Study Guide – American Revolution

1. The effect of the French and Indian war between the British and the colonists was that it
caused more tension between the two groups. English only wanted to help the colonies
because the colonies were a profit for the English. The colonists thought that it should be the
English’s job to protect the colonies because England is the mother country. After the war
was finished, England thought the colonies should pay for the war debt because they were the
ones who needed help. The colonists believed that the mother country should pay for the
debts because they were the children of England. The result of the debt came down to
England deciding to tax imported goods to the colonies to pay for the debts, both direct and
indirect taxing.

2. Salutary neglect was the English policy of not interfering in colonial politics or economy as
long as the neglect benefits England’s economic interest. The English neglected the colonies
as long as they were making money and when England finally did pay attention to the
colonies and started telling them how to do things, the colonists revolted. The colonists were
upset by this change in policy because it felt like an attack on their rights to govern
themselves.

3. Both of the documents, Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence, had a
significant role in the War for Independence because of how motivating they were to the
colonists. Common Sense was a document written by Thomas Paine that explained the
colonists were being treated unfairly and that they should stop and take a second to look at
what was happening between themselves and Britain. The Declaration of Independence gave
the rights to the colonists as free men. The documents both appealed to the colonists because
that’s who was fighting in the war.

4. The French did play a fairly big role in the American Revolution. They were the colonies’
most potential allies. King Louis XVI of France was eager to see Britain lose and so he
joined forces with the colonies and began supplying the colonies with much needed supplies
like fire weapons. The biggest turning point in the war was the British surrender at Saratoga.
The surrender led to a stronger alliance between the colonies and France. George Washington
and Rochmbeau of France led troops by land while de Grasse from France led ships by sea to
help catch Lord Cornwallis and his troops between the two attacks. Lord Cornwallis sent a
deputy to formally surrender the more than 7,000 men Cornwallis had on October 19, 1781.

5. Steps between 1763 and 1776 that led to War for American Independence:
a) 1763 – The end of the French and Indian War as well as the end of salutary neglect.
b) Proclamation of 1763 -
– limited conflicts with tribes, both militarily costly and dangerous to trade
– slowed population departure from coast where markets and investments were
– reserved opportunities for land speculation and fur trade for English, not
entrepreneurs
– controlled westward movement
c) Sugar Act of 1764 – eliminated illegal sugar trade between colonies, French, and Spanish
in West Indies; raised duty on sugar; lowered duty on molasses
 d) Currency Act of 1764 – British wanted to stop colonies from issuing paper money and
retire paper money that was already in circulation
e) Stamp Act of 1764 – imposed direct taxes on paper products such as newspapers,
almanacs, pamphlets, deeps, wills, licenses
f) Mutiny Act of 1765 (Townshend Duties)-
– ships of British navy patrol American waters for illegal smugglers
– customs service reorganized and enlarged
– royal officials to take post and not the substitutes
– colonial manufacturing was restricted
– required to assist in provisioning and maintaining army
g) Declaratory Act – 1766 – passed so that Parliament still has authority over colonies in all
cases whatsoever
h) Boston Massacre – March 5, 1770 – 5 people were killed in result of the Sons of Liberty
attacking armed British soldiers
i) Tea Act – 1773 – British East Trading Company was allowed a direct route to the
colonies to sell tea which became a monopoly. It also was another taxation without
representation towards the colonies
j) Boston Tea Party – December 16, 1773 – 150 men dressed as Mohawks boarded tea ships
and dumped all the tea in the water as a part of a boycott.
k) Intolerable / Coercive Acts of 1774 – punished Boston:
– reduced the self-government powers in Boston
– royal officers could be tried outside of the colony and in Britain
– had to provide quartering for troops in colonists’ barns and empty houses
– Parliament closed port at Boston
l) Quebec Act – provided civil government for French speaking Roman Catholics in Canada
and Illinois
m) War for Independence – 1775 – the colonies and Britain were not longer able to
compromise

6. Benjamin Franklin helped the discontent turn to action while he was involved in helping with
the Declaration of Independence, as well as an ambassador to France to help gather support for
the colonists. He was successful.
Sam Adams helped create the Sons of Liberty as well as call the First Continental Congress into
action in 1768. He was successful in what he set out to do.
Thomas Paine was the writer of Common Sense, a document that got people to think about
Britain and how the colonists were being treated. He was very successful in gathering support for
the cause.
George Washington was the leader of troops and though he was sometimes down, he got back up
and continued to work towards the cause of free states. At the end, he was successful, but he also
had his downfalls in between.
Benedict Arnold at first was a general in the army. Arnold helped fight for the Americans. In the
end though, he was a traitor and wanted to betray the stronghold at West Point for the British. He
was successful, but he ended up failing.
The First Continental Congress was successful in that it called together the representatives of
each of the states and passed acts against Britain. Many of the subjects talked about in the
congress were the need to get ready for British troops.
The Sons of Liberty were back they held extreme boycotts but today that can be compared to
terrorists. For the most part, they were successful in what they did back then, but by today’s
standards, they failed.

7. Massachusetts was a hotbed for a revolution for it’s political, economic and intellectual
climates of the colonies within it. In the political part of the revolution, the people of
Massachusetts wanted their freedom and the only way to be heard was to try and have a
voice somewhere within Parliament. The economy took a big hit with all of the taxation the
British were giving them. This caused a boycott against anything the British imported. In
doing so, they British believed they were rebelling and sent troops over to get them to settle
down. There were many bright people in Massachusetts and extraordinary ideas that came
from them. It was also very common to go to a drinking shop and talk about the politics and
come up with new ideas to solve the problems. This is also part of the politics in
Massachusetts because they colonists didn’t have any say in their government.
Puritanism was one of the ideas that supported the revolution because the religion taught
people to be kind to another and that there was no one absolute power to rule over them.
They were free to do as they pleased as long as it did not harm another or living thing.

8. The Americans justified their revolution in that they wanted to do the things they wanted,
their own way. The end of salutary neglect was a change for the colonies in that they were
suddenly being told what to do when everything they had done in the past was working just
fine. Some ideas that supported the revolution were religion (Puritanism), political
experiences, those who stood against Parliament, Scots (who considered England tyrannical),
“Country Whigs” and John Locke. America resisted the idea of having flexible and changing
principles, which is how England’s Parliament worked. The Americans also believed in
actual representation, where a person chosen by the colony would come to represent the
community and all that was going on in it. The Americans also questioned the nature of
sovereignty, where the ultimate power lay in the government. These ideas gathered more and
more steam as the revolution began to pick up speed on the way to the American’s freedom.

9. The American conduct of war was almost like guerilla warfare in that they sometimes came
from behind rocks and trees to shoot at the British. The British on the other hand walked in
straight lines with a drummer and were wearing red coats in the forests and open fields. The
British proposed to win in that they would take out all of those who were resisting the laws or
Britain while the colonists proposed to just get them off their land so they could continue to
live in peace. The American view of winning was more realistic in that they had the home
advantage and therefore knew the geography better than the British. The British point of view
seemed almost insurmountable in that they would have to stop and break up all revolts to get
the colonists to be under the rule of Britain again. The Americans had a much better reason to
fight than the British did because the colonists wanted their freedom and they were more
motivated to win that Britain was. The British just wanted them to stop making a fuss and
just do as Parliament said to do.

The American Revolution was a social revolution as well as a political revolution because in order to fight against
the British, all of the colonists had to come together for the cause. The revolution caused the white slave owners to
look at how they were treating their slaves. Up to one third of them in South Carolina left during the war. The war
also increased the black’s exposure to liberty in that they saw what the colonists were doing to the British and they
thought they could apply the same principle to their owners. The slave owners in South Carolina and Georgia
opposed the British efforts to free the slaves for fear that the revolution would cause rebellions against the whites. In
the end, the south tried to develop a way to make slavery more humane in how they treated their slaves.
The effects the revolution had on the economy were that it was stretched to its limit because of all the rations the
soldiers needed. They came back from the depression though