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Virginia Declaration of Rights

After the members of the Fifth Virginia Convention voted in favor of preparing a new plan of government, the Virginia Declaration of Rights was drafted by George Mason.

As a landowner and near neighbor of George Washington, George Mason took a leading part in local affairs. He also became deeply interested in Western expansion and was active in the Ohio Company, organized in 1749 to develop trade and sell land on the upper Ohio River.

At about the same time, Mason helped to found the town of Alexandria, Virginia. Because of ill health and family problems, he generally avoided public office, though he accepted election to the House of Burgesses in 1759.  Except for his membership in the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, this was the highest office he ever held – yet few men did more to shape US political institutions.

A leader of the Virginia patriots on the eve of the American Revolution (1775 – 1783), Mason served on the Committee of Safety and in 1776 drafted Virginia’s state constitution.  (Britannica)

Early in 1776 John Adams published Thoughts in Government, a pamphlet laying out his framework for a republican form of government that influenced colonies as they created their individual state constitutions.  Virginia, like many of the states, would include a list of rights guaranteed to its citizens.

Mason’s initial draft contained ten paragraphs that outlined rights, such as the ability to confront one’s accusers in court, to present evidence in court, protection from self-incrimination, the right to a speedy trial, the right to a trial by jury, and the extension of religious tolerance.  The final version of the Virginia Declaration of Rights consisted of sixteen sections.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights was unanimously adopted by the Virginia Convention of Delegates, on June 12, 1776.  The same Convention also framed and adopted the Virginia Constitution.

Among the delegates were Mason, the most important contributor, and twenty-five-year-old James Madison, who drafted the section on the “free exercise of religion.”

Also present at the creation of the Virginia Declaration and Constitution were John Blair and Edmund Randolph. Eleven years later, these four delegates were chosen to the seven-member Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights was an influential document and a forerunner for many documents that followed. This declaration was the first state declaration establishing the fundamental human liberties that government was created to protect.

It was widely read by political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.  Thomas Jefferson drew upon it when writing the Declaration of Independence and James Madison expanded on Mason’s ideas of guaranteed rights when he wrote the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution. (Virginia-gov)

The declaration was particularly influential on later state constitutions because it represented the first protection of individual human rights under state constitutions of the American revolutionary period.

It also represented the shift from colonial charters to state constitutions, as the nation moved toward independence from Great Britain. (Middle Tennessee State University)

Declaration of Rights Is Similar to the Declaration of Independence

In language echoed later in the Declaration of Independence (it was drafted the next month by Thomas Jefferson).  Section 1 of the Virginia Declaration proclaimed that all men “are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights,” including “the enjoyment of life and liberty” and property and that of “pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”

Section 2 recognized that the people were the source of all power, and Section 3 proclaimed the right of the people to replace governments that did not meet these needs. Section 4 reflected the republican principle that no individual is entitled to power on the basis of hereditary, while Section 5 proclaimed the idea of separation of powers.

The Rights are Similar to First Amendment Rights (Bill of Rights)

Much of the rest of the Declaration of Rights outlined rights similar to those later incorporated into the US Bill of Rights.

At least two of these rights are similar to those incorporated in the First Amendment. Section 12 proclaimed that “freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.”

Although the Virginia Declaration does not contain a provision on freedom of speech, its provision for religious freedom is actually more extensive than those incorporated in the First Amendment.

Mason had originally phrased this declaration in terms of “tolerance” for all, but, consistent with the teachings of John Witherspoon, the president of College of New Jersey (later Princeton) under whom he had studied, Madison insisted that religious practice was not a matter of majority grace but of natural rights.

Although the content of the Virginia Declaration and the later US Bill of Rights overlap in many ways, there are differences.

Madison appears to have constructed most provisions of the Bill of Rights more forcefully, so that courts could more readily protect individual rights by enforcing such provisions – for example, the First Amendment provision stating that “Congress shall make no law”.  (Middle Tennessee State University)

Click the following link to a general summary about the Virginia Declaration of Rights:

Click to access Virginia-Declaration-Of-Rights.pdf

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Common Sense

After fighting had broken out at Lexington and Concord, England’s King George III expressed his view of the British-colonial relationship in a speech to Parliament On October 27, 1775.  Both the king and the majority party in Parliament viewed any compromise with the colonies as a threat to the continued existence of the British Empire.

King George declared that the American colonies were in rebellion against the crown and therefore subject to military intervention.

Thomas Paine wrote a response to the king’s pronouncement, for which his friend Dr. Benjamin Rush suggested the title Common Sense (the full title is Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America).  Paine argued that the cause of America should not be just a revolt against taxation but a demand for independence.

Paine was born and raised in England to a Quaker family of modest means in Norfolk, England in 1737. His formal education ended when he was 12 years old, after which he pursued various occupations without great success.

In 1774 he emigrated to Philadelphia, where he soon took on the job of editing Robert Aitken’s radical new monthly newspaper, the Pennsylvania Magazine. Paine loved controversy, hated the British aristocracy, and was devoted to the Enlightenment ideal of individual liberty. So it comes as no surprise that he was an immediate and vocal supporter of American independence. (Magen Mulderon)

Paine had originally intended Common Sense to appear in newspapers in several installments, but he realized that his argument was more convincing when taken as a whole. So he contracted with Philadelphia printer Robert Bell to publish the work.

When it was first published in 1776, Common Sense did not credit its author. Its publisher, the wealthy Benjamin Rush, was also anonymous. For many months, while the pamphlet was the talk of the colonies, the public didn’t know who wrote or published it.

Paine wanted it that way, both because his arguments against British rule would bring government retaliation, and because he shared the Enlightenment belief that ideas were more important than the identity of the speaker expressing them.  (Institute for Free Speech)

In part, Paine writes in Common Sense,

“Absolute governments (tho’ the disgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, that they are simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which their suffering springs, know likewise the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures.”

“But the constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies, some will say in one and some in another, and every political physician will advise a different medicine.”

“I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices, yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of the English constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new republican materials.”

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was originally published on January 10, 1776; the pamphlet is famous as one of the most influential essays in history, credited with convincing large portions of the American colonies that independence from Great Britain was necessary. Without Paine’s work, the American Revolution as we know it may not have happened.

Common Sense’s first printing consisted of 1000 copies, with profits to be split evenly between the author and publisher. By January 20 Bell was advertising a “new edition” in press, which likely means that the first printing had already sold out.

Bell published his unauthorized “second edition” (really just a reprint of the first edition) on January 27. Paine meanwhile contracted with printers Thomas and William Bradford to publish, at the author’s expense, a “new edition” with “large and interesting additions by the author” and a response to Quaker objections to a military rebellion. The Bradford edition was published in February and sold for half the price (one shilling) of Bell’s.

Undeterred, Bell produced a third edition that not only pirated the additional materials from the Bradford edition, but also included a section called “Large Additions to Common Sense,” which reprinted several pieces by other authors. Paine was predictably incensed by this and published another denunciation in the Post, to which Bell then responded in kind.

Despite – or more likely, because of – this feud, copies of Common Sense continued to sell briskly in Philadelphia.

Paine often gets credit for more or less single-handedly galvanizing the reluctant colonists to commit to the war of independence. As one historian puts it “Common Sense swept the country [sic] like a prairie fire,” and “as a direct result of this overwhelming distribution, the Declaration of Independence was unanimously ratified on July 4, 1776.

This may be overstating the case a bit. Paine’s pamphlet was certainly popular and influential in revolutionary America, but the real story of Common Sense‘s creation, dissemination, and reception is less straightforward –  and perhaps more interesting –  than the myth.  (Mulderon)

There were many loyalist rebuttals of Common Sense. One of the earliest and best known is Plain Truth: Addressed to the Inhabitants of North America, written by Maryland planter James Chalmers under the generic pseudonym Candidus.

Paine’s follow-up to Common Sense was a series of pamphlets called The American Crisis. General George Washington had the first pamphlet read to his troops at Washington’s Crossing in late 1776 to convince them to extend their enlistments so he could attack Trenton.

“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph,” said Paine.

In his later years, Paine would become a controversial figure because of his writings on religion and his role in the French revolution.  President Thomas Jefferson had permitted Paine to return from France in his final years and wrote about the author in 1821.

“Paine wrote for a country which permitted him to push his reasoning to whatever length it would go … no writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style; in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and unassuming language.”

“[I]n this he may be compared with Dr Franklin: and indeed his Common sense was, for a while, believed to have been written by Dr Franklin, and published under the borrowed name of Paine, who had come over with him from England.” (National Archives)

Click the following link to a general summary about Common Sense:

Click to access Common-Sense.pdf

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British Army

Frederick North (Lord North) entered the House of Commons at the first general election after he came of age; he spent almost the whole of his political life there; and was its leader for nearly fifteen years.

He became First Minister at the age of 37 and served as First Lord of the Treasury from 1770 to 1782 (North was an exceptionally conscientious first minister and was generally referred to as the Prime Minister, however, he never referred to himself as such).  (gov-uk and Institute of Historical Research)

Lord North and the British cabinet, made up of nearly 20 ministers, first considered resorting to military might against the Americans as early as January 1774, when word of the Boston Tea Party reached London.  (Recall that on December 16, 1773, protesters had boarded British vessels in Boston Harbor and destroyed cargoes of tea, rather than pay a tax imposed by Parliament.)

Contrary to popular belief both then and now, Lord North’s government did not respond impulsively to the news. Throughout early 1774, the prime minister and his cabinet engaged in lengthy debate on whether coercive actions would lead to war. A second question was considered as well: Could Britain win such a war?

By March 1774, North’s government had opted for punitive measures that fell short of declaring war. Parliament enacted the Coercive Act – or Intolerable Acts, as Americans called them – and applied the legislation to Massachusetts alone, to punish the colony for its provocative act.

Britain’s principal action was to close Boston Harbor until the tea had been paid for. England also installed Gen. Thomas Gage, commander of the British Army in America, as governor of the colony. Politicians in London chose to heed the counsel of Gage, who opined that the colonists would “be lyons whilst we are lambs but if we take the resolute part they will be very meek.” (Smithsonian)

Britain miscalculated. In September 1774, colonists convened the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia; the members voted to embargo British commerce until all British taxes and the Coercive Acts were repealed. News of that vote reached London in December. A second round of deliberations within North’s ministry ensued for nearly six weeks.

Throughout its deliberations, North’s government agreed on one point: the Americans would pose little challenge in the event of war. The Americans had neither a standing army nor a navy; few among them were experienced officers.

Britain possessed a professional army and the world’s greatest navy. Furthermore, the colonists had virtually no history of cooperating with one another, even in the face of danger.

In addition, many in the cabinet were swayed by disparaging assessments of American soldiers leveled by British officers in earlier wars.

For instance, during the French and Indian War (1754-63), Brig. Gen. James Wolfe had described America’s soldiers as “cowardly dogs.” Henry Ellis, the royal governor of Georgia, nearly simultaneously asserted that the colonists were a “poor species of fighting men” given to “a want of bravery.”

After the Americans convened the Continental Congress, King George III told his ministers that “blows must decide” whether the Americans “submit or triumph.”

After King George III declared that the colonies were in a rebellion, in 1775, and vowed to suppress it with force, the British government began to increase the size of the British army by creating larger infantry regiments and companies. The number of soldiers per regiment was increased to 200 and the number of soldiers per company was increased to 18.

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, the total size of the British army, excluding militia, consisted of 48,647 soldiers. Of these soldiers about 39,294 were infantry, 6,869 were cavalry and 2,484 were artillery. (History of Massachusetts)

The British Army of the late 18th century was a volunteer force. Unlike the navy, there was no impressment or conscription into the army, a point of pride for most British subjects. The majority of men who volunteered for service were farm laborers or tradesmen who were out of work.

Life in the army promised steady pay, regular meals, and a way to escape grinding poverty.

Before the war, enlistment in the army was a lifelong commitment, but during the war, shorter term enlistments of several years were introduced to encourage recruitment. Recruits were generally young, averaging in their early 20s, and were drawn from all over Britain and Ireland.

By the eve of the American Revolution, the majority of the men in the ranks had never seen active military service and were not battle hardened veterans. The exception were many of the army’s non-commissioned officers. These men formed the backbone of the regiment and were often veterans of many years or even decades of service. (Battlefields)

As the war in America dragged on the British Army expanded rapidly. At least 50,000 soldiers fought in America, with many more serving in the West Indies, Europe, and India. Britain struggled to meet these manpower needs with volunteer enlistments and soon turned to other means.

The men leading the army were drawn from a drastically different social class. The majority of army officers came from the upper classes of British society, and were often the younger, non-inheriting sons of well to do families.

With the exception of Colonels, who were appointed by the king, officer’s commissions were purchased. A retiring officer would offer to sell his commission to the next most senior officer, and if he refused then it would be offered to the next officer and so on in order of seniority. (Battlefields)

British Commanders in the Revolutionary War:
Commander in Chief, North America: Thomas Gage (1763 – October 1775)
Commander in Chief, America: William Howe (October 1775 – 1778)
Commander in Chief, America: Henry Clinton (February 1778 – 1782)
Commander in Chief, America: Guy Carleton (1782 – 1783)
Commander in Chief, America: John Campbell (1783 – 1787) (Battlefields)

The basic building block of the British Army was the battalion or regiment. The two terms were used somewhat interchangeably in the 18th century, as most regiments consisted of a single battalion (although there was a handful made up of 2 or more battalions).

Each battalion consisted of ten companies for a total strength (on paper at least) of 642 officers and men. Eight of the companies were known as “battalion” or “hat” companies and were made up of standard infantry troops.  (Battlefields)  As the war continued, the size of companies was increased to 70 soldiers before being reduced to 58 soldiers by the end of the war. (History of Massachusetts)

The remaining companies were the “flank” companies made up of specialized soldiers. On the right of the battalion was the grenadier company. Grenadiers were chosen from the largest and most physically strong and imposing men of the battalion and were used as shock troops for assaulting enemy positions.

On the left flank was a company of light infantry. Unlike the grenadiers, light troops were chosen for their speed, agility, marksmanship, and ability to operate independently. Their role on the battlefield was to skirmish with the enemy from behind cover, provide reconnaissance, and protect the flanks of the army.

During the Revolutionary War, most grenadier and light companies were stripped from their battalion and amalgamated into separate battalions made up entirely of other grenadier or light companies. (Battlefields)

One of the major advantages of the British army was that it was one of the most powerful and experienced armies in the world. During the previous 100 years, the British army had defeated many powerful countries in war, such as France and Spain, and seemed almost unbeatable.  The British army was also funded by the British government and the Crown, which was very wealthy.

One major disadvantage or weakness of the British army was that it was fighting in a distant land. Great Britain had to ship soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic, which was very costly, in order to fight the Revolutionary War.

The British army didn’t know the local terrain as well as the Continental Army did and weren’t trained to fight guerrilla-style warfare in the wilderness. Up until the Revolutionary War, the British army had only fought European-style warfare on an open battlefield.

Until early-1778 the conflict was a civil war within the British Empire, but afterward it became an international war as France (in 1778) and Spain (in 1779) joined the colonies against Britain.  The British government, following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 Hessian troops from various German princes to assist them in America.

From the beginning, sea power was vital in determining the course of the war, lending to British strategy a flexibility that helped compensate for the comparatively small numbers of troops sent to America and ultimately enabling the French to help bring about the final British surrender at Yorktown. (Britannica)

Americans fought the war on land with essentially two types of organization: the Continental (national) Army and the state militias. The total number of the former provided by quotas from the states throughout the conflict was 231,771 men, and the militias totaled 164,087.  At any given time, however, the American forces seldom numbered over 20,000; in 1781 there were only about 29,000 insurgents under arms throughout the country.

By contrast, the British army was a reliable steady force of professionals.  Many of the enlisted men were farm boys, as were most of the Americans. Others were unemployed persons from the urban slums. Still others joined the army to escape fines or imprisonment. The great majority became efficient soldiers as a result of training and discipline.

Preliminary articles of peace were signed on November 30, 1782, and the Peace of Paris (September 3, 1783) ended the US War of Independence. Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States (with western boundaries to the Mississippi River) and ceded Florida to Spain. Other provisions called for payment of US private debts to British citizens, American use of the Newfoundland fisheries, and fair treatment for American colonials loyal to Britain. (Britannica)

An estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000–12,000 who died while prisoners of war.

Unreliable data places the total casualties for British regulars fighting in the Revolutionary War around 24,000 men. This total number includes battlefield deaths and injuries, deaths from disease, men taken prisoner, and those who remained missing. Approximately 1,200 Hessian soldiers were killed, 6,354 died of disease and another 5,500 deserted and settled in America afterward. (Battlefield)

Click the following link to a general summary about the British Army:

Click to access British-Army.pdf

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Slaves in the Revolutionary War

In the 15th century, Portugal became the first European nation to take significant part in African slave trading.  By the 1480s, Portuguese ships were already transporting Africans for use as slaves on the sugar plantations in the Cape Verde and Madeira islands in the eastern Atlantic.  (Britannica)

By the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated the early trans-Atlantic slave trade on the African coast.  As a result, other European nations first gained access to enslaved Africans through privateering during wars with the Portuguese, rather than through direct trade.

When English, Dutch or French privateers captured Portuguese ships during Atlantic maritime conflicts, they often found enslaved Africans on these ships, as well as Atlantic trade goods, and they sent these captives to work in their own colonies. (LDHI, College of Charleston)

When Portuguese, and later their European competitors, found that peaceful commercial relations alone did not generate enough enslaved Africans to fill the growing demands of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, they formed military alliances with certain African groups against their enemies. This encouraged more extensive warfare to produce captives for trading.  (LDHI, College of Charleston)

The Portuguese developed a trading relationship with the Kingdom of Kongo, which existed from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries in what is now Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Civil War within Kongo during the trans-Atlantic slave trade would lead to many of its subjects becoming captives traded to the Portuguese. (LDHI, College of Charleston)

The first Africans in Virginia in the 17th century came from the Kongo/Angola regions of West Central Africa. They were part of a large system established by the Portuguese in Africa to capture and supply slaves to the Spanish colonies in Central and South America.  (Marks)

The first Africans in English North America were those pirated in 1619 by the White Lion and the Treasurer from the Spanish frigate San Juan Bautista in July, and delivered to Jamestown six weeks later at the latter end of August.

American Revolution

Slave resistance escalated along with colonial struggles for liberty.

In Georgia, a group of enslaved men, women and children took advantage of the confusion created by the Stamp Act by fleeing into the swamps and managed to elude capture for four years – prompting the Georgia assembly to send a detachment of militia after them.  (PBS)

By 1775 more than a half-million African Americans, most of them enslaved, were living in the 13 colonies.  Both the British and the colonists believed that slaves could serve an important role during the revolution.

African American soldiers served with valor at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill.

In April 1775, Lord Dunmore (1732-1809), the royal governor of Virginia, threatened that he would proclaim liberty to the slaves and reduce Williamsburg to ashes if the colonists resorted to force against British authority.

In November, he promised freedom to all slaves belonging to rebels who would join “His Majesty’s Troops … for the more speedily reducing the Colony to a proper sense of their duty….”

Some eight hundred slaves joined British forces, some wearing the emblem “Liberty to the Slaves.”  (University of Houston)

In November 1775, the American Congress decided to exclude blacks from future enlistment out of a sensitivity to the opinion of southern slave holders.  But Lord Dunmore’s promise of freedom to slaves who enlisted in the British army led Congress reluctantly to reverse its decision, fearful that black soldiers might join the redcoats.  (University of Houston)

When the Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, people of African descent made up approximately one-fifth of the population of the new United States of America.

The vast majority of them were enslaved, many by Revolutionaries. Other Revolutionaries, while not holding people as property themselves, profited indirectly from the system.  (Museum of the American Revolution)

African Americans played an important role in the revolution. They fought at Fort Ticonderoga and the Battle of Bunker Hill.

A slave helped row Washington across the Delaware.

Altogether, some 5,000 free blacks and slaves served in the Continental army during the Revolution. By 1778, many states, including Virginia, granted freedom to slaves who served in the Revolutionary war. (University of Houston)

Most black soldiers were scattered throughout the Continental Army in integrated infantry regiments, where they were often assigned to support roles as wagoners, cooks, waiters or artisans. Several all-black units, commanded by white officers, also were formed and saw action against the British. (Jamestown)

Unlike the Continental Army, the Navy recruited both free and enslaved blacks from the very start of the Revolutionary War – partly out of desperation for seamen of any color, and partly because many blacks were already experienced sailors, having served in British and state navies, as well as on merchant vessels in the North and the South.

Although Black seamen performed a range of duties, usually the most menial ones, they were particularly valued as pilots.  Others served as shipyard carpenters and laborers.

Both Maryland’s and Virginia’s navies made extensive use of blacks, even purchasing slaves specifically for wartime naval service. Virginia’s state commissioner noted that it was cheaper to hire blacks than whites, and that whites could get exemption from military service by substituting a slave.

Many royal naval vessels were piloted by blacks – some of them runaways, other enslaved to loyalist masters, and still others pressed into service.

During the Revolutionary War, most enslaved Africans believed that a British victory would bring them freedom.  An estimated 100,000 took advantage of the disruption caused by the war and escaped from bondage, many of them making their way to the British forces. Others fled to Canada, Florida, or Indian lands. Thomas Jefferson believed that Virginia lost 30,000 slaves in one year alone. (PBS)

Possibly a quarter of the slaves who escaped to the British made their way onto ships, some signing onto the ships’ crews or joining marauding expeditions of bandits commonly referred to as “Banditti.”  (PBS)

Others ran away to join the patriot militias or Continental army. Washington and other military officers received numerous requests to recover runways who had enlisted.

The American Revolution had profound effects on the institution of slavery.

Several thousand slaves won their freedom by serving on either side of the War of Independence. As a result of the Revolution, a surprising number of slaves were released from slavery, while thousands of others freed themselves by running away.

In the late 1770s, dwindling manpower forced George Washington to reconsider his original decision to ban Black people from the Continental Army. So in 1778, a Rhode Island legislature declared that both free and enslaved Black people could serve. To attract the latter, the Patriots promised freedom at the end of service.  (history-com)

In October 1781, as Patriot and French ground forces and the French fleet surrounded Cornwallis’ men at Yorktown, Virginia, the British sent their black allies to face death between the battle lines.

In November 1782, Britain and America signed a provisional treaty granting the former colonies their independence.

Although the rise of the free black population is one of the most notable achievements of the Revolutionary Era, it is important to note that the overall impact of the Revolution on slavery had negative consequences.

In rice-growing regions of South Carolina and Georgia, the patriot victory confirmed the power of the master class. Doubts about slavery and legal modifications that occurred in the North and Upper South never took serious hold among whites in the Lower South. Even in Virginia, the move toward freeing some slaves was made more difficult by new legal restrictions in 1792.

In the North, where slavery was on its way out, racism still persisted, as in a Massachusetts law of 1786 that prohibited whites from legally marrying African Americans, Indians, or people of mixed race.

The Revolution clearly had a mixed impact on slavery and contradictory meanings for African Americans.   It failed to reconcile slavery with these new egalitarian republican societies, a tension that eventually boiled over in the 1830s and 1840s and effectively tore the nation in two in the 1850s and 1860s. (Lumen Learning)

Click the following link to a general summary about Slaves in the Revolutionary War:

Click to access Slaves-in-the-Revolutionary-War.pdf

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Continental Navy

At the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, the British navy was the largest and most experienced navy in the world, and it was essential to the survival of the British empire.

The Royal Navy numbered over 250 vessels of all sizes. These ranged from massive ships-of-the-line to tiny sloops and coastal vessels. By the end of the war that number would nearly double as the navy expanded to meet the threat posed by other European powers fighting alongside the Americans.

By the eve of the American Revolution, maritime commerce had become a major factor in the economic, social, political, and cultural development of the American colonies.

During the American Revolution, the British Navy played a critical role in supporting its Army’s attempts to crush the American rebellion, allowing the army to strike anywhere along the coast.

Formation of Continental Navy

In an October 5, 1775 letter, read to Congress on October 13, 1775, General Washington stated, in part, “I shall now beg leave to request the determination of Congress as to the property and disposal of such vessels and cargoes as are designed for the supply of the enemy, and may fall into our hands. …”

“As there are many unfortunate individuals whose property has been confiscated by the enemy, I would humbly suggest to the consideration of Congress the humanity of applying, in part or in the whole, such captures to the relief of those sufferers, after compensating any expense of the captors, and for their activity and spirit.”

“I am the more induced to request this determination may be speedy, as I have directed three vessels to be equipped, in order to cut off the supplies; and, from the number of vessels hourly arriving, it may become an object of some importance.”

“In the disposal of these captures, for the encouragement of the officers and men, I have allowed them one-third of the cargoes, except military stores, which, with the vessels, are to be reserved for the publick use. I hope my plan, as well as the execution, will be favoured with the approbation of Congress.”

Within a few days of Washington’s letter, the first legislation of the Continental Congress in regard to an American Navy directed the equipment of one vessel of 10 guns and another of 14 guns as national cruisers.

At the same time, an act was passed establishing a ‘Marine Committee,’ consisting of John Adams, John Langdon and Silas Deane, which was chosen by Congress from among its own members, and was to be in complete control of naval affairs.

Washington chartered the fishing schooner Hannah to raid British shipping of valuable military supplies. Though Washington had no intention of establishing an American navy, the Hannah became the first of eleven vessels chartered to aid the revolutionary cause.

 The initial fleet included the brigantine Washington and seven schooners, the Hannah, Lynch, Franklin, Lee, Warren, Harrison and the Hancock. But these were army vessels under the command of General Washington.

On November 25, 1775, Congress authorized the capture and confiscation of all British armed vessels, transports and supply ships, and directed the issuing of commissions to captains of cruisers and privateers.

The Marine Committee was given full powers in the direction of the fleet under Commodore Esek Hopkins, on January 25, 1776.

The committee also drafted subsequent naval legislation and prepared rules and regulations to govern the organization. The first American squadron was launched on February 18, 1776. The size of the Continental navy peaked in 1777 with a total of 31 ships.

American naval forces in the War for Independence took many forms, most of them designed to meet a specific need at a particular moment.  The early Continental Navy was designed to work with privateers to wage tactical raids against the transports that supplied British forces in North America.

The Continental Congress purchased, converted and constructed a fleet of small ships to accomplish this mission. These navy ships sailed independently or in pairs, hunting British commerce ships and transports.

Over the six months of the American siege of Boston, “Washington’s Navy” captured some fifty-five prizes, provided much-needed supplies to the troops, and boosted the efforts of naval-minded members of Congress who sought to create a national naval force.

Over the course of the War of Independence, the Continental Navy sent to sea more than fifty armed vessels of various types. The navy’s squadrons and cruisers seized enemy supplies and carried correspondence and diplomats to Europe, returning with needed munitions.

They took nearly 200 British vessels as prizes, some off the British Isles themselves, contributing to the demoralization of the enemy and forcing the British to divert warships to protect convoys and trade routes. In addition, the navy provoked diplomatic crises that helped bring France into the war against Great Britain.

The French and Spanish Navies Support the American Effort

The naval war changed drastically in 1778 when the French joined the war on the side of the Americans.  Faced with a foe with a comparably large navy, the British now had to prepare for large-scale fleet actions.

Even worse was the threat of invasion and the loss of colonies in the West Indies and Asia, which were far more profitable to Britain than the 13 colonies in North America. British fears increased in 1779, when the Spanish joined the war, and the threat of a combined Franco-Spanish invasion of Britain became a very real possibility.

The commitment to supporting the army, protecting trade, and defending the home islands and colonies spread the Royal Navy thin by 1780, allowing the French to send increasing numbers of arms and men to America.

The Future United States Navy

In 1785, two years after the end of the war, the money-poor Congress sold off the last ship of the Continental Navy.  But with the expansion of trade and shipping in the 1790s, the possibility of attacks by European powers and pirates increased

In early March 1794, news arrived that attacks on American ships were increasing. In addition to the merchant ships Thomas, Hope, Dispatch, George, Olive Branch, Jane, President, Polly, and Minerva having been taken by Barbary pirates in late 1793, still more American vessels were now falling victim to privateers and ships of war ─ both British and French ─ much closer to home.

On March 27, 1794, President Washington signed the “Act to provide a Naval Armament.” It authorized the President to acquire six frigates, four of 44 guns each and two of 36 guns each, by purchase or otherwise. In addition, it specified how many crew members would be necessary and what their pay and daily rations would be. It launched the new US Navy.

Click the following link to a general summary about the Continental Navy:

Click to access Continental-Navy.pdf

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