Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect. We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us, therefore, rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.
— George Washington
American Revolution Articles:
African Americans In The Revolutionary Period
American Indians and the American Revolution
American Revolution Photo Gallery
British Reforms and Colonial Resistance
A Capsule History of the Revolutionary War
Causes of the American Revolution
Initial Battles for Independence
Heroes and Patriots of America
Prelude to the Revolutionary War
Privateers in the American Revolution
Valley Forge – A Patriotic Symbol of Perseverance
John Adams – Founding Father & 2nd U.S. President
Samuel Adams and the Boston Tea Party
Nathaniel Bacon – First American Rebel
Benjamin Franklin – The First American
Nathanael Greene – American Revolution Hero
Alexander Hamilton – Founding Father & Political Philosopher
Thomas Jefferson – The Sage of Monticello
John Paul Jones – Greatest Revolutionary Naval Commander
George Washington – Father of our Country
The concepts of self-government, freedom, and equality conceived by the founders of our country and embodied in the Declaration of Independence continued to influence the struggle for equality in succeeding generations and continues today. This influence has been the catalyst for initiating major turning points in history, especially when the virtues of equality, freedom, and human life itself are at the heart of political and social struggles. It is at these times that the words of the Declaration of Independence sound most strongly: “ … 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 …”
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm, —
A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Paul Revere’s Ride
Compiled by Kathy Weiser-Alexander, April 2019
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