John’s Journal During American Revolution

By: Brendan Chiang

The Victory of Montcalm's Troops at Carillon by Henry Alexander Ogden.

December 6th, 1767

A stamp from 1767

Yesterday, the British passed the Townshend act. They are charging us for paper, glass, paint, and tea. Now I have to work harder to pay these taxes. These taxes are intolerable. I am not mad just because we have to pay these taxes; the problem is we have no rights in the British parliament, yet we still have to pay taxes.

I personally believe that he British government made all of these new acts due to the French

and Indian War. The war started because the Native Americans did not want the British to

rule them, and the French wanted more land in America. Therefore, they fought against

Britain together. In the end, the British won the war. They are now ruling over the Native

Americans and they got us more land, and we are now we are using it to build new houses,

shops, and farmland. However, this nine years long war cost the British tons of money, they

also had to spend a lot of money to maintain these new lands. So now they are falling short of

money. Right after the war, in 1963, they added taxes for goods that are imported to the

colonists from them. Following by that act was the sugar act. This act affected my family a lot,

we had to put less sugar in our bread in the bakery or else we cannot pay all of the taxes.

Even when the British government decreases the tax for sugar from 6 cents to 3 cents, but

now they are much stricter about collecting these taxes. Most people used to smuggle, and I

sometimes smuggle too, now, we cannot do that anymore. They will punish you when they

find out.

Then in 1765, the British parliament passed the stamp act, and that is when I start to hate the British government. I was not happy about the stamp act for two reasons; one reason is because we had no direct representation in the parliament that had created the act. We created a motto called “No taxation without representation”. Another reason is that most cases of this act were not heard in the courtroom. Soon, the British parliament repealed this act. Which made them seemed like they are listening to our voices. However, this did not stop them from passing more acts. On the same day they repealed the stamp act, they passed another act called, the declaratory act. Also in 1765, Parliament passed the Quartering Act that said the we need to pay for lodging for British soldiers stationed in America, people who fought for us, and protect us.

Then comes the Townshend Acts a heavy tax. Charles Townshend imposed duties on items like paper, glass, paint, and tea. Things are becoming more expensive. Everyone got infuriated with this concept of taxes, and the pressure began to form as a result to end the Townshend Acts. There were protesters fighting against the lobster back everywhere. This morning, I even saw a fight in front of my bakery, where mobs are throwing rocks on the soldiers. I can now feel that a war is about to begin, a revolutionary war, where we fight for our rights.

April 19th, 1775

Samuel Adams The First Continental Congress

I just read about the battle of Lexington in the newspaper this morning. It is awesome how a group of citizens also known as minutemen, who were barely trained, could beat one of the world’s best army, the British Red Coats. This battle is the spark of the revolution war against British. We are fighting for our rights, and our independence.

Colonists got very upset at the British for passing these intolerable acts a few years ago. Citizens in the city got even angrier with the government after the Boston Massacre and they began to revenge. In 1773, the tea act came out. The British government is forcing us to drink their tea and pay them taxes. I can clearly remember, on a cold December night, there were 3 ships in the harbor that was filled with English tea. If the ships reach shore and the tea gets sold, everyone in the town would have to pay taxes. We tried to talk to the government, but they would not take the ships back, then Sam Adam, the person who organized this event, told us that rebellion was the only choice, and he was looking for people to join the tea party. Later on that night, I joined the mission with many other people including many of my neighbors. We dressed up as Indians, and got on to the decks of the ships. We first kicked out all of the British soldiers on the ship, and then we dumped 90,000 pounds of tea, worth one point five million dollars into the ocean in front of many of the British Soldiers and commanders. I felt extremely liberated. This made the British government very angry. After a few days, the British government punished us by making stricter laws to control the colonies, and shut down the Boston harbor so we cannot trade goods for one of the largest harbor.

The next year, 56 delegates from 12 colonies except for Georgia all met in Philadelphia, and formed the first continental congress in America. Everyone was talking about it because in this meeting they made a list of complaints about the way Britain was treating the colonies with out any respect. Topics that were discussed in this meeting clearly show that a revolution is needed. We have to make a change; otherwise, we would live without any rights and still have to pay the British taxes. Five years ago, I thought that living under British’s government system is good because they can protect us. However, over the pass few years I realized that they weren’t protecting us, the king was just being greedy and wanted more land. After the war, we paid for the expensive war, and got bullied by the lobster backs. Sometimes, they even come into my bakery, and steal my breads. This society is definitely not equal, what I want and what most people want is a democratic country, where the government would listen to our voices.

After the meeting in Philadelphia, the British government sent armies to capture Sam Adam and John Hancock in Concord. Paul Revere was a British soldier who urged Sam and John to run away also warned the people in Lexington that the lobster backs are coming. So when the army was making their way through Lexington, and group of minutemen attacked them, and won the battle. This is our first victory.

December 21st, 1783

Winter in 1782George Washington

Hooray! Finally! The Treaty of Paris was signed with Britain. The war was over and the independence was won. After all these years of fighting, started from 1770, then the battle of Lexington, follow by that was the Declaration of independence, and that is when we declared a war against Britain.

In spring of 1777, the British started two assaults. They were targeting New York and Philadelphia. One of the army led by General Burgoyne that was targeting New York met our army in Saratoga. They started fighting on September 19th. My son volunteered to fight, and I wanted to help, too. So I became the cook in the army. Our army met with theirs in October again, and this time we defeated them easily with our strong soldiers. When the British soldiers retreated, they were trapped by Arnold against the Hudson River. In this battle, Burgoyne lost 6,000 soldiers and around 30 cannons to us.

The other British force led by General Howe, landed southwest of Philadelphia in August. He defeated Washington’s army at the Battle of Brandywine in just a few days; therefore, the continental congress had to leave Philadelphia. Defeats of the Americans at Paoli and Germantown followed. In September, General Howe had taken over Philadelphia. At the same time, a report of the war reached French. French people hated Britain, and we were fighting against Britain. They were thinking that enemy’s enemy is our friend, and they would like to use this opportunity to defeat the British army also revenge for the French and Indian War. So we signed a treaty for alliance.

During the winter, Washington and his army spent the winter at Valley Forge, outside Philadelphia. Some people complained about Washington’s leadership and a group of officers joined with a few members of Congress to discredit Washington, but the plot was discovered and they failed. Many things were done to improve the delivery of food and supplies. During this time, Baron Friedrich von Steuben drilled the troops and taught them how to march and fight in formation and instilled discipline. In this winter, my family also made a huge decision to move to Philadelphia and help the army. My son first asked to move, but I didn’t like the idea because I think it would be a lot of work to move to a new place. I thought about it myself afterwards, that if we win this war, we will get our rights. We are not just fighting for the country, we are also fighting for ourselves, so why not just sacrifice some time and help the army.

In the next few years, many battles were fought, like the battle of Monmouth, and the battle in Danbury. The British captured Savannah, and Georgia, 5,000 American Soldiers were surrendered, 900 were killed and 1,000 were taken prisoners. Then the war started moving to the southern part.In 1781, the British soldiers camped on a Peninsula, which made it easy for us to attack them. The French marine collaborated with our army and we surrounded the British soldiers. The surrender ceremony was held on Oct 19th.

The next year, the continental congress voted on stops fighting, and begins peace negotiation, and the British government agreed to recognize our independence. In 1983, September, third, the Treaty of Paris was signed, and on December 5th, George Washington the third presented the terms of the Treaty to parliament. I am glad that the war is over, and tomorrow, my family is moving back to Boston, where we came from, and reopen our bakery.

CitationsAllison. "Stamp Act." Stamp Act. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.

"The Continental Congress." The Continental Congress. N.p., 2003. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.

"French and Indian War." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Mar. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.

"George Washington." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.

"Oneida Nation :: Cultural Heritage -- I. American Revolution." Oneida Nation :: Cultural Heritage -- I. American Revolution. Oneida Nation, 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.

"Samuel Adams." Samuel Adams. NNDB, 2014. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.