Journal Of Thomas

GreyThe American Revolution

By Fatimah Al-Mubarak 8-7

Boston Tea Party 1773 December 16

The colonists dumping tea in

the harbor waters.

The colonists dumped about 360 tea’s into the sea.

Who would actually believe that dressing up like a Native American would helping taking and pushing the British colonists’ tea chests into the sea? Yesterday evening, December 16, 1773, we, the patriots, dumped 340 chests of tea into the harbor. We finally wont be forced to pay taxes. Father would have been proud of me for being part of the 200 men who pushed the chests of tea into the sea. My father passed away during the French and Indian War that was fought between French and Native Americans combined forces, against the British. Gosh. I miss him. Life without him is like a life without light. After he died, I didn’t have anyone to live with except for my uncle, Sam, who is now a loyalist and also fought against my father in the 7 Years War. This pushed the problems between him and my father to a whole new level. He’s the only one in our family who is on Britain’s side. Everyone has the right to be stupid but he’s abusing the privilege. Because I refused to join the British side, uncle Sam disowned me. I felt sorrowful and lonely, but after 2 years I started working and helping out with the colonists and our first big event, which happened yesterday, was the Boston Tea Party. It all started when the Sugar Act, which at first is one of the many taxes that was put upon us, was passed that taxed any products that used the sugar from England. All these taxes were passed to compensate for the money Britain lost in the 7 Years War.

Then, tea was so expensive and difficult to ship around the world. None of us wanted the Parliament in England to force us to pay taxes for it. The British put these taxes in place after they spent a massive amount of money on the French and Indian war, which led to where the British established the stamp act and that’s the act where the British parliament in 1756 exacted revenue from the American colonist by imposing a stamp duty on newspaper. We got rid of all these taxes because we didn’t want to pay for it. Then they put taxes on the tea from the East India Company, which was the only place where we could buy tea. It was late in the evening where all 200 of us, the Sons of Liberty, gathered in a place dressing up as Native Americans so that the British colonists wouldn’t notice us. We were by Griffin’s Wharf, which was where the ships that contained the tea were. We were divided into three parties to board the three ships that had the tea at the same time. Leonard Pitt was the person who insisted on dividing us into three ships. We threw the chests of tea into the sea of the harbor waters. During that the British Armed ships surrounded us, but none of them attempted to resist us. After three hours we threw 340 chests of tea. I felt joyful, and we were as happy as pigs in mud. Now, I couldn’t be any happier. The taxes are gone. The Boston Tea Party as it was called this morning, is one of the first most important events that happened to us. I hope Uncle Sam changes his mind and joins our side. As what Benjamin says, we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang superbly.

Signing of the Declaration of Independence 

July 4th, 1776

The Americans signing the declaration of independence

I am American. I could finally say these three words. Feels so good to be honest. We could officially be called The Americans, after signing the Declaration of Independence, which happened yesterday. We’re going to run our own government. We have a dream to chase, a goal to win, and a war to win. It all started back in 1775 in the battle of Lexington and Concord. Where we all had an arrangement to gather in a place. BOOM. Someone fired a shot and that’s how the battle started. God, I was scared as a turkey in October, but I decided to stay calm for Father and to prove to Uncle Sam to support and join our side. I need to know who that person is. The majority of us are very curious about it, who ever fired that shot must have wanted something really badly. We all started blowing each other up. It was challenging to win it. However, many British soldiers were wounded. British were attempting to prevent backlash from their taxes from us by taking our weapons but a group of colonists and I moved the weapons to another place. I still don’t know what to do about Uncle Sam. He’s the only one that is left from my family but I’m trying my best to keep him away from the British. I don’t want to let my father down. I promised him to change my uncle’s perspective. I just really don’t know what to do.

Early morning, I woke up and headed to get the newspaper. It was written in huge letters “ FOURTH OF JULY 1776: SIGNING OF THE DECLERATION OF INDEPENDENCE “ I was so shocked; I was more rooted to the ground than a tree! It stated that, “All Men are equal,” It also says that we can overthrow if it becomes corrupt, freedom of speech, and it gives us the right to make our own responsible rights! Could this get any better? Oh and we have no connection with Britain anymore! Our new government will reserve the right to levy war, make peace, make alliances with foreign nations, conduct trade; we could basically do anything else that nations do. I headed outside and saw John Adams claiming a speech to some of the Americans, “We can no longer think of ourselves as British Colonies…Fighting for our lives”. He was announcing to the Americans who haven’t heard about the thirteen American colonies, regarding themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a new nation, which is the United States. I’m pretty sure we will have a way better life under our own leadership, this is the reason people agreed to let Thomas Jefferson and john Adams to sign at the first place. Now that we have more freedom, I must be able to live a nice life away from thinking about my loved ones. This is the first time I have actually been happy after my father’s death.

Treaty Of Paris 3 September 1783

Map of the Battle of YorktownThe Treaty that was signed

This is great. I can’t express how we’re all feeling. Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness father would be so proud; I wish he were here. I wish I could know what happened to my Uncle. On the bright side, The United States is a free country now. Finally. Long Live Benjamin. Us becoming allies with the French helped us a lot because without their help in the battle of Yorktown we wouldn’t have won. They considered being Allies with us in the battle of Saratoga, which was in October 1777. The reason why the British fought in this battle was because they had wanted Albany. If they had owned Albany, they would own the entire northeast. But, we won again they need to toughen up. We marched out of Williamsburg and arrived before Yorktown on 28th September. Forming a circle around entrenchments and putting the British under siege with no sign of Clinton’s relief and with inadequate supplies of food, the British army marched out of Yorktown and surrendered, since they figured that there no point of fighting with us anymore. We captured them with no food, and they couldn’t fight properly in the middle of the night. Man, it feels so good to know that we’re winning. We were also preventing them from getting out of the Chesapeake, and they could do this because of the aid they received from the French because they blocked off the waterways. What do they know? They can go home and eat some crumpets.

After the American-French victory in the battle of Yorktown, it led to the 3rd September 1783, the day that the treaty of Paris was signed. This day was the day that the USA became its own country. The Continental Congress named a five-member Committee to negotiate a treaty, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens. I was there when they all signed the treaty. The British received Quebec and the Ohio Valley. The port New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi were ceded to Spain for their effort as a British ally. Now, David Hartley and Richard Oswald represented Britain

The war finally ended! It was a long revolution. God, who would actually believe that I was 12 when it all started in the French and Indian war. The United States is finally its own country now. Freedom. After the revolution I decided to leave the army and just live a normal life. What I did for living is that everyday on about 2 pm I go outside and tell the kids simple stories on how the war went and tell them how I actually felt. For my uncle, I haven’t heard about him since Battle of Yorktown. God, I hope he’s okay.

Citations • "American Revolution : The Battle of Yorktown." American Revolution : The Battle

of Yorktown. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.• "Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum | Voted #1 Museum in Boston." Boston Tea

Party Ships and Museum | Voted #1 Museum in Boston. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.

• "Silent DoGood : 10 Things You May Not Know About the Boston Tea Party, from the History Channel." Silent DoGood : 10 Things You May Not Know About the Boston Tea Party, from the History Channel. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.