| A | B |
|---|
| First Continental Congress | a meeting of colonial delegates in 1774 in Philadelphia; delegates debated the best way to respond to the crisis of Boston; created the Declaration of Rights |
| Declaration of Rights | a list of ten resolutions created by the delegates of the First Continental Congress; presented to King George III; listed freedoms of "life, liberty, and property" |
| King George III | King of England who received the Declaration of Rights |
| minutemen | local militia members in the colonies who were ready to fight at quick notice |
| Thomas Gage | British general who decided to take away the minutemen's weapons and ammunition stored in Concord, Massachusetts |
| Paul Revere and William Dawes | American colonists who recieved information from spies that the British were coming to steal ammunition; rode through the countryside telling the minutemen to prepare |
| "the shot heard round the world" | the name of the first shot of the American Revolution; occurred in Lexington near Concord |
| Redcoasts | the colonists' nickname for the British soldiers because of their uniforms |
| Second Continental Congress | a meeting of colonial delegates in 1775 in Philadelphia; delegates debated the best way to react to the fighting in Massachusetts; they decided to create an army; in 1776 created a committee to write a document declaring the colonies' independence |
| Continental Army | the army created by the Second Continental Congress to defend the colonies from British attack |
| George Washington | the Virginian who was chosen by the Second Continental Congress to command the Continental Army |
| Olive Branch Petition | a peace offer signed by the delegates of the Second Continental Congress extended to King George III; was rejected |
| Fort Ticonderoga | a British fort in New York which was the target of attacking colonists because it guarded access to Lake Champlain |
| Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen | led the successful colonist attack on Fort Ticonderoga |
| siege | a situation in which soldiers surround a city or fort |
| Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill | the areas in Massachusetts where colonists rushed to build defenses before British attack; |
| The Battle of Bunker Hill | battle in Massachusetts which showed the colonists that they could hold their own against the British; 1,000 British died, while only 400 colonists died |
| Henry Knox | colonial officer who transported the cannons from Fort Ticonderoga for the Continental Army's fight against the British |
| William Howe | British general who ordered the retreat from Boston; later drove the Continental Army out of New York |
| Thomas Paine | a self-educated British Quaker who was the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine; wrote the famous pamphlet Common Sense |
| Common Sense | pamphlet written by Thomas Paine; argued for breaking away from Great Britain; eventually sold some 500,000 copies; said that people, not kings or queens, should make the laws |
| John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman | members of the committee formed by the Second Continental Congress to write a document stating the colonies' independence |
| Thomas Jefferson | the main author of the document expressing colonies' independence |
| Declaration of Independence | the document expressing three main ideas: 1) all men possess unalienable rights, 2) King George III had violated the colonists' rights, 3) the colonies had the right to break away from Great Britain |
| unalienable rights | basic human rights; "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" |
| July 4, 1776 | the date that the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence |
| Patriots | colonists who chose to fight for independence |
| Loyalists/Tories | colonists who remained loyal to Great Britain |
| "Give me liberty, or give me death!" | statement by Patrick Henry to the Virginia House of Burgesses in support of the separation from Britain |
| Abigail Adams | the wife of ohn Adams; asked her husband to protect the rights of women |
| women and slaves | two groups that the Declaration of Independence did not protect |
| Martha Washington | wife of George Washington |
| 1) more money and resources; 2) a powerful military (navy); 3) soldiers were well-trained professionreasons why the British had an advantage at the beginning of the warals | reasons why the British had an advantage at the beginning of the war |
| 1) many colonists supported the Revolution and were hostile toward the British; 2) British had to ship their supplies across the Atlantic Ocean; 3) Patriots believed in the war, while many British were paid to fight | reasons why the Americans had an advantage at the beginning of the war |
| mercenaries | hired foreign soldiers |
| Lord Dunmore's Proclamation | issued by the governor of Virginia in 1775; promised freedom to any slave who fought for the British |
| Thayendenegea (Joseph Brant) | Mohawk leader who was one of Great Britian's key allies; persuaded many of the Iroquis to support the British |
| Mary Ludwig Hays (Molly Pitcher) | colonist who became best known for her wartime services of bringing water to thirsty Patriot troops; took her husband's place loading cannons when he was wounded |
| Deborah Sampson | colonist who disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the war |
| Richard Montgomery | Patriot general who captured Montreal but was killed in the defeat at Quebec |
| Hessians | German mercenaries hired to fight for the British |
| Battle of Trenton | site of the suprise attack on the Hessians by George Washington on December 26, 1776; more than 900 Hessians captured, with only five American casualties |
| Delaware River | area where George Washington and his troops crossed in order to attack the Hessions |
| Charles Cornwallis | British general who led a rush attack on Washington's troops marching to Princeton, New Jersey |
| Battle of Princeton | fight between General Cornwallis and General Washington; ended in another victory for the Patriots |
| John Burgoyne | British general who recaptured Fort Ticonderoga |
| Battle of Brandywine Creek | fight between General Howe and General Washington; Patriots lost |
| Battle of Saratoga | fight between General Burgoyne and General Gates; Patriots won; the greatest win yet for the American forces |
| Horatio Gates | Patriot general who led the attack on British forces at the Battle of Saratoga; led forces in the unsuccessful attempt to drive out the British from Camden, South Carolina |
| France and Spain | enemies of Great Britain who had been secretly aiding the Patriots |
| Bernardo de Galvez | the governor of Spanish Louisiana who was a key ally to the Patriots |
| Marquis de Lafayette | wealthy, young Frenchman who fought for the Patriots even though he spoke little English and lacked combat experience |
| Valley Forge, Pennsylvania | site where General Washington's troops spent the harsh winter of 1777-8; more than one-fifth of the soldiers died of disease and malnutrition because of shortages of food and clothing |
| "no pay, no clothes, no provisions" | chant of the Patriot troops who were growing frustrated with the bad conditions |
| Friedrich von Steuben | veteran Prussian army officer who spoke no English but turned the Continental Army into a well-trained group of soliders by teaching the American troops basic military skills |
| John Paul Jones | one of the most successful American captains of the Continental Navy |
| Bonhomme Richard ("Gentleman Richard") | the name of John Paul Jones' flagship, in honor of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac |
| Serapis | British warship famously surrendered to John Paul Jones |
| George Rogers Clark | a young Virginian who travelled across the frontier, gathering soldiers from small towns |
| Battle of Vincennes | fight in the West where Clark's forces recaptured the mostly French town along the Wabash River from the British |
| Henry Clinton | British general who led the campaign against the southern colonies |
| Qaumino Dolly | a Georgian slave who showed the British a secret trail to the port city of Savannah; the British used the trail to surprise the Patriots and capture the city |
| guerrilla warfare | swift, hit-and-run attacks |
| Francis Marion | Patriot who organized a group of guerrilla soldiers |
| Marion's Brigade | a group of guerrilla soldiers who used surprise attacks to destroy British communications and supply lines |
| Comte de Rochambeau | French general who strategized with General Washington to trap Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia |
| Battle of Yorktown | fight in which the Patriots steadily wore down the British defenses; Cornwallis surrendered; marked the end of the Revolutionary War |
| Treaty of Paris of 1783 | agreement in which Great Britain recognizs the independent United States, setting the new nation's borders and allowing settlements and trade west of the original 13 colonies |
