The Treaty of Paris

Even after the battle at Yorktown, it took almost two more years to make peace official.

Three Americans — Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay — sailed across the ocean to Paris to work out a deal.

They sat in fancy French rooms with British officials for months, writing and re-writing every sentence.

On September 3, 1783, they all signed a paper called the Treaty of Paris, and Britain officially agreed that the United States was a free country.

After 8 years of war, America could finally put down its muskets and start figuring out how to be a country.