Letter Signed by Washington Accepting British Surrender
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The document, written in October 1781 after the British defeat at Yorktown, Virginia, marked the beginning of the end of the American Revolutionary War.
It will go on display for the first time in London, as part of Revolution 250: America's Independence Story, 1763–1783 at The National Archives in Kew.
Dr Sean Cunningham, the exhibition's curator, said: "This is the moment the British realised they would have to give up the 13 colonies that would become the United States of America." It was also the moment "Britain finally accepts the reality of the declaration of independence drafted five years earlier", Cunningham said.
The letter set in motion the negotiations that led to the 1783 Treaty of Paris, when Britain formally recognised the independence of the United States. Given to British Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, the letter was taken to his home in England after the war and remained in the family archive until it was presented to the Public Record Office in 1880.
The exhibition at The National Archives (running from today until 29 November) will trace the birth of the United States through documents from both sides of the Atlantic. Featuring original maps, correspondence, first-hand accounts and reports, visitors will be taken on a journey spanning twenty years that shaped history. A rare, original ‘Dunlap broadside’ print of the Declaration of Independence will also be on display.
Highlights include the Stamp Act and the Tea Act, which fuelled unrest in the American colonies, as well as accounts of the Boston Tea Party protest and a copy of the Declaration of Independence.