Daniel Boone

        Daniel Boone, born on November 2^nd, 1734, was traveling. He was 15 years old and he and his family were moving from Pennsylvania to the Yadkin River in North Carolina. He had a great time because he was very fond of the forest. He also enjoyed places where people hardly ever explore. When they reached the Yadkin River, they began building their cabin.

        When he was older, he joined the British in the French and Indian War. He was mainly a wagon driver. After two years he quit his job and went home in North Carolina. Later, He married a neighbor named Rebecca.

A year after their marriage, a baby boy named James was born.

        When, a friend from the army came to him and invited him on his expedition to Kentucky. It was hard for him to leave his family, but he accepted. When he was there, he and a friend were captured by Indians. Luckily, when the guards were asleep, he and his friend escaped. Daniel stayed in Kentucky for two more years and he finally went home to his family.  

        Years after he had come home, he decided to move to Kentucky. With him, he brought his family and five other neighbor families. Soon, more people began joining him so he founded the settlement of Boonesborough. In 1776, his daughter was captured by the Indians so he had to rescue her. In 1820, he died at the age of 86.

        He was important to history for making many roads to the west of the United States, which no one had ever explored.

 

Massachusetts

          The first people to live in Massachusetts came about 10,000 years ago. They hunted the mammoths and other wild beasts in big groups so that they wouldn’t fail. By 5000 BC the mammoths were extinct. They began hunting the normal animals that we hunt today such as rabbits, deer, and squirrels. They also started growing vegetables. They began to live in small villages too. Between 2000 and 3000 years ago, the Indians, such as the Mohicans, Algonquian, and the Massachusetts tribes, settled into the areas.

          The first Europeans to go near Massachusetts were Vikings in the year 1000. They came because they heard stories about a man that saw the land but didn’t travel to it. They first came to New Found Land and traveled down near Massachusetts. In 1498, an Italian sailor named John Cabot was working for the British and he caught sight of the land. He didn’t go ashore, but he still claimed it for the British.

          In the 1600s, England was forcing people to follow the Church of England. The church was getting corrupt and it began turning to a different religion. If someone didn’t follow the church, they could be punished or even killed. A group of people who didn’t approve of these laws decided to leave England and make a settlement in the New World.

         They traveled on a ship called the May Flower and the Speedwell, but the Speedwell began leaking so the passengers switched over to the Mayflower. It was a harsh trip. It was very cold and they were in a storm a majority of the time. There wasn’t much food expect for salt meat, hard biscuits, and small beans. After about 60 days of traveling, they landed in Massachusetts. They had a chance to settle into and early English settlement but they decided to go somewhere else. They soon founded a town named Plymouth. It was on an abandoned Indian village.

          For 50 years the Pilgrims and the Indians maintained a strong relationship. At first, the winters were harsh for the pilgrims with hardly any food and warmth, but it all changed. An Indian named Samoset came to the village. In English he said to them, “Welcome Englishmen.” He was very helpful to the Pilgrims. He brought them two Indians to help them. With one of the Indians, they made a peace treaty.

          In the fall of the year 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated their arrival in the New World and their harvest so they decided to have a feast. One of the main dishes was turkey. The food lasted for 3 days. They invited some of the Indians too.

          Soon, the pilgrims started to be like the Church of England. They didn’t follow the same religion, but they started to force people to be Christians. They began to punish or banish anyone who didn’t agree with them.

          In the 1700s, they began to trade with the English and soon more English colonies began settling there. By the 1750s, Massachusetts was under British control. Later in 1776, the revolution began and at the end of the war, The 13 colonies became America.

American Revolution

The American Revolution took place in the thirteen colonies, which were New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. All these colonies were controlled by King George III of the United Kingdom.

The American Revolution was the first revolution during modern times so it inspired many other people around the world to stand up to their bad governments. At the battle of Concord, “The Shot heard Round the World” was fired. The shot wasn’t actually heard round the world. It was the first shot fired in the revolution. No one knows who shot it. It is famous because it started America’s Revolution and lots of people worldwide wanted freedom too and it inspired many other revolutions.
          Many settlers had been coming to America since 1600, but in the 1760s the niceness of living there was changed. England recently had a war with France in which they spent most of their money on buying things for the war. They wanted to regain the money so they plastered some taxes on the colonists for goods like tea, playing cards, and sugar. The colonists thought this wasn’t fair.

          On a day in March 1770, some angry citizens were throwing snowballs at the British troops. Suddenly, one of the officers commanded the soldiers to fire their guns at the citizens. This event was called the Boston Massacre. Five of them died.

          One tax was the tea act. This tax put lots of extra charges on the cost of tea. Many colonists were dissatisfied at the sight of the cost. One night in December, 1773, a group of colonists disguised themselves as Indians. They boarded some British trading boats in the Boston Harbor and dumped the tea into the H2O. This was called the Boston Tea party.

           When it was announced, King George III was significantly angered. He demanded that the parliament make more and greater taxes on the Americans. He also sent more troops to Boston to keep guard so it wouldn’t happen again. The new taxes were called the Intolerable Acts by the Americans because they couldn’t do anything about them.

          In 1774, the first Continental Congress was presented. A Continental Congress was where a group of leaders came together to discuss how to deal with the British. Some spoke of cutting off all trade with the British and some even suggested war.

          In Concord the colonists had hidden supplies in case the British attacked. King George III heard about the supplies and ordered military governor Thomas Gage to find and destroy the supplies. Some people heard about the plan so they told the leaders of the patriots to be ready if they came.

On April 18^th, 1775, Dr. Warren called silver smith, Paul Revere, to warn John Hancock about the British. Revere set up a signal at Christ Church. If one lantern was up it meant that they were coming by land and two meant that they were crossing the river. Eventually, Revere spotted the British crossing thee river so he rode to Christ Church to hang the two lanterns. At about midnight, Revere, William Dawes and Prescott warned the minutemen that they were coming. Minutemen were patriots that would be ready to fight the British in a minute.

The men were supposed to warn everybody without being caught by the British, but they were caught. Dawes and Prescott escaped and Revere was let go but they took his horse.

Lieutenant Colonel Francis secretly led the British out of Boston and into Concord to destroy the supplies. The minute men were ready. It was a few dozen minute men against hundreds of British troops. The Patriots were holding old muskets, but the British had big and shiny muskets. John Pitcairn asked the patriots to drop their weapons and go away, but they refused. Then the shooting began. Nobody knows which side started it. The shooting lasted for five minutes. Eight patriots died and ten were injured. Only one British man was injured. This battle started the war.

After the battle, Colonel Smith led the British to Concord. Two hundred fifty patriots led by John Butrick began marching to Concord to defend the supplies, but when they saw the British they retreated because there were too many. The British couldn’t find the supplies because they were moved to the woods nearby. They just found some gunpowder and started a fire in town square with it. A small group of British met the Patriots at North Bridge. The British started destroying the bridge so the patriots wouldn’t cross, but when they started a shot was fired. Three British were killed and several were wounded. The British began running away to Concord.

British were looking for the supplies but they couldn’t find them. They began marching back to Boston but the Americans were waiting for them. They were hiding behind the trees, in the bushes etc. When the British came near the shooting began. The Americans could easily see them because of their red coats. Most of the British were dead and the survivors were relieved to make it back to Boston.

On July 4^th, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson and was signed. This officially decreed that the United States was independent from Britain. Finally in 1781, The war ended. America won and they were free from the rule of Great Britain.