of British goods.  

Historical Significance: If Parliament did not respond by September of the following year, then the American colonies would enter stage two, the non-exportation phase of their plan. Further, the colonists would be urged to not consume British products already in America. This program of concerted economic pressure — non-importation, non-exportation and non-consumption — was to continue until the offending laws were repealed. The Association was generally successful during its short life. Enforcement committees were formed in all but one of the colonies and trade with Britain plummeted. A sharp response came from Parliament in the spring of 1775 in the New England Restraining Act.

Chapter 7

Battles of Lexington

and Concord

Description: First battles of the Revolutionary War, fought outside of Boston. 

Historical Significance: Warned of the British troops’ movements, the Lexington patriots had assembled in an effort to halt British progress toward Concord. Both sides stood their ground, and in a tense moment, a shot was fired. Though it’s unclear which side, British soldier or American patriot, fired that first “shot heard ’round the world,” history remembers it as the start of the American Revolutionary War. The colonial militia successfully defended their stores of munitions, forcing the British to retreat to Boston.

Chapter 7

Valley Forge

Description: Encampment where George Washington's poorly equipped army spend a wretched, freezing winter. Hundreds of men died and more that a thousand deserted. The plight of the starving, shivering soldiers reflected the main weakness of the American army-a lack of stable supplies and munitions. 

Historical Significance: In March, General Nathanael Greene was appointed head of the dismal Commissary Department and magically food and supplies started to trickle in. By April, Baron von Steuben, a quirky mercenary who was not really a baron, began to magically transform threadbare troops into a fighting force. Also in April, the Conway Cabal, a plot to remove George Washington from power, was quashed for good. May, brought news of the French Alliance, and with it the military and financial support of France. On June 19, 1778, exactly six months after they Americans arrived, a new army anxious to fight the British streamed out of Valley Forge toward New Jersey. They had been transformed from Rebel into a Mature Army.

Chapter 7

Camp Followers

Description: Women and children who followed the Continental Army during the American Revolution, providing vital services such as cooking and sewing in return for rations. 

Historical Significance: Camp followers were not from any select social class. Officers' wives and mistresses accompanied them on the march. Women of more learned background, however, were also able to provide services such as copying correspondence, knitting and managing field hospitals. Able women were often under orders to assist in tending to the wounded. It was not unheard of for women to take up arms or to assist the canon crews in the heat of battle. They led hard lives, being fully expected to earn their keep. 

Chapter 7

John Hancock

Description: An extremely wealthy American Patriot based in Boston.

Historical Significance: He was a leader of the Sons of Liberty a secret, underground organization that was founded in Boston by Samuel Adams and John Hancock in July 1765 following the introduction of the Stamp Act. His ship, the Liberty, was seized by the British following the provisions of the Townshend Acts John Hancock avoided arrest by the British due to the warning he received from Paul Revere on is famous midnight ride. John Hancock was president of the first and second provincial congresses, president of the Continental Congress and was elected Massachusetts governor nine times. The Signature of John Hancock was the first to be added to the Declaration of Independence.

Chapter 7

George Grenville

Description: An English politician.

Historical Significance: He entered Parliament in 1741, held a number of ministerial appointments, then served as prime minister. His policy of taxing the American colonies, initiated by his Revenue Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765, started the train of events leading to the American Revolution. He was unpopular for the prosecution of John Wilkes for seditious libel. His clumsy handling of the Regency Act of 1765 alienated George III and led to the fall of his ministry. In opposition thereafter, Grenville helped bring about the passage of the Townshend Acts, which further angered the Americans.

Chapter 7

Charles ("Champagne Charley") Townshend

Description: British member of Parliament.

Historical Significance: He created the Townshend Acts, which were despised by Americans. They included the tax on tea. His actions helped lead to the Revolutionary War.

Chapter 7

Crispus Attucks

Description: One of the men who was killed in the Boston Massacre.

Historical Significance: He was important to the Revolutionary War because of how the Patriots and the Sons of Liberty spread the news of the Boston Massacre and the deaths of the men, including Attucks, throughout the colonies. This act outraged Americans in all the colonies, not just Massachusetts, and led to increased support for the revolution from all 13 colonies.

Chapter 7

George III

Description: King of Great Britain and Ireland (1760-1820) and of Hanover (1815-1820).

Historical Significance: King George's policies were the exact antithesis to the Constitution- in fact, many amendments are made specifically because of some of his actions. The third amendment does not allow soldiers to be quartered in civilian houses was drafted because King George stationed redcoats in colonial houses during the Revolution. The sixth amendment against self-incrimination is because of King George's use of admiralty courts to try colonial citizens without a jury. The system of checks and balances was created because it became apparent that the King could defy the Magna Carta or oppose Parliament at any time he chooses. In a way, King George was a Founding Father because he laid the groundwork for the Constitution and became the symbol of absolute power that the Constitution was made to prevent.

Chapter 7

Lord North

Description:  Prime MInister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782.

Historical Significance: North extended Parliament's version of an "olive branch" in early 1775, when the English government offered to desist from taxing any colony that made adequate provisions to support its civil and military government. But then Parliament proceeded to pass laws restraining trade and fisheries in New England, and later in all the colonies. North's "olive branch" offer did not succeed and the first shots of the war were fired a few months later.

Chapter 7

Samuel Adams

Description: A leader in the revolutionary war movement in Massachusetts and one of America's founding fathers. 

Historical Significance: Described as a firebrand, a revolutionary, and a patriot, the young Adams was perhaps the most vocal of his generation to demand independence from Great Britain. He believed in the higher cause of independence, and he didn't often let laws that he thought unjust stand in his way. Adams gained much fame for his actions and for this statement. He was soon at the center of the patriotic movement, the drive for America to have its own representation in the British government, the drive to avoid "taxation without representation," and what became the drive for independence. He was also, during this time, a founder and major player in the activities of the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization designed to foster the cause of independence.

Chapter 7

Thomas Hutchinson

Description: A strong and faithful loyalist and governor of Massachusetts. 

Historical Significance: He was a politically polarizing figure who, despite initial opposition to Parliamentary tax laws directed at the colonies, came to be identified by John Adams and Samuel Adams as a proponent of hated British taxes. He was blamed by Lord North for being a significant contributor to the tensions that led the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.

Chapter 7

Marquis de Lafayette

Description: French nobleman who helped secure aid from France for the colonies. 

Historical Significance: He gave the colonists help for going against the British which was important because the French hated the British also and were getting payback.

Chapter 7

Baron von Steuben

Description: A Prussian-born military officer who served as inspector general and Major General of the ontinental Army during the American Revolutionary War.  

Historical Significance: He is credited with being one of the fathers of the Continental Army in teaching them the essentials of military drills, tactics, and disciplines. He wrote the Revolutionary War Drill Manual, the book that served as the standard United States drill manual until the War of 1812. He served as General George Washington's chief of staff in the final years of the war.

Chapter 7

Lord Dunmore

Description: Royal governor of Virginia who offered freedom to any black person that fought for the Army. 

Historical Significance: He allowed there to be black loyalists which was important because they took Americans and made them British.

Chapter 8

Second Continental Congress

Description: Representative body of delegates from all thirteen colonies. Drafted the Declaration of Independence and managed the colonial war effort.

Historical Significance: The Congress adopted the Declaration, acted as the government for the colonies during the war, raised an army and navy, approved the creation of the Articles of Confederation, and negotiated the peace with Great Britain

Chapter 8

Battle of Bunker Hill

Description: First major battle of the American Revolution.

Historical Significance: Although the British accomplished their objective, they did so at a heavy cost. This moral victory united the Americans in their opposition to the British. Also Colonists throughout America realized that the conflict was no longer restricted to Boston and or Massachusetts, and Bunker Hill became a rallying cry of the patriots in every contest of the war. Together with Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill also demonstrated that American militia was capable of standing up to the best that the British could offer.

Chapter 8

Olive Branch Petition

Description: Conciliatory measure adopted by the Continental Congress, professiong American loyality and seeking an ending to the hostilities. King George rejected the petition and proclamed the colonies in rebellion. 

Historical Significance: Although the King discarded the petition, it still served a very important purpose in American Independence. The King’s rejection gave John Adams and his radicals the opportunity they needed to push for independence. The rejection of the “olive branch” polarized the issue in the minds of colonists. It showed them that they could either submit unconditionally, or push to gain complete independence.

Chapter 8

Hessians

Description: German troops hired from their princes by George III to aid in putting down the colonial insurrection. This hardened the resolve of American colonists, who resented the use of paid foreign fighters. 

Historical Significance: The attraction of free land for deserters and the vigorous German population already in America led thousands of these mercenaries to switch allegiance and stay in America. Hessians who remained in the British employ were hated and feared by the Americans, and the fact that George III had chosen to employ foreign mercenaries stirred up much anger among the colonists.

Chapter 8

Common Sense

Description: Thomas Paine's pamphlet urging the colonists to declare independence and establish a republican government. 

Historical Significance: The widely read pamphlet helped convince colonists to support the Revolution. In addition, it unified the colonists allowing for the Revolution to begin.

Chapter 8

Declaration of Independence

Description: Formal pronouncement of independence drafted by Thomas Jerrerson and approved by Congress.The declaration allowed Americans to appeal for foreign aid and served as an inspiration for later revolutionary movements worldwide. 

Historical Significance: The Declaration of Independence has great significance to the American people because it is what led to our independence from King George III. The Declaration of Independence justified our right to revolt against a government that no longer guaranteed us our natural rights. And it also helped us to get increased foreign assistance from France in our fight to become free from King George III of England. The Declaration of Independence stated certain ideals that the colonists believed were important for man to have, such as liberty and equality. The Declaration also plays a significant role in our world today and in recent history. It is because of the words in that document that women are now treated the same as men and that all races are treated equally. Without the words of our founding fathers some of the civil rights that have been passed might never have come to light.

Chapter 8

Declaration of the

Rights of Man

Description: Declaration of rights adopted during the French Revolution. Modeled after the American Declaration of Independence. 

Historical Significance: The Declaration of the Rights of Man is a fundamental document of the French Revolution defining the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal. Influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, the rights of Man are universal: valid at all times and in every place, pertaining to human nature itself. Although it establishes fundamental rights for French citizens and all men without exception, it addresses neither the status of women nor slavery; despite that, it is a precursor document to international human rights instruments.

Chapter 8

Loyalists

Description: American colonists who opposed the Revolution and maintained their loyality to the King; sometimes referred to as "Tories."

Historical Significance: Loyalist regiments were formed in several theaters and participated in some of the bitterest engagements of the war. At the end of the war, thousands of Loyalists left the country; 30,000 departed from New York alone. Many from the North fled into Canada, particularly to Nova Scotia, while others in the South withdrew to the Bahamas and West Indies. Homesickness was common and caused some to return to the United States. A number of the early returnees were treated harshly, but passions cooled over time.

Chapter 8

Patriots

Description: Colonists who supported the American Revolution; they were also known as "Whigs."

Historical Significance: These men were colonists of the British Thirteen Colonies who rebelled against the British control during the American Revolution and declared themselves an independent nation, the United States of America in July 1776. Their rebellion was based on the political philosophy of republicanism.

Chapter 8

Battle of Long Island 

Description: Battle for the control of New York. British troops overwhelmed the colonial militias and retained control of the city for most of the war. 

Historical Significance: The significance of the conflict was that U.S. forces were forced to retreat to Manhattan, then New Jersey. However, their defensive tactics proved to be highly successful against the British.

Chapter 8

Battle of Trenton

Description: George Washington surprised and captured a garrison of sleeping German Hessians, raising the morale of his crestfallen army and setting the stage for his victory at Princeton a week later. 

Historical Significance: The significance of the conflict was that the Hessian army was crushed in Washington's raid across the Delaware River and the Americans were invigorated by the easy defeat of the British Hessian forces.

Chapter 8

Battle of Saratoga

Description: Turning point of the American Revolution.

Historical Significance: It was very important because it convinced the French to give the U.S. military support. It lifted American spirits, ended the British threat in New England by taking control of the Hudson River, and, most importantly, showed the French that the Americans had the potential to beat their enemy, Great Britain.

Chapter 8

Model Treaty

Description: Sample treaty drafted by the Continental Congress as a guide for American diplomats. Reflected the Americans' desire to foster commercial partnerships rather than political or military entanglements. 

Historical Significance: The Model Treaty was not with a specific country, but rather was a template for future relations with foreign countries and was America’s first diplomatic statement. It adhered to the ideal of free and reciprocal trade. It was also a practical document reflecting the existing American non-political trade arrangements with France and Spain that Robert Morris had established as chairman of the Secret Committee. It was a proposal to formalize those arrangements as arrangements between countries and not just individuals.

Chapter 8

Armed Neutrality

Description: Loss alliance of nonbelligerent naval powers, organized by Russia's Catherine the Great, to protect neutral trading rights during the war for American Independence.

Historical Significance: In 1780, Catherine the Great of Russia took the lead in this group. It lined up almost all the remaining European neutrals in an attitude of passive hostility toward Britain. The American Revolution was now being fought not only in Europe and North America, but also in South America, the Caribbean, and Asia. Catherine the Great later sneeringly called this group the "Armed Nullity."

Chapter 8

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

Description: Treaty signed by the United states and the pro-British Iroquois granting Ohio country to the Americans. 

Historical Significance: No longer able to play off rival colonial powers following the British victory in the French and Indian War, Indians were reduced to a choice between compliance and resistance. Weakened by the recent war, they negotiated away parcels of land in exchange for promises of protection from further encroachments. So in 1768, the Iroquois gave up their claim south of the Ohio, hoping thereby to deflect English settlement away from their own homeland.

Chapter 8

Privateers

Description and Historical Significance: Privately owned armed ships authorized by Congress to prey on enemy shipping during the Revolutionary War. Privateers, more numerous than the tiny American Navy, inflicted heavy damages on British shippers.

Chapter 8

Battle of Yorktown

Description: George Washington, with the aid of the French Army, desieged Cornwallis at Yorktown, while the French naval fleet prevented British reinforcements from coming ashore. 

Historical Significance: Cornwallis surrendered, dealing a heavy blow to the British war effort and paving the way for an eventual peace. The Battle of Yorktown is known as the last battle of the Revolutionary War. 

Chapter 8

Treaty of Paris

Description: Peace treaty signed by Britain and the United States ending the Revolutionary War. 

Historical Significance: The British formally recognized American independence and ceded territory east of the Mississippi while the Americans, in turn, promised to restore Loyalist property and repay debts to British creditors. 

Chapter 8

Ethan Allen

Description and Historical Significance: Soldier of the American Revolution whose troops helped capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British and who helped to found Vermont. In addition, he seized gunpowder and artillery. 

Chapter 8

Benedict Arnold

Description and Historical Significance: Benedict Arnold was an early American hero of the Revolutionary War who later became one of the most infamous traitors in U.S. history after he switched sides and fought for the British. At the outbreak of the war, Arnold participated in the capture of the British garrison of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. In 1776, he hindered a British invasion of New York at the Battle of Lake Champlain. The following year, he played a crucial role in bringing about the surrender of British General John Burgoyne's army at Saratoga. Yet Arnold never received the recognition he thought he deserved. In 1779, he entered into secret negotiations with the British, agreeing to turn over the U.S. post at West Point in return for money and a command in the British army. The plot was discovered, but Arnold escaped to British lines. His name has since become synonymous with the word “traitor.”

Chapter 8

Richard Montgomery

Description and Historical Signifincance: A former British General, he then led the colonists. He led a successful attack into Montreal, then on to Quebec. Montgomery's attack on Quebec failed when he was killed, thus, the whole invasion into Canada failed.

Chapter 8

Thomas Paine

Description and Historical Significance: American Revolutionary leader and pamphleteer (born in England) who supported the American colonist's fight for independence and supported the French Revolution (1737-1809). Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense which allowed the colonists to begin to think about independence from Great Britain.

Chapter 8

Abigail Adams

Description and Historical Significance: Abigail Adams advocated and modeled an expanded role for women in public affairs during the formative days of the United States. Married to John Adams, she was an invaluable partner to him as he developed his political career, culminating in the presidency of the United States. She left a voluminous correspondence, providing information on everyday life and insight into the activities in the corridors of power during her time. Her letters show her to have been a woman of keen intelligence, resourceful, competent, self-sufficient, willful, vivacious, and opinionated—a formidable force. Her writing reveals a dedication to principle, a commitment to rights for women and for African-Americans, fierce partisanship in matters of her husband's and her family's interest, and an irreverent sense of humor.

Chapter 8

Richard Henry Lee

Description and Historical Significance: Richard Henry Lee was a member of the Philadelphia Congress during the late 1770's. On June 7, 1776 he declared, "These United colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." This resolution was the start of the Declaration of Independence and end to British relations. 

Chapter 8

Lord Charles Cornwallis

Description and Historical Significance: Cornwallis was a British general who fought in the Seven Years War, was elected to the House of Commons in 1760, and lost battles to George Washington on December 26, 1776 and on January 3, 1777. Cornwallis made his mark on history, even though he could never ensure an overall British win over the Americans. He had many individual victories and losses against the Americans in the American Revolution and will always be remembered as a great and powerful general.

Chapter 8

William Howe

Description and Historical Significance:  English General who commanded the English forces at Bunker Hill. Howe did not relish the rigors of winter campaigning, and he found more agreeable the bedtime company of his mistress. At a time when it seemed obvious that he should jointhe forces in New York, he joined the main British army for an attack on Philadelphia. He became known for his role in the capture of Quebec in 1759 when he led a British force to capture the cliffs at Anse-au-Foulon, allowing James Wolfe to land his army and engage the French. Howe also participated in the campaigns to take Louisbourg, Belle Île and Havana.

Chapter 8

John ("Gentleman

Johnny") Burgoyne

Description and Historical Significance: Burgoyne was a British general that submitted a plan for invading New York state from Canada. He was then given charge of the army. Though defeated, he advanced troops near Lake Champlain to near Albany. Burgoyne surrendered at Saratogaon Oct. 17, 1777. This battle helped to bring France into the war as an ally for the United States, this has been called one of the decisive battles of history.

Chapter 8

Benjamin Franklin

Description and Historical Significance: Printer whose success as an author led him to take up politics. He helped draw up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He played a major role in the American Revolution and negotiated French support for the colonists.

Chapter 8

Comte de Rochambeau

Description and Historical Significance: Commanded a powerful French army of six thousand troops in the summer of 1780 and arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. They were planning a Franco- American attack on New York.

Chapter 8

Nathanael Greene

Description: Nathanael Greene was a colonial general who fought the English inthe late eighteenth century-- used fighting tactic of retreating and getting the English to pursue for miles.

Historical Significance: Cleared Georgia and South Carolina of Britishtroops.

Chapter 8

Joseph Brant

Description and Historical Significance:  Mohawk leader who supported the British during the American Revolution.

Chapter 8

George Rogers Clark

Description and Historical Significance: Frontiersman who led the seizing of 3 British forts in 1777 and who led to the British giving the region north of the Ohio River to the United States.

Chapter 8

Admiral de Grasse

Description and Historical Significance: Admiral de Grasse operated a powerful French fleet in the WestIndies. He advised America he was free to join with them in an assault on Cornwallis atYorktown. Rochambeau's French army defended British by land and Admiral de Grasse blockaded them by sea. This resulted in Cornwallis's surrender on October 19, 1781.