THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

In Massachusetts people were especially upset by the blockade of Boston Harbour.

         Farmers in the area began organizing to practice shooting and marching. These men were called minutemen, because they could get ready to fight at a minute's notice.

         On the cold Wednesday morning of April 19, 1775, the tension which existed between the colonists and the British led to shooting. British soldiers met a group of armed colonists at Lexington. A shot was fired. That shot was the start of the War for Independence, in which a brave group of colonists fought mighty Great Britain.

         By the following year more and more people had come to believe that the colonies should be independent. Colonial soldiers had died fighting for colonial rights.

         In the spring of 1776 the Continental Congress decided to take action. Thomas Jefferson,  a  young Virginian, was asked to write a declaration explaining why the colonies should be free.

         In the declaration Jefferson described his ideas about human rights. Jefferson said that all people had the right to life and liberty. No government could take these rights away. If the rules tried to do so, the people had the right to choose a new government.

         On July 4, 1776, the Congress adopted Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. The colonies stated that they were no longer a part of Great Britain. A new nation was born.

         The war lasted six years. It was a difficult war for both sides. The British were fighting far from their homeland. Americans were fighting on the land which they knew well. And they were fighting to protect their newly declared independence.

         Thousands of men and women helped in the fight for independence. Women followed their husbands and sons to army camps to help them. They marched, cooked and even fought side by side with men. One of such women was Mary  Hays.

         Many people in Europe admired the colonies' fight for freedom. Some Europeans even came to America to help in the fighting. The Marquis de Lafayette was a 20-year-old French nobleman and military officer. Lafayette  hired soldiers and a ship and sailed to America. Lafayette served bravely in the war. At one battle he was wounded. In the final battle at York town he helped to defeat the British.

         On October 19, 1781, the war was over with the victory of Americans. In 1783 the British and Americans met in Paris and signed a treaty. In the Treaty of Paris Great Britain agreed to recognize the independence of the United States. The Americans had won their revolution.