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The turning point was at Valley Forge when a soldier trained the americans and the french joined to.

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The turning point was at Valley Forge when a soldier trained the americans and the french joined to.

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Supporters of Independence

People saw economic opportunity in america

Farmers, artists, merchants, landowners, elected officials.

Half of the population

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Available in our classroom on the spare desks!

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african americans and the revolutionary war (journey to freedom)

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biography & autobiography - cultural heritage

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history - united states/colonial & revolutionary

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juvenile nonfiction / history / military & wars

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juvenile nonfiction / people & places / united states / african american

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people & places - united states - african-american

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African Americans and the Revolutionary War (Journey to Freedom)

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African Americans and the Revolutionary War (Journey to Freedom) [Judith E. Harper] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Portrays the treatment and struggles of African Americans during the Revolutionary War and their contributions to the war effort.

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Was a camp follower, which means they were following their husbands wherever they went and did chores for them

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(1778) The colonists agreed to grant freedom to African Americans who agreed to fight in the war.

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George Washington was a hero of the Revolutionary war because Washington led the army against the British in the war, and led many victories and led made many comebacks when the American troops seemed the weakest.

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established "The Ladies of Philidelphia" And raised $300,000 for the army.

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Prior to his appointment as head of the Continental Army, Washington had never commanded a large army in the field. ... Washington had learned many important command principles from the British regular officers that he marched with during the French & Indian War and British army manuals that he studied.

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Lied to soldiers searching her cabin. Secretly passing muskets to her daughter and warning her and the neighbors, and killed them all, found as a neat row of 6 skeletons.

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A strong unified British empire is good for all

Taxes are due to the French and Indian War which was fought to protect the colonists

American Colonists would be weak without Britain

Colonists profit from trade with England

Disagree with independence

Support England/Crown

Lived far from cities, not exposed to taxes/acts

Thought the British were going to win

Thought England would better protect their interests

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Patriots belived in independence and they saw economic oppurtunities in independent America

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(Img: James Fuller Queen/Library of Congress) As the first President of the United States, George Washington established the tradition and duties of the office. A general during the American Revolution and a founding father of the Constitution, Washington is still celebrated today as an American hero.

Sponsored Content:

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History Talks: George Washington - Warrior, President, Great American

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(Img: James Fuller Queen/Library of Congress) As the first President of the United States, George Washington established the tradition and duties of the office. A general during the American Revolution and a founding father of the Constitution, Washington is still celebrated today as an American hero.

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Was know as "heroine of the battle of cowpens" She volunteered as a scout and warned the militia at a crucial time.

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Click picture to see

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The words in the picture below says "Journey to freedom" which states that the African Americans wanted freedom and the colonists would give it to them if they fought in the war.

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This was the turning point of the American Revolution because the Americans started to have leverage over the British because they had the reinforcement of the French. 

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This was the turning point of the American Revolution because the Americans started to have leverage over the British because they had the reinforcement of the French. 

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Was an influential writer

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They responded this way because they did not believe in what the  British were saying.

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They responded this way because they did not believe in what the  British were saying.

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The colonist had developed a phrase "no taxation without representation".

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The colonist had developed a phrase "no taxation without representation".

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King George the Third issued the Proclamation of 1763

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King George the Third issued the Proclamation of 1763

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This outlined the administration of the newly outlined land.

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Fed sick and starving soldiers food. Gave up her whole Loyalist family to marry a colonist.

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The female nurses would usually bathe, emptyg chamber pots, and would clean hospital wards.

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The British soldiers were well equipped,well disciplined, well paid, well fed. Although the Patriots were fighting in the homeland, "the British rule the seas!"

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Colonists believed that the British tax laws were illegal and that the British were violating their rights.

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Colonists believed that the British tax laws were illegal and that the British were violating their rights.

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Britain gained control of Canada and Acadia, 

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Britain gained control of Canada and Acadia, 

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Did Parliament Have The Right To Tax The Colonies? - @MrBettsClass

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Welcome to the first installment of DeBetts Club! Today's topic: Did Parliament have the right to tax the colonies? Let's complicate the issue a little. Don't forget to comment with your thoughts and what topics I should deBetts in future episodes! New videos every Thursday!

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Fed the people chanting "No food, no soldier" at Valley Forge.

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Gave the men water and food during the battles

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Deborah Sampson Gannet did this, along with Anna Maria Lane.

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Despite having little experience in commanding large, conventional military forces, Washington's strong leadership presence and fortitude held the American military together long enough to secure victory at Yorktown and independence for his new nation.

1. Washington was appointed commander of the Continental Army on June 14, 1775

On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress, responding to the growing crisis near Boston, directed that one of its own constituents - George Washington - take command of the newly designated Continental Army. Not only did Washington have the most military experience amongst the Congressional delegates, but as John Adams pointed out there were also great political advantages in having a someone outside of New England take command of a military force that was congregated around Boston and largely made up of New Englanders.

Arriving shortly after the conclusion of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Washington moved swiftly to assume command of the ragtag forces surrounding besieging the British garrison within the city of Boston. What Washington did not realize at the time was that it would be six long years of battle, marching, siege, crises, and winter encampments before Washington had an opportunity to return to his beloved Mount Vernon. In September 1781, as the combined American and French forces made their way down to Yorktown, Virginia, Washington was able to make a brief visit to his home along the Potomac River. During this visit, Washington and Rochambeau refined their plan for defeating Charles Cornwallis' forces trapped on the York Peninsula.

2. Prior to his appointment as head of the Continental Army, Washington had never commanded a large army in the field

George Washington was but one of only a handful of candidates considered by the Second Continental Congress who possessed any significant military experience. But by European standards Washington's experience in commanding large conventional armies was non-existent. Leading up to the French & Indian War, Washington had ably commanded the Virginia Regiment, but this provincial military unit never had more than 2,000 men in its ranks. In 1754 Washington commanded roughly 100 regulars and 300 militia at the ill-fated Battle of Fort Necessity.

Despite this seeming lack of experience in managing large army formations, Washington brought a number of strengths to his new position as commander of the Continental Army. Washington had learned many important command principles from the British regular officers that he marched with during the French & Indian War and British army manuals that he studied. He also witnessed, firsthand, how vulnerable British formations could be in the rough, timbered frontier land that predominated in North America. His verve, impressive physical presence, and command instincts helped to hold together an ill-equipped force that outlasted his more experienced opponents. And as Benjamin Franklin would famously state, "[a]n American planter, who had never seen Europe, was chosen by us to Command our Troops, and continued during the whole War. This man sent home to you, one after another, five of your best generals, baffled, their Heads bare of Laurels, disgraced even in the Opinion of their Employers."

So much for conventional experience.

3. Washington and the Continental army narrowly escaped total destruction in the New York campaign of 1776

Unlike the successful Siege of Boston, the efforts to defend the city of New York ended in near disaster for the Continental Army and the cause of independence. In what proved to be the largest battle of the Revolutionary War in terms of total combatants, Washington's forces on August 22, 1776, were flanked out of their positions atop the Gowanus Heights (part of today's modern Brooklyn) and soundly defeated by William Howe's roughly 20,000 man force on Long Island.

Confronted by a powerful British army to his front and the East River to his back, Washington rapidly formulated a risky plan to save his threatened army atop Brooklyn Heights. With the constant threat that the Royal Navy would enter the East River and block his avenue of retreat, Washington ordered that all available flatboats be brought down to his position so that the army could be moved to nearby Manhattan on the night of August 29-30, 1776. Aided by a providential fog that hid the evacuation, Washington was able to successfully move all 9,000 of his troops to Manhattan without losing a man - a remarkable military feat that astounded his British enemy.

As the New York campaign progressed, Washington's forces were subsequently defeated at the Battle of White Plains on October 28, 1776, and later at Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. The debacle at Fort Washington cost the Americans 59 killed and another 2,837 captured. Chased from New York, Washington's fractured and demoralized army retreated all the way across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania.

It was during these dark days at the close of 1776 that Thomas Paine's words from the recently published American Crisis rang most true - "These are the times that try men's souls...the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

4. Washington crossed the Delaware River twice in December 1776

Washington's great triumph against the Hessian forces at Trenton on December 26, 1776, is one of the best-known episodes of the Revolutionary War. ( Map: Battle of Trenton) Fearing a counterattack by British regulars, Washington hustled his tired warriors and frozen Hessian captives back to the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.

Would this single victory over a Hessian garrison be enough to sustain the morale and inspiration of the beleaguered Patriot cause? Encouraged by reports of the enemies' general confusion in New Jersey and a successful campaign to extend the enlistments of many soldiers ready in his ranks, Washington decided to seize the initiative once more. Determined to expand upon his initial success Washington shuttled his army and artillery back across the frozen Delaware on December 30, 1776, and into a strong position along the Assunpink Creek outside of Trenton. It was here that Washington awaited the arrival of Gen. Charles Cornwallis' force of 8,000 Redcoats and Hessians.

Disdaining any complicated maneuvers, a confident Cornwallis ordered three successive frontal assaults on January 2, 1777, by his Hessian grenadiers and British Regulars. Each attack across the narrow Assunpink bridges and fords was driven back with heavy loss of life. The casualties were so heavy that one soldier remarked that the bridge to his front "looked red as blood, with their killed and wounded and their red coats." ( Map: Battle of Second Trenton)

With the rapid onset of an early winter's eve, Cornwallis ordered a cessation of offensive actions. Certain of a victory the following day, the British general boasted that "we've got the old fox safe now. We'll go over and bag him in the morning." Unfortunately for Cornwallis, the morning sun that illuminated the empty American camps proved that the "old fox" was gone. Washington during the night had stolen a march and had marched his army north to Princeton where the Americans proved victorious once more on January 3, 1777 ( Map: Battle of Princeton).

The victories at Trenton and Princeton, not only helped to bolster the morale of the American army and encourage recruitment, but these bold actions also greatly impressed the French who were actively weighing their involvement in the war.

Learn More: 10 Facts About Washington's Crossing of the Delaware

5. Washington's smallpox inoculation program was one of his best decisions of the war

Up until modern times, disease, not bullets, bayonets, or cannon fire, had been the great killer of soldiers in all armies. In 1775, smallpox had so devastated the American army in Canada that John Adams bemoaned that "...smallpox is ten times more terrible than the British, Canadians and Indians together."

Having survived his own bout with smallpox in 1751, Washington was altogether familiar with how disease could rob the cause of a viable army. Not only would smallpox kill off soldiers in the ranks, but the threat of infection also scared away many of the recruits that Washington's army depended upon.

Starting during the winter of 1777 in Morristown, New Jersey, Washington took the bold and controversial move to have soldiers in his army inoculated against smallpox infection using a technique called variolation. Later during the winter encampment at Valley Forge, Washington went even further, demanding that his entire army be inoculated - an action that required great secrecy since inoculated soldiers were incapacitated for a period of time. By some reports, death by smallpox in the ranks dropped from 17% of all deaths to a low of 1% of all reported deaths - a tremendous reduction.

Historian Elizabeth Fenn, author of Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-1782, claims that "Washington's unheralded and little-recognized resolution to inoculate the Continental forces must surely rank with the most important decisions of the war..."

Learn More: George Washington and the Inoculation of the Continental Army

6. Supply issues became one of Washington's greatest challenges

One of the oldest of military adages is that amateurs study tactics while professional warriors study logistics. As with all military campaigns, providing for the vast material needs of an army in the field requires a focus on organization and effective supply management. Unfortunately for Washington and the Continental Army, a poor supply chain became a chronic issue that negatively impacted combat effectiveness. Biographer Ron Chernow states that "[s]eldom in history has a general been handicapped by such constantly crippling conditions...He repeatedly had to exhort Congress and the thirteen states to remedy desperate shortages of men, shoes, shirts, blankets, and gunpowder. This meant dealing with selfish, apathetic states and bureaucratic incompetence in Congress. He labored under a terrible strain that would have destroyed a lesser man."

Nowhere were supply troubles more evident and onerous than during the Valley Forge winter encampment of 1777-1778. Rather than snow and frigid temperatures, it was actually the rainy, temperate weather at Valley Forge that turned the surrounding roads to mud, further hindering an already tenuous supply network.

Local farmers were more likely to send their foodstuffs and supplies to the nearby British who had hard currency to offer in return. The Continental Army, by comparison, could only offer payment in greatly devalued paper currency or through IOUs. Washington became so concerned over the poor state of supply that he appointed Gen. Nathanael Greene as his new quartermaster. Greene, who was initially concerned about taking this thankless job, overhauled the inefficient supply system and greatly improved the state of the Continental Army through his efforts.

Video: Valley Forge in the American Revolution

7. Mount Vernon escaped destruction in 1781, but the method used to gain its security alarmed Washington

In April of 1781, the British sloop of war HMS Savage anchored menacingly in the Potomac River near George Washington's plantation home at Mount Vernon. The Savage, under the command of Captain Thomas Graves, had been raiding up and down the Potomac and now demanded that the General's estate provide the sloop with "a large supply of provisions." If the order to provide supplies was actively resisted, Mount Vernon was likely to have been put to the torch as other nearby plantation homes had been.

While the Savage was anchored close to shore, seventeen intrepid Mount Vernon slaves made their way down to the ship and gained their freedom as they arrived on the warship's deck. Lund Washington, George Washington's distant cousin and estate manager, first thought to resist this ultimatum per his master's instruction, but later agreed to provide sheep, hogs, and "an abundant supply of other articles" to the Savage, partially in an attempt to win back the escaped slaves. Captain Graves gladly accepted the supplies, spared the plantation, and refused to return the slaves.

Washington, once he learned of Lund's decision to provide supplies to the enemy, was incensed. From his headquarters in New Windsor, New York, he wrote Lund and dismissed any significant concern over the escaped slaves, but noted that "It would have been a less painful circumstance to me, to have heard, that in consequence of your non-compliance with [the HMS Savage's request], they had burnt my House, and laid the Plantation in ruins."

Learn More: The HMS Savage at Mount Vernon

8. Prior to its decisive victory at Yorktown, the American military teetered upon total collapse

Years of rampant military spending, economic mismanagement, and hyperinflation fueled by a successful British campaign to flood the colonies with counterfeit paper money had left the American financial coffers bare. Washington, in a letter to John Laurens in France, declared in January 1781 that he could not even pay the teamsters that were required to bring supplies to his troops. A gloomy and frustrated Washington admitted that "we are at the end of our tether, and that now or never our deliverance must come." French setbacks in Rhode Island, news of British successes in the Southern theater, and intelligence reports indicating a possible French exit in 1781 all added to the sense of impending defeat.

In late May 1781 Washington's situation and the fate of the American cause began to rapidly improve. Comte de Rochambeau, the commander of the French troops in America, informed Washington that France had made a 6,000,000 livre gift to the Continental Army. But it was the news that Rochambeau did not initially share with Washington that made an even bigger impact. The French fleet, now operating in strength in North American waters, had been secretly directed to the Chesapeake and a real opportunity to defeat Cornwallis' force now existed. Washington, who had been stubbornly fixated on attacking the British base at New York City, rallied to Rochambeau's plan and moved his army south to Virginia. On September 5, 1781, the French fleet under the command of Admiral de Grasse drove off the British fleet sent to relieve Cornwallis. The trap was now set. The siege of Yorktown began on September 28, 1781, and ended with a Franco-American victory on October 19, 1781 - the decisive battle of the Revolutionary War.

Learn More: The Yorktown Campaign | Watch "Now or Never: The Yorktown Campaign of 1781"

9. Washington deftly put down a growing military rebellion

Despite having achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Yorktown in October of 1781, threats to the Patriotic cause continued. In March of 1783, a growing number of American military officers, discouraged by lack of regular pay and ongoing financial support, began to openly discuss options that included a wanton disbandment of the army or possibly even a military show of force pointed directly at Congress.

Washington, who learned of the "Newburgh Conspiracy" through a printed camp circular, appeared at a March 15, 1783 meeting and challenged the gathered group of officers. "My God! What can this writer have in view, by recommending such measures! Can he be a friend to the army? Can he be a friend to this country? Rather is he not an insidious foe?" Towards the end of his address, Washington reached into his pocket to retrieve a pair of spectacles and in a theatrical gesture remarked that "...I have not only grown gray, but almost blind in service to my country." This display of self-sacrifice from their longstanding leader deeply affected many of the officers who in turn abandoned their treasonous thoughts and returned the obvious affection of their leader.

Videos: Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy

10. Washington's greatest display of power was his surrender of power

On December 23, 1783, Washington strode into the statehouse at Annapolis, Maryland and surrendered his military commission to a grateful Congress. In front of the gathered congressmen, Washington declared, "Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action-and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my Commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life."

History is filled with example after example of military commanders seizing political power during times of revolution - Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mao Zedong, and Muammar Gaddaffi are just some of the better-known examples. We take it for granted today that the United States Armed Forces are subordinated to civilian rule, but in the 18th century, it was far from certain that any general would simply surrender power to a civilian authority. But for George Washington, civilian control of the military was a core part of his beliefs. Washington's resignation signaled to the world and the American people that this new nation would be founded on different principles.

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Ten Facts About George Washington and the Revolutionary War

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Despite having little experience in commanding large, conventional military forces, Washington's strong leadership presence and fortitude held the American military together long enough to secure victory at Yorktown and independence for his new nation.

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"Altogether, some 5,000 free blacks and slaves served in the Continental army during the Revolution. By 1778, many states, including Virginia, granted freedom to slaves who served in the Revolutionary war. The American Revolution had profound effects on the institution of slavery."

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No taxation without representation was so important to the colonists because....

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No taxation without representation was so important to the colonists because....

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They wanted to have someone to voice their concerns to.

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Our Sources

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Slavery, the American Revolution, and the Constitution

African American soldiers served with valor at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. In November 1775, however, Congress decided to exclude blacks from future enlistment out of a sensitivity to the opinion of southern slave holders. But Lord Dunmore's promise of freedom to slaves who enlisted in the British army led Congress reluctantly to reverse it decision, fearful that black soldiers might join the redcoats.

African Americans played an important role in the revolution. They fought at Fort Ticonderoga and the Battle of Bunker Hill. A slave helped row Washington across the Delaware. Altogether, some 5,000 free blacks and slaves served in the Continental army during the Revolution. By 1778, many states, including Virginia, granted freedom to slaves who served in the Revolutionary war.

The American Revolution had profound effects on the institution of slavery. Several thousand slaves won their freedom by serving on both sides of the War of Independence. As a result of the Revolution, a surprising number of slaves were manumitted, while thousands of others freed themselves by running away. In Georgia alone, 5000 slaves, a third of the colony's prewar total, escaped. In South Carolina, a quarter of the slaves achieved freedom.

Both the British and the colonists believed that slaves could serve an important role during the revolution. In April 1775, Lord Dunmore (1732-1809), the royal governor of Virginia, threatened that he would proclaim liberty to the slaves and reduce Williamsburg to ashes if the colonists resorted to force against British authority. In November, he promised freedom to all slaves belonging to rebels who would join "His Majesty's Troops...for the more speedily reducing the Colony to a proper sense of their duty...." Some eight hundred slaves joined British forces, some wearing the emblem "Liberty to the Slaves." The British appeal to slave unrest outraged slave holders not only in the South but in New York's Hudson Valley. Later, Sir Henry Clinton (1738-1795) promised protection to all slaves who deserted from the rebels. Clinton's promise may well have contributed to the collapse of the British cause in the South. By suggesting that the Revolution was a war over slavery, he alienated many neutrals and even some loyalists.

Meanwhile, an American diplomat, Silas Deane (1737-1789), hatched a secret plan to incite slave insurrections in Jamaica. Two South Carolinians, John Laurens (1754-1782) and his father Henry (1724-1792), persuaded Congress to unanimously approve a plan to recruit an army of 3000 slave troops in South Carolina and Georgia. The federal government would compensate the slaves' owners and each black would, at the end of the war, be emancipated and receive $50. The South Carolina legislature rejected the plan, scuttling the proposal. In the end, however, and in contrast to the later Latin American wars of independence and the U.S. Civil War, neither the British nor the Americans proved willing to risk a full-scale social revolution by issuing an emancipation proclamation.

The Constitution and Slavery

On the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, said that the Constitution was "defective from the start." He point out that the framers had left out a majority of Americans when they wrote the phrase, "We the People." While some members of the Constitutional Convention voiced "eloquent objections" to slavery, Marshall said they "consented to a document which laid a foundation for the tragic events which were to follow."

The word "slave" does not appear in the Constitution. The framers consciously avoided the word, recognizing that it would sully the document. Nevertheless, slavery received important protections in the Constitution. The notorious Three-fifths clause--which counted three fifths of the slave population in apportioning representation--gave the South extra representation in the House and extra votes in the Electoral College. Thomas Jefferson would have lost the election of 1800 if not for the Three-fifths compromise. The Constitution also prohibited Congress from outlawing the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. A fugitive slave clause required the return of runaway slaves to their owners. The Constitution gave the federal government the power to put down domestic rebellions, including slave insurrections.

The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on slavery were the price for the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. They were convinced that if the Constitution restricted the slave trade, South Carolina and Georgia would refuse to join the Union. But by sidestepping the slavery issue, the framers left the seeds for future conflict. After the convention approved the great compromise, Madison wrote: "It seems now to be pretty well understood that the real difference of interests lies not between the large and small but between the northern and southern states. The institution of slavery and its consequences form the line of discrimination."

Of the 55 Convention delegates, about 25 owned slaves. Many of the framers harbored moral qualms about slavery. Some, including Benjamin Franklin (a former slave owner) and Alexander Hamilton (who was born in a slave colony in the British West Indies) became members of antislavery societies.

On August 21, 1787, a bitter debate broke out over a South Carolina proposal to prohibit the federal government from regulating the Atlantic slave trade. Luther Martin of Maryland, a slaveholder, said that the slave should be subject to federal regulation since the entire nation would be responsible for suppressing slave revolts. He also considered the slave trade contrary to America's republican ideals. "It is inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution," he said, "and dishonorable to the American character to have such a feature in the constitution."

John Rutledge of South Carolina responded forcefully. "Religion and humanity have nothing to do with this question," he insisted. Unless regulation of the slave trade was left to the states, the southern-most states "shall not be parties to the union." A Virginia delegate, George Mason, who owned hundreds of slaves, spoke out against slavery in ringing terms. "Slavery," he said, "discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed by slaves." Slavery also corrupted slave holders and threatened the country with divine punishment: "Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a country."

Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut accused slave holders from Maryland and Virginia of hypocrisy. They could afford to oppose the slave trade, he claimed, because "slaves multiply so fast in Virginia and Maryland that it is cheaper to raise then import them, whilst in the sickly rice swamps [of South carolina and Georgia] foreign supplies are necessary." Ellsworth suggested that ending the slave trade would benefit slave owners in the Chesapeake region, since the demand for slaves in other parts of the South was increase the price of slaves once the external supply was cut off.

The controversy over the Atlantic slave trade was ultimately settled by compromise. In exchange for a 20-year ban on any restrictions on the Atlantic slave trade, southern delegates agreed to remove a clause restricting the national government's power to enact laws requiring goods to be shipped on American vessels (benefiting northeastern shipbuilders and sailors). The same day this agreement was reached, the convention also adopted the fugitive slave clause, requiring the return of runaway slaves to their owners.

Was the Constitution a pro-slavery document, as abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison claimed when he burned the document in 1854 and called it "a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell"? This question still provokes controversy. If the Constitution temporarily strengthened slavery, it also created a central government powerful enough to eventually abolish the institution.

Discussion Topic: Did the framers of the Constitution miss an opportunity to put slavery on the path to eventual extinction?

In June 1787, the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery - the world's first antislavery society - asked its president, Benjamin Franklin, to deliver an anti-slave trade resolution to the Constitutional Convention. The resolution declared: "In vain will be Americans' Pretentions to a love of liberty or regard for national character while they share in the profits of a Commerce that can only be conducted upon Rivers of human tears and blood."

Franklin never presented that resolution or any other antislavery materials to the convention. He explained that he "thought it advisable to let them lie over for the present."

In 1790 Franklin did send a petition to Congress on behalf of the Society asking for the abolition of slavery and an end to the slave trade. The petition, signed on February 3, 1790, asked the first Congress, then meeting in New York City, to "devise means for removing the Inconsistency from the Character of the American People," and to "promote mercy and justice toward this distressed Race."

The petition was denounced by pro-slavery congressmen and sparked a heated debate in both the House and the Senate. The Senate took no action on the petition, and the House referred it to a select committee for further consideration. The committee claimed that the Constitution restrains Congress from prohibiting the importation or emancipation of slaves until 1808 and then tabled the petition. On April 17, 1790, just two months later, Franklin died in Philadelphia at the age of 84.

Petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, signed by Benjamin Franklin, President of the Pennsylvania Society,
February 3, 1790, Records of the United States Senate, Center for Legislative Archives.

Inquiry Questions: Speaking Out Against Slavery

1. Why do you think that antislavery northern delegates like Franklin were reluctant to speak out openly against slavery at the Constitutional Convention?

2. Why, in contrast, were slave owners, like George Mason of Virginia and Luther Martin of Maryland, more willing to speak out against the Atlantic slave trade?

3. Why did delegates feel that they had to placate South Carolina and Georgia at a time when those states were faced by a serious military threat from the Spanish in Florida and from the powerful Creek Indian confederacy?

Additional Activity: Analyzing a Primary Source - Pennsylvania Ends Slavery

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Slavery, the American Revolution, and the Constitution African American soldiers served with valor at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. In November 1775, however, Congress decided to exclude blacks from future enlistment out of a sensitivity to the opinion of southern slave holders.

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one major cause of the french and Indian war was that the countries each thought that the Ohio river belonged to them.

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The Americans protested against the taxes that the British made, for example: The Boston Tea Party

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The Americans protested against the taxes that the British made, for example: The Boston Tea Party

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The turning point was after when the British captured many American forts and won small battles. Then the patriots allied with the French and got backup.

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The turning point was after when the British captured many American forts and won small battles. Then the patriots allied with the French and got backup.

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An effect was that the French and Indian cost a lot.

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An effect was that the French and Indian cost a lot.

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French and Great Britain suffered financial dept. Nearly double of their national debt. King George the Third was mad because he spent a lot of money on this war. He found ways to tax the colonist to pay for the war. The colonies resisted against the taxes. Therefore, Britain had to send troops.

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They warned people that British were coming

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They warned people that British were coming

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Sybil Ludington was known as the female Paul Revere. She warned the people that British were coming, by knocking on every door as she went by on her horse, and knocked out 2 British soldiers along the way.

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They took their husband's places when they died.

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They took their husband's places when they died.

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Margaret Corbin did this. She received a pension for her actions. She was the first woman to receive a pension for her service

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One major cause of the french and indian war was that all of the different countries were unsure which one had the Ohio river in their territory.

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the french and indian war (1754-1763) timeline

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the french and indian war (1754-1763) events

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SparkNotes: The French and Indian War (1754-1763): Timeline

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A timeline listing the important events during The French and Indian War (1754-1763)

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What was one major cause of the French and Indian War?

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What was one major cause of the French and Indian War?

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The major cause of the war was that no one was sure who had the Ohio river land.