From American Pageant version 12
America Secedes from the Empire
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| 278854808 | mercenary | a person hired to fight for another country than their own | |
| 278854809 | indictment | an accusation of wrongdoing | |
| 278854810 | civilian | person who is not a member of the military, or police, or firefighting forces | |
| 278854811 | confiscate | take temporary possession of as a security, by legal authority | |
| 278854812 | envoy | someone sent on a mission to represent the interests of someone else | |
| 278854813 | isolationist | People who wanted the United States to stay out of world affairs | |
| 278854814 | privateer | Privately owned ship that a wartime government gives permission to attack an enemy's merchant ships | |
| 278854815 | graft | the practice of offering something (usually money) in order to gain an illicit advantage | |
| 278854816 | rabble | a disorderly crowd, a mob | |
| 278854817 | George Washington | (1789-1797) no political party *Revolutionary War hero and Patriot leader, he served as a representative to the Continental Congresses, commanded the Continental Army, and was unanimously elected to two terms as president of the United States | |
| 278854818 | William Howe | during the summer of 1776, he led hundreds of British ships and 32,000 British soldiers to New York, and offered Congress the choice between surrender with royal pardon and a battle against the odds, and despite having far fewer troops, the Americans rejected the offer. | |
| 278854819 | Nathaniel Greene | Quaker-raised American general who employed tactics of fighting and then drawing back to recover, then attacking again. Defeated Cornwallis by thus "fighting Quaker". | |
| 278854820 | Benedict Arnold | United States general and traitor in the American Revolution; in 1780 his plan to surrender West Point to the British was foiled (1741-1801) | |
| 278854821 | John Burgoyne | British general in the American Revolution who captured Fort Ticonderoga but lost the battle of Saratoga in 1777 (1722-1792) | |
| 278854822 | Charles Cornwallis | Commanding general of the British forces that were defeated at Yorktown in 1781, ending the American Revolution. | |
| 278854823 | Thomas Paine | American Revolutionary leader and pamphleteer (born in England) who supported the American colonist's fight for independence and supported the French Revolution (1737-1809), Revolutionary leader who wrote the pamphlet Common Sense (1776) arguing for American independence from Britain. In England he published The Rights of Man | |
| 278854824 | George Rogers Clark | Leader of a small Patriot force that captured British-controlled Fort Vincennes in the Ohio Valley in 1779., secured the Northwest Territory for America | |
| 278854825 | Horatio Gates | Burgoyne was forced to surrender his command to this American general on October 17,1777 at the battle of Saratoga. | |
| 278854826 | John Paul Jones | American naval commander in the American Revolution (1747-1792), The commander of one of America's ships; daring, hard-fighting young Scotsman; helped to destroy British merchant ships in 1777; brought war into the water of the British seas. | |
| 278854827 | Thomas Jefferson | (1801-1809) democratic-republican * 3rd President of the United States. chief drafter of the Declaration of Independence; made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and sent out the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore it | |
| 278854828 | Admiral de Grasse | operated a powerful French fleet in the West Indies. He advised America he was free to join with them in an assult on Cornwallis at Yorktown. Rochambeau's French army defended British by land and Admiral de Grasse blockaded them by sea. This resulted in Cornwallis's surrender on October 19, 1781. | |
| 278854829 | Patrick Henry | An American orator and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses who gave speeches against the British government and its policies urging the colonies to fight for independence. In connection with a petition to declare a "state of defense" in virginia in 1775, he gave his most famous speech which ends with the words, "Give me liberty or give me death." Henry served as Governor of Virginia from 1776-1779 and 1784-1786, and was instrumental in causing the Bill of Rights to be adopted as part of the U.S. Constitution. | |
| 278854830 | Rochambeau | French general who commanded French troops in the American Revolution, notably at Yorktown (1725-1807) | |
| 278854831 | John Jay | United States diplomat and jurist who negotiated peace treaties with Britain and served as the FIRST chief justice of the United States Supreme Court (1745-1829) | |
| 278854832 | natural rights | the idea that all humans are born with rights, which include the right to life, liberty, and property | |
| 278854833 | privateering | a system in the colonial era by which privately-owned and operated vessels were used to raid enemy shipping | |
| 278854834 | Second Continental Congress | They organized the continental Army, called on the colonies to send troops, selected George Washington to lead the army, and appointed the comittee to draft the Declaration of Independence | |
| 278854835 | Common Sense | a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine that claimed the colonies had a right to be an independent nation | |
| 278854836 | Declaration of Independence | the document recording the proclamation of the second Continental Congress (4 July 1776) asserting the independence of the colonies from Great Britain | |
| 278854837 | Loyalists/Tories | American colonists who remained loyal to Britain and opposed the war for independence | |
| 278854838 | Patriots/Whigs | American colonists who were determined to fight the British until American independence was won | |
| 278854839 | Treaty of Paris 1783 | This treaty ended the Revolutionary War, recognized the independence of the American colonies, and granted the colonies the territory from the southern border of Canada to the northern border of Florida, and from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River |
