CHAPTER V INDEPENDENCE, 1775-1783 Books for Consultation General Readings. - Lodge's English Colonies, 492-521; Higginson's Larger History, 249–293; Hart's Formation of the Union, 70–106; Fiske's War of Independence, 86–193 and Civil Government, 161–180. Special Accounts. - Sloane's French War and the Revolution, 192-388; Frothingham's Rise of the Republic; Winsor's America, VI, VII; Fiske's American Revolution; Greene's Historical View; *Bancroft's United States; *Hildreth's United States; *Lecky's England, IV, chs. xiv, xv; *Mahon's England; Carrington's Battles of the American Revolution; Hosmer's Samuel Adams (S. S.); Morse's John Adams (S. S.); Bigelow's Franklin; Lodge's Washington (S. S.); Pellew's Jay (S. S.); Sumner's Robert Morris; Schouler's Jefferson (M. A.); Lowell's Hessians; Greene's German Element; Winsor's Memorial History of Boston; Grant's Memorial History of New York; Larned's History for Ready Reference, under United States and the several states. Sources. Biographies and writings of Samuel Adams, John Adams, Burgoyne, Dickinson, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Henry, Jay, Jefferson, Lafayette, R. H. Lee, Pickering, Shelburne, and Washington, see Guide, §§ 135, 25, 32, 33; Annual Register; Chandler's American Crimina! Trials; Sparks's Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution; Wharton's Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence; Hart's Contemporaries, Vol. II; Donne's Correspondence of George III and Lord North; Journals of Congress; Secret Journals of Congress; Force's American Archives; Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature; Niles's Principles and Acts of the Revolution; American History Leaflets; MacDonald's Documents. Maps. Mac Coun's Historical Geography; Carrington's Battles; Winsor's America; Lowell's Hessians; Hart's Epoch Maps, No. 6. Bibliography. Channing and Hart, Guide to American History, §§ 56 a, 56 b (General Readings), §§ 135-141 (Topics and References). Illustrative Material. Roosevelt's Winning of the West, II; Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride; Holmes's Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill; Mrs. Child's The Rebels; Eggleston's American War Ballads; Moore's Ballads of the American Revolution; Sargent's Growth of the colonies. Restrictions on manu facturing. INDEPENDENCE, 1775-1783 140. Material Prosperity, 1775.- Notwithstanding the controversies and conflicts described in the last chapter, the years 1760 to 1775 marked a period of great material development. The population of the colonies had increased marvellously, from about sixteen hundred thousand in 1760 to about twenty-five hundred thousand in 1775. Trade and commerce had thriven; for, although the navigation laws and the acts of trade would have borne harshly on the mercantile colonies, had they been enforced, the injury they inflicted was trifling, as they were never carried out. On the other hand, a large amount of money was paid to the colonists in the way of premiums and bounties on colonial staples. The laws designed to cramp colonial manufacturing prevented the growth of industry and worked great hardship. Among the last of these laws was one which prohibited the export of any machinery or patterns of machinery from England (1770). The aim of this enactment was to prevent the establishment of textile industries in the colonies. Combined with the prohibition of the manufacture of wool 1775] Advantages of the Colonists 171 and iron, this act may be regarded as showing a determination on the part of the rulers of England to prevent the establishment of manufacturing industries in the colonies and to restrain the colonists to agricultural and commercial pursuits. Notwithstanding these prohibitions and restrictions, the colonies were practically self-sustaining in 1775, although the interruption of foreign trade deprived them of articles of everyday use which were not actually necessary to existence and yet cannot be regarded as luxuries. Arms and military equipments were not produced in any quantity in America; those needed during the war were mainly obtained from the French, although some were captured from the British. colonists' success. 141. Advantages of the Colonists. The colonists were Reasons greatly inferior in numbers and in resources to the people for the of Great Britain. That they were able to limit the British to the occupation of a few seaboard towns, and finally to achieve their independence, was due (1) to the defective strategy of the British, (2) to the aid given by the French, and (3) to the nature of the field of operations. As to the first of these, it is not necessary to say much. The British Inferiority commanders were generally inferior to the American; it is indeed extraordinary how few men of ability the British manders. army contained. But the fundamental plan of their campaign was wrong, as they sought to occupy territory instead of crushing opposition. of British com Without the aid given by the French, at first in the form French aid. of war materials, and later in the shape of liberal contributions of money, a splendid army, and a formidable naval force, the war certainly would not have been brought to a successful termination in 1781, although the colonists probably would have succeeded in the end. The geographical features of the country east of the Geographical Alleghany Mountains greatly assisted the successful resist- features. ance of the colonists. From north to south, the theater of war measured more than a thousand miles in extent, but from east to west the distance was very much Siege of Boston, 1775-76. Winsor's America, VI, 128-134; I, 136-146. less: in some regions it was not a hundred miles wide. When hard pressed, the colonial armies were nearly always able to retire to inaccessible hilly regions, where pursuit was dangerous, if not impossible. The long, thin fringe of the continent was intersected by large and deep rivers and by arms of the sea: there were a dozen fields of operation in place of one. For instance, the Hudson River, with Lake Champlain, divided New England from the rest of the continent (p. 11); the Mohawk separated the Hudson valley into two distinct parts; Delaware and Chesapeake bays and the rivers of Virginia (p. 497) made a campaign of invasion south of the Hudson a matter of great difficulty; and the Carolinas were cut up into several geographical districts by marshes, by large regions of sandy, sparsely settled country, and by long deep rivers extremely subject to floods. Portions of this territory were still hardly better than a wilderness: good roads, suitable for the movement of army trains and artillery, were to be found only in the vicinity of the larger towns; and even these were impassable during a large portion of each year. On the other hand, good harbors everywhere abounded and made the business of the privateer and the blockade runner peculiarly easy. 142. Bunker Hill, 1775. -The siege or blockade of Boston lasted for almost eleven months, from April 19, 1775, to March 17, 1776. During those months, a force drawn from all the New England colonies, and, after July, 1775, from the other colonies as well, blockaded the British army. In all this time there was but one action deserving the name of battle, the battle of Bunker Hill. On June 16 reports reached the colonial headquarters that the Bunker Hill. British commander intended to seize Dorchester Heights. To divert him from the execution of this plan, the Committee of Safety ordered the seizure of Bunker Hill. On the night of the 16th, Colonel Prescott occupied Breed's Hill, which was nearer Boston. When day dawned, he must have seen that his position was untenable: there were no Winsor's America, VI, 134-140. |