American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War known as the American War of Independence, was an 18th-century war between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence as the United States of America. After 1765, growing philosophical and political differences strained the relationship between Great Britain and its colonies. Patriot protests against taxation without representation followed the Stamp Act and escalated into boycotts, which culminated in 1773 with the Sons of Liberty destroying a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor. Britain responded by closing Boston Harbor and passing a series of punitive measures against Massachusetts Bay Colony. Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, they established a shadow government which wrested control of the countryside from the Crown. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, establishing committees and conventions that seized power. British attempts to disarm the Massachusetts militia in Concord led to open combat on April 19, 1775.
Militia forces besieged Boston, forcing a British evacuation in March 1776, Congress appointed George Washington to command the Continental Army. Concurrently, the Americans failed decisively in an attempt to invade Quebec and raise insurrection against the British. On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted for independence, issuing its declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe launched a British counter-offensive, capturing New York City and leaving American morale at a low ebb. However, victories at Trenton and Princeton restored American confidence. In 1777, the British launched an invasion from Quebec under John Burgoyne, intending to isolate the New England Colonies. Instead of assisting this effort, Howe took his army on a separate campaign against Philadelphia, Burgoyne was decisively defeated at Saratoga in October 1777. Burgoyne's defeat had drastic consequences. France formally allied with the Americans and entered the war in 1778, Spain joined the war the following year as an ally of France but not as an ally of the United States.
In 1780, the Kingdom of Mysore attacked the British in India, tensions between Great Britain and the Netherlands erupted into open war. In North America, the British mounted a "Southern strategy" led by Charles Cornwallis which hinged upon a Loyalist uprising, but too few came forward. Cornwallis Cowpens, he retreated to Yorktown, intending an evacuation, but a decisive French naval victory deprived him of an escape. A Franco-American army led by the Comte de Rochambeau and Washington besieged Cornwallis' army and, with no sign of relief, he surrendered in October 1781. Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tories in Parliament, the surrender gave them the upper hand. In early 1782, Parliament voted to end all offensive operations in America, but the war continued overseas. Britain scored a major victory over the French navy. On September 3, 1783, the belligerent parties signed the Treaty of Paris in which Great Britain agreed to recognize the sovereignty of the United States and formally end the war.
French involvement had proven decisive. Spain failed in its primary aim of recovering Gibraltar; the Dutch were compelled to cede territory to Great Britain. In India, the war against Mysore and its allies concluded in 1784 without any territorial changes. Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765 to pay for British military troops stationed in the American colonies after the French and Indian War. Parliament had passed legislation to regulate trade, but the Stamp Act introduced a new principle of a direct internal tax. Americans began to question the extent of the British Parliament's power in America, the colonial legislatures argued that they had exclusive right to impose taxes within their jurisdictions. Colonists condemned the tax because their rights as Englishmen protected them from being taxed by a Parliament in which they had no elected representatives. Parliament argued that the colonies were "represented virtually", an idea, criticized throughout the Empire. Parliament did repeal the act in 1766, but it affirmed its right to pass laws that were binding on the colonies.
From 1767, Parliament began passing legislation to raise revenue for the salaries of civil officials, ensuring their loyalty while inadvertently increasing resentment among the colonists, opposition soon became widespread. Enforcing the acts proved difficult; the seizure of the sloop Liberty in 1768 on suspicions of smuggling triggered a riot. In response, British troops occupied Boston, Parliament threatened to extradite colonists to face trial in England. Tensions rose after the murder of Christopher Seider by a customs official in 1770 and escalated into outrage after British troops fired on civilians in the Boston Massacre. In 1772, colonists in Rhode Island burned a customs schooner. Parliament repealed all taxes except the one on tea, passing the Tea Act in 1773, attempting to force colonists to buy East India Company tea on which the Townshend duties were paid, thus implicitly agreeing to Parliamentary supremacy; the landing of the tea was resisted in all colonies, but the governor of Massachusetts permitted British tea ships to remain in Boston Harbor, so the Sons of Liberty destroyed the tea chests in what became known as the "Boston Tea Party".
Parliament passed punitive legislation. It closed Boston Harbor until the tea was paid for and revoked the Massachusetts Charter, taking upon themselves the right to directly appoint the Massachusetts Governor's Council. Additionally, t
Battle of Kings Mountain
The Battle of Kings Mountain was a military engagement between Patriot and Loyalist militias in South Carolina during the Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War, resulting in a decisive victory for the Patriots. The battle took place on October 7, 1780, 9 miles south of the present-day town of Kings Mountain, North Carolina in what is now rural Cherokee County, South Carolina, where the Patriot militia defeated the Loyalist militia commanded by British Major Patrick Ferguson of the 71st Foot; the battle has been described as "the war’s largest all-American fight". Ferguson had arrived in North Carolina in early September 1780 to recruit troops for the Loyalist militia and protect the flank of Lord Cornwallis' main force. Ferguson issued a challenge to the rebel militias to suffer the consequences. In response, the Patriot militias led by Benjamin Cleveland, James Johnston, William Campbell, John Sevier, Joseph McDowell and Isaac Shelby rallied for an attack on Ferguson. Receiving intelligence on the oncoming attack, Ferguson decided to retreat to the safety of Lord Cornwallis' army.
However, the Patriots caught up with the Loyalists at Kings Mountain near the border with South Carolina. Achieving a complete surprise, the Patriot militiamen attacked and surrounded the Loyalists, inflicting heavy casualties. After an hour of battle, Ferguson was fatally shot while trying to break the rebel line, after which his men surrendered; some Patriots gave no quarter until the rebel officers re-established control over their men. Although victorious, the Patriots had to retreat from the area for fear of Cornwallis' advance, they executed nine Loyalist prisoners after a short trial. The battle was a pivotal moment in the Southern campaign; the surprising victory of the American patriot militia over the Loyalists came after a string of rebel defeats at the hands of Lord Cornwallis, raised the Patriots' morale. With Ferguson dead and his Loyalist militia destroyed, Cornwallis was forced to abandon his plan to invade North Carolina and retreated into South Carolina. Major Patrick Ferguson was appointed Inspector of Militia on May 22, 1780.
His task was to march to the old Tryon County area and organize Loyalist units from the Tory population of the Carolina Backcountry, protect the left flank of Lord Cornwallis' main body at Charlotte, North Carolina. On the morning of August 18, 1780, two hundred mounted Patriot partisans under joint command of Colonels Isaac Shelby, James Williams, Elijah Clarke prepared to raid a Loyalist camp at Musgrove’s Mill, which controlled the local grain supply and guarded a ford of the Enoree River; the Battle of Musgrove Mill, August 19, 1780, occurred near a ford of the Enoree River, near the present-day border between Spartanburg and Union Counties in South Carolina. The Patriots anticipated surprising a garrison of about an equal number of Loyalists, but a local farmer informed them that the Tories had been reinforced by about a hundred Loyalist militia and two hundred provincial regulars on their way to join British Major Patrick Ferguson; the whole battle took an hour and within that period, sixty-three Tories were killed, an unknown number wounded, seventy were taken prisoner.
The Patriots lost only about twelve wounded. Some Whig leaders considered attacking the Tory stronghold at Ninety Six, South Carolina. Shelby’s forces covered sixty miles with Ferguson in hot pursuit before making their escape. In the wake of General Horatio Gates’ blundering defeat at Camden, the victory at Musgrove Mill heartened the Patriots and served as further evidence that the South Carolina backcountry could not be held by the Tories. Shelby and his Overmountain Men crossed back over the Appalachian Mountains and retreated back into the territory of the Watauga Association at Sycamore Shoals in present day Elizabethton, by the next month on September 25, 1780, Colonels Shelby, John Sevier, Charles McDowell and their 600 Overmountain Men had combined forces with Col. William Campbell and his 400 Virginia men at the Sycamore Shoals muster in advance of the October 7, 1780, Battle of Kings Mountain north of present day Blacksburg, South Carolina in North Carolina. On September 2, Ferguson and the militia he had recruited marched west in pursuit of Shelby toward the Appalachian Mountain hill country on what is now the Tennessee/North Carolina border.
By September 10, Ferguson had established a base camp at Gilbert Town, North Carolina and, according to Shelby issued a challenge to the Patriot leaders to lay down their arms or he would "lay waste to their country with fire and sword."North Carolina Patriot militia leaders Isaac Shelby and John Sevier, from the Washington District and agreed to lead their militiamen against him. Patriot leaders sent word to a Virginia militia leader, William Campbell, asking him to join them at Sycamore Shoals. Campbell called on Benjamin Cleveland to bring his Wilkes County, North Carolina militia to the rendezvous; the detachments of Shelby and Campbell were met by 160 North Carolina militiamen led by Charles McDowell and his brother Joseph. Campbell's cousin, Arthur Campbell, brought 200 more Virginians. About 1,100 volunteers from southwest Virginia and today's northeast Tennessee, known as the "Overmountain Men" because they had settled into the wilderness west of the Appalachian Mountains ridgeline, mustered at the rendezvous on September 25, 1780, at Sycamore Shoals ne
Rustburg, Virginia
Rustburg is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Campbell County, United States. The population was 1,431 at the 2010 census, it is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area. The public high school in Rustburg is Rustburg High School; the public primary and elementary schools are Rustburg Middle School, Rustburg Elementary School, Yellow Branch Elementary School, Fray Educational Center, Campbell County Technical Center. Rustburg was named for Jeremiah Rust, who donated 50 acres of his land for the village in 1784; the Campbell County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. Rustburg is located in north-central Campbell County at 37°16′25″N 79°05′56″W. U. S. Route 501 passes through the center of town, leading north 11 miles to Lynchburg and south 20 miles to Brookneal. Virginia Route 24 leads through the center of town, running northeast 9 miles to Concord and west 5 miles to U. S. Route 29 at Yellow Branch. Long Mountain, topped with communication towers, rises to a summit elevation of 1,440 feet northeast of the center of town.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 12.6 square miles, of which 12.5 square miles is land and 0.1 square miles, or 0.86%, is water. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,271 people, 474 households, 321 families residing in the CDP; the population density was 117.3 people per square mile. There were 518 housing units at an average density of 47.8/sq mi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 74.82% White, 23.60% African American, 0.08% Native American, 0.08% Asian, 0.08% from other races, 1.34% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.16% of the population. There were 474 households out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.9% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 32.1% were non-families. 28.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.7% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 3.00.
In the CDP, the population was spread out with 21.8% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 24.0% from 45 to 64, 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 110.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 113.3 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $31,797, the median income for a family was $31,758. Males had a median income of $29,615 versus $20,536 for females; the per capita income for the CDP was $14,972. About 10.8% of families and 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.1% of those under age 18 and 18.3% of those age 65 or over
World War I
World War I known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history, it is one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide. On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis. In response, on 23 July Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austrians, the two moved to a war footing. A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to one involving most of Europe.
By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two coalitions: the Triple Entente—consisting of France and Britain—and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia and, after Austria-Hungary shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade on the 28th, partial mobilisation was approved. General Russian mobilisation was announced on the evening of 30 July; when Russia failed to comply, Germany declared war on 1 August in support of Austria-Hungary, with Austria-Hungary following suit on 6th. German strategy for a war on two fronts against France and Russia was to concentrate the bulk of its army in the West to defeat France within four weeks shift forces to the East before Russia could mobilise. On 2 August, Germany demanded free passage through Belgium, an essential element in achieving a quick victory over France; when this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium on 3 August and declared war on France the same day. On 12 August and France declared war on Austria-Hungary.
In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Alliance, opening fronts in the Caucasus and the Sinai Peninsula. The war was fought in and drew upon each power's colonial empire as well, spreading the conflict to Africa and across the globe; the Entente and its allies would become known as the Allied Powers, while the grouping of Austria-Hungary and their allies would become known as the Central Powers. The German advance into France was halted at the Battle of the Marne and by the end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series of trench lines that changed little until 1917. In 1915, Italy opened a front in the Alps. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915 and Greece joined the Allies in 1917, expanding the war in the Balkans; the United States remained neutral, although by doing nothing to prevent the Allies from procuring American supplies whilst the Allied blockade prevented the Germans from doing the same the U. S. became an important supplier of war material to the Allies.
After the sinking of American merchant ships by German submarines, the revelation that the Germans were trying to incite Mexico to make war on the United States, the U. S. declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Trained American forces would not begin arriving at the front in large numbers until mid-1918, but the American Expeditionary Force would reach some two million troops. Though Serbia was defeated in 1915, Romania joined the Allied Powers in 1916 only to be defeated in 1917, none of the great powers were knocked out of the war until 1918; the 1917 February Revolution in Russia replaced the Tsarist autocracy with the Provisional Government, but continuing discontent at the cost of the war led to the October Revolution, the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republic, the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the new government in March 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the war. This allowed the transfer of large numbers of German troops from the East to the Western Front, resulting in the German March 1918 Offensive.
This offensive was successful, but the Allies rallied and drove the Germans back in their Hundred Days Offensive. Bulgaria was the first Central Power to sign an armistice—the Armistice of Salonica on 29 September 1918. On 30 October, the Ottoman Empire capitulated. On 4 November, the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to the Armistice of Villa Giusti after being decisively defeated by Italy in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. With its allies defeated, revolution at home, the military no longer willing to fight, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and Germany signed an armistice on 11 November 1918. World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural and social climate of the world; the war and its immediate aftermath sparked numerous uprisings. The Big Four (Britain, the United States, It
Altavista, Virginia
Altavista is an incorporated town in Campbell County, United States. The population was 3,450 at the 2010 census, it is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town of Altavista was created in 1905 during the construction of the east-west Tidewater Railway between Giles County and Sewell's Point in what was at the time Norfolk County. Planned by Campbell County native William Nelson Page and financier and industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers, the Tidewater Railway was combined with the Deepwater Railway in West Virginia to form the new Virginian Railway in 1907. Although it was a common carrier and offered limited passenger service until 1956, the main purpose of the Virginian Railway was to haul bituminous coal from the mountains to coal piers on the ice-free harbor of Hampton Roads. Lane Brothers Construction Company was the contractor for constructing 32 miles of the Tidewater Railway, including its crossing of the existing north-south Southern Railway in Campbell County.
Three Lane brothers purchased 2,000 acres of land near the point where the railroads would intersect, had civil engineers lay out a new town with streets and lots, complete with water, telephone service, electric lines. Settlement was encouraged by the awarding of free lots. Named for the Lane family farm in Albemarle County, the new town of Altavista was incorporated in 1912; the former Virginian Railway became part of the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1959, it and the Southern Railway were combined in the early 1980s to form the current Norfolk Southern Railway. Now operated by the same company, both railroad lines are still active in the Altavista area; the current mayor of Altavista is a former teacher and local businessman. In March 1912, John Lane had purchased a bankrupt box plant in Altavista for $500, his son Ed Lane, 21 at the time and with little manufacturing experience, was encouraged by his father to try his hand at starting a chest factory in the newly acquired plant. Since the Lanes did not know how successful their new venture was going to be, they chose not to put their name on it, instead incorporating the little company as the Standard Red Cedar Chest Company, with John Lane as President and Ed Lane as Vice President and General Manager.
From cedar chests, Lane expanded to occasional tables in 1951, case goods in 1956, accent pieces in 1965. In 1972, Lane bought a small reclining chair company in Tupelo, named Action Industries, founded in 1970 by Bo Bland and Mickey Holliman. Action sustained tremendous growth through gains in market share and product diversification over the next 20 years, becoming a major force in the upholstered furniture industry. Today, the wood and upholstered divisions have become Lane Home Furnishings and a leading maker of Virginia furniture. Lane Furniture Industries was owned by Heritage Home Group, which owns other well-known brand name companies such as Broyhill, Drexel Heritage and Maitland Smith, it is being purchased by United Furniture Industries. Lane was most famous for their Lane cedar chests made at the original plant in Altavista. At the beginning of the 21st century the company headquarters were moved from Altavista and the plant there closed. Soon afterwards the last commemorative cedar chests were made as the plant shut down.
The old plant now sits vacant, but certain sections have become occupied by new companies, Central Virginia Community College has moved into parts of the office building. A fire occurred in an empty section in early 2006; the Avoca Museum and Altavista Downtown Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Altavista is located in southwestern Campbell County at 37°7′3″N 79°17′23″W, it is bordered to the south by the Roanoke River. The town of Hurt is directly to the south across the river. U. S. Route 29, a four-lane expressway, forms the northern border of the town and provides access from four exits. US 29 leads south 43 miles to Danville. According to the United States Census Bureau, Altavista has a total area of 5.0 square miles, of which 4.9 square miles is land and 0.12 square miles, or 2.24%, is water. As of the census of 2000, there were 3,425 people, 1,502 households, 940 families residing in the town; the population density was 699.9 people per square mile. There were 1,650 housing units at an average density of 337.2 per square mile.
The racial makeup of the town was 74.25% White, 24.55% African American, 0.09% Native American, 0.20% Asian, 0.32% from other races, 0.58% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.93% of the population. There were 1,502 households out of which 26.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.7% were married couples living together, 16.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 37.4% were non-families. 34.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.86. In the town, the population was spread out with 22.5% under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 25.3% from 45 to 64, 21.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 77.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 71.8 males. The median income for a household in the town was $31,818, the median income for a family was $40,039.
Males had a median income of $32,017 versus $22,140 for females. The per capita income for the town was $17,997. About 13.6% of families and 13.5% o
Green Hill (Long Island, Virginia)
Green Hill is a historic plantation house and national historic district located near Long Island, Campbell County, Virginia. The main house is a two-story, five bay, brick structure with a gable roof, modillioned cornice and two interior end chimneys; the one-story rear ell was built about 1800. The interior features fine woodwork. On the property are a contributing frame outbuilding with a enclosed shed porch, a brick duck house, an ice house, a kitchen, stone laundry, a frame slave quarters, frame kitchen with stone chimney, mounting block, two log barns, the ruins of a rather large stone stable, a large tobacco barn, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. Green Hill Plantation & Main House, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 12 photos and 7 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Frame Dependency, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 2 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 2 photos and 2 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Brick Dependency, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 2 photos and 2 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Slave Auction Block, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 2 photos and 2 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 3 photos and 4 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Slave Quarters, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 3 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Slave Quarters, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 3 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Duck House, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 3 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 4 photos and 4 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Frame Barn, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 3 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Log Barn, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 3 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 2 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 3 photos and 4 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Tobacco Barn, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 3 photos and 4 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Cobblestone Walks & Drives, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 1 data page at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, State Route 728, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo and 2 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey Green Hill Plantation, Log Quarters, Long Island, Campbell County, VA: 1 photo at Historic American Buildings Survey
American Revolution
The American Revolution was a colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America, they defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War in alliance with others. Members of American colonial society argued the position of "no taxation without representation", starting with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, they rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them because they lacked members in that governing body. Protests escalated to the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772, followed by the Boston Tea Party in December 1773, during which Patriots destroyed a consignment of taxed tea; the British responded by closing Boston Harbor followed with a series of legislative acts which rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colony's rights of self-government and caused the other colonies to rally behind Massachusetts. In late 1774, the Patriots set up their own alternative government to better coordinate their resistance efforts against Great Britain.
Tensions erupted into battle between Patriot militia and British regulars when the king's army attempted to capture and destroy Colonial military supplies at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The conflict developed into a global war, during which the Patriots fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War; each of the thirteen colonies formed a Provincial Congress that assumed power from the old colonial governments and suppressed Loyalism, from there they built a Continental Army under the leadership of General George Washington. The Continental Congress determined King George's rule to be tyrannical and infringing the colonists' rights as Englishmen, they declared the colonies free and independent states on July 2, 1776; the Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, they proclaimed that all men are created equal. The Continental Army forced the redcoats out of Boston in March 1776, but that summer the British captured and held New York City and its strategic harbor for the duration of the war.
The Royal Navy blockaded ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but they failed to defeat Washington's forces. The Patriots unsuccessfully attempted to invade Canada during the winter of 1775–76, but captured a British army at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777. France now entered the war as an ally of the United States with a large army and navy that threatened Britain itself; the war turned to the American South where the British under the leadership of Charles Cornwallis captured an army at Charleston, South Carolina in early 1780 but failed to enlist enough volunteers from Loyalist civilians to take effective control of the territory. A combined American–French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in the fall of 1781 ending the war; the Treaty of Paris was signed September 3, 1783, formally ending the conflict and confirming the new nation's complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of nearly all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada and Spain taking Florida.
Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of the United States Constitution, establishing a strong federal national government that included an executive, a national judiciary, a bicameral Congress that represented states in the Senate and the population in the House of Representatives. The Revolution resulted in the migration of around 60,000 Loyalists to other British territories British North America; as early as 1651, the English government had sought to regulate trade in the American colonies. On October 9, the Navigation Acts were passed pursuant to a mercantilist policy intended to ensure that trade enriched only Great Britain, barring trade with foreign nations; some argue that the economic impact was minimal on the colonists, but the political friction which the acts triggered was more serious, as the merchants most directly affected were most politically active. King Philip's War ended in 1678, much of it was fought without significant assistance from England.
This contributed to the development of a unique identity from that of the British people. In the 1680s, King Charles II determined to bring the New England colonies under a more centralized administration in order to regulate trade more effectively, his efforts were fiercely opposed by the colonists, resulting in the abrogation of their colonial charter by the Crown. Charles' successor James II finalized these efforts in 1686, establishing the Dominion of New England. Dominion rule triggered bitter resentment throughout New England. New Englanders were encouraged, however, by a change of government in England that saw James II abdicate, a populist uprising overthrew Dominion rule on April 18, 1689. Colonial governments reasserted their control in the wake of the revolt, successive governments made no more attempts to restore the Dominion. Subsequent English governments continued in their efforts to tax certain goods, passing acts regulating the trade of wool and molasses; the Molasses Act of 1733 in particular was egregious to the colonists, as a significant part of colonial trade relied on the product.
The taxes damaged the N
Campbell County, Virginia
