American Revolution
American Revolution
The Patriot organization, the Sons of Liberty, were active in New York in the 1760s and early 1770s following the Stamp Acts and continuing with the Intolerable Acts, and clashes with British troops peaked with the Battle of Golden Hill and the long-running skirmishes over Liberty poles. A Committee of Correspondence was created by Patriots by 1774 to coordiate with like-minded people in the Thirteen Colonies seeking to demand what they saw were their rights as Englishmen denied by the prededing laws and lack of representation in the British Parliament. The Commitees of Correspondence led to the creation of the New York Provincial Congress, which effectively replaced the British ruling apparatus by 1775. The New York Provincial Congress sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress, where they voted for independence unanimously. The state of New York was created on July 9, 1776. Soon after, a permanent Committee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies was formed which passed many laws allowing the prosecution of proven or suspected enemies of the rebellion. After their civil rights were revoked and their property confiscated they were driven out of the state (see Bill of attainder). In 1777, the state required a stringent oath of allegiance from its citizens, those who refused were exiled to British-occupied New York City. The New York Provincial Congress was replaced with the state government with the adoption of the Constitution of New York, 1777.
The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga provided the cannon and gunpowder necessary to force a British withdrawal from the Siege of Boston in 1775, and provided the staging ground for the unsuccessful 1775 invasion of Canada. The first major battle of the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared - and the largest battle of the entire war - was fought in New York at the Battle of Long Island (a.k.a Battle of Brooklyn) in 1776. New York saw the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain that year as well. The first of two major British armies to surrender during the war was captured by the Continental Army at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, preventing British forces from connecting their forces in Canada with those in New York City, and resulted in influencing France to ally with the revolutionaries. The withdrawal of General George Washington from Manhattan Island was followed by the British making New York City their military and political base of operations in North America for the duration of the conflict, and consequently the center of attention for Washington’s intelligence network. The notorious British prison ships of Wallabout Bay saw more American combatants die of intentional neglect than were killed in combat in every battle of the war, combined. Four of the Iroquois nations fought on the side of the British. They were defeated in the Sullivan Expedition of 1779. Suffering privations, many members moved to Canada. Most, absent or present, lost their land after the war. Some of the land purchases are the subject of modern-day claims by the individual tribes. In 1780, Benedict Arnold unsuccessfully attempted to turn West Point over to the British, a move that would have given the British control of the Hudson Valley. As per the Treaty of Paris. the last vestige of British authority in the former Thirteen Colonies - their troops in New York City - departed in 1783 , which was long afterwards celebrated as Evacuation Day.
During the revolution, four of the Iroquois nations fought on the side of the British, with the exceptions of the Oneida and the Tuscarora. In 1779, Major General John Sullivan was sent to defeat the Iroquois. The Sullivan Expedition moved northward through the Finger Lakes and Genesee Country, burning all the Iroquois communities and destroying their crops and orchards. Refugees fled to Fort Niagara where they spent the following winter in hunger and misery. Hundreds died of exposure, hunger and disease. After the war, many moved to Canada.