| A | B |
|---|
| First Continental Congress | colonial leaders who met in 1774 to discuss problems with England |
| patriots | colonists who chose to fight for independence from England |
| minutemen | local militia who could be ready to fight in a minute |
| Redcoats | British soldiers who wore red jackets |
| Second Continental Congress | colonial leaders who met in 1775 to approve the continental army and seek peace with Britain |
| Continental Army | militias from all of the colonies who fought against Britain |
| George Washington | commander of the Continental Army |
| Battle of Bunker Hill | battle near Boston in which the patriots lost, but proved they could fight effectively against the British |
| Common Sense | pamphlet written by Thomas Paine to encourage a revolution against Britain |
| Thomas Paine | author of Common Sense |
| Thomas Jefferson | main author of the Declaration of Independence |
| Declaration of Independence | statement of freedom from the colonists to King George III |
| Loyalists | colonists who chose to side with the British |
| mercenaries | soldiers hired to fight from a foreign country |
| Marquis de Laffayette | French who brought supplies and ships to the Patriots |
| Baron Fredrich von Steuben | Prussian officer who helped train American soldiers |
| Bernardo de Galvez | governor of Spanish Louisiana who captured British posts on the Gulf Coast |
| John Paul Jones | privateer hired by the Americans to attack the British at sea |
| George Rogers Clark | Patriot leader in the western frontier who captured Fort Sackville |
| Francis Marion | known as the "Swamp Fox", he led guerrilla attacks against the British |
| Comte de Rochambeau | French leader who combined forces with Washington to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown |
