The Revolutionary Period of American Revolution

1750-1800

During this period, the majority of American writing was politically motivated, whether supportive of English
rule or revolutionary in character.

This period is also called the Age of Enlightenment which is the period of great scientific, political, and
philosophical advances.

Also known as The Age of Reason

— There was a focus on logic and reason (RATIONALISM) . People (whether English or American) believed that
by using reason human beings could manage themselves and their societies without depending on authorities
and past traditions.

— By nature, people were good - not evil

Major events timeline in American Revolutionary Period

1. 1754-1763 – French and Indian War

In 1753, Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia ordered a young, ambitious 21-year old George
Washington on a mission deep into the Ohio Country to confront the French. Washington’s account of his
journey to Fort Le Beouf and back made Major Washington a celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1754 Washington’s surprise attack upon a small French force at Jumonville Glen and his subsequent
surrender to French forces at the Battle of Fort Necessity helped to spark the French and Indian War, which
was part of the imperial conflict between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years’ War. The
following year, Washington accompanied Major General Edward Braddock on his ill-fated march on Fort
Duquesne.

The French and Indian War began in 1754 and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The war provided Great
Britain enormous territorial gains in North America, but disputes over subsequent frontier policy and paying
the war's expenses led to colonial discontent, and ultimately to the American Revolution.

During the French and Indian War, Washington learned many important military lessons that he would
incorporate into the American Revolution.

2. 1765 – Stamp Act

The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament.
The act, which imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire
was deep in debt from the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and looking to its North American colonies as a revenue
source.
Arguing that only their own representative assemblies could tax them, the colonists insisted that the act was
unconstitutional, and they resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning. Parliament
passed the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765 and repealed it in 1766, but issued a Declaratory Act at the same
time to reaffirm its authority to pass any colonial legislation it saw fit. The issues of taxation and
representation raised by the Stamp Act strained relations with the colonies to the point that, 10 years later,
the colonists rose in armed rebellion against the British.

3. 1767 – Townshend Acts

The Townshend Acts were a series of measures, passed by the British Parliament in 1767, that taxed goods
imported to the American colonies. But American colonists, who had no representation in Parliament, saw the
Acts as an abuse of power. The British sent troops to America to enforce the unpopular new laws, further
heightening tensions between Great Britain and the American colonies in the run-up to the American
Revolutionary War.

4. 1770 – Boston Massacre

The most famous incident of gun violence in American history is undoubtedly the Boston Massacre.

On March 5, 1770, a street brawl happened in Boston between American colonists and British soldiers, the
fight began after an unruly group of colonists—frustrated with the presence of British soldiers in their streets
—flung snowballs, ice and oyster shells at a British sentinel guarding the Boston Customs House.

Reinforcements arrived and opened fire on the mob, killing five colonists and wounding six. The Boston
Massacre and its fallout further incited the colonists’ rage towards Britain.

5. 1774 – First Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was an itinerant legislature, often moving to escape British forces during the
Revolutionary War. The First Continental Congress met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the
fall of 1774. Delegates from twelve of Britain's thirteen American colonies met to discuss America's future
under growing British aggression.

6. 1775 – Lexington and Concord

The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, kicked off the American Revolutionary War
(1775-83). Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the
British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts. On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops
marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. Paul Revere and other riders
sounded the alarm, and colonial militiamen began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoat column. A
confrontation on the Lexington town green started off the fighting, and soon the British were hastily retreating
under intense fire.

7. 1776 – Declaration of Independence

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion in Congress to declare independence. Other
members of Congress were amenable but thought some colonies not quite ready. However, Congress did form
a committee to draft a declaration of independence and assigned this duty to Thomas Jefferson.

The Declaration of Independence in simple words is one of the most important documents in the history of the
United States. It was an official act taken by all 13 American colonies in declaring independence from British
rule.
8. 1781 – Revolutionary War ends

When British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and his army surrendered to General George Washington’s
American force and its French allies at the Battle of Yorktown on October 19, 1781, it was more than just
military win. The outcome in Yorktown, Virginia marked the conclusion of the last major battle of the
American Revolution and the start of a new nation's independence. It also cemented Washington’s reputation
as a great leader and eventual election as first president of the United States.

9. 1787 – Constitution

Written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, the United States Constitution is the world's
longest surviving written charter of government. Its first three words – “We The People” – affirm that the
government of the United States exists to serve its citizens.

A convention of delegates from all the states except Rhode Island met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in May of
1787. Known as the Constitutional Convention, at this meeting it was decided that the best solution to the
young country's problems was to set aside the Articles of Confederation and write a new constitution.

Important Writers (referred as THE FOUNDING FATHERS)

1. Benjamin Franklin

During the American Revolution, he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the
Declaration of Independence in 1776. He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the
Revolutionary War (1775-83).

He wrote two of the greatest treasures of American literature, Poor Richard's Almanack and his Memoirs,
also called The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

His most Famous work is:

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin — is concerned with memory. Franklin's autobiography is a work of
memory, a "recollection." He shows us how his past made him into the author writing in his present.

2. Thomas Paine

The most influential writer in the American History. Who was able to wrote 16 pamphlets.
He supported revolutionary causes in America and Europe. Published in 1776 to international acclaim,
“Common Sense” was the first pamphlet to advocate American independence.

Common Sense is his famous work which made a clear case for independence and directly attacked the
political, economic, and ideological obstacles to achieving it. Paine relentlessly insisted that British rule was
responsible for nearly every problem in colonial society and that the 1770s crisis could only be resolved by
colonial independence.

3. Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson is best known for his role in writing the Declaration of Independence, his foreign service, his two
terms as president, and his omnipresent face on the modern nickel.

The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in the history of the United States.
It was an official act taken by all 13 American colonies in declaring independence from British rule.

4. Patrick Henry

Considered as the most powerful Orator.

Henry is probably best known for his famous declaration, "give me liberty or give me death," made during a
speech before the Virginia Convention in 1775.

5. James Madison

Made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing The Federalist Papers, along with
Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In later years, he was referred to as the “Father of the Constitution.”

The Federalist Papers were a series of eighty-five essays written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and
John Jay under the pseudonym "Publius." The essays were written between October 1787 and August 1788,
and were intended to build public and political support for the newly constructed Constitution which was sent
to the States for ratification in September 1787, following the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

Common Genres

Poetry

The story of poetry in the time of the American Revolution is a story of the interaction between manuscript,
print, and oral culture. From the Stamp Act crisis through the Revolutionary War, colonists used poetry to vent
their anger, express their political beliefs, and articulate the principles that defined the new nation. Many
women began writing poetry during the Revolutionary era.

Most of the poetry was neoclassical, in imitation of English poet Alexander Pope.
— Neoclassical = characterized by simplicity, directness, order, decorum, balance, unity, and an emphasis on
reason

— Poets used neoclassical forms and styles such as burlesque, satire, and epic for political ends, especially the
patriotic political end of independence.

Mercy Otis Warren, Boston historian and playwright, is one of the best known female poets of the time. Her
most seminal work, History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, a three-
volume set that she published in 1805 at the age of seventy-seven, was one of the first comprehensive
histories of the American Revolution

Throughout the eighteenth century, many readers considered John Milton's biblical epic Paradise Lost the
single greatest poem in the English language. Paradise Lost is an epic poem (12 books, totalling more than
10,500 lines) written in blank verse, telling the biblical tale of the Fall of Mankind – the moment when Adam
and Eve were tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and God banished
them from the Garden of Eden forever.

Phillis Wheatley, an American slave and poet, inaugurated the African American literary tradition with her
volume Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773). She became the first published African
American poet.

Prose

Revolutionary prose mostly promoted the movement for independence from England and the unification of
the nation.

— Thomas Paine - Common Sense (1776)

Common Sense made a clear case for independence and directly attacked the political, economic, and
ideological obstacles to achieving it. Paine relentlessly insisted that British rule was responsible for nearly
every problem in colonial society and that the 1770s crisis could only be resolved by colonial independence.

— Alexander Hamilton and James Madison - The Federalist Papers (1787-88) – political theory underlying the
U.S. Constitution

The Federalist Papers was a collection of essays written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton
in 1788. The essays urged the ratification of the United States Constitution, which had been debated and
drafted at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

— Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography (1771)

The Autobiography is a major source for exploring Franklin's ideas on wealth and virtue as well as his
motivations in pursuing a long life of active civic participation.

— Thomas Jefferson - The Declaration of Independence (1776)

 The Declaration summarized the colonists' motivations for seeking independence. By declaring
themselves an independent nation, the American colonists were able to confirm an official alliance with the
Government of France and obtain French assistance in the war against Great Britain.

— William Hill Brown — The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy (1789), was written at the end of
the Revolutionary Period.

The novel tells the story of a young woman named Harriot, who is pursued by two men: her guardian, Mr.
Boyer, and a young man named Sanford. Harriot eventually falls in love with Boyer and rejects Sanford's
advances. However, Sanford becomes obsessed with Harriot and begins to plot her abduction.

Drama

The first play written by an American and acted in America was Thomas Godfrey’s The Prince of Parthia
(1767).

• Drama was the most influential and widespread outside of New England, where the Puritan suspicion of the
medium remained strong.

• Dramas of the time were historical, didactic, and patriotic in nature.

BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Betsy Ross and the Making of America

A richly woven biography of the beloved patriot Betsy Ross, and an enthralling portrait of everyday life in
Revolutionary War-era Philadelphia

Betsy Ross and the Making of America is the first comprehensively researched and elegantly written biography
of one of America's most captivating figures of the Revolutionary War. Drawing on new sources and bringing a
fresh, keen eye to the fabled creation of "the first flag," Marla R. Miller thoroughly reconstructs the life behind
the legend. This authoritative work provides a close look at the famous seamstress while shedding new light
on the lives of the artisan families who peopled the young nation and crafted its tools, ships, and homes.

Betsy Ross occupies a sacred place in the American consciousness, and Miller's winning narrative finally does
her justice. This history of the ordinary craftspeople of the Revolutionary War and their most famous
representative will be the definitive volume for years to come.

Alexander Hamilton

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the
Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.
Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political
and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas
that were often wildly disputed during his time. Chernow’s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the
story of America’s birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots,
Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.

Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and
Culture (Woody Holton)

Providing a fresh look at liberty and freedom in the Revolutionary era from the perspective of black Americans,
Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era examines the conditions of black American life during this time and
the ways in which Revolutionary rhetoric about liberty provided African Americans with the language and
inspiration for advancing their cause.

Woody Holton recounts the experiences of slaves who seized freedom by joining the British as well as those —
slave and free — who served in Patriot military forces. Holton’s introduction examines the conditions of black
American life on the eve of colonial independence and the ways in which Revolutionary rhetoric about liberty
provided African Americans with the language and inspiration for advancing their cause. Despite the rhetoric,
however, most black Americans remained enslaved after the Revolution. The introduction outlines ways
African Americans influenced the course of the Revolution and continued to be affected by its aftermath.
Amplifying these themes are nearly forty documents — including personal narratives, petitions, letters,
poems, advertisements, pension applications, and images — that testify to the diverse goals and actions of
African Americans during the Revolutionary era. Document headnotes and annotations, a chronology,
questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and index offer additional pedagogical support.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

— is concerned with memory. The whole idea of writing your life story is sharing that memory with readers.
Franklin's autobiography is a work of memory, a "recollection." He shows us how his past made him into the
author writing in his present.