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.