Second Continental Congress

Before the declaring of independence the colonists develop several continental congresses. The  first continental congress happened in October 26, 1774. In which  all of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates to discuss how they oppose to the coercive acts. The second continental congress was on May 1775. It was a convention of delegates from the 13 colonies and the result was the Declaration of Independence. They ask George Washington to be the supreme commander he accept to work without any pay.  Then it was no longer the Congress dealing with more grievances, but it was a governing body.

In the continental congress the majority of delegates were not looking for independence from Britain. But in the other hand the radicals like John Adams were looking for independence. But then the Congress approved the Olive branch petition, it was a direct appeal to the king. The American delegates talk with George III to attempt peaceful resolution and declared their loyalty to the Crown. But the King refused to receive this petition and instead declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion. When the king respond in this way then their desire of becoming independent grew stronger. For them the summer of 1776 they where at the point of no return when they do the Declaration of Independence.

They began making provisions to form the American Continental army to defend the colonies. George Washington was appointed as Commander-in-Chief over the newly found army. This was a huge step towards what would become an amazing new nation. To finance the new military, Congress also voted to start printing money. Congress had officially taken charge of the war effort. It was at the meeting of the Second Continental Congress that the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, Benjimen Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. This amazing document has defined America for over two centuries. Congress approved the first resolution of independence on July 2, 1776. On July 4th, they approved the final declaration. As president of Congress, John Hancock was the first of the delegates to sign the document. In summary, this second meeting of the Continental Congress was he cause that changed the minds of the citizens to take a completely radical idea and brought a nation known as the United States of America.


Bibliography:
http://totallyhistory.com/second-continental-congress/

• Website Title: Totally History Second Continental Congress Comments
• Article Title: Second Continental Congress 1775 Summary & Accomplishments
• Date Accessed: January 25, 2014

http://www.masshist.org/revolution/congress2.php

• Website Title: Coming of the American Revolution: Second Continental Congre[…]
• Article Title: The Second Continental Congress
• Date Accessed: January 25, 2014

http://www.ushistory.org/us/10e.asp

• Website Title: ushistory.org
• Article Title: Second Continental Congress
• Publisher: Independence Hall Association
• Date Accessed: January 23, 2014

Patriots and Loyalists Disagree

Throughout the history of the United States of America, several important event occurred. Before their independence, the colonists were divided. In one side we have the patriots, who wanted to declare themselves independent from Britain. And in the other side we had the loyalists, who were loyal to Britain and were opposed to the independence. Since their thoughts were different they had several contradictions that produce chaos. When the events became worst and the patriots started focussing on independence, they had several disagreements that led to revolution.

  So most colonist supported Continental Congress and Boycotts of British imports, but the majority were loyalist. The loyalist favored the laws and order but they were afraid of the patriots. They would view committees illegal and brutal. They would picture patriots as vermin. This produced tension between both of them and problems. These disagreements caused many skirmishes which killed many people.

  Many loyalist oppose British taxes, but they had to obey parliament and the crown. Loyalist feared the resistance would lead to a deadly war and they doubted that the colonist would be able to defeat an empire but they were wrong. Jonathan Sewel who was a loyalist was talking with John Adams who was a lawyer. Jonathan Sewel warned Adams saying that they (loyalist) would not change. One fifth of the colonist remained loyalist while many more wanted to remain neutral. Loyalist were seen as wealthy people but most of them were regular farmers who feared oppression of patriots. Loyalist would hate what patriots would do to them. The Indians sided with the loyalist because patriots would take there land. 

  This was the reasons why the loyalist and patriots disagreed. Many problems happened because of these disagreements. Basically, since the patriots wanted to separate from Britain and the loyalist didn't think that it was necessary, patriots wanted them to be part of this so they fought.

Resources:


"The American Revolution." : Patriots and Loyalists Disagree. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
http://americanrevunit.blogspot.com/2010/06/patriots-and-loyalists-disagree.html

"The American Revolution From Our Perspective." The American Revolution From Our Perspective. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
http://ushistoryslaves.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/patriots-and-loyalists-disagree/

"The American Revolution." : Patriots and Loyalists Disagree. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
http://americanrevolutiongirls.blogspot.com/2013/02/patriots-and-loyalists-disagree.html

Declaration of Independence

 One of the most important events in the history of the United States of America is the Declaration of Independence. This event made or built the United States of America as it is today. The Declaration of Independence actually was created because the colonist wanted to be separated from Britain. I'll try to talk about this event a little more and explain something's. I hope you learn some interesting content from this post.

  The patriots did not like Britain and wanted to separate from them. The loyalist on the other hand were people who did not like patriot and disagreed with them. They would have serious problems because they were seriously different. The loyalist actually were afraid of the patriots. There was an event that occurred which was very important as well. There was a man who's name was Thomas Gage and this man wanted to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams. He also wanted to take away the weapons of them. This leads to skirmishes and this was when things change a lot.

 After this a book named "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine came out. This book was based on radical changes for the colonist but was actually everything they believed in. This book changed colonist minds a lot. In the book it talked about declaring Independence from Britain, make a republican state government, and union of the states. He would mention things in the book saying the king and the aristocrats were frauds and parasites, he wanted common people to elect their government, that they would have rewards as a republic, they would trade with anyone in the world, and they would inspire people from all around the world. 

  In Spring of 1776 people read this special book by Thomas Paine. The congress noticed this and named a committee declaring American Independence and a document had to explain the reasons. Later on July 2, 1776 congress voted that America was free but until July 4 they approved the Declaration of Independence. These ideas drew from Pains book and Thomas Jefferson wrote most of it. Most of the content were complains but declaration advanced that "all men are created equal." It drew on the enlightenment and said they were allowed to triad with any country.  I hope you learned some important events from this post.


Sources:

"American Colonies Declare Independence." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-colonies-declare-independence

"Declaration of Independence - Text Transcript." Declaration of Independence - Text Transcript. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

"Declaration of Independence." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/

THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD

After many events that created a strong tension between Patriots and the British, some rebel actions from the patriots occurred. They weren't too interested anymore on having representation on the parliament. Instead they wanted to become independent from Britain. Some man who were interest on finding their freedom, was Samuel Adams and John Hancock. They saw themselves as americans, rather than colonists. As Britain saw that the colonists were becoming more serious, they started providing more attention to the situation. And even though colonists sent a peace message, it was denied by the king. That was probably the main reason for their revolution, since they thought that the king was by their side.

Fighting towards Britain was a challenging decision. They had one of the most powerful armies, and the colonists had barely a militia. It was almost impossible for them to complete their task. One of the main obstacles they had were loyalists, because they were loyal to Britain. 

Most of the Colonists weren't sure if it was worth to become independent. But as time went by they were clever and found their way. They fought several wars in order to get what they wanted, in this case one of the most famous was The Battle of Lexington and Concord.

The battle started when the british knew the plans colonists had, which was to form an army, so they were recollecting weapons.  The british decided to go and take away their weapons, but unfortunately they sent some men to alert the colonists. That way colonists found their time to scape while the army came. Even though the destroy all the weapons, the rebels were still out. When the were going back to Lexington, the "soldiers of the colonists'' called minutemen, were there ready to fight. They killed around 200 british soldiers, even though they were less. They used different techniques in order to confuse and manipulate the british soldiers. By then Britain saw that the colonists were serious on this issue, and by that time, the revolution started.

Sources:

"Battle of Lexington and Concord." Battle of Lexington and Concord. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.

http://www.kidport.com/reflib/usahistory/americanrevolution/lexingtonbattle.htm

"Battles of Lexington and Concord." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.

http://www.history.com/topics/battles-of-lexington-and-concord

"Lexington and Concord." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.

http://www.ushistory.org/us/11c.asp

Violence Erupts in Boston

Violence erupts in Boston there are many events that caused violence in Boston first of all the Parliament didn't understand the colonists and the officers abused of the power. 
In June 1768, there was a boat called Liberty and it was ceased for smuggling it belonged to John Hancock he was a wealthy merchant and a prominent politician. The capturing of the boat created the set of riots in Boston and the Sons of liberty revived the protest tactics from before. To suppress the riot, England send 4,000 troops, and their were 16,000 colonists in Boston. Over 1 soldier per colonist this caused a tense environment. The presence of the troops made the colonists angry since the soldiers started working and taking all the unskilled jobs. 

Then, one night a group of drunken colonists went to the custom house and started throwing snowballs and rocks to the guards that were there. The nervous soldiers opened fire and killed five colonists, Crispus Attucks he was a sailor and a runaway slave,  Samuel Gray, Patrick Car, James Caldwell, and Samuel Maverick. Under the leadership of Samuel Adams the Boston patriots call it the Boston Massacre. After this attack the colonies set up Committees of correspondence and this caused the colonial unity. And they unit and they started making boycotts to the British. The colonists didn't like the British placing taxes because they were losing more money. And since they didn't had any representation in America colonies didn't agree with them. But they thought the colonists were going to let them manipulate them and wouldn't quarrel against their new rules. 

And  the Tea Act was passed on May 10, 1773 that will take them to the final flare that lead to the revolutionary move in Boston.  They placed taxes on the British tea so colonists stop buying the tea because they refuse to pay a cent of taxes to the British. So instead they buy smuggled tea that was overpriced they were so whimsical on paying taxes to the British. On December 16, 1773 Boston patriots took matter into their own hands they dressed up as Mohawk Indians. The colonists enter to the boat and started throwing all the tea into the ocean until their was no box of tea remaining. And this was called "The Biggest Cup Of Tea In The World" this was an act of rebellion against the taxes and it had a bad repercussion in the colonists. The colonists react in a violent way to each act the parliament took and they didn't agree with they demonstrate the Parliament wouldn't be able to control them. 

Resources:

"The Tea Act." The Tea Act. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/teaact.htm 05 Dec. 2013. 

"The American Revolution." : Violence Erupts in Boston. N.p., n.d. Web. http://americanrevunit.blogspot.com/2010/05/violence-erupts-in-boston.html 06 Dec. 2013.

New Taxes for Colonists

The king and the parliament, decided that the colonists have to pay taxes. After the seven year war, the empire lost a big amount of money in the army. And they also spend money in keeping british soldiers in north america. In 1764 they passed a law known as the Sugar Act. This tax was included in the goods coming to the colonies from another place. So every time colonists wanted to by something, they have to pay the cost of the object plus the tax. This money as collected by the British Government. It was supposed to be used to pay for the British Soldiers.
The sugar act of 1764 was basically applied on all imported products. It was almost necessary for the colonists to pay this taxes because not all products were able to be produced in North America. Some of this products were tea, paint, lead, glass, paper, molasses, and sugar. So then all of these products were becoming more expensive for all of the colonists, they started becoming upset. There were some colonists who weren't going to pay not even one cent to the parliament, so they found out other solutions… Smugglers became more wealthy since people preferred to give their money to them than to the Parliament. So then products were smuggled and that started another conflict with Britain.
The colonists were not in favour of the taxation since they hadn't vote for those taxes. What we mean by this is that colonists didn't had representatives in the parliament. So they couldn't vote and didn't have someone to speak or represent them. The king and the parliament ignore their position, and that was how the relationship between colonists and britains started getting tense. Most of the colonists wanted representation, but not all of them wanted to get in trouble with Britain. Some of the colonists were even in favour with Britain, and the were called Loyalists or Tories. If somehow Britain could have give the opportunity to colonists to vote, things could have turned totally different. But since they never agreed to each other, events became very unexpected.

Resources

"Parliamentary Taxation of Colonies, International Trade, and the American Revolution, 1763–1775 - 1750–1775 - Milestones - Office of the Historian." Parliamentary Taxation of Colonies, International Trade, and the American Revolution, 1763–1775 - 1750–1775 - Milestones - Office of the Historian. N.p., n.d. Web.  http://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/parliamentary-taxation, 05 Dec. 2013.

"New Taxes for the Colonists." New Taxes for the Colonists. N.p., n.d. 2013.http://www.watertown.k12.ma.us/cunniff/americanhistorycentral/07differencesdivide/New_Taxes_for.html , Web. 06 Dec. 

ALL ABOUT US

  Dear Readers, 
This is our blog about US History made by Andrea Jimenez, Maria Espinal, and Dennis Longwell. We are teenagers in tenth grade and we live in Honduras. We've been studying and learning about the the history of the United States, specially the thirteen colonies. The purpose of this blog is to help you guys with any questions you have about the thirteen colonies history or simply to encourage you guys to learn more of the past. We started this blog because it is an assignment  from our US History teacher, but we will assure you that we have taken our time to investigated for you guys and we also assure that our information is 100% reliable. You can can trust us and we promise that you will learn a lot and like our blog. 

Thankyou,
The American Historians.