8TH grade notes for 6-4

Fighting for Liberty on Many Fronts
Chapter 6
Section 4
Women Take Part in the War
• Women began taking on extra work
– Harvesting and Planting
– Running of the family business
– Making cloth for blankets and uniforms
– Helping the Army
– In Battle
• Cared for wounded
• Washed clothes
• Cooked
– Betsy Ross
• Credited for making the first American flag
– Mary Ludwig Hayes
• Brought soldiers water
• Nicknamed Molly Pitcher
• Took her husbands place loading and firing a cannon when he was killed
– New Attitudes
• More responsibilities, wanted more rights
• Increase confidence, began to speak out
Men of Continental Congress disagreed
– They felt it women’s their duty, but didn’t warrant more rights
– Women will use the ideals and principals of the Revolution to further their cause
– African Americans face Hard Choices
1776- 500,000 African Americans in colonies
Not initially allowed in the Continental Army
Britain offered them freedom if they would fight on their side
Continental Army forced to allow them to join
• Joining the Fight
– Army- 5,000 African Americans- all but South Carolina
– Navy- 2,000 African American
– 9 at Lexington and Concord
– Prince Estabrook wounded there
– Peter Salem and Salem Poor fought at Bunker Hill
– Formed special regiments
– Drummers, fifers, spies, and guides
– Faced a no win situation
– Fight on the side of colonists- face the wrath of the British Army
– Fight on the side of the British and face the wrath of the Patriots
• Hoping for Freedom
– Slaves along the coastal regions helped the British in hopes they would take them with them and set them free
– Black Patriots hoped fighting for the cause would earn them freedom
– Colonial leaders torn over the idea of slavery
– Most did not like it
– Washington & Jefferson hypocrites
– This was not the time to solve this issue. We have bigger things to deal with
– Quakers very outspoken about the issue- it was wrong
– “All men are created equal” Natural Rights
– Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania make slavery illegal
• War on the Western Front
– Theater of battle changes and shifts away from the east
– British convince Indians to fight with them
– “No colonists, no one taking your land”
– Natives join in fighting in the north, south and midwest
– Colonists win every battle against Indians
– George Rogers Clark
• led Virginia frontier fighters in at Vincennes
• Surprise attack, masked their numbers
– British surrender without a shot
– Spanish Aid
– Spain/New Spain originally neutral
– Bernardo de Galvez
• Governor of Louisiana
• Seized British forts along Mississippi River
• Drove British out of Florida
• Fighting at Sea
– British held a solid advantage at sea
– Blockades were effective
– Occasionally a British ship would be seized
– John Paul Jones
• Led the greatest American sea victory of the war
• Jones captures the Serapis in the North Sea
• Interesting battles but the war will be won on land and in the South