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Showing results 31 – 40 of 83

Glossary Term – Organization

loyalists

John Adams estimated that roughly a third of the American population supported the Revolution, a third remained loyal to the Crown, and a third was uncommitted. Recent research suggests that perhaps 20 percent of the population consisted of loyalists. Loyalists were especially strong in New Jersey and South Carolina. After the war, about 80,000 loyalists—including substantial numbers of former slaves—emigrated from the United States to other parts of the British Empire. Loyalists were disproportionately from the ranks of the influential,...

Glossary Term – Person

Henry Clinton

Henry Clinton (1730–1795) was the commander in chief of the British army from 1778 to 1782. Clinton was sent to the colonies in 1775 to serve under General Thomas Gage. When Gage was replaced by William Howe, Clinton assumed second in command. Clinton was responsible for the British success at Long Island in 1776 that nearly trapped Washington’s army. After Howe resigned in 1778, Clinton became commander in chief. In 1780, Clinton succeeded in capturing Charleston, but that victory was soon overshadowed by Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown...

Glossary Term – Person

John Jay

John Jay (1745–1829) was a member of the Continental Congress (1774–1776, 1778–1779). He also served as that body’s president (1778–1779). He went on to hold a variety of diplomatic roles, and was one of the negotiators and signers of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. From 1784 to 1789, Jay was secretary of foreign affairs. He was also author, with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, of The Federalist (1788), a landmark collection of essays promoting the US Constitution. In 1789, Jay accepted Washington’s...

Glossary Term – Person

Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry (1736–1799) was a major figure in the American Revolution and the first governor of the state of Virginia. Henry was not highly educated, but his skills as an orator propelled him to leadership in the Revolutionary era. As a member of the House of Burgesses, Henry vehemently opposed the 1765 Stamp Act. He helped organize Virginia’s first Committee of Correspondence and served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses. At a meeting of the Virginia Convention in 1775, he stated his commitment to independence...

Glossary Term – Person

Robert Morris

Robert Morris (1734–1806) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the “financier of the American Revolution.” He also originated the plan for a national bank. Congress approved the establishment of the Bank of North America, which ultimately financed the war effort, stabilized the economy, and established the credit of the United States. Morris was appointed financial agent (the precursor of secretary of the treasury) of the United States and directed the operation of the new bank.

Glossary Term – Person

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was the English-born son of a Quaker who launched his career as a radical in 1772. He was dismissed from his job as an excise officer in England in 1772 for leading an agitation for higher pay. Two years later he emigrated to America. Paine was a vehement supporter of the patriot cause and his Common Sense (1776) and sixteen-part series The Crisis (1776–1783) made him one of America’s leading pamphleteers. In 1787 Paine returned to England, where...

Glossary Term – Person

Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold (1741–1801), whose name is now synonymous with the word “traitor,” was born in Norwich, Connecticut. After militia service in the French and Indian War, Arnold achieved some success as a local merchant and shipowner. In December 1774,  he was elected captain of a Connecticut militia unit, the Governor’s Second Company of Guards. Arnold, along with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys (a Vermont militia) captured Fort Ticonderoga, New York in May 1775. During 1777, Arnold was assigned to the Northern Army in upstate...

Glossary Term – Person

Christopher Gadsden

Christopher Gadsden (1723–1805) was a wealthy merchant and one of the most prominent leaders of the Revolution in the southern colonies. Gadsden was among the founders of the Sons of Liberty in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1765 he served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress. Gadsden was later a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses and served as an officer in the Continental Army from 1776 to 1783. In August 1780 Gadsden was captured by the British and held as a prisoner for forty-two weeks before being released in 1781...

Glossary Term – Person

François-Joseph-Paul, count de Grasse

François-Joseph-Paul, count de Grasse (1722–1788) was a French naval commander during the American Revolution. De Grasse was instrumental in the successful siege of Yorktown in 1781, leading his fleet from the West Indies to the Chesapeake and blockading Cornwallis’s army while waiting for the arrival of Franco-American forces under Washington and Rochambeau.

Glossary Term – Person

Henry Laurens

Henry Laurens (1724–1792) was a Charleston, South Carolina, merchant and planter. From 1777 to 1778, Laurens served as the president of the Continental Congress. In August 1780, Laurens sailed for Holland to negotiate a loan on behalf of Congress, but he was captured by the British navy and eventually imprisoned in the Tower of London. In December 1781, the British government exchanged Laurens for Lord Charles Cornwallis. In 1782, Laurens served as a commissioner in peace negotiations and retired soon after.