revolutionary voices from the american revo

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John Valor’s Journal: A Patriot of the American Revolution

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Page 1: Revolutionary voices from the american revo

John Valor’s Journal:A Patriot of the American

Revolution

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March 5th 1770The Boston Massacre

The sketch of the Boston Massacre made by Paul Revere

A depiction of my family during my childhood years

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March 5th 1770

You cursed scoundrel Lobster Backs! Demon hearted Red Coats! You should all die in the gallows for the Boston Massacre and for killing my younger brother! To hell with you fools! He was only 15 years old! You wrung your demonized bayonets through his heart without mercy! You also fired upon my father, the commander who saved your arses from the French and Indians in the 7 years war by giving you food and ammo provisions! Without it, you’d have lost the war or would have died of starvation or disease! He gave a letter to the British Parliament yesterday notifying them this protest would require no violence, yet those stupid British fired upon my father. Do you have any thankfulness in your hearts at least to not fire upon the man who saved your life! I’m now without a family! Why in the name of God you dare fire upon unarmed citizens during a peaceful protest? It would make sense if they were armed!

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Paul Revere was asked to make of eyewitness sketch of the Boston Massacre and to post it into the colonial press. It showed British firing upon protesting colonists, all unarmed. It even showed the British advancing into the crowd with foot forward, to shoot the life our of even single innocent colonist soul. And most noticeably, they were firing in line all together, smiling with pride. It was just a peaceful protest you Red Coat idiots! We just wanted to complain that the Stamp and Sugar and what do the British say in reply, “We were defending ourselves. It was just a act of self-defense!” Wrong! What you British did was you fricking line up, aim your rifles, and then your commander lifts his sabre and orders “fire!” right in front of unarmed British colonists?! You consider firing upon unarmed colonists while smiling like a lunatic is right before God? You minds are like a snail, sluggish and retarded! Like Revere said, you will be brought to a judge who can’t be bribed… But what brought this horrid event into my life along with my fellow Bostonian colonists? Well let me explain…

 

 

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Ok, now to end with my rage matters… It all started with the Stamp act and Sugar act. The Stamp act taxed us on paper, letters, and stamps, while the Sugar act taxed us on anything sugar related. I heard it was for paying the debt of the French-Indian war, which does makes sense since Britain is in huge debt. But the thing is, believe or not, I would pay the tax if one the taxes weren’t so high, especially if it weren’t only implied on us colonists! This is truly taxation without representation! It would at least make the slightest sense if they also taxed British living in the mainland country and if we at least we had some representation if we wanted to be taxed or not! No colonial delegations were asked to voice their opinions! Are we your slaves? We colonists are also in debt! It’s common sense to not make the taxes so high, and to tax only you colony! What is with those “delegations” of Parliament? I, John Valor am not your property nor slave! Tyrant is King George III! We will get our revenge… just wait and see…

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July 4th 1776The Declaration of

Independence

The new paper version of the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson

The first Continental Congress

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July 4th 1776

After the public outrage of the Boston Massacre, the colonists, specifically Bostonians were quite furious at the British and I bet they wanted to get some payback, which indeed the colonists rightly deserved! During the middle of just any old regular day, Samuel Adams started recruiting random Bostonians like me to some secret organization that was designed as an act of retaliation against the British, to retrieve the what was rightfully ours, it was the Sons of Liberty. We met one night at the Boston Harbor, right in front of a couple British merchant ships carrying tea. Still infuriated about the Sugar and Stamp act, also the recent Tea act, taxing us on tea, we decided aggression was needed. Dressed up as a Mohawk Indian, I with my fellow Sons of Liberty stormed the ships like a stampede of infuriated wildebeests with axe and club in hand, and threw otherwise “trampled” all the British merchants guarding them overboard. I with my fellow friends hacked open at ever single box containing on that ship and chucked them all into the harbor waters without hesitation and we gave a roar of triumph. Just a few minutes into the practice, the entire port was emptied of its British contamination. Looks like this more “less peaceful” protest finally got what we wanted. The Tea act, along with the Sugar and Stamp act, we’re repealed and it was a huge celebration, but then the British retaliate… we celebrated too soon.

 

 

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Then came the Intolerable acts. Just as the name says, it was intolerable. Those idiots took taxation without representation to a whole new level. They re-enabled all those taxes such as the Sugar, Stamp, and Tea act, along with a brand new armada of unreasonable taxes and forced us to pay them! Some people who refused to pay were even killed! So now, the British parliament and King George III are now even murdering the colonists for not paying their so called “reasonable” taxes!

 Soon after, the Continental Congress has considered for independence! The Continental Congress composed of delegations from different countries. In this case, delegates from all colonies except Georgia met to address on how we colonists should address the problem we had at hand. Many distinguished people such as Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and many others came all together at the Pennsylvania for the creation of the Declaration of Independence. However, the Congress was divided. Some delegates didn’t want to vote for independence at all such as John Dickinson along with a few southern colonist delegates voted against because they weren’t “directly affected” by the Intolerable Acts. You idiots! Do you not care about the lives lost in the Boston Massacre?! But finally on July 2nd 1776, votes were made, and the declaration was passed. However, it wasn’t drafted yet.

 Thomas Jefferson, usually quiet, but a very renowned writer drafted the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence not only insisted on independence from Britain, it also demanded for a new government. One clause of the declaration stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The British monarchy system refused these rights, the rights that all men deserve! All of man are born equal! And for that exact reason, the colonies shall be our own rightful country and are not afraid to fight for that cause!

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Oct. 30 1777Battle of Lexington-

Saratoga

Where General Burgoyne surrendered to our army.

My first day in the Continental Army…

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Oct 30th 1777

So much life has been shed and lost during the year of 1776-1777. The Battle of Bunker and Breeds Hill, Battle at Lexington and Concord, and now the Battle of Saratoga. I’ve been promoted to lieutenant commander. My fellow colonists have been murdered, killed… those blood covered Lobster Backs and Hessians, both of them, demons assigned from Hell! What a coward King George is, he needs mercenaries from Germany to do his work! 

Saratoga was our key victory, one after so many lost battles because before, everything wasn’t going to plan. During Lexington, we Patriots were stock-pilling a trainload of weapons in Concord. Soon after, spies received word that General Gage, a plans to attack with his full army on the stockpile, and to “confiscate” all our weaponry. Revere, Dawes, and Prescott soon went warning the militia of the assault. Gage sent patrols to stop them, but soon messenger spread to messenger, all franticly hollering “THE BRITISH ARE COMING!” Revere was intercepted by a patrol, however the rest of the messengers escaped. My minutemen marched forward, being heavily outnumbered, retreated into the woods. After they got into Concord, Colonel Barrett commanded our units cut them off once more reinforcement militia arrived. The British knew of the plan and hurried back. Using guerrilla warfare, we ambushed day and night, however General Percy came to their aid, broke our lines, and got the British troops to safety with most of our stockpile…

 Bunker Hill was just pure Hell. After setting up forts on Bunker and Breeds hill under the command of Major General Putnam, that damned British warship HMS Lively spotted us and fired its cannons giving our position. The rest of the British battleship armada cut off reinforcements, and soon British and Hessians came charging forward towards our forts. We put up a good fight, and the British earned theirself’s one thousand casualties. Either way, we had to abandon the forts due to our lack of reinforcements and the fear of getting surrounded.

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Saratoga like I said was the key victory to the war, our first and most important victory in months. I then was under command of General Schuyler. We heard the British were trying to capture Fort Ticonderoga. Well, they did, however it was Schuyler plan do give up to fort after the siege… so during the cover of night we retreated. For that Schuyler was deported of command. Now under orders from General Gates we retreated to the fort at Bemis heights. Burgoyne decided to attack the fort with a very useless tactic. Marching his troops straightforward into our fortifications? One dies another replaces the fallen solder’s place on the front line? You're troops were flushed out like sand in a sieve! Poor, Morgan and Learned and I all joined troops soon overpowered and outnumbered the Red Coats. However, Arnold with no official command rushed forward into battle, and broke the British line. Heroic, but reckless like playing chicken on train tracks… The British then made a last-resort retreat. We surrounded them before they got far though. Burgoyne finally surrendered.

 There was a huge cost for our victory. Dozens of Patriot solders lied on the floor in crimson red blood, dead… There was air so thick with death I could cut thought it with my sabre! May their souls rest in peace…

We soon won French assistance. France lost to the British in the French-Indian war to the British, therefore we had a common enemy! The enemy of my enemy is my friend! But what held them back? They thought British were invincible. Heck! Nothing is invincible!.. I must stop writing now, the final battle awaits…

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Sep. 5th 1783The Surrender of

Yorktown/Treaty of Paris

Where Treaty of Paris negotiations took place

The British Surrender at Yorktown

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September 5th 1783

Leave our country now or have your shells ripped off you Lobster Backs! The 13 colonies of Britain, now the 13 States of America! I’m so lucky to have lived through war, now with a family, 2 children. Around 7200 fellow Americans, graciously laid down their lives for the independence of our people. I’ve finally heard news of the Treaty of Paris, the agreement between Britain and America that the 13 colonies are now independent from Britain. We are now “officially independent” from Britain! No more taxation-without-representation, death, Red Coats… Drawbacks are, Congress has to make a new country. This isn’t going to be easy, but to first give a plotline summary of what brought the war to this treaty.

 24 hours after the Battle of Saratoga, the French finally came to our aid. Lafayette, along with Rochambeau, both distinguished army commander came along with a couple of French military units. They gave us food, ammo, and military training. Without their help, my minutemen would have been killed by now due to the winter cold, starvation, or lack of training! I give them my greatest thanks.

 The Battle of Yorktown, the final battle. The fake scheme of the Patriots and French attacking New York succeeded! We got more than have the British troops away from the British fort! Their Southern Campaign plan is compromised! During the meeting on how to attack British held Yorktown and we knew the British didn’t have endurance. So then, we decided to exploit their weakness.

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We snuck up upon the British fort at night while their troops were still recovering from battle fatigue and were fast asleep. General Washington, head general of the Continental army, today decided to join the battlefield. He ordered us to build trenches surrounding the fort at a safe distance. These trenches proved very effective! When we had to reload, we just needed to crouch down in the cover, unlike when we had to reload right in front of our enemies’ faces, and to have no fear of getting shot during the process! The tactic was named trench warfare. Soon after, Boom… Boom… Boom! French fired their 24 bore cannons at the Lobster Backs, shelling it till the fort was literally “shell shocked" in fear. We dug trenches closer and closer and eventually at night we got so close to the fort I could see the shrapnel lodged into the fort redoubt. We took the opportunity, and got ready to fire, though Washington then gave the order, “Use your bayonets, only!”. I understood. This attack must be in silence in order to not attract any attention from the main fort. I snatched my bayonet, and attached it to my rifle muzzle. I charged in with my fellow colonists and thrust my bayonet into every Red Coat in reach in the fort redoubt. Lord Cornwallis, British General in charge of the Yorktown fort gave a retreat sign and we pursed. The French Navy came to our assistance and cut off access to the sea for the British. We soon surrounded them The entire British army surrender once and for all.

 I must now attend the funeral of my fellow allies who lost their lives in this war, and to award all those patriots who charged into the fort redoubts with just bayonets, the Purple Heart. May all you fallen patriots be remembered as the best and true men of America. I also later have to meet with fellow Continental Congress delegates on the making of the new government of America, hope it all goes well.

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March 4th, 1789

A black and white painting of our beloved leader,

Father of America, George Washington

A sketch of Shay’s rebellion from the colonial

newspaper, closing down a courthouse, before gunfire

exchanged.

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March 4th 1789

The Articles of Confederation, useless! What was John Dickinson thinking while he was creating this crap! Is he trying to bring us into the ground? Only after six years since that Treaty of Paris America has a government system appreciated by the people, the United States Constitution. I delegation of Boston from Congress shall give a short story of what happened during these six dreaded years…

 After the Treaty of Paris, the Continental Congress hosted a convention on creating the new government, which the result was the Articles. The Articles were like an apple with a worm in it, looks good to eat until the unacceptable flaw pops out. There was only one branch of government at the time, which was Congress. The Congress could make laws, but had no power to enforce them in the states, therefore rendering it useless. All of its decisions depended on the cooperation of the 13 states. Another worm to add to the apple is that the Congress couldn’t control tax. Every state could make its own rules on taxes so taxes would vary state to state.

 Tensions got high, and soon there was act of treason against the Articles of Confederation, Shays’ rebellion. Farmer from Massachusetts, served in the Continental Army for our independence against Britain, a great friend, however I’ve never seen him angry like this. He explained to me soon after by letter. He told that the Massachusetts government was in extreme debt and needed money, and I couldn’t believe what they resorted too, the exact same thing the British did to us, taxation without representation. Soon everyone, specifically farmers like him were in extreme debt from the unreasonable amount of taxes, and soon like they did with the Sugar and Stamp acts, rebellion. Shays recruited around 3000 solders from the Continental Army, and stormed into the Courthouses, demanding their taxes be lifted or shortened. I joined Shays by sending letters to Congress that the government has to be abolished and a new one should be made in its place and by secretly giving Shays rifles and ammo just in case a fight would break out, and it did. The rebels closed down a court, however, loyal Continental Army men fired upon them, just like what happened during the Boston Massacre, however gunfire exchanged from both sides. An act of treason yes, but for a good cause! The government finally decided to create a new government in the Article’s place, the rebellion was put down, and many went to prison.

 

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James Madison soon came up with a solution at Constitution Convention. Combining all the advantages of many different governments from past to present, he combined them all to create the perfect system of government, the US Constitution. Now, there were three branches of government: Judicial, Legislative, and Executive. The Judicial branch is the Supreme Court consisting of judges who judges the laws, the Legislative Branch consisting of representatives from the states makes laws otherwise know as congress, and the Executive Branch, consisting of the President and his Cabinet makes sure the laws are executed. Making sure one branch of the three doesn’t have complete power over the other branches, checks and balances were created. The President can veto laws made by the Congress and appoint judges, however Congress can override by two-thirds majority and can impeach the President. The Court judges the law if it goes against the rights of the Constitution, however Congress can impeach the Judges.

 I now must attend George Washington’s presidential ceremony... Hope I’ll have more journal entries to write soon after, hope the skirmish of slavery doesn’t go bad… May God bless America!

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Works Cited"Revolutionary War Animated Maps." Revolutionary War Animated Maps. History Animated, n.d. Web. 3 May. 2013. <http://www.revolutionarywaranimated.com/>.

The American Revolution for Students. Safari Montage. Schlessinger Media, n.d. Web. 2 May 2013.

"Articles of Confederation." Digital History. Digital History, n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. <http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2>.

"Creating New State Governments." Digital History. Digital History, n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. <http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2>.

"How Revolutionary Was the American Revolution?" Digital History. Digital History, n.d. Web. 5 May 2013. <http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2>.

Werstein, Irving. "Revolutionary War." The New Book of Knowledge. Grolier Online, 2013. Web. 2 May. 2013.

McDonald, Forrest. "Articles of Confederation." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2013. Web. 14 May. 2013.

Zeichner, Oscar. "Shays's Rebellion." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online, 2013. Web. 14 May. 2013.

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Worked CitedRevere, Paul. The Bloody Massacre. 1770. The Bloody Massacre. Boston: Paul Revere, 1770. N. pag. Print.

Colonial Family. N.d. Photograph. Colonial Williamsburg. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Web. 14 May 2013. <http://www.history.org/almanack/life/family/images/poorwhite_eats.jpg>.

The Declaration of Independence. N.d. Photograph. Founding.com. The Claremont Institute. Web. 14 May 2013. <http://www.founding.com/repository/imgLib/20071018_declaration.jpg>.

Second Continental Congress. N.d. The American Revolution. Blogger. Web. 14 May 2013. <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tvFeVoj_JBk/TWb841TCEfI/AAAAAAAAACk/oHds-5kLj7g/s400/The+Continental+Congress.jpg>.

Surrender of General Burgoyne. N.d. Architect of the Capitol. Architect of the Capitol. Web. 14 May 2013. <http://www.aoc.gov/cc/photo-gallery/images/70227_hr.jpg>.

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Works cited

American Militiamen. N.d. Colonial Militia & Other Units. Web. 14 May 2013. <http://www.acwgc.org/CCC_Am_Army/Images/Uniforms%20of%20American%20Revolution/Militia%20Man%201775.jpg>.

Wagner, David. Treaty of Paris. N.d. David R. Wagner. MouseWorks. Web. 14 May 2013. <http://www.davidrwagner.com/treaty-wagner.jpg>.

George Washington. N.d. George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation. Tripod. Web. 14 May 2013. <http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSYHpycL29eoHSVavQ8yMxyzeYcYDXVkqtT7dDiT-I342u53ZDn>.

Shays' Rebellion. N.d. Son of the South. Son of the South. Web. 14 May 2013. <http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revolutionary-war/political/shays-rebellion.jpg>.