Early on the morning of April 19, 1775, General Thomas Gage, commander of Britis
Early on the morning of April 19, 1775, General Thomas Gage, commander of British forces in America, dispatched regular troops to Concord, Massachusetts, where spies informed him the Americans had stored weapons. The movement of so many soldiers out of Boston came as no surprise to the American insurgents. Paul Revere and others had warned the inland communities of the impending threat. About seventy members of the local militia gathered on the Lexington Green, intending to watch as the British marched past them on the road to Concord.
But after a British officer ordered the Americans to lay down their guns, someone fired, and after a few minutes, eight colonists were dead. The news spread quickly throughout the region. Within hours, hundreds of Americans confronted the British at Concord. The death of the Lexington militiamen and the pitched battle that developed as British troops retreated to Boston electrified the colonists from New Hampshire to Georgia. People who had assumed that resistance to ‘taxation without representation’ involved peaceful strategies such as boycotts and petitions dramatically discovered that the imperial crisis had taken a violent turn. Ordinary men and women suddenly and decisively came forward and transformed protest into a massive insurgency.
During the 1760s and early 1770s, Americans spoke eloquently about abstract principles such as liberty and natural rights. After 1775, the political landscape changed radically. Unhappy colonists discovered that successful revolutions—the mobilization of sufficient numbers of ordinary people to sustain resistance against a powerful empire—required an emotional component. American historians seldom mention anger and hate as aspects of revolutionary ferment, preferring to concentrate on reasoned academic texts written by men such as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and John Dickinson. These pamphlets undoubtedly served to instruct the colonists about their rights as citizens and British subjects. What goes missing from this perspective is the sense of outrage that propelled the revolution forward.
Review the following learning resources.
Lexington and Concord: Tipping Point of the Revolution Primary Sources: Links to an external site.
Diary entries of Matthew Patten, 1775
Announcement of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, 1775
Resolution to resist “force by force,” 1775
Jonas Clark, The Fate of Blood-Thirsty Oppressors, 1776 (excerpts)
Considering what you’ve learned in this module, and using the resources provided, answer the following question:
How did the Battles of Lexington and Concord change the character of American resistance to British rule? Cite textual evidence from at least two (2) primary sources to support your position.
Answer this question with a clear and convincing thesis statement in a minimum of 200 words. Incorporate quotes from at least two (2) primary sources from the learning materials, include a Works Cited list, and use in-text citations.