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Battles of Lexington and Concord
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the revolutionary war. Hundreds of British troops marched into Concord to attack an arms cache. Paul Revere and other riders warned the colonists about the incoming attack and the American Minutemen mobilized to attack the incoming invasion. The fire officially started in Lexington, where the British were forced to reteat under the intesnse fire. -
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Revolutionary war
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Declaration of Independence
In mid June, 1776, a five-man comittee including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin needed to create a document formally decaring the colonies' intentions. The congress adopted the declaration on July 4, 1776. -
Battle of Saratoga
British General John Burgoyne defeated American forces led by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold, but with major losses. Burgoyne again attacked the Americans at Bemis Heights on October 7th, but this time he was forced to retreat. He surrendered ten days later. This set of battles was a turning point in the war, when the Americans aquired the advantage. -
Artcles of Confederation Ratified
After 16 months, the articles of confederation, holding the detailed rights of the states, was ratified. This document, and the constitution lead the country to having sovereign states. -
Battle of Yorktown
General George Washington, commanding 17,000 French and Continental troops, began the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000. General Cornwallis was forced to surrender, but never attended the official surrender ceremony, pleading sick. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was negotiated between Britain and America and ended the revolutionary war in 1783. -
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U.S Government Forming
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Land Ordinance of 1785
After beating the British, the colonists wanted to expand West. Thomas Jefferson made a system to evenly distribute the land to colonists. Each township was 6 by 6 miles, and had 36 1 by 1 mile squares inside. Every township's section 16 was devoted to public education. -
Shay's Rebelion
Throughout 1786 and 1787 American farmers protested against unfair taxes. The rebelion was most serious in Massachusets, although farmers did arm themselves and rebel in other states, like New Hampshire and South Carolina. -
Constitutional Convention opens
The constitutional convention was organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss important the problems of governing the United States. Problems like how the president would be elected and how long the term should be were all discussed in the meeting. -
Three-Fifths Compromise
The three fifths compromise was a compromise between North and South states reached during the Constitutional Convention in which three fifths of the slave population would be counted for representation. People against slavery wanted to count only free citizens, but people who liked slavery wanted to count all slaves for representation. -
Great Compromise
The Connecticut compromise, later known as the Great Compromise, The Great Compromise joined the New Jersey plan and the Virginia plan for legislative bodies. This compromise allowed small states to have the same power as the larger states and for larger states not to lose their power to the smaller ones. -
“Observations on the New Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions” is published
A short 19 page book about slavery was published on this date. It begins with "Mankind may amuse themselves with theoretick systems of liberty, and trace its social and moral effects on sciences, virtue, industry and every improvement of which the human mind is capable"... This book was written by a columbian patriot in 1788. -
Rhode Island ratifies the Constitution
On this date, Rhode island became the 13th state to ratify the constitution. Rhode Island's ratification document proposed several ammendments and ideas, like many other states'. -
Congress agrees on a date for banning slave trade
In 1807, congress agreed on a date for banning slave trade. The ban took effect on Jan 1, 1808. When the date was reached, every state but South Carolina had banned slave trade.
