Revolutionary War Heroes and Battles

Revolutionary Heroes

• During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Army and Navy received help from civilians.
• Nathan Hale was an American spy who was hanged by the British in New York City.
• His legendary final words were, "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
• John Paul Jones, an American navy commander, fought larger British ships and refused to give up, eventually winning a battle in the North Sea.

Fighting Men and Women

• Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, nicknamed Molly Pitcher, brought water to American troops at the Battle of Monmouth.
• When her husband was wounded, she took his place loading cannons in battle.
• Tadeusz Kosciuszko from Poland served in the Continental Army and helped design plans for a fort at West Point, now the United States Military Academy.

The War Moves

• The British moved the fighting south after France began helping the Americans.
• They aimed to defeat the Americans in the South before French aid could arrive, hoping for Loyalist support and Southern port access.
• The British lost several battles along the frontier, including the Battle of Vincennes, located in what is now Indiana.

Battles in the South

• Savannah, Georgia, was Britain's first target in the South, attacked by 3,500 British soldiers on November 25, 1778.
• The British took Charles Town (Charleston) in South Carolina in 1780, where the Americans were greatly outnumbered and lost.
• Benedict Arnold, a former Continental Army officer, became a traitor and led British attacks on Virginia towns in 1781 due to feeling unfairly treated by the Army.

Americans Fight Back

• General Nathanael Greene led the Continental Army in the South and encouraged his soldiers to persevere, stating, "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again."
• General Daniel Morgan led the Americans to victory at Cowpens, South Carolina, in January 1781.
• The Battle of Cowpens proved that American forces could defeat the British in the South.
• The British army was weakened at Guilford Courthouse, in North Carolina, in March 1781, and unable to win the war as there was no vital center to capture.

The War Ends

• By the summer of 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis headquartered at Yorktown, Virginia.
• Yorktown was on Chesapeake Bay.
• The French and Americans surrounded Cornwallis at Yorktown.
• The French navy gained control of Chesapeake Bay.
• Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, after being surrounded for weeks by land and sea.

The Treaty of Paris

• The Battle of Yorktown was the last major battle of the war, although some smaller battles continued.
• The two sides met in Paris, France, in April 1782 to negotiate a peace treaty.
• American negotiators John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams wanted Britain to accept American independence and remove British soldiers from American lands.
• The Treaty of Paris, signed September 3, 1783, ended the war and named the United States of America as a new nation, also setting the nation's borders.

New Ideas

• By 1776, states began writing their own constitutions, with several using Virginia's as a model.
• These constitutions included basic freedoms like trial by jury, the right to hold elections, and freedom of the press.
• The Declaration of Independence changed some Americans' views on rights, stating each person has the right to life and liberty.
• State constitutions did not grant this freedom to all people, denying women equality and keeping most African Americans enslaved.

Early Attempts to End Slavery

• Some believed slavery should end, leading Quakers in Philadelphia to start the first abolitionist group in 1775.
• Antislavery feelings grew after the Declaration of Independence was approved.
• Elizabeth Freeman, an enslaved woman in Massachusetts, sued for her freedom, arguing that the Declaration stated all people are born equal.
• She won, and in 1783, Massachusetts abolished slavery, with other northern states also ending it over time.

Western Settlements

• After the Revolutionary War, the United States lacked money to pay soldiers but had won land from the British.
• Congress decided to pay some soldiers with land based on their rank and service.
• Soldiers received various amounts of land in areas west of the Appalachians.
• Many former soldiers and families moved west, with Congress selling land to settlers and land companies.
• The United States stretched west to the Mississippi River, with British troops still in some northwestern forts.

The Ohio River

• Spain claimed lands along the country's western and southern borders.
• Many Native American groups lived along the Ohio River.
• Some of the fastest-growing areas were south of the Ohio River.
• Over 100,000 people moved to areas that became Kentucky and Tennessee during the American Revolution.

The Northwest Territory

• Land that belongs to a nation but is not a state is known as a territory.
• Thousands of Americans settled lands north of the Ohio River, and the area became known as the Northwest Territory.
• Initially, there was no plan for dividing land, causing uncertainty about property lines.
• In 1785, Congress passed a land ordinance explaining how land would be measured, divided, and sold.
• Land was divided into squares called townships. Every township was divided into 36 smaller squares, or sections.
• The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 set up a plan for governing the territory and forming new states from it.
• A territory with over 60,000 people could become a state.
• The ordinance guaranteed settlers freedom of religion and prohibited slavery in states formed from the Northwest Territory.

Native Americans After the Revolution

• After the Revolutionary War, the British left many of their forts in the West.
• It was harder for Native Americans to stop settlers from moving onto their lands without British help.
• Native Americans in the Northwest Territory united to fight against settlers.
• Leaders of the Native Americans included Michikinikwa (Little Turtle), a member of the Miami tribe (now Ohio and Indiana).
• Native American forces defeated United States soldiers in battles in what are now Indiana and Ohio in the early 1790s.
• In 1794, a larger United States force won the Battle of Fallen Timbers near Toledo, Ohio.
• In 1795, Michikinikwa and other tribal leaders agreed to the Treaty of Greenville, ceding most of their land in the Northwest Territory.
• The U.S. demanded their lands, and the Native Americans were angry.
• Anger that the United States demanded their lands led to this distrust.
• Some Native Americans sold land to land companies (ex. Seneca Indians).
• Settlers from the United States moved farther and farther west.