From Empire to Independence

1
Empire to Independence

• Chapter 6
• Pages 129-153

2
Plan of Union

• 1754
• British Board of Trade met in Albany NY.
• Encourage colonies to consider a collective
  response.
• To conflict with France and Indians.
• Albany Conference.
• Adopted Plan of Union.
• Created a grand council to deal with matters such
  as Indian affairs western settlement etc.
• Council to be composed of representatives elected
  by the colonial assemblies and led by a British
  appointed President.
• Rejected Fear of losing sovereignty.
• No unified voice.
• Biggest weakness in the coming war with France.

3
French and Indian War

• Seven Years War (in Europe).
• Tensions between France and England in America.
• The Ohio Country.
• Westward pushing English moving into the area.
• The French controlled the area.
• The French were intent on holding the area.
• Rivalry brought tensions to breaking point.

4
French and Indian War

• 1749
• Group of British colonial speculators gained
  shaky rights to 500000 acres of land in the
  Ohio Valley.
• Many were influential Virginians.
• In this same area the French were building forts.

5
French and Indian War

• 1754
• Royal Governor of Virginia
• Sent 21 year old George Washington.
• Lieutenant colonel in command of 150 Virginia
  militiamen and friendly Indians.
• To meet with the French in the Ohio River Valley.
• Encountered small group of French soldiers.
• Washington attacked.
• French were defeated.
• French and Indian War had begun.

6
French and Indian War

• French responded
• Military reinforcements.
• Surrounded Washingtons Fort Necessity.
• 10 hour siege.
• Washington surrenders July 4 1754.

7
French and Indian War

• British stumbled badly in opening of war.
• Led by General Edward Braddock.
• Haughty.
• From Virginia with
• 2000 British regulars and ill-disciplined
  colonial militiamen.
• Goal Capture Fort Duquesne (French fort
  Pittsburgh Pa).
• Carried heavy artillery through the forest.

8
French and Indian War

• Within in a few miles of the fort they
  encountered a small force of French and Indian
  fighters.
• Were able to push them back.
• Force melted back into forest.
• Poured deadly fire into Braddocks ranks.
• Braddock killed.
• Heavy British losses.
• Native Americans across the frontier went on the
  warpath attacking English settlers.

9
French and Indian War

• Native American raids killed thousands of
  settlers.
• Threw the colonists into a panic.
• French Canadians captured British forts in
  northern New York.

10
French and Indian War

• The English
• Looked to William Pitt for answers.
• Prime Minister of Great Britain.
• Advocate of British expansion.
• Put together largest military force North America
  had seen.
• 25000 colonial troops.
• 24000 British regulars.
• English won control of Quebec in 1759.
• 1760
• George III becomes King of England.
• English won control of Montreal.

11
French and Indian War

• Victories led French government to surrender New
  France.
• Fighting continued until 1763.
• English victories in India the Caribbean and
  the Pacific destroyed any hope of French victory.
• Treaty of Paris 1763.
• Established supremacy of the British Empire.

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Outcomes

• The war changed the map of the world.
• French empire shrunk.
• French held alliance with Spanish.
• British Empire supreme.
• Resentment developed between the English
  colonists and the British.
• Colonists
• Resented arrogance toward colonial militia.
• Resented quartering British troops at colonial
  expense.
• British
• Resented the colonists profitable trade with the
  enemy in the midst of the war.

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Outcomes

• Unexpected outcomes of the War
• Suspicion and resentment.
• Growing sense of difference.
• Tug of loyalties between local community and the
  larger empire.

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Problems of Victory

• King George II of England died.
• Grandson becomes King.
• George III.
• Appointed George Grenville Prime Minister.

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Problems of Victory

• Power of British Empire grew in post-war period.
• By 1763 The Empire
• Included Canada.
• Dominated the markets of Europe.
• The Navy ruled the seas.

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Problems of Victory

• The Empire faced several problems
• Struggled to maintain peace between the American
  colonists and the Native American population.
• Grenville sought to create a policy to keep the
  two apart.
• 1763Proclamation Line.
• Banned colonial settlement west of Appalachian
  Mountains.

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Problems of Victory

• Proclamation Line of 1763
• Angered many colonists.
• No reason to give in to the Native Americans.
• Many colonists simply ignored the Proclamation.
• Continued to move west of Appalachian Mts.
• More conflict between settlers and Indians.

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Problems of Victory

• The Empire faced several problems
• Maintaining peace between settlers and Indians.
• Former Prime Minister William Pitt had spent
  large sums of money to win the War in America.
• The King was left with an enormous war debt.
• Leadership did not wish to lay war debt on the
  British citizens.
• They turned to the colonies.

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Problems of Victory

• Prime Minister Grenville
• Believed a problem existed between Britain and
  her American colonies.
• Why were colonial cities growing and England not
  receiving the expected benefits
• Goods manufactured in America competed with goods
  made in England.
• Loyalty to the Monarch did not prevent some
  colonists from illegally trading with enemies of
  the Crown.
• American colonists avoided paying import duties.

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Problems of Victory

• These three problems meant
• England was not getting what it expected.
• England would still be in debt.
• Something drastic must be done.
• 1764
• Grenville proposed new measures
• Parliament approved.
• Colonies were shocked and alarmed.

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Problems of Victory

• First policy
• Aimed at making the colonies pay to support the
  British troops protecting them from the French
  Spanish and Indians
• Sugar Act.
• Placed a tariff (tax) on sugar imported into the
  colonies.
• Broadened the jurisdiction of the vice-admiralty
  court to prevent smuggling.

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Problems of Victory

• Response to the Sugar Act
• Merchants and artisans viewed the Act as a threat
  to their way of life.
• Protests against the Act in Boston.
• James Otis proposed a boycott of British imports.
• Spread to other port towns.
• Grenville said the tax was fair.
• Grenville (and Parliament) passed the Stamp Act.
• February 1765.

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Problems of Victory

• Stamp Act
• Required the purchase of specially embossed paper
  for all
• Newspapers.
• Legal documents.
• Licenses.
• Insurance policies.
• Ships papers.
• Dice.
• Playing cards.

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Problems of Victory

• Stamp Act
• First direct tax ever laid by Parliament on the
  colonies.
• Colonies expected to be taxed by local
  assemblies.
• Believed direct tax threatened the relationship
  between colonial assemblies and Parliament.
• Colonists responded with outrage.

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Problems of Victory

• Summer 1765
• Boston.
• Sons of Liberty.
• Secret resistance group.
• Samuel Adams among founders.
• Harvard educated.
• Member of prominent New England family.
• Quick-witted.
• Knack for writing political propaganda and
  mobilizing popular political sentiment.

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Problems of Victory

• Sons of Liberty
• Many were part of the laboring class.
• Artisans and shopkeepers.
• Hit hard by post-War depression.
• Expected to suffer from Stamp Act.
• Used public demonstrations to make views known.
• By 1765 in cities and towns across the colonies.

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Problems of Victory

• Boston
• Demonstrations targeted local leaders.
• Thomas Hutchinson.
• Royal Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.
• Tried to enforce the Stamp Act.
• Mob destroyed his home.
• Similar events occurred across the colonies.

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Problems of Victory

• British response
• Refused to allow colonial ships to leave ports.
• Hoped this would disrupt trade and force colonial
  merchants to end protests.
• Backfired!!
• Hundreds took to the streets terrorizing
• Customs officials.
• Colonists who supported the King.

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The Stamp Act

• Sons of Liberty took to the streets.
• Others took a more cautious approach.
• Avoided treasonous statements or threats of
  rebellion.
• Not all so careful.
• Patrick Henry stirred his Virginia colleagues
  when he declared the Stamp Act was a matter of
  liberty or death.

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The Stamp Act

• Everyone agreed the heart of the issue
• Parliamentary sovereignty verses the rights of
  the colonial citizens.
• Basic English principle
• No citizen could be taxed by a government in
  which he was not represented.
• No taxation without representation
• Shared by free white Englishmen on both sides of
  the Atlantic.

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The Stamp Act

• Did the House of Commons speak for the colonists
  even though no colonist sat in Parliament
• If no the Stamp Act violated colonial rights as
  Englishmen.
• If Parliament asserted the right to govern the
  colonies directly what powers would remain to
  the colonial legislatures
• Power of local legislatures being attacked.
• Many local assemblies issued statements
  condemning the Stamp Act.
• The Stamp Act brought the colonies together like
  never before.

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The Stamp Act

• 1765
• The Stamp Act Congress
• Delegates from nine colonies.
• Met in New York.
• Consider petitioning the King.
• To end the Stamp Act.
• Conceded Parliament had authority over colonies.
• Denied Parliament could lay a direct tax on the
  colonies.

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The Stamp Act

• What pushed King George III to repeal the Stamp
  Act
• Not the protests.
• Not the Stamp Act Congress.
• Economic pressure.
• British merchants.
• Colonists a major market for goods manufactured
  in England.
• Any interruption in the flow/sale of goods to the
  colonies had a negative impact on English
  merchants shippers and laborers.

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The Stamp Act

• Non-Importation movement.
• Most powerful weapon the colonists had.
• October 1765 Colonists used the weapon.
• Pressured by this movement
• Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766.
• Reduced the duties under the Sugar Act.

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The Stamp Act

• Colonists celebrated the repeal.
• Public displays of loyalty to the mother country.
• Just as impressive as the protests.
• Boston The Sons of Liberty
• Built a pyramid and covered its three sides with
  political poetry.
• Celebrations short lived.
• The repeal contained the Declaratory Act.

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The Stamp Act

• The Declaratory Act
• Parliament re-affirmed its full authority over
  the colonies.
• Parliament asserted that it had the sole and
  exclusive right to tax the colonies.
• Clear and direct rejection of the colonial
  assemblies claim to power.

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The Stamp Act

• How did the colonists respond
• Face-device for British government.
• To some degree true.
• The Act reflected the view of many members of
  Parliament.
• Parliament would put the Declaratory Act to the
  test within one year.

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The Townshend Acts

• During the Stamp Act debate
• Pennsylvania colonial agent Benjamin Franklin
• Assured Parliament that the colonists opposed
  direct taxes.
• Accepted Parliaments right to collect revenue
  arising from the regulation of colonial trade.
• Charles Townshend and Parliament made a mistake
  by taking this advice.

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The Townshend Acts

• Charles Townshend
• Proposed new regulations on a mixture of
  necessities and luxuries that American imported.
• The Townshend Acts of 1767
• Set import duties on products coming from Britain.

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The Townshend Acts

• The Townshend Acts
• Placed import tax on
• Glass paper paint and lead products made in
  England.
• Placed a 3-penny tax on tea.
• To make sure the taxes were enforced
• The Act
• Expanded the scope and powers of the customs
  service.
• Ordered new customs boards and courts be
  established.

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The Townshend Acts

• The Townshend Acts
• Transferred British troops to major colonial port
  cities.
• Maintain the peace.
• The Quartering Act of 1766
• Colonists to provide for troops.
• Room and board etc
• Townshend and Parliament made a mistake by taking
  Franklins advice.

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The Townshend Acts

• News of the import duties
• Caused an immediate determined well-organized
  and negative response from the colonists.
• Samuel Adams was furious. ltquotegt
• John Dickinson
• Pennsylvania Lawyer.
• Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.
• Direct taxation without representation violated
  the colonists rights as English citizens.

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The Townshend Acts

• Dickinson rejected
• Virtual Representation.
• Parliamentary representation stems from peoples
  status as citizens of the British empire.
• Dickinson asserted
• Actual Representation.

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The Townshend Acts

• Boston.
• Samuel Adams.
• Boycott of British goods to start on January 1
  1768.
• Small merchants and unemployed artisans supported
  the boycott
• Most hurt by new taxes.
• Evened the playing field with larger competitors.

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The Townshend Acts

• Those opposed to the boycotts
• Crown appointed officials.
• Members of the royal bureaucracy.
• Salaries from England.
• Sworn to uphold and carry out polices of the
  Crown.
• Saw British policy as well meaning.

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Boston Bloody Boston!

• Hotbed of opposition
• Boston Mass.
• February 1768
• Massachusetts assembly circulated a letter.
• To other colonial assemblies.
• Called for joint petition to Parliament for the
  repeal of the Townshend Acts.
• Rescinded by governors order.
• Reprinted by next assembly.
• Governor dismissed the assembly.

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Boston Bloody Boston!

• 1768
• Enforcers of the boycott against the British.
• Roamed the streets of Boston.
• Intimidating British merchants and harassing
  anyone wearing British-made clothing.
• Mobs threatened customs officials.
• Sons of Liberty protected smuggling operations
  were protected.
• The Crown responded by sending 4000 troops to
  Boston.

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Boston Bloody Boston!

• October 1768
• British troops to Boston.
• John Adams predicted disaster.
• Citizens taunted the troops.
• Samuel Adams published accounts of real and
  imaginary assaults by troops on innocent
  civilians.
• March 5 1770
• The disaster happened!
• The Boston Massacre!

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Boston Bloody Boston!

• March 5
• Day of Boston Massacre.
• British Prime Minister Frederick Lord North.
• Repealed the Townshend Acts.
• Allowed Quartering Act to expire.
• No question of Parliaments authority over
  colonies.
• Kept tax on tea in place.
• Principle.

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Boston Bloody Boston!

• Repeal of Townshend Acts
• Allowed some to return to normal lives.
• Tensions still present.
• Nonimportation policy avoided by wealthy
  merchants.
• Continued to import British goods.
• Abandoned radicalism of 1760s in favor of a more
  conservative (traditional) approach.
• Looked upon merchant class with suspicion.

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Boston Bloody Boston!

• Artisans and laborers
• Continued to press for
• Broader participation in local politics.
• A more representative political system.
• Looked upon colonial elite with suspicion
• Aristocratic power.
• Intolerable tyranny of the great and opulent

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Tea Act and Tea Party

• Despite the repeal of the Townshend Acts
• British crack down on smuggling continued.
• Americans took offense at the jurisdiction of the
  vice-admiralty court.
• American political leaders
• Believed the British government intended to
• Take American suspects to England for trial.
• Deny them a jury of their peers.

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Tea Act and Tea Party

• Committees of Correspondence
• Following Virginia
• Five colonies organized a communications network.
• Each colonial committee was instructed to keep
  careful accounts of royal activities in its
  colony.
• Committees were to report any incidents to the
  other committees.
• Good mechanism for coordinating
  protests/resistance if needed.
• First permanent machinery of protest.

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Tea Act and Tea Party

• 1773
• British Parliament tried to save a major
  commercial enterprise
• East India Tea Company
• Controlled the legal acquisition and sale of tea
  in the British Empire.
• Tea was the most important (non-alcoholic )drink
  in the Empire.
• Company suffered from (1) boycotts of British
  goods in the American colonies (2) Americans
  illegally importing Dutch tea (3) gross
  mismanagement.

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Tea Act and Tea Party

• 1773
• East India Tea Companys warehouses full.
• Went to Parliament for help.
• Obtained
• A government loan.
• Permission to ship tea directly into the
  colonies.
• Bypassed British merchants (middlemen).
• Price of tea in colonies dropped.
• 3-penny tax (Townshend Acts) remained.

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Tea Act and Tea Party

• Lord North
• Supported the idea because it would get the
  Americans to pay the tea tax.
• Confirm Parliaments right to tax the colonies.
• The Tea Act
• Passed by Parliament.
• Made arrangement legal.
• Re-ignited colonial protests.

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Tea Act and Tea Party

• Colonists believed
• Tea Act was an insult.
• A challenge to their liberty.
• Act confirmed Parliaments right to tax the
  colonies.
• The tea might be cheap but not worth the cost.

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Tea Act and Tea Party

• 1773
• Colonists mobilized their resistance.
• Crowds prevented British ships from unloading
  East India Company tea.
• Threat of violence.
• Ships returned to England.
• Confrontation avoided as long as captains and
  royal officials gave in to colonial pressure and
  threats.

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Tea Act and Tea Party

• Massachusetts
• Confrontation occurred.
• Sons of Liberty
• December 17 1773.
• Refused to allow ships to unload tea.
• Royal governor refused to allow the ships to
  leave.
• 60 men disguised as Mohawk Indians
• Boarded the ships.
• Threw 340 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.
• The Boston Tea Party
• Delighted colonists everywhere.
• Angered the King and Parliament.

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Parliament Strikes Back

• British response to Tea Party
• Destruction of private property.
• Make an example of Boston
• The Intolerable Acts.
• 1774.
• Punish Boston for the Tea Party.
• The Port Act.
• The Massachusetts Government Act.
• The Justice Act.
• The Quartering Act.

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Parliament Strikes Back

• The Intolerable Acts
• The Port Act.
• Declared the Port of Boston closed to all trade.
• Boston must compensate the East India Company.
• Massachusetts Government Act.
• Transferred much the power of the colonys
  assembly to the royal governor.
• Right to appoint judges sheriffs and members of
  the legislatures upper house.
• Colonial town meetings came under the supervision
  of the governor.

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Parliament Strikes Back

• The Intolerable Acts
• Justice Act.
• Allowed royal officials charged with capital
  crimes to stand trial in London.
• Not before local juries.
• Quartering Act.
• Military commanders the authority to quarter
  troops in private homes.

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Parliament Strikes Back

• The intolerable acts would be enforced
• The King appointed Thomas Gage as acting governor
  of Massachusetts.
• Commander of British troops in North America.
• The King hoped
• The harsh punishment of Boston would isolate it
  from the other colonies.
• Did not work.

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Parliament Strikes Back

• In every colony
• Newspapers published essays and editorials urging
  readers to see Bostons plight as their own.
• South Carolina Gazette
• horrid attack upon Boston
• George Washington
• The cause of Boston is now and ever will be the
  cause of America.

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Parliament Strikes Back

• The Intolerable Acts
• Instead of isolating Boston.
• Produced sympathy for Boston.
• Political writers placed the Intolerable Acts
  into the larger context of systematic oppression
  by the British Empire.
• British government called the enemy.
• British government conspiring to deprive
  colonists of their liberty.

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A National Forum

• September 5 1774
• The First Continental Congress
• Philadelphia.
• All colonies except Georgia.
• Protestors not revolutionaries.
• Illegal Not approved by the King or Parliament.
• Main purpose to opposed Intolerable Acts.
• English men/women hanged for much less.

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A National Forum

• Attendees included
• George Washington Patrick Henry John Dickinson
  John Jay and John Adams.
• Conservative members
• Hoped to slow the pace of resistance.
• Radical members
• Hoped to increase the pace of resistance.
• Most
• Hope to find a third route.
• Protest injustice without endangering
  relationship with England.

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A National Forum

• Rumors spread
• The British Royal Navy to attack Boston!
• General Gage to put troops in Massachusetts
  country side.
• In response
• Colonial militiamen gathered in Cambridge.
• Many Congressional delegates became radicals.
• Continental Association
• Boycott of all English goods starting Dec. 1
  74.
• Demanded end of Intolerable Acts.
• Many delegates were still torn in their
  loyalties.
• Parliament or local assemblies.

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A National Forum

• Parliament
• Sole right to govern/tax colonies.
• Local assemblies
• Sole right to tax colonies.
• Delegates and all Americans must choose.
• Seeking a middle ground
• Joseph Galloway (Penn.).
• Plan of Union.
• Grand Council.
• Elected by colonial legislatures.
• Share with Parliament the right to govern
  colonies.
• Council and Parliament could veto each other.
• Governor-General (appointed by Crown).
• Oversee Council.

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A National Forum

• Continental Congress
• Rejected Galloways compromise.
• Adopted John Adams proposal.
• Declaration of Rights and Grievances.
• Denied the legitimacy of taxing for revenue
  without representation.
• Passed The Suffolk Resolves.
• Called for the residents of Suffolk County (Mass)
  to arm themselves and prepare to resist military
  action.

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A National Forum

• Congressional support for both resolutions sent a
  clear message
• If politics failed rebellion would follow.
• Waited for reply.
• First Continental Congress adjourned
• October 26 1774.

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Deciding for Independence

• King George III
• American resistance could be put down if
  Massachusetts rebels could be crushed.
• January 1775
• Ordered the arrest of Samuel Adams and John
  Hancock.
• Order did not reach General Gage until April.
• Gage had already decided it was time to take
  action.

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Deciding for Independence

• General Gage
• Dispatch troops to Concord (Mass.).
• Seize supplies of patriot weapons.
• Patriots learned of the plot.
• Developed system of notification.
• Lanterns in the bell tower of the Old North
  Church.
• Riders on horseback to carry the news to the
  militias and countryside.
• April 18 1775
• Two lanterns in church tower.
• British crossing the Charles River to land near
  Phips farm.
• Riders (including Paul Revere) rode off to sound
  alarm.

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Deciding for Independence

• April 19 1775.
• Early morning.
• Advance guard of British troops reached Lexington
  (Mass.).
• 70 minutemen gathered on the town green.
• Disorganized and confused.
• As the British approached
• Shots rang out.
• 8 Americans killed.
• 10 Americans wounded.

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Deciding for Independence

• British marched to Concord
• Town nearly deserted.
• Search for weapons stockpile.
• Five hundred musket balls.
• Dumped in pond.
• Concord militia (minutemen) prepared to attack.
• Took positions above towns north bridge.
• Shocked British.
• Fled to Boston.
• 73 British killed.
• 174 British wounded.
• 26 British missing.

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Deciding for Independence

• The Second Continental Congress
• Philadelphia.
• May 1775.
• Prepared colonies for war.
• Authorized printing of paper money.
• Purchase supplies.
• Appointed a committee to oversee foreign
  relations.
• Creation of Continental Army
• George Washington Commander-in-Chief.

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Deciding for Independence

• Some delegates still hoped for peace.
• Congress drafted The Olive Branch Petition.
• If King withdrew British troops and Intolerable
  Acts.
• Colonists would end armed resistance.
• Still the Congress issued a public statement
  preparing for war.

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Deciding for Independence

• England
• Leaders sought to find negotiation points.
• Despite George III refusal to compromise.
• Two months prior to Concord/Lexington
• Lord North drafted Conciliatory Propositions.
• For Parliament and Congress to consider.
• Offered to suspend taxation if colonists would
  pay for their own defense.
• Congress rejected July 1775.
• King rejected Olive Branch.

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Deciding for Independence

• War seemed inevitable
• Very few Americans called for complete split from
  England.
• January 1776
• Thomas Paine.
• Englishman who moved to America.
• Common Sense
• Argued the British system combined aristocracy
  and monarchy.
• Neither right for America.
• Most important writing during Revolutionary Era.
• Reshaped popular opinion and put independence on
  the agenda.

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Deciding for Independence

• Second Continental Congress
• June 7 1776.
• Virginia Lawyer Richard Henry Lee.
• Proposed that America be free and independent
  states.
• Congress postponed a vote on Lees resolution.
• Appointed committee to draft a Declaration of
  Independence.
• John Adams Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson
  Roger Sherman Robert Livingston.

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Deciding for Independence

• Thomas Jefferson
• Appointed to write the document.
• Knowledge of political theory and philosophy.
• Master of written prose.
• Second Continental Congress
• Passed the Declaration of Independence.
• July 4 1776.

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End of Lesson