By spring 1775, after the Coercive Acts, Massachusetts towns were drilling militia and storing weapons. The British commander in Boston, General Thomas Gage, decided to seize them.
Key idea
Fighting began at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The Second Continental Congress met in May and made George Washington commander of the Continental Army. Thomas Paine's Common Sense (January 1776) argued for full independence.
Why it works
The war began more than a year before the colonies declared independence. Most colonists in 1775 still saw themselves as British subjects defending their rights. In July 1775, Congress sent the King the Olive Branch Petition, asking for peace. He refused it and in August declared the colonies in rebellion. Paine then gave many colonists a new way to see the crisis: the problem was not bad ministers but monarchy itself, and reconciliation was impossible.
Worked example: What happened on April 19, 1775?
Trace the day.
- British troops marched from Boston at night to seize militia supplies at Concord.
- Riders including Paul Revere and William Dawes spread the alarm.
- At dawn at Lexington, shots were fired between the troops and about 70 militiamen; eight militiamen were killed.
- At Concord, militia fought the British at the North Bridge; militia fired on the British all the way back to Boston.
Answer: The first battles of the war: the British reached Concord but were harried all the way back.
Worked example: Source Common Sense
Apply HIPP (from Reading a Source: HIPP) to Common Sense.
- H: January 1776, nine months into the war, with the King's rebellion proclamation known.
- I: Ordinary colonists; plain language, sold cheaply. Tens of thousands of copies sold in a few months.
- P: To persuade colonists to choose independence.
- P: Paine, an English immigrant of 1774, who rejected hereditary kings.
Answer: A persuasive pamphlet aimed at a wide public at the moment opinion was shifting.
Common mistake
Many people think the war started after the Declaration of Independence. The fighting began in April 1775, more than a year earlier. Through 1775 many colonists hoped only to restore their rights within the empire; the move to independence came in 1776.