The American War for Independence

There were actually a handful of wars that happened during the American War for Independence. Most of the battles were between the colonists and the British. There were many staple areas in these wars that many people remember most because they had a great impact on the outcome of the battles. But not many people talk about how many wars actually took place.

The first war was the battle of Lexington. This was barely a war it was simply just a small battle that led to a bigger one. During this war the famous Paul Revere rode to warn the colonists that the British were coming. The one thing not many people notice or talk about is that he wasn’t the only one. There was another person that came with him to warn the colonists and his name was William Dawes. So the battle took place on a small green in Lexington. It officially started with what is now known as the “Shot heard around the world”. Although this shot is controversial to which side actually did it. It’s not positive if the colonists or the British started it. But this battle was rather short but led them to the next battle which was quite extraordinary. The colonists were smart this time and knew that the British were moving to Concord to ensue another battle so they decided to have their militia hide the weapons from them. When they arrived the colonists were really calm and confident this time around. But, the British were still able to find some of the weapons that were hidden. The Battle of Concord then started. Right from the start, this battle was much bigger than the previous one. Luckily for the colonists the British were force to retreat. But that simply wasn’t the end for the war between the two.

The next battle was pretty big and it was the Battle of Bunker Hill. Even though the battle only lists one hill it actually took place on two hills. The other hill was Breed’s Hill. The goal that the British wanted to accomplish was to capture those hills for their own. Soon the colonists figured out Britain’s plan and decided to move one step ahead of them. The night before this battle the colonists started preparing themselves in the hills. It was a surprise to the British when they arrived and found militia already taking up the hills. This of course led to the battle. The colonists ended up having to retreat but both sides actually won in this fight. That sounds impossible but it’s true. The colonists won by gaining their confidence in knowing that they can go up against the British and ensue major losses for them because it showed in this battle. The British won by gaining what they went there for and that was the hills. That was a great victory for them but the colonists gained confidence and that led to more successes for them in the future.

On July 5^th the Continental Congress was trying their best to end the fighting by making the Olive-Branch Petition. This petition was asking for a ceasefire. Even though it sounded like a good idea King George III rejected it. He called the petition outrageous. So trying to end the fighting failed for the Continental Congress so the colonists really needed to stand their ground in the upcoming battles. But, there wasn’t complete failure during this time because a man named Thomas Paine created a pamphlet called Common Sense. This actually sparked more awareness for a revolution than the Declaration of Independence.

A man named Benedict Arnold led the Continental Army to capture Fort Ticonderoga. They were successful and because they were so successful they gained more artillery that was much needed during this time. Since they were confident now they decided to travel to Quebec and capture ships and supplies. Again, they were successful so now was when the colonists got surer of themselves that they can go up against the British.

The battles were not over there was yet again another one. This one was called the Battle of Valcour Island. It took place on Lake Champlain. This proved that the colonists could even go up against Britain’s great navy. Throughout this time Benedict Arnold was being a great general (1777). But, there was something that was made in 1776 that had a huge impact on history to this day. That was the Declaration of Independence. Our founding fathers created this and it declared that all of the 13 colonies were separate from Britain and they were their own nation.

France started to go on the colonists’ side and tried ways to weaken Britain. The French even provided secret aid to the colonists. This year was turning out to be fantastic for the colonists and all was well. But that, unfortunately, ended soon after that when the British captured New York. This yet again led to more battles and they were called the Battle of Long Island and the Battle of White Plains. Both of them were very unsuccessful for the Continental Army and that led to Britain keeping New York for themselves. But George Washington wasn’t going to give up. So, during the night he traveled with his troops across the Delaware River which was one of the most famous things that he is known for today. The river was icy so it was even more dangerous for him to accomplish getting across. Once they got across the river they captured the city of Trenton from the British.

That whole problem with the British capturing New York was just a bump in the road for the colonists. After that, they began to be successful in battles again. They were victors in the Battle of Princeton and the Battle of Saratoga. The Battle of Saratoga was the most notable out of the two because 5,700 British troops surrendered to Major General Horatio Gates. This all happened during 1777.

When it came around to winter in 1777 the Continental Army spent their time in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. It was bitter cold and just because of that 1/5 of the men died. Luckily, a man named Baron von Steuben came and helped the army get themselves together and improve their fighting skills.

But to summarize the American War for Independence, the colonists had to go through a lot of battles to get to their goal of being separate from the British Empire. But, they later signed a treaty that the 13 colonies were part of the United States of America. That was all except for Florida. They were separate from the other states. They returned to the Spanish during this time. It took a little longer for Florida to become a part of the United States. Lots of people had a hand in making the colonists successful and it was all thanks to them. But overall, it took years for the Colonists to finally get what they want and it was a long awaited victory.

Three Things I Can Change to Use Time Better

There are things in my daily life that kind of slow me down with being more productive but I do have to recognize those distractions and cut them off to help me focus. I think everybody has that problem because there are other things that people would rather be doing than work. But work (of course) has to get done. I am going to explain three things that are a pretty big distraction for me and three ways that I could change that. Yes, it’s going to be hard for me to accomplish getting these NOT to be a distraction for me but I have to try my best.

One of the first things is technology. Now, I’m not saying my computer because I need my computer to complete my schoolwork, but I’m talking about my phone, television, etc. Those things personally can distract me very easily. The simple thing to help that situation is to turn them off. Of course, (easy as it sounds) that’s kind of hard for me. But another good way that I thought of is if I am going for the TV remote then I could just put it in a drawer so it’s not where I could see it. Then, if I’m doing something productive, I won’t think about turning the TV on so much because it isn’t in the vicinity. For my phone, that’s kind of a different story. I really kind of don’t want to turn that off because I also use it for emergencies. So, I have to really tell myself not to go on it because that could distract me for a really long time. Another great way for me to think about is if I get all my schoolwork done, I’ll be able to go on it! So that could be a great thing to look forward too. That goes for the television too because you can do all the fun stuff you want after your all finished with your schoolwork.

One of my struggles is math. My Mom says I’m pretty good at it but sometimes I have a lot of trouble understanding it. When I don’t understand something or I don’t get it right then I kind of stress about it. I start thinking about it too much and then I start getting setback. So for example if I did a math problem, and I got it wrong, then I somewhat give up. I don’t want or mean to give up I just do it automatically. I’m going to set a goal to not give up and try my best to figure it out. If I don’t get it right even then, I tries my best so that’s all anybody could ask for. It just means I have to go back and really get an explanation on how to do it. So basically, I want to just keep going even if I hit a few bumps on my path and see if I can understand that math lesson before I give up at all.

The last problem I face with not using my time as good as I should is taking my time. I face this one specifically more than the others. Usually I tend to take my time through each subject and that could be good to some extent. It’s good to take your time to fully understand what you’re learning but it’s not so good when you’re doing it for no reason. Sometimes I do it to fully understand stuff but a lot of times I take my time for no reason and I don’t even realize I’m doing it. Like it math, my Mom notices that I drag the lesson on for a while and sometimes, I don’t even realize it. To change this so I can manage my time better I am going to really pay attention to how much time I spend on things. Maybe I can even put a stopwatch on (which is on my phone) and I’ll look at it every once and a while to really notice how much time I’m actually spending on each subject.

Those are the three things that I can change to use my time better and from now on I really want to focus on these goals and achieve them on a daily basis. Now that I have told you my three things, what are yours?

Continental Congress's Grievances Against Parliament

So much taxes! Parliament is practically going to make everyone poor! All of these acts cause chaos with the colonists. The Continental Congress needs to help go against the British before things get way out of hand.

First of all, Parliament didn’t even have the colonies put their opinions on what acts were going to be given out. One of the acts is called the Navigation Acts. That’s one that needs to be completely abolished. Those Navigation Acts state that colonists cannot trade with anybody EXCEPT Great Britain! So they can’t trade goods with any other countries. That frustrates the colonists of course because that was a way that they could get revenue and now it was taken away from them. People should be free to trade with anyone that they want to trade with. But Parliament thinks otherwise. In fact, there’s not just one but MORE acts that were added to the Navigation Acts that made them stronger but didn’t agree with the colonists. But, this of course leads to people going against the law. Smugglers secretly trade with other countries and try their best not to get caught. Sometimes that could lead to success…But others, not so lucky.

But what we really need to stop is Parliament making more of these! That isn’t the only acts that are frustrating the colonists! There’s tons more. Like, the Molasses Act. This act involved a lot of tax. Parliament decided to tax on sugar, which of course is a common good that people use so for them, it’s a smart way to go. But, this wasn’t for just sugar in general. This was for sugar that was being imported from the French West Indies. So again, Parliament is forcing the colonists in America to get all their goods from Great Britain. Doesn’t this look a little similar to the Navigation Acts? I thought so. But that isn’t the end for taxing sugar since Parliament made another act called the Sugar Act! At first I thought it was a break since Parliament lowered the tax on the sugar. I was wrong though. They started enforcing strict rules and improved from the last act and tried to make it easier for them to receive their tax money. But throughout all this, they’re not even thinking about how the colonists feel about all this and that has to end.

The Currency Acts are another handful of acts that weren’t made for the colonists’ well-being. It was made for the British Merchants’ well-being. These acts protected the way that those merchants were getting paid. They were getting paid with colonial currency and that wasn’t really the best form of money around so these acts helped them out. But there was no plus side for the colonists yet again. Not one bit of all these acts worked in America’s favor. It basically helped Great Britain out a lot.

The Quartering Act is what is really frustrating me and we need to stop this so the colonists can stop being taken advantage of. Parliament is forcing colonists to provide a home and food to soldiers that are local. Colonists have their own family that they have to worry about and now they have to feed another body taking up their home? It just doesn’t seem right.

All of these acts need to end and the Continental Congress needs to step in and do something to help save the colonists from this disaster. Fast forwarding to this next act called the Tea Act. This had a lot of controversy. The colonists were actually outraged when this was put into place. This act put a large tax on tea. And of course, they drink a lot of tea so it was a great product to get revenue on.  But Boston MA had enough of this craziness with all the taxes. So, a small group of American Patriots got together and decided to create a plan. And throughout all this everyone refused to drink any tea or take any of it from the ships. So the group sneaked onto the ship that contained a lot of the tea that the colonists of Massachusetts refused to drink. So instead of having it sit there, they just simply threw it overboard into the water. This shows that Parliament isn’t getting anywhere with the colonists with all these acts.

This event is now called the Boston Tea Party. It really started an uprising with the colonists to go against Parliament. All of the colonists soon realized that New Britain wasn’t really acting and making all the decisions good for them.