Changes for African Americans

Slavery didn't seem compativle with the ideals of the revoluton. In 1776, one of every 5 americans was an african ancestor. The major part of the africans were ensalved at the time and they had many problems with the congress because slaves were not allowed to vote. Loyalists and british thought that the patriots were being hipocrite by talking about freedom, but still holding slaves. Revolution inspired many slaves to demand freedom. They started to petition legislation for emancipation in the northern states. Some slaves even sued their owners in the courts. About 5,000 slaves joined the patriot's militia, and others would join the Continental Navy in return to freedom.

In the South, they feared black people. They thought that they were a threat to slavery. at least 50,000 of them escaped and joined the british. Revolution lead to emancipation in the north. About 1/3 of the population in the south were slaved, while in the north, they were about 5%. Many northerners also freed their slaves, but emancipation failed in the south. In Maryland and Virginia, some planters freed their slaves volunterely. This was called manumission.After the year 1800, southern states passed laws to discourage manumission, because they feared that the black people being freed, would want to come back and take revenge on the owners. By 1810, about 20,000 slaves were freed, including the 300 slaves freed by George Washington.

The greatest effect of the revolution was the spread of the idea of liberty both at home and abroad. Over the next 3 centuries, the patriots principles inspired revolution around the world. Revolution ended in 1783, and the French Revolution in 1789. European republics cited american presedent to overthrow king and aristocrats. In the 19th century, independent republics emerged throughout Latin America. During the 20th century, Africans and Asians began national liberation movements.


The most curious of it all, is that Thomas Paine actually predicted that the revolution would change the world! 

The Revolution Impacts Society

The British tried to protect their loyalists allies. About 90,000 including 20,000 former slaves became refugies. The majority ended up settling in the british northern colonies, known as Canada. Meanwhile, native americans were stunned that the British had forgotten about them. The Treaty of Paris didn't mention them either. There were two treaties made by indians and americans where they lost a vast track of land; 


Fort Stanwix-1784 was an important treaty between North American Indians and the British Empire. It was signed in 1768 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York. It was negotiated between Sir William Johnson and representatives of the Six Nations (the Iroquois). The purpose of the conference was to adjust the boundary line between Indian lands and British colonial settlements set forth in the Royal Proclamation of 1763. 
 Hopewell-1785 is any of three different treaties signed at Hopewell, (the plantation of Andrew Pickens on the Seneca River in northwestern South Carolina) between the Confederation Congress of the United States of America and Cherokee (1785), Choctaw and Chickasaw (1786) indigenous nations. The site of Treaty Oak is on Old Cherry Road in Pickens County, South Carolina. There is a historical marker before reaching the bridge crossing Lake Hartwell. There is a trail through the forest that goes to the monument. The actual Treaty Oak is no longer alive.


Since the king was not there, the settlers moved west to take over the land. In 7 years, more than 100,000 Americans lived in Kentucky and Tennesse. The revoluton was a complete disaster for the indians.


Women were also impacted by the revolution. They started to gain political right, but most importantly, respect. They were now called the mothers of the revolution rather than the daughters of liberty. Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, in the constitutional convention, asking him to please remember the ladies. John loved her, but he ignored her request. Widows could vote but only in New Jersey, and wives could not make contracts or have properties. 


This was all very sad, I would have divorced my husband if he ignored my generous petition!


One of the mothers of revolution:


Margaret Catharine (Kate) Moore (1752–1823), later known as Kate Barry, was a heroine of theAmerican Revolutionary War. She was daughter of Charles and Mary Moore, and the eldest of ten children. She married Andrew Barry in 1767 at the age of 15, and lived on Walnut Grove Plantation in Roebuck, South Carolina during the 18th century. Kate was instrumental in helping to warn the militia of the coming British before the Battle of Cowpens in 1781. According to legend, she tied her newborn baby to the bedpost while she rode out to warn neighbors that the British were coming.

Cornwallis Surrenders

To refresh your memory, Cornwallis was the leader of the British Army. So, during late summer of 1781, Washington moved most of his troops to the south with the purpose of trapping Cornwallis army at York Townm Virginia. For the plan to work, timing had to be perfect. Washington needed the French fleet to arrive at the right moment to stop the British from escaping by sea, an fortunetely, they did! They trapped the British navy and made the patriots very lucky. Since poor Cornwallis was trapped by land and by sea, he couldn't really do much about it, and had to surrender in october 19, 1781. The French, of course, helped too much. Their army was even bigger than Washington's army.

CORNWALLIS SURRENDER

However, the battle of York Town was not a single battle, but many confrontations. In July 1781, the British troops under General Cornwallis marched into York Town, expecting reinforcements to come from New York. General Lafayette's Army trapped the British in the peninsula, until French and American troops arrived in late august. The french fleet prevented reinforcents to reach Cornwallis. The purpose of it all was to maje Cornwallis surrender so that the war would finally end.

The loss of 80,000 soldiers of the Seven Years War was very bad. People back in England were suffering because they were loosing the people they loved, and were also being heavily taxed. In early 1782, a new administration came. One of the members of this new administration was Benjamin Franklin. They all negotitated "The Treaty of Paris", which recognized american independence in september of 1783. The French wanted to control the peace making situation of the Americans and Birtihs, but since the americans made a treaty with the british, the relation between french and americans got weakened. 

Pretty harsh, French wanted to control the americans!

The War's End & Lasting Effect

As war continued, the British wanted loyalists support in the South, specially the farmers of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The British wanted their support, but they wasted it by continuing their conventional war. British did not give the loyalists militia support, instead they kept going on with ther misunderstood strategy. In the South, the British had won most of their battles and were able to capture major sea ports. In late 1778, they captured Savannah, Georgia. In spring 1780, they captured Charlestown, South Carolina, and also captured 5,000 patriot soldiers that were there. That summer, the British captured Camden, South Carolina. Just as the British start fighting in these areas in the golf, Bernardo de Galvez started attacking the British forts in the Golf Coasts. In 1780, spanish captured Mobile, Alabama. a year later, they captured Pensacola. 

BERNARDO DE GALVEZ

Bernardo de Gálvez, an aristocrat born in Spain and trained for a military career, became governor of the Spanish colony of Louisiana in 1777. When Spain entered the Revolutionary War on the side of the American colonies, he helped fight the British in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. He kept the British busy in the South, and finally drove them from the area, freeing it up for American trading. For these successes, he was named a don (an aristocratic title similar to the British earl) by the Spanish government, and eventually was made viceroy (overall ruler) of New Spain (Mexico).

After this mess, the British failed to control the southern countryside. The situation during the war was very harsh. for example, if the father is a patriot, and the son is a loyalist, they had to be against eachother regardless on what they thought about it.

In october 1780, at King Mountain in South Carolina, the patriots crushed the loyalist militia and excerted prisioners. The loyalist lost men and a lot of territory, and many of the people who were neutral moved to the patriot's side, including some loyalists because they started resenting the British for not helping them out and blamed them for bringing chaos into their country. The British were loosing support. General Cornwallis was very frustrated with this, because he wasn't able to control the South. The Continental Army in the south, was supervised by two commanders; Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan. In 1701 these people caused heavy losses in to battles to the British at Cowpens, South Carolina and Guilford Court House in North Carolina.

Altough the war didn't really look for the patriots to win, there were many factors that were helping them out, like the fact that British were making tactical mistakes, and that they misunderstood the war and political gramdification. It also helped a lot that patriots were united, fighting for a cause.