Chapter Study Outline

  • I. 1776: Washington’s narrow escape
    • A. Howe assembled largest British army ever
    • B. American defeat on Long Island
    • C. Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis
    • D. Washington’s attack on Trenton, Christmas 1776
    • E. Washington’s second minor success at Princeton
    • F. Washington wintered in Morristown, New Jersey
  • II. American society at war
    • A. Division of support in the colonies
      • 1. Three groups: Patriots, Tories, and an indifferent middle group
      • 2. Who were the Tories?
      • 3. British and Tory frustrations
      • 4. Patriot groups materialized when troops were needed, then vanished
    • B. Analysis of the colonial war effort
      • 1. The militia
      • 2. The Continental army
      • 3. Supplies obtained directly from farmers
      • 4. Difficulties of financing the war
      • 5. Washington orders mass inoculation at Morristown
  • III. Setbacks for the British
    • A. Problems of the British war effort
    • B. Three-pronged attack in New York led to turning point of the war
      • 1. Howe took Philadelphia
      • 2. Washington retired to Valley Forge for the winter
      • 3. Burgoyne moved south in New York
      • 4. Battle of Saratoga
    • C. Saratoga escalated war to worldwide proportions
      • 1. French entered war to help Americans
      • 2. Spain entered as ally of France
      • 3. Britain declared war on the Dutch
  • IV. Both sides regroup
    • A. War in the East in 1778
      • 1. Clinton replaced Howe
      • 2. Winter at Valley Forge
        • a. Sufferings of the troops
        • b. Contributions of von Steuben and Lafayette
        • c. A renewed army
      • 3. Stalemate
    • B. Western successes of colonials
      • 1. George Rogers Clark in Illinois
      • 2. Iroquois power broken
      • 3. Daniel Boone in Kentucky
      • 4. Later effects of battles with frontier Indians
  • V. Southern campaign
    • A. Reasons for the move south
    • B. Reasons for lack of British success in the South
    • C. Savannah and Charleston captured by the British
    • D. Cornwallis routed Gates’s forces at Camden, South Carolina
    • E. Tarleton and Ferguson defeated at Kings Mountain
    • F. Greene placed in command of colonials in the South
    • G. Morgan’s victory at Cowpens
    • H. Cornwallis fights his way northward
    • I. Benedict Arnold’s contributions to the British
    • J. Exploits of the American navy
    • K. Cornwallis defeated at Yorktown
      • 1. Nature of the Yorktown campaign
      • 2. Results and their significance
  • VI. Peace negotiations
    • A. Negotiators
    • B. Nature of the problems with France and with Spain
    • C. American initiatives with Britain
    • D. Terms of the Peace of Paris, September 3, 1783
  • VII. The political revolution
    • A. Nature of the revolutionary concepts developed in America
      • 1. Nature of republican governmental ideas
      • 2. The necessity of a virtuous citizenry
    • B. Changes in state governments
      • 1. Concept of written constitutions
      • 2. Features of new state constitutions
    • C. Articles of Confederation
      • 1. Difficulties in obtaining ratification
      • 2. Powers of central government under the Articles
  • VIII. The social revolution
    • A. Loyalists abandon America
    • B. Impact of independence on lower socioeconomic groups
    • C. Impact of the Revolution on land tenure
    • D. Impact of the Revolution on slavery
      • 1. Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation
    • E. Impact of the Revolution on women
    • F. Impact of the Revolution on Indians
    • G. Impact of the Revolution on religion
  • IX. Emergence of an American culture
    • A. Independence Day
    • B. General impact of nationalism—America’s special destiny