For once, this page is relatively uncontroversial. It’s an oversimplification, but the general gist
is right. The Americans got fed up of taxation without representation. Sugar was highly taxed
thanks to the Molasses Act and the Sugar Act, as were printed doucments such as
newspapers, thanks to the Stamp Act. War broke out in 1775 and the Declaration of
Independence was signed on the fourth of July 1776 by thirteen states. The Americans then
referred to their new country as the United States of America, but that wasn’t fully
internationally recognised until the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which officially ended the war.
And that didn’t stop the USA going to war with Britain again in 1812.
As for New York, the British did indeed capture the city under the leadership of William
Howe, and remained there until the end of the war. Diseases such as smallpox were a
continual problem, with some estimating more soldiers died from disease than from the
actual fighting. And in 1776, many of the prisoners of war captured by General Howe in New
York died of starvation.
As for the Iroquois - not so straightforward. Like the British and the colonialists, the Iroquois
weren’t a single homogenous body with one mind. To start with, the Iroquois Confederacy
tried to stay neutral, while allowing its member tribes to decide for themselves which side
they might support. This naturally split the Confederacy. After the end of the war, thanks to
an ill-thought-out treaty, the Iroquois Confederacy as a whole was forced to cede its lands in
Pennsylvania and New York, while those who fought for the British were resettled in Canada
to form what became the Six Nations of the Grand River.
Like the previous couple of pieces, I’ve no idea when exactly it was written. All I know is it was
before the end of my second term. Mainly because the next piece in the book was written at
the beginning of my third. I briefly returned to the story of New York some time after that, in
April or May.
FURTHER READING
American Revolution (1765-83)
American Revolutionary War (1775-83)
Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
Independence Day (July 4)
New York and New Jersey Campaign (1776-77)
Iroquois
September 1979 - March 1980
The American War of Independence
Manhattan Island
Under English Rule
The American War of Independence
My Way to School
Back to New York
The Beginnings of Paris
The Story of the Earth
The Planets
How the World is Changing Shape
Rocks and Fossils
The Seas
How the Sea Shapes the Land
The Nature Trail Way of Insect Watching
What is Prehistory?
FAIRBURN
The place where I wrote
all this rubbish
WAEN SHEPHERD
Who was this strange
little boy?
HISTORY 1
Sept 1979 - Oct 1981
The Forgotten World
John and Mick fall foul
of some extreme
potholing
Sheet Lightning
Waen and his Gran
shelter from the sheet-
shaped storm
Christmas 1979
Can Waen last the night
without opening his
presents?
TERM 1
A day-by-day account of
Waen’s first term at
Fairburn School
TERM 2
The birth of the 1980s -
Blake’s 7, Blondie and
battles in space
TOPIC 1
He knows the names of
all the dinosaurs
TOPIC 2
The one where it all
kicks off
Waen Shepherd 2
Waen’s heroic antics in
the far-flung future of
2007 AD!