Many of the things the British government did to the colonists over the next ten years made many people very angry at the Mother Country.

            England sent a large army into the Indian land west of the Appalachian Mountains. This was meant to help keep the peace with the Indians who had been stirred up by Chief Pontiac. The British ruler, King George III , issued the Proclamation of 1763 to end Pontiac’s Rebellion. This proclamation, or official announcement, said that the English settlers could not move into the land in the Ohio River Valley. These troops cost a lot of money to support, and the colonists didn’t like being kept out of this land.

The Stamp Act

            In 1765, the British made a new tax law called the Stamp Act , to help pay their war debt. American colonists had to pay for a special tax stamp that was put on paper like newspapers, calendars, and legal documents. The colonists didn’t like the idea of paying a tax that they had not been able to vote on. At home in England the British people did have a say in their laws. They voted on representatives to Parliament , who decided on new taxes. The colonists wanted to be able to vote on their own representatives to send to Parliament. King George would not let the Americans help write laws in Parliament.

The Townshend Acts

            The British repealed , or voted to end, most of the taxes, but then they enacted the Townshend Acts . These laws put taxes on many of the things that colonists had to buy from England, such as lead, paper, glass, and tea. Samuel Adams called on the colonists to boycott , or refuse to buy, British goods. The Daughters of Liberty helped make the boycott work by spinning their own cloth, and even making tea by boiling leaves.

            In 1770 a small group of angry Bostonians threw snowballs and rocks at some British soldiers and cursed them. No one knows who yelled "Fire!" The soldiers ended up shooting five of the men in the crowd. This incident came to be known as the Boston Massacre . The first man to die in what would become the beginning of the American Revolution was a black man named Crispus Attucks .

            In 1773, the British gave the British East India Company a monopoly , or exclusive control, of the colonial tea business. The East India Co. agreed to sell their tea for a cheap price and pay the tax on the tea. Boston was a large port city in Massachusetts near the Atlantic Ocean. There was a group of men in Boston, called the Sons of Liberty , who wanted to show how angry they were about "taxation without representation." When three ships full of tea came from England, the people of Boston refused to let the tea be unloaded. One night in 1773, some of the Sons of Liberty dressed up like Indians and threw the tea overboard. This was called the Boston Tea Party .

            The Tea Party made King George so mad that he blockaded , or closed, the port of Boston. This meant no ships could come or go. The people of Boston were ordered to house the hated soldiers in their homes. Colonists everywhere sent food and money to Boston to help them survive these Intolerable Acts .

            As the colonists became more and more angry and alarmed, many of them stopped wanting to get more rights as British subjects, and began to want freedom to run their own country. Colonists who wanted to stay under British rule were called Loyalists . However, many colonists, called Patriots , started to prepare for war. They drilled in fighting, and they stockpiled weapons. This militia , who could be called on at a moment’s notice to drop everything and pick up their guns, were called the minutemen .

The Shot Heard 'Round the World

            The British soldiers marched out of Boston to capture the stockpiled weapons and arrest the leaders of the Sons of Liberty. William Dawes and Paul Revere , on his famous Midnight Ride, warned the countryside. The minutemen stood their ground at the bridge at Lexington on April 19, 1775, the "shot that was heard ‘round the world" was fired, and the American Revolution began. By the time the British had marched to Concord and back to Boston, about 100 colonists and 247 redcoats had been killed or wounded.

War Begins

             Patrick Henry spoke against England in his famous "Liberty or Death" speech. Thomas Paine wrote in his book Common Sense that it made no sense for "a continent to be …ruled by an island." In 1776, the colonies sent representatives to the Continental Congress to write a document telling the whole world that the colonists wanted to be a free country. Thomas Jefferson did most of the writing of the Declaration of Independence , which said, "all men are created equal." The leaders of the colonies went to Philadelphia and signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

            What had started as a war to change the way England was treating the colonies had become a war to gain independence. The American Revolution lasted six years. During that time George Washington was the leader of the American army. France and some other countries helped us fight the English. Some of the people who are remembered for their part in the Revolution are the Marquis de Lafayette , a French nobleman who became a General in the American army, and Friedrich von Steuben , a German officer who drilled the troops in war tactics. Thaddeus Koskiusco was a Polish engineer who helped the colonists build fortifications. Deborah Sampson and James Armistead were American spies. Molly Pitcher took her husband’s place firing a canon when he was wounded, and Haym Salomon was a rich banker who gave all his money to finance much of the Revolution.

            At first it looked like the British soldiers and German mercenaries , or hired soldiers, would quickly defeat the Americans. Then on Christmas Day, 1776, Washington won the important battle of Trenton . He surprised the German mercenaries by crossing the Delaware River and attacking while they were sleeping off their Christmas Eve celebrations. This victory encouraged the Americans and many colonists volunteered to fight.

            In 1777, the Americans defeated General Burgoyne at Saratoga . This was the turning point of the war.

            General Washington spent the winter of 1777 with the American soldiers at Valley Forge . Many soldiers wrapped their feet in rags. Most were hungry. All were cold, but the army held together.

            George Rogers Clark and his men fought to drive the British out of the Ohio River Valley, and finally took Fort Vincennes . Clark’s victory gave the Americans control of the Northwest Territory .

            Francis Marion , called the "Swamp Fox ," and Nathanael Greene kept the British busy in the South.

            Although our navy was very small, sea battles were waged as well. The most famous American seaman was John Paul Jones .

            The most famous traitor of the American Revolution was Benedict Arnold . A traitor is a person who turns against his or her country and gives aid to its enemies.

Independence!

            The fighting ended after the surrender of the Cornwallis at Yorktown on Oct. 19, 1781.