American Revolution
The American Revolution was fought between England and thirteen of its North American colonies. Most historians maintain that the war began on April 19, 1775, with the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, although the colonies did not officially approve and issue a Declaration of Independence until July 4, 1776. The Americans rebelled for two principal reasons. The first was taxation that England imposed to help it pay off its debts from the French and Indian War. The second reason involved England's refusal to allow its colonists to settle the Ohio Country. England, hoping to prevent further conflicts with Native Americans like Pontiac's Rebellion, had issued the Proclamation of 1763. It prohibited white settlement of the Ohio Country.
The American Revolution lasted until 1783, although the final major battle between the English Army and the Continental Army took place at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781. The Treaty of Paris (1783) formally ended the war. Under this treaty, England recognized America's independence. The British relinquished all land north of Florida, south of Canada, and east of the Mississippi River to the Americans and promised to remove all of its soldiers from this territory. Few major battles occurred in the Ohio Country during the American Revolution. There was, however, tremendous bloodshed as the Americans and the British struggled to gain the support of the Indians. Many tribes, such as the Shawnee Indians and the Delaware Indians, initially hoped to remain neutral in the conflict. Most eventually sided with England. They feared that, if the Americans emerged victorious, white settlers would flood into the Ohio Country.
English soldiers under various commanders, including Henry Bird and Henry Hamilton, conducted raids with their native allies against American outposts, such as Fort Laurens, in the Ohio Country. American military commanders, such as Archibold Lochry, George Rogers Clark, Daniel Brodhead, David Williamson, Edward Hand, and William Crawford, also attacked the British and their Native American allies. On several occasions, the American military destroyed native settlements and murdered Indian captives. The most brutal example of this was the Gnadenhutten Massacre in 1782. Once the war ended in 1783, tensions continued to remain high between the Americans and the Indians. Violence continued as settlers moved into the territory won from the English in the American Revolution.
References and Suggested Reading
- Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Random House, 2000. - Available from Amazon.com
- Barr, Daniel P., ed. The Boundaries Between Us: Natives and Newcomers Along the Frontiers of the Old Northwest Territory, 1750-1850. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006. - Available from Amazon.com
- Bond, Beverley W., Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
- Brecher, Frank W. Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. - Available from Amazon.com
- Dixon, David. Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac's Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. - Available from Amazon.com
- Dowd, Gregory Evans. War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations & the British Empire. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. - Available from Amazon.com
- Flavell, Julie, and Stephen Conway, eds. Britain and America go to War: The Impact of War and Warfare in Anglo-America, 1754-1815. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Fowler, William M., Jr. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763. New York: Walker & Company, 2005. - Available from Amazon.com
- Gundersen, Joan R. To be Useful to the World: Women in Revolutionary America, 1740-1790. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006. - Available from Amazon.com
- Harrington, Jean Carl. New Light on Washington's Fort Necessity: A Report on the Archeological Explorations at Fort Necessity. Richmond, VA: Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1957.
- Haven, Kendall F. Voices of the American Revolution: Stories of Men, Women, and Children who Forged Our Nation. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2000. - Available from Amazon.com
- Hoffer, Peter C., Bradley Chapin, and William W. Beck, eds. Modern Strategies for Teaching the American Revolution. Columbus: The Ohio Historical Society, 1976. - Available from Amazon.com
- Hoffman, Ronald, and Peter J. Albert, eds. Peace and the Peacemakers: the Treaty of 1783. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1986. - Available from Amazon.com
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996. - Available from Amazon.com
- Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003. - Available from Amazon.com
- Kopperman, Paul E. Braddock at the Monongahela. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977. - Available from Amazon.com
- Nester, William R. The Frontier War for American Independence. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Nester, William R. The Great Frontier War: Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607-1755. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. - Available from Amazon.com
- O'Donnell, James H., III. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- O'Meara, Walter. Guns at the Forks. Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965. - Available from Amazon.com
- Ricky, Donald B., ed. Encyclopedia of Ohio Indians. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1998. - Available from Amazon.com
- Ward, Matthew C. Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years' War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754-1765. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003. - Available from Amazon.com
Time Periods
Citation
"American Revolution", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=464
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