The Real Deal...

By Spring 1776, Thomas Paine's ideas had a great impact on American Independence. As Congress saw the change on public ideals, they created a committee to draft the document that would declare American Independence, the committee was composed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. They had a complex tax, because they had to explain the reasons why they wanted Independence.
On July 2, by the votes of 12 of the 13 colonies, with New York not voting, Congress adopted the Lee Resolution and begins consideration of the Declaration of Independence, written by the Committee of Five. 2 days later, at the afternoon church bells ring out over Philadelphia announcing the approval of the Declaration. 


The Declaration was written by Thomas Jefferson, and this emerged thanks to Paine's ideals and declared the King as a tyrant. In the Declaration they included a long list of colonial grievances, and advanced the idea that every men is born with natural rights: life, liberty, and property; this rights cannot be taken away, Jefferson referred to them as "unalienable rights". This statement was completely different to the reality society was suffering, but it still created a sense of hope and joy in the people. But the easy part is done: declaring it on paper, now the hard part has to come: achieving it. They faced several challenges, but they will fight for what they want and deserve: freedom.

Loyalists against Patriots, and some Common Sense...

Most colonists supported the Continental Congress, and supported the boycott of the British imports. But we have some traitors here... the Loyalists. The Loyalists were a minority of colonists that actually supported and prefered the British rules among all, they are "loyal" that's why they're called Loyalists. They favored law and order imposed by Britain, and they dreaded the Patriots, because they were afraid of them, but still looked at them as illegal and brutal.
Although a lot of Loyalists opposed the Parliament taxes, they thought that Parliament should be blindly obeyed no matter what. During the Summer of 1774, two old friends who were lawyers, had a curious encounter, they took a walk to discuss the current crisis, this friends were John Adams, a Patriot, and Jonathan Sewell, a Loyalist. During the conversation Sewell warned Adams, that they should only incline for Britain and follow what Britain says, Adams a little disturbed replied, that he was going to die or to survive with and for his country. But the question is why did Loyalists completely opposed to Patriots ideals and causes? Well, because the Patriots didn't allow free speech, the disliked the militia drafts, they banned Loyalists newspapers and they feared oppression from the Patriots; poor Loyalists.

Published by Thomas Paine in January of 1776, Common Sense was an instant best-seller, in the colonies and in Europe. It had several editions in Philadelphia, and was republished in all parts of what will later become America. Because of "Common Sense", Paine became pretty famous.

Thomas Paine

Paine's political pamphlet brought the revolutionary feeling to its peek point into ideal focus by denouncing King George III and all British aristocrats as parasites and frogs, he referred to the King as the enemy of the American liberty. He wished that common people had the right to elect ALL the government, to create a republic that would offer new opportunities and allow the free trade with whomever they wanted. He was a visionary, freedom among all. To conclude, he said: "the cause of America, is the cause of all human kind: to be free".
Later on, we will discuss about the direct effect this little pamphlet had on a whole country(almost).

Front cover of "Common Sense"

FINALLY, the war begins.

On 1775, the dispute between Britain and the colonists took a radical turn. Following the path of General Thomas Gage, who was a British Military Commander, was named Governor of Massachussetts. John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and other colonial leaders got together in a Provincial Congress, in here they governed Massachussetts without Gage. They also began to stock-pile arms and ammunitions, meaning they were preparing for some intense battles and wars, one of them was the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

The Battle of Lexington and Concord consisted of two battles that began on April 19th, 1775. British troops were sent to Concord to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock, but both men had already been warned about the British attack. That night of April 19th, Paul Revere went through Concord warning everybody about the British attack, telling them "the British are coming". So when the British came to attack the Minutemen, Americans who were"ready to fight in a minute," were ready and waiting to attack at Lexington. The Americans were holding back when someone fired a shot, and the British troops started to attack the Minutemen. Nobody knows who fired the first shot. The British killed many Minutemen and many more got hurt in this Battle at Lexington. The rest of the Minutemen ran into the woods. After this battle, the British found out that Hancock and Adams had escaped. So the British marched to Concord searching for ammunition. While the British went to look at a near farm for weapons, they encountered a group of Minutemen at the North bridge of Concord. There was a huge fight, and the Minutemen won, making the British retreat. The Battles of Lexington and Concord were battles that are known because they took away many lives. At the end of the battles, the British had lost about 272 soldiers, while the Colonists lost about 94. The Revolutionary War had begun.

A famous poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, called the Battle of Lexington as "the shot heard 'round the world," because this battle gave start to the Revolutionary War.

Second Continental Congress

On May of 1775, once again all the colonies assembled in Philadelphia, and Congress assumed responsiblity for the war. Volunteers from the Middle and Southern colonies marched North to support the Patriots in Boston. Congress chose George Washington as the commander of the New Continental Army. George Washington was idyllic, he had served as a colonial officer in the French and Indian War, he was born in Virginia, the wealthiest and biggest colony at that time, it was convenient for Congress to place a Virginian as the commander. New England urged Virginia's help in order to win the war. In this Second Continental Congress some radical members wanted to declare Independence, but not everyone was ready and well-prepared. Congress still had some hope on declaring peace first, so in July, 1775 they sent an "Olive Branch Petition" to King George, which obviously he "proudly" rejected, and instead sent more troops to Boston.

Coercive or just Intolerable?...

The "party" the Patriots celebrated, obviously outraged Parliament, they thought they deserved to be punished, so they passed a series of acts, the Coercive Acts, one of them was the Boston Port Act and consisted on closing the Boston Port in Boston Harbor, leaving the colonists without any trade meaning no ships came in or came out until they payed for all the tea they've dumped, including taxes; this act was passed in March 31, 1774. This was just one of the acts, but still the colonists were furious. In addition to the Boston Port Act, they passed the Quartering Act again on June 22, 1774; because of the troops they sent to "keep calm" in the colonies. Another act was the Administration of Justice Act on May 20, 1774; which basically consisted on this: if a soldier committeed a crime, they wouldn't go to the trial in the colonies, rather they took them back to England to trial. After this acts came the Massachussetts Government Act on May 20, 1774; which you already know about, but to refresh your memory it consisted on assigning the colony under the control of an appointed governor. Later on, they passed the Quebec Acts on June 2, 1774; which founded in extending the Southern Part of Canada.
The astonished and angry colonists referred as this acts as the "Intolerable Acts" while Parliament called them "Coercive Acts". For your convenience here is a list of the acts:
1) March 31, 1774 - Boston Port Act
2) May 20, 1774 - Administration of Justice Act
3) May 20, 1774 - Massachussetts Government Act
4) June 2, 1774 - Quebec Acts
5) June 22, 1774 - Quartering Act

First Continental Congress

Meanwhile, in rural Massachussetts, the crowd reacted angrily due to the Intolerable Acts, they had guns and forced the Courts of Law to shut down, assaulted anyone that accepted a job from the governor; they attacked you if you talked in favor of Parliament, and even you where exposed to being tarred and feathered. This anger just became bigger and bigger everyday, Parliament kept pushing and colonists would not accept it, because they wanted to have it their way.
But other colonies offered support to their fellow colonists, they viwe this acts as a threat to their freedom, so by Fall of 1774, delegates from all the colonies met in Philadelphia to begin the First Continental Congress. The Virginia delegates included Patrick Henry, who delivered a strong speech, better recognized for the phrase: "Give me liberty, or Give me death". He expressed that no differences existed between the colonies, because in the end they are all American. To create pressure on Parliament to withdraw the acts, Congress decided to boycott all the England imports and the Patriots established new governments that included common everyday people, over the Parliament and the Crown. By 1774, John Adams had already made the decision that he lived in a new country named America. On the other hand, most of the colonists hoped to remain with the British empire and opposed to this break out. What will happen next?

Massacre at Boston, plus a weird "party"...

Colonies revived protests, boycotts, and intelectual protests in 1768. As usual, the biggest riots took place in Boston, the Massachussets legislator published a circular letter announcing the Townshend Acts, very little legislators payed attention to this "wake-up call", until the governor dissolved the Massachussetts legislature, and the governor passed the Massachussets Government Act, which consisted on taking control of the colony through an appointed governor. Elected assemblies were closed, and town meetings got banned. During this tense situation, the custom officers seized for a merchant ship called "Liberty" on June, 1768, so they could smug the ship. The ship was owned by a wealthy merchant called John Hancock, and he was a prominent colonial politician, this seizure set off riots against custom officers. Parliament needed(or at least try) to stop this riots, so they sent 4,000 troops to Boston, although the population of Boston had about 16,000 people. The presence of the troops angered the colonists, and increased it even more because the soldiers were poorly payed, so they also need some extra profit and the only way of getting this was havind a second job, so they began taking off the jobs from the unschooled colonists, they would compete for this jobs. All these situations made the anger on the colonists bigger and bigger, so, one night in March 5, 1770; a group of colonists throwed snowballs and rocks to some members of the troops, that were guarding the customs house, the soldiers killed 5 colonists. This was an unfair act, because the innocent colonists were just mocking the soldiers, there was no need to shoot at them and kill them. One of the victims was Crispus Attucks, who was a sailor and an escaped slave; he was half Indian, half African American. This was called as the "Boston Massacre" also known as "Boston riot" under the control of Samuel Adams, whom later organized a network of local committees of correspondence through Massachussetts , it consisted on organizing how to spread the news among the colonies. This system provided leadership and promoted unity and cooperation, by 1773, several other colonies had created committees that helped build the sense of patriotism again. Once again, Parliament backed down and withdrew the troops from Boston, also removed most of the Townshend Acts duties, except one: TEA. Even though they removed most of them, the colonists kept smuggling and boycotting the Dutch tea, this meant the situation was just getting worse.

"Boston Massacre"

The boycott worsened the financial situation of the British East India Company. In order to "help" the company and encourage the colonists to pay taxes, they passed a "useful" law that allowed this company to sell the tea directly to the colonists, but Parliament didn't understand that, that wasn't a problem, the problem was they had no representation on Parliament. This law instead of helping, it contributed to the riots, because the colonists protested that Parliament just wanted to trick them, this also affected the Dutch tea smugglers, because they couldn't smuggle and earn money anymore. Even though the tea was cheaper, they refused to buy it just to disobey Parliament. Later, the Davison Newman Company sent a ship loaded with tea to the Boston Harbor, therefore that night of December, 16, 1773 the Boston Patriots dressed up like Indians and boarded the ship, and dumped absolutely all the tea into the Harbor, this succesful and controversial riot became known as the "Boston Tea Party".

"Boston Tea Party"

What about the Girls?

Homespun

After the local committees agreed to imply the nonimportation agreements, which consisted on boycotting any type of goods imported from Britain. Women played a very important role, because they were not allowed to buy the cloth that was imported from Britain, so how are they going to make the cloth? All by themsleves they had to homespun the threads in order to make the cloth, they made this kind of substitute. Every colonists admired them and felt proud thanks to their work, because they also gave up a lot of comforts in order to progress and fight for their rights. So, the women that made this became known as the "Daughters of Liberty". In other words and adding some extra information; The Daughters of Liberty were a successful group that showed and proved women's involvement and development in politics could be helpful to the country. As common support to boycott British goods increased, "Daughters of Liberty" joined this cause to condemn British importation. The Daughters of Liberty used their skills to weave yarn and wool into cloth known as "homespun". They were recognized as patriotic heroines for their success and they earned respect, which made the United States less dependent on British textiles. In the countryside, Patriots defended the non importation movements of 1765, and 1769, the Daughters of Liberty continued to support the resistance. In many small towns women spun wool into homemade cloth. In 1774, the Patriot women tried to influence a decision made by the Continental Congress to boycott all British goods. The decision to boycott British goods was thanks to the Patriot women who were determined to increase demands for homemade clothing. Even though is not often recognized, the organizations created by women were very influential and important during the war. Decisions made to boycott of British goods would not have been possible if the women had not made a substitute for the imported textile. The "Daughters of Liberty" were working from sun up to sun down to show their commitment. The Daughters of Liberty were one of the many groups of women who fought for woman's equality and tried theirbest always, they gained respect.  

The Liberty People

Sons of Liberty

Colonists opposed to the unfair(for them) Stamp Act. Later on, this opposition created a strong feeling of union among every colonist, they thought they had the power to fight this together, the ones that disagreed to pay British taxes called themselves Patriots. Since this situation emerged, every citizen demonstrated more interest in politics due to this a group created an association called the "Sons of Liberty", this was a secret organization that, as you know, they formed to  protest the Stamp Act. This idea created success in most of the colonies, one of the most famous and successful leaders was Samuel Adams, whom also was the cousin of John Adams(Second official President of the United States), this association was created in Boston, Massachussets. The poor tax collectors had to suffer the consequences because even though they didn't had the fault, they got assaulted by the colonists. On August, 1765, something awful happened, the Sons of Liberty organized a mob and destroyed the house of a tax collector. This mob was like a wake up call for the other tax collectors, because it created a sense of fear in them. But someone had to denounce this riots, and that was the job of Massachussets lieutenant governor, Thomas Hutchinson, he insisted that the colonists had the LEGAL duty(like obligation but legal) to pay the taxes imposed by the Parliament. After he denounced this, the colonists were NOT happy, so they organized another mob in which they destroyed Hutchinson's house, therefore nobody in Boston dared to talk about the taxes. By the end of the year their where no tax collectors, but why? How bad did the colonists treat them? Well, the colonists had this method called tarring and feathering which consisted in the Bostonians to pour hot tea all the way down the throat of the innocent tax collector, this caused burns and sometimes lead to death, However, the goal of tarring and feathering was mainly humiliation, not death, and not many deaths were recorded. Usually, people were scarred for life by the hot tar and resulting injuries from the removing, marking them to other members of the community as victims of tarring and feathering. The victims also died as a result of lynchings, in which they were tarred and feathered, went around town, and then they hung.

Tarring and Feathering