William+M.+-+Historical+Fiction+Character

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 * Colonial Life**

Up to this date, Henry Williford II’s life has been quite outstanding by the colonist’s standards, born and raised in New Y ork. It has been three generations since the Willifords landed here in the colonies in attempt to escape debtor’s prison in E ngland. With no money in an economically based class system, life was very challenging for the Willifords. Being slaves on a farm in the New World was very tough, and they had nothing else to do, nowhere else to run. Until one day, a second generation Williford, Henry I, stepped up to the plate and was granted freedom.Moving from the dead quiet of farm life to the exciting hustle-and-bustle of New York City was a dramatic, butenjoyable, change in lifestyle. He quickly got a job as a watchmaker and soon thereafter a wife named Natalie. With her, he began tomake a family; six kids and two adopted children. But to him, one child truly stood out: Henry II. And this is where the story of his life begins.

Henry became an apprentice at his father’s workshop at a young age, and appeared to be naturally talented at the craft of watchmaking. Moving up through the ranks faster than any other apprentice, he became the most skilled watchmaker in the city by the age of 20. This skill made him stand out while looking for a wife, and quickly found himself a soul mate. Three kids came quickly in sequence: one older boy and a pair of identical girl twins. They’ve been great, so far, and life has simply been getting more exciting every day for the Willifords, but little do they know about what’s going to happen next.

Hart 36, 50-58.

Revolution

**Topic:** Battle of Long Island

  **Source:** Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. //History Alive!: the United States Through Industrialism// . Palo Alto, Calif.: Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, 2011. Print.

 “On August 27, 1776, the American and British Armies met in Brooklyn, New York, for what promised to be a decisive battle.... But the inexperienced Americans were no match for the British... the British lost only 377 men while the Americans lost 1,407” (Hart, 91).  “The battle of New York City was the first of many defeats for the Americans.... British forces chased the Americans out of New York, through New Jersey, and finally across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania” (Hart, 90).

 **Source:** "Battle at Long Island." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov 2010. [|____]

 “[The British] landed a few miles across the harbor on Staten Island, and were slowly reinforced by ships in Lower New York Bay over the next month and a half, bringing their total force to 32,000” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “Grant had stormed the pass with three hundred men... but the Americans, however, were unaware that this was not the main attack” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “Hand-to-hand fighting followed with the Americans swinging their muskets and rifles like clubs to save their lives. Many of the Americans who surrendered were bayoneted by the Hessians. Sullivan, despite the chaos, managed to evacuate most of his men to Brooklyn Heights though Sullivan himself was captured” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “Washington and the army were surrounded on Brooklyn Heights with the East River to their backs. If a change in wind occurred the British ships would have been able to sail up the East River and entirely surround the Americans” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “At 11:00 p.m. Grover and his Massachusetts troops... began to evacuate” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “The British were stunned that the American army had escaped”

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I. Exposition <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A. Description of landscape <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 1. Descriptive vocab etc. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> B. Describe current bloodshed and damage using descriptive vocab <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> II. Inciting Force <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A. Distraction in the Pass <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 1. Describe exactly what occurred, and why <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> III. Rising Action <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A. Describe trekking through the dark woods during wartime <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 1. Gunshots, etc <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> IV. Climax <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A. Brooklyn Heights <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 1. Describe, in detail, all of the different parts of the battle <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> V. Falling Action <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A. Barely escaped, but the British had won <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 1. Describe wins and losses of the battle and specifically how the American army escaped. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> VI. Denouement <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> A. End with a view of his home life, wife and children, and the watch shop after the war <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Show destruction of both property and hope, etc.

Theme: This essay would describe the brutality of the British during the revolutionary war by using the specific example of the Battle of Long Island and a detailed 1st person point of view from the American defensive front, and also demonstrate the effects on the hope and pride of American citizens after a callous defeat.

Leaves, crunching against the light feet of my fellow American soldiers, were stained red not because of the time of year. The air was cold against our pale faces, and the brisk fall winds swept our coattails into the air. A loud crack, the blue sky reassuring, would split the dead silence out in the depths of Gowanus Pass, frightening the troops enough to make them fall to the ground in panic. Anxiousness kept the soldiers on the edge, and the valley ahead seemed too foreboding for comfort. Every now and then, a bird or squirrel would rustle the groundcover and scouts would duck down and scan the terrain for the redcoats. Rumor had it that the main British attack was moving this way, pressing their way slowly through the refinements in the mountains and through the pass to New York, so we were all on high guard. We would see a deer nibbling on one of the victims of a recent battle, a sign of the oncoming fight.

General Stirling had informed us on the situation, and the previous force in the pass, the local militias, were completely scattered by an overpoweringly large British force, so I, along with 1600 other troops, was sent to the front to hold the pass from being overtaken. If these forces surpassed us in the woods, then New York would be next in line. As we continued to advance, tension continued to build up. Red foxes in the brush were reported as the British, and at every little sound people would jolt. Until the final moment of tension.

“Redco—!” hollered a man in the front line, cut short by loud gunfire.

Smoke was in the distance, and the setting sun seemed to burn as we set down in panic.

Constitution

Politics

Manifest Destiny

Sectionalism

Civil War