The American Yawp — Chapter Six: The American Revolution
Abridged for Intermediate-High Learners

In 1763, most colonists were proud to be British. They had just helped Britain win a world war. Yet in little more than ten years, they would declare independence. The American Revolution created new institutions and spread ideas of liberty around the world. But it was full of contradictions: a revolution fought for liberty allowed slavery to continue.

After the Seven Years' War, Britain's doubled national debt led Parliament to make the colonies help pay for their own defense. Colonists believed they had the same rights as Britons, including the right to be taxed only by their own representatives. New ideas spread too: John Locke said government came from the people, and George Whitefield's Great Awakening taught ordinary people to question authority.

Britain first issued the 1763 Royal Proclamation banning settlement west of the Appalachians, then passed the Sugar Act and the Currency Act of 1764. In March 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a direct tax on newspapers, legal papers, and even playing cards. Colonists resisted in three ways: assemblies passed resolutions like the Virginia Resolves; merchants boycotted British goods; and crowds rioted, forcing stamp distributors to resign. Rebel leaders organized each protest carefully. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 but passed the Declaratory Act, claiming the right to tax the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."

The Townshend Acts of 1767 placed new duties on lead, glass, paint, and tea, and colonists again refused to buy British goods. In 1768, Britain sent soldiers to Boston. On March 5, 1770, a British soldier fired first, and others joined him, killing five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, a formerly enslaved Black dockworker. Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre spread anger across the colonies. Parliament repealed the Townshend duties except the tax on tea.

In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act to help the struggling East India Company. Colonists saw a trap: buying the cheaper tea meant accepting Parliament's right to tax them. On December 16, 1773, men disguised as Mohawks dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. Britain answered with the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts: Boston's harbor was closed, Massachusetts's government was placed under British control, and soldiers could be housed in colonists' homes.

The First Continental Congress met in September 1774 and organized a complete boycott of British trade. In April 1775, British soldiers marched to seize weapons at Lexington and Concord, and colonial militia fired back — the war had begun. Thomas Paine's January 1776 pamphlet Common Sense convinced many colonists that independence was necessary. On July 2, 1776, Congress voted for independence, and on July 4 it approved the Declaration of Independence, written mainly by Thomas Jefferson, declaring that "all men are created equal."

After losing New York, Washington's army surprised Hessian soldiers at Trenton on Christmas night, 1776. The American victory at Saratoga in 1777 brought France into the war, turning it into a worldwide conflict. Washington avoided battles he could not win. In October 1781, with French help, he trapped the British army at Yorktown and forced its surrender. The Treaty of Paris of 1783 ended the war and recognized American independence.

The Revolution changed America, but it had limits. Every new state constitution said government power came from the people. The Articles of Confederation of 1781 created a national government too weak to tax or regulate trade. About 60,000 loyalists left the country, and every remaining loyalist faced suspicion. Many Northern states began ending slavery gradually, but slavery grew stronger in the South. Most Native Americans had supported Britain, and American victory opened their lands to settlers from every colony. Still, the Revolution's promise of equality later inspired movements to end slavery and win women's rights.