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Fighting
began on April 19, 1775 at Lexington, Mass. and nearby Concord.
British strategy called for crushing the rebellion in the North.
Several times the British nearly defeated the Continental Army.
But victories at Trenton and Princeton, N.J., in late 1776 and
early 1777 restored patriot hopes, and victory at Saratoga, N.Y.,
which halted a British advance from Canada, led France to intervene
on behalf of the rebels.
In
1778, fighting shifted to the South. Britain succeeded in capturing
Georgia and Charleston, S.C. and defeating an American army at
Camden, S.C. But bands of patriots harassed loyalists and disrupted
supply lines, and Britain failed to achieve control over the southern
countryside before advancing northward to Yorktown, Va. In 1781,
an American and French force defeated the British at Yorktown
in the war's last major battle.
Much
more than a revolt against British taxes and trade regulations,
the American Revolution was the first modern revolution. It marked
the first time in history that a people fought for their independence
in the name of certain universal principles such as rule of law,
constitutional rights, and popular sovereignty.
Handout
on Religion, Race, and Gender in Revolutionary America
(Link will
open in a new window; close that window to return to this page)
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