Benjamin Franklin - Bishop McNamara High School...Benjamin Franklin Franklin was a well-known man in the Revolutionary times. He was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor

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Benjamin Franklin

Franklin was a well-known man in the Revolutionary times. He was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor and diplomat. He helped launch a library, hospital and college. Franklin is also known for many inventions including the Franklin Stove and experimenting with electricity. During the American Revolution, he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. He also signed the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

©P.Olivieri (Rockin Resources), 2014

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King George III

King George III was the monarch of England during the Revolutionary era. He led the British army through the French and Indian War to gain territory for Britain. He was also reigning over Britain during the Revolutionary War and suffered the loss of control of the colonists.


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Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry was a leader and orator from Virginia in the American Revolution. He failed as a planter and storekeeper. Then he became an exceptional lawyer and politician. He was known for criticizing King George III for enforcing the Stamp Act and taking a stance opposing tariffs. In the Continental Congress, he supported the boycott of British goods and establishing a Continental army. He wanted to fight for independence and gave a fiery speech where he stated, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry also took the lead in building troops to overthrow the royal governor.


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Paul Revere

Paul Revere was one of the key figures in the war. He was first known in Boston for his craftsmanship of silverware, tea sets, and engraving plates. As tension began in the colonies, he became a member of the Sons of Liberty. He engraved the famous picture of the Boston Massacre and participated in dumping tea in the harbor. He was most famous for his midnight ride where he rode with two others from Boston to Lexington to warn the colonists that the British were coming. During the war, he was a soldier and started a gunpowder mill. He also designed the Continental currency and seals for the 13 colonies.


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John Hancock

John Hancock was a wealthy merchant in Boston. He was against the British taxation and knowing his wealth and power, the British wanted to capture him. Paul Revere warned him so he could escape. Hancock was the president of the First and Second Continental Congresses. He was most known for the being the first to sign (in big bold letters) the Declaration of Independence! This made the British want to arrest him even more. People still refer to him today when they sign their name. They write their “John Hancock.”


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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was a man of many talents. He was the architect who designed the University of Virginia, his home, Monticello, and the Virginia Capitol. He was also an inventor and scientist. He invented the lap desk, decoding device, and developed the decimal system. In the war, he served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congress. He was also the author of the Declaration of Independence. He later became the third president of the United States!


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George Washington

George Washington is known as the “Father of our Country”. He was from Virginia and served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses. Congress unanimously chose him to be Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army which proved to be a good choice. After a long battle, he finally forced General Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown. Washington later was the leader over the Constitution and became the first president of the United States.


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Molly Pitcher

Molly Pitcher’s real name was Mary Ludwig Hayes. She left her home in New Jersey and moved to Pennsylvania where she was a servant. Mary later married and her husband enlisted in the war. She decided to go with him. Molly Pitcher was a name given to women who carried water to cool the canyons and hydrate the soldiers from the heat.

At the Battle of Monmouth, her husband and others were wounded. Mary tended to them and then took over the canyons and continued firing for the Patriots. She was recognized by Washington as being Sergeant Molly, a hero of the war.


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John Adams

John Adams was a leader of the American Revolution. He was from Massachusetts, attended Harvard University, and became an intelligent lawyer. Adams opposed the British tariffs and voiced his opinion. He helped write the Declaration of Independence and was a delegate of the Continental Congress. Adams also served as a diplomat in Europe and helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris to end the war. He later became the second president of the United States.


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Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams was John Adam’s wife. She was known for writing letters to her husband to voice her opinion when writing the nation’s new laws. She urged him to think about the rights of women and slaves during that time. Her letters also depicted hardships of those who were left to manage homes and families during the war.


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Marquis de Lafayette

Marquis de Lafayette was a French nobleman. His beliefs in independence led him to fight for America’s freedom. He served in the American army without pay and became a major general. He also convinced the French government to send aid to the Americans. He was in Yorktown with George Washington when they forced Cornwallis to surrender.


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Crispus Attucks

Crispus Attucks was a runaway slave. He spent most of his time on ships and became a rope maker. In 1770, a fight erupted between British soldiers and rope makers. A few nights later, a British soldier entered a pub looking for work. Attucks and other furious sailors greeted him. Soon a group of sailors started taunting a British guard. It quickly intensified. Bostonians started throwing snowballs. The British opened fire and Attucks was the first of five men that were killed. His murder made him the first fatality of the American Revolution.


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Peter Salem

Peter Salem was born a slave in Massachusetts. His owner named him after his hometown, Salem. At first it was illegal for slaves to serve in the military, but then there was a need for soldiers during the French and Indian war. Free Blacks were recruited. Salem was sold to Major Lawson Buckminster who freed him. Later, he became one of the Minutemen in the Revolutionary War. He fought in the first battle at Concord and then at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Salem was recognized for killing the British major! He then fought at Saratoga and continued fighting as a Patriot. He survived the war and is known as a war hero. After the war, he worked as a cane weaver.


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Phyllis Wheatley

Phyllis Wheatley was captured from Africa and sold to a Boston family at the age of seven. They treated her as a family member and taught her to read and write. She began writing poems and became famous when she wrote a poem upon the death of Reverend George Whitefield. In 1773, she became the first African American to publish a book of poems. Phyllis was freed and married during the war.


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Mercy Otis Warren

Mercy Otis Warren was the sister of James Otis, an important activist in the American Revolution. Mercy learned from listening to her brother’s tutors. She married James Warren, speaker of Massachusetts House of Representatives, and became an American poet, historian, and scriptwriter. She wrote plays that predicted events of the war and criticized the British. She also published essays supporting women’s rights. Being that Mercy was friends with Abigail Adams, they shared their beliefs of equal rights for women.


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Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold was known as the most famous traitor in United States history. He was considered as one of the best generals of the American Revolution for BOTH sides! Arnold originally was a general who fought for the Americans but planned to surrender to British forces. His plans were intercepted and he was revealed. He escaped and became a general of the British army. After the war, he never received the full pay from Britain that he was promised for changing sides. He was in debt and distrusted by everyone.


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James Armistead

James Armistead was a slave in Virginia when he volunteered to fight for American independence. General Lafayette sent him to spy on the British army. Then General Cornwallis asked him to spy on the Americans. Armistead became a double agent and fed Cornwallis misinformation. The information he gained from Cornwallis resulted in the blockade preventing the British from receiving supplies and forcing them to surrender at Yorktown. He was granted freedom for his service and later took Lafayette as his last name.


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Sybil Ludington

Sybil Ludington was known as the female Paul Revere. She rode 40 miles through the night to warn her father’s regiment of British danger. Her father, Colonel Ludington, got news that the town of Danbury was being ransacked and set on fire. This was the location of Patriot supplies. Because of her bravery, American troops battled the British the next day and forced them back on to their ships.


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Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson was from Massachusetts and became an indentured servant at the age of ten. During that time, she attended school and became a teacher. When she was 21, she disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Continental Army by the name of Robert Shurtleff. She fought just as hard as the men and tended to her own wounds to keep from being revealed. When she developed a fever, the doctor realized she was a female. Sampson was honorably discharged and received a pension. Sampson is known as the first American woman to impersonate a man in order to join and fight with the Continental Army.


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Nathan Hale

Nathan Hale was a teacher when he started to fight for his freedom. When he helped seize a ship loaded with supplies, he became a Ranger, an exclusive fighting group. For Washington, Hale dressed in civilian clothes and obtained information on the British. Unfortunately, he was captured on his way back. Being that he was not in uniform, he was hung as a spy. Hale was famous for his courage and saying, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”


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John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones was called the Father of the American Navy. The French King gave Jones a ship which he repaired and named Bonne Homme Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin. In 1776, he was in a battle with a more powerful British ship, HMS Serapis. The battle lasted throughout the night and Jones’s ship was hit. Although it began to sink, he kept fighting. When he was told to surrender, he said, “I have not yet begun to fight.” He ended up coming out on top and the British surrendered. This quote quickly became a famous Navy slogan.


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Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was a famous writer of the Revolution. He wrote and published the pamphlet, Common Sense, which challenged independence from Britain and criticized the King. It became the most widely distributed pamphlet in the colonies. He then wrote more pamphlets that Washington would read to his troops to boost the morale during their struggles on the battlefields.


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General Cornwallis

Cornwallis was a British General. He captured New York in 1776 and pursued Washington’s troops across New Jersey. He took charge and triumphed over many of the Southern battles. When he arrived in Virginia, he was surrounded by Patriot troops and forced to surrender at Yorktown. This gave the Americans independence from Britain.


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Ethan Allen

Ethan Allen organized the Green Mountain Boys to fight the British ruling that the land of New Hampshire belonged to New York. In 1775, he helped seize Fort Ticonderoga with Benedict Arnold. He then tried to conquer Montreal, Canada but got captured himself and held captive until 1778..


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Nathanael Greene

Nathanael Greene served in the Rhode Island assembly. He became a general who fought alongside Washington in many battles of the American Revolution. He was known as the Fighting Quaker. In 1780, after the south was defeated at Camden, Greene took over the Carolinas. The tables began to turn and he was able to condense British control in the south.


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Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams was a cousin of John Adams. Along with John Hancock, Samuel Adams was well-known for establishing the Sons of Liberty. This group led many protests against the British taxes. He was one of the leaders who dressed up as Mohawk Indians at the Boston Tea Party. He also founded the committee of correspondence. Adams served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence.


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Thomas Gage

General Thomas Gage was the commander in chief of the British army in America. Gage heightened the tension in the colonies by enforcing the Intolerable Acts. He closed ports which caused many colonists to be unemployed. He also commanded the British forces to seize arms and ammunition in Concord. Gage didn’t understand the reasons for American freedom. His actions caused outrage in the colonies and war was inevitable. Although Gage led the world’s most powerful army, he could not control the American forces and in the end was defeated.


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Francis Marion

Francis Marion was born in South Carolina and went to sea at the age 15. He served in the French and Indian War with his brother. He then became a successful planter and purchased a large plantation. With this wealth, he was brought into public affairs and became active in colonial freedom. He was elected to the SC Congress and fought in many early battles of the war. Marion became a leader in the war and commanded a series of nighttime guerilla-style raids. This earned him the name “Swamp Fox.”


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Bernardo de Galvez

Bernando de Galvez was the governor of the Spanish colony of Louisiana. In 1779, he became general when Spain declared war on Britain. His army included Africans, Creoles, and Indians. He defeated the British army and gained colonies in Florida.


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Richard Henry Lee

Richard Henry Lee was from a noble family in Virginia. During the French and Indian War, he started a militia group of young men from his neighborhood. They were sent home by General Braddock. In 1757, he was selected as Justice of the Peace and a member of the House of Burgesses. He became active in gaining freedom for the colonists and was elected to the First Continental Congress. He was known for voicing his ideas to gain independence. He served in Congress throughout the war and became president of Congress in 1783.


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Benjamin Franklin - Bishop McNamara High School...Benjamin Franklin Franklin was a well-known man in the Revolutionary times. He was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor