The American Revolution
Friday, March 7, 2014
The Treaty of Paris of 1783
The Battle of Yorktown - The Last Battle
Valley Forge
The Continental Army had suffered many defeats. The British had captured Philadelphia and the continental army could not get it back. Washington had no place to settle his troops. He finally decided on taking them to Valley Forge, located 20 miles outside Philadelphia. He could keep an eye on the British while he decided what to do next. Although no battles were fought, many men died. The continental army remained camped at Valley Forge for 6 months during winter. Men had no food, medicine or clothes and had to sleep in small log cabins. They were hungry, sick and cold and anxious to go back to their families.
George Washington worried that when their stay at Valley Forge ended, he might no longer have an army. Most of his men were farmers with families, not soldiers. However, he was determined to keep his army together. The war was not about territory, it was about freedom. The army knew it, but were unhappy with their series of defeats. They were cold, hungry and dying while the British were warm and happy at Philadelphia.
Washington needed soldiers who would not just fight effectively but would also show the idea of freedom. Washington needed that people at home would also be strong so they could provide food, clothing, information and morale.
Martha Washington was a wonderful help for Washington's plans. His soldiers were having severe problems. They were starving and freezing since they used thin clothes and rags in their feet. Martha helped them by donating as much food as she could and sewing more adequate clothes.
Even though she was tiny, she was organized and powerful. Martha managed to convince other women to help her. Soldiers who survived called her "Lady Washington" since they knew that without her they wouldn't have managed to survive. Baron Von Steuben also help the army become more professional. He taught them how to march, fight and follow orders. Troops continued to receive help and when they marched away, Washington knew his army had become better and that he had archived his goal.
Cornwallis
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the 15th of 17 children and that is why his family was poor. This was why Benjamin had to look up for himself which made him even more independent. When Benjamin was 12, he worked with his brother James as an apprentice and even wrote some of the articles himself. All of this were published anonymously since they thought no one would be interested in the writings of a teenage boy. At the age of seventeen, Franklin ran away from home. He wanted to live his life by his own so he moved to Philadelphia. The next year he traveled to London to work in a print shop. Two years later he went back to America, but did not return to his house. Instead he went to Philadelphia again were after two years he opened his own print office. Benjamin Franklin was twenty three when he bought the Pennsylvania Gazette and hoped to make it the best newspaper it could be. After a year, he married Deborah Rogers with which he had three children. Two of them survived to adulthood and Francis born in 1732 died at the age of four. In that same year, he published the Poor Richard's Almanack under the name Richard Saunders. Franklin kept publishing the Gazette until 1748 when he sold it and retired from printing. Benjamin Franklin was active in his community, he founded a volunteer fire company, became the city's postmaster, organized the Philadelphia militia, helped create Pennsylvania's first university, organized the first city hospital, and the first subscription library in Philadelphia.
Curiosity was a key factor for Benjamin's inventions. He wanted to know why things worked the way they did and how to make them better. Throughout his life he created different things. First of all, he invented what today is known as bifocals. Since he had poor vision and was tired of taking away and putting back again his glasses, he wanted to invent a way to see both near and far. What he did was that he cut two pair of spectacles in half and put half of each lens in a single frame. Franklin wanted to help his older brother John who had kidney stones, so he developed, a flexible urinary catheter that is is known to be the first one produced in America. Throughout his life, Franklin made several voyages which allowed him to learn about ships. He suggested following the Chinese model of dividing the watertight compartments so if a leak occurred, the water would not spread throughout the ship. Benjamin did not invent the electricity however he did invent the lightning rod which protected the buildings and ships from lightning damage. People in America used to build a fireplace to warm their homes even if it was dangerous. Benjamin Franklin built an iron furnace stove which was called Franklin stove. This stove allowed people to get warm under safer conditions. Franklin also invented an odometer to keep tack of the distance he traveled while delivering the mail. When Benjamin was old, and already retired, he wanted to spend his time reading but discovered that he didn't reach the high book shelves. This is why he invented a long arm which was a wooden pole with a grasping claw at the end to make it easier for him to reach his books.
Benjamin Franklin had a long political life. He first served in Pennsylvania's colonial legislature. During the French and Indian War he was elected to represent Pennsylvania at the Albany Congress making one of the first proposals to bring the colonies together under a central authority. The Congress accepted it but the colonial legislatures rejected it since they saw it as a threat. Years later he went to London in representation of several colonies and when the Stamp Act crisis arose, he spoke against it demonstrating he now believed on taxation without representation. 1775-1776 Benjamin became a member of the Continental Congress, and served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He was the oldest one who signed this document. Later on, Franklin left the Continental Congress to become the president of Pennsylvania's constitutional convention. One of his greatest achievements was that he worked as minister to France making the nation's first foreign alliance. Franklin negotiated treaties of commerce and alliances, obtained loans and along with John Jay and John Adams negotiated the Treaty of Paris. When independence was finally achieved, he came back to Pennsylvania to serve as the Supreme Executive Council of Philadelphia. One of the last things he did was sign a memorial to Congress urging the abolition of slavery and becoming the first president of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. Benjamin Franklin was the only person who signed the four key documents of the American History which were: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of peace with Great Britain and the Constitution of the United States.