Roads%20to%20Revolution,%201750-1776

1
Chapter 5

• Roads to Revolution, 1750-1776

2
Introduction

• 4 questions addressed in Ch. 5
• How did Britain and its colonies view their joint
  victory over France in the Seven Years War?
• How did colonial resistance to the Stamp Act
  differ from earlier opposition to British
  imperial measure?
• In what ways did colonists views of
  parliamentary authority change after 1770?
• What led most colonists in 1776 to abandon their
  loyalty to Britain and choose national
  independence?

3
Triumph and Tensions The British Empire,
1750-1763

• A Fragile Peace, 1750-1754
• Since neither France or Britain gained dominance
  in North America, the skirmishing in the Ohio
  Valley continued
• 1753French began building a series of forts
  between the Ohio River and LA
• Drive out colonial traders from the Valley
• George Washington led an expedition to block the
  French and it failed.
• This left the Anglo-American frontier in danger

4
Triumph and Tensions The British Empire (cont.)

• Albany Congress
• The attempt of the 7 colonies north of VA to
  forge an effective defensive union with the help
  of the Iroquois
• 1754
• Albany Plan
• Colonial legislatures refused to relinquish any
  of their authority over taxation
• No Colonies approved it
• http//www.constitution.org/bcp/albany.htm

5
The Seven Years War in America

• 1754-1760
• A.k.a. French and Indian War
• After the Anglo-French clash in 1754 led by
  George Washington, war broke out in America
• 1756, full scale hostilities between Britain and
  France resumed throughout the globe (Seven Years
  War)

6
The Seven Years War in America (cont.)

• At first British colonist fared poorly
• Frances Indian allies raided western settlements
• French seized key forts and threatened central NY
  and western New England
• British did very little actual fighting in North
  America
• Offered to colonist to fight for the British

7
The Seven Years War in America (cont.)

• Colonist flocked to the War and drove the French
  from NY and much of the western frontier
• Their success was aided by the decision of the
  Iroquois and other Ohio tribes to stop helping
  the French
• After the fall of Quebec and Montreal, French
  resistance crumbled

8
Seven Years War in America 1754-1760 (cont.)
9
The End of French North America, 1760-1763

• Treaty of Paris (1763) officially ended Seven
  Years War
• France ceded all of its North American
  territories east of the Mississippi River to
  Britain
• And all of its territories west of the
  Mississippi River as well as New Orleans to Spain

10
The End of French North America, 1760-1763 (cont.)
11
The End of French North America, 1760-1763 (cont.)

• During the Seven Years War, the British expelled
  many French Canadians from Acadia (Nova Scotia)
  because the English feared the Acadians were
  still loyal to France
• Some of the Acadians migrated to LA, where their
  descendents became known as Cajuns

12
The End of French North America, 1760-1763 (cont.)

• The British triumph in the Seven Years War
  initially bond the colonists to the mother
  country
• Soon though the sowed discord between the them

13
The Writs of Assistance, 1760-1761

• Writs of assistanceblanket search warrants
• Permitted officials to enter any ship or building
  to search for smuggled goods and seize them
• British customs officers used the writs of
  assistance to crack down on smuggling (mostly of
  French goods)
• Very effective

14
The Writs of Assistance, 1760-1761 (cont.)

• Colonists protested
• Writs violated traditional English guarantees
  against unreasonable search and seizure
• And that Parliament had violated their rights as
  Englishmen

15
Anglo-American Friction

• After the Seven Years War, GB tried to tighten
  control over its expanded colonial empire
• Imposed new taxes on Englishmen at home and
  overseas to finance the administration of the
  colonies
• This aroused opposition on both economic and
  constitutional grounds

16
Anglo-American Friction (cont.)

• George III became King in 1760
• Wanted to govern more actively
• His policies and frequent ministerial changes
  further upset British-American relations

17
Anglo-American Friction (cont.)

• British supremacy in eastern North America opened
  the door to conflict between the mother country
  and the colonists
• The Seven Years War left the British people with
  a hug debt and heavy taxes
• The British wondered why should the colonists be
  repaid for their war efforts, while they were
  left to suffer under their financial burdens?

18
Frontier Tensions

• The British were upset that they now had expand
  more and military effort to put down Indian
  uprisings caused by the western surge of
  colonists beyond the Appalachians

19
Frontier Tensions (cont.)

• Proclamation of 1763
• Issued by GB to pacify Chief Pontiac
• Forbidding whites to settle beyond the crest of
  mountains until the British King had negotiated
  treaties with the Indians under which they agreed
  to cede their lands
• http//www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/proc6
  3.htm

20
Frontier Tensions (cont.)

• The colonists were angered by this interference
  with their western land claims
• Continuing to protect the frontier and
  consolidate control over the newly acquired
  territories would cost around 6 of the peacetime
  budget
• British govt. officials saw no reason that the
  colonials should not be taxed to help defray the
  expense

21
Imperial Authority, Colonial Opposition, 1763-1766

• Introduction
• British tried to finance its empire through a
  series of revenue measures (Sugar Act, Stamp Act,
  Declaratory Act)
• Enforce these and other measures directly rather
  than relying on local authorities
• Colonists protested in reaction
• Successful
• Growing division between British and colonial
  perceptions about the nature of their relationship

22
The Sugar Act, 1764

• Import duties on sugar and other items to raise
  for the British treasury
• Taxes and restrictions burdened Mass., NY, and
  Penn. Merchants in particularly
• Mostly affected merchants that imported or
  exported goods
• Accused smugglers were to be tried in
  vice-admiralty courts
• No juries
• Judges who had a financial stake in finding the
  defendants guilty
• Violated long-standing guarantee to a fair trial

23
The Stamp Act Crisis, 1765-1766

• 1765Stamp Act was proposed by Prime Minister
  George Grenville
• Needed because Sugar was not bringing in
  enough
• Parliament passed it in 1765

24
The Stamp Act Crisis, 1765-1766 (cont.)

• Required colonists to purchase from government
  revenue agents special stamped paper
• Periodicals, customs documents, licenses,
  diplomas, deeds, other legal forms
• Violators would be tried in vice-admiralty courts
• Internal tax
• Affected more colonials than the Sugar Act
• http//www.history.org/history/teaching/tchcrsta.c
  fm

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The Stamp Act Crisis, 1765-1766 (cont.)

• Colonists objected to Parliaments ability to
  impose on them internal or external taxes
  designed to raise revenue because they elected no
  representatives to Parliament
• Colonists said only their own colonial
  legislatures had the authority to tax them
• Colonists conceded that Parliament might regulate
  trade within the empire, but there could be no
  taxation without representation

26
Resisting the Stamp Act, 1765-1766

• Patrick Henry proposed resolutions against
  Parliament
• Said Parliament did not have the right to tax the
  colonies
• 1765, VA House of Burgesses passed the resolution

27
Resisting the Stamp Act, 1765-1766 (cont.)

• 8 other colonial assemblies passed resolutions
  against Parliament
• Loyal Nine
• Boston
• Group of artisans, shopkeepers, and businessmen
• Fight the Stamp Act
• Sons of Liberty
• Similar to Loyal Nine
• Rose up in other cities

28
Resisting the Stamp Act, 1765-1766 (cont.)

• Loyal Nine and Sons of Liberty directed outraged
  mobs in attacks on the homes and property of
  stamp distributors
• all of the distributors resigned their posts
• Oct. 1765representatives from 9 colonies
• Stamp Act Congress in New York
• they reiterated the principle of no taxation
  without representation and no parliamentary
  denial of trial by jury and other English
  liberties

29
Resisting the Stamp Act, 1765-1766 (cont.)

• American merchants boycotted all English
  merchants
• Most influential action of colonists
• Decrease in their sales led British businessmen
  to plead for repeal of the Stamp Act

30
The Declaratory Act, 1766

• March 1766
• Parliament revoked the Stamp Act
• But adopted the Declaratory Act
• Restating Parliaments right to tax and legislate
  for the colonies in all cases whatsoever

31
The Declaratory Act, 1766 (cont.)

• The colonists rejoiced the repeal of the the
  Stamp Act
• Disbanded the Sons of Liberty
• Concluded that the mother country would return to
  its earlier limited governance

32
Ideology, Religion, and Resistance

• Resistance to the Stamp Act had revealed a deep
  split in thinking between England and its
  colonists
• Many thought Parliaments actions were a
  conspiracy of a corrupt government to deny them
  their natural rights and liberties
• John Lockes ideas, 18th century English
  radicals, educated colonists, classical
  philosophers, etc.
• It was their duty of the free people to resist

33
Ideology, Religion, and Resistance (cont.)

• Protestant clergymen (except Anglicans and
  pacifist Quakers) preached sermons to all classes
  of colonists backing the views of resistance to
  GB
• They declared that solidarity against British
  tyranny and corruption meant rejecting sin and
  obeying God.

34
Resistance Resumes, 1766-1770

• Opposing the Quartering Act, 1766-1767
• Charles Townhend
• New chancellor of the Exchequer
• Looked to the colonies for much-needed revenue

35
Opposing the Quartering Act, 1766-1767 (cont.)

• Parliament was angry with New Yorks refusal to
  comply with the Quartering Act
• Parliament was ready to crack down on colonial
  self-government
• http//www.u-s-history.com/pages/h641.html

36
Crisis over the Townshend Duties, 1767-1770

• Revenue Act of 1767 (Townshend duties)
• Imposed taxes on glass, paint, lead, paper, and
  tea imported into the colonies
• Townshend had intended to set aside part of the
  tax money to pay the salaries of royal governors

37
Crisis over the Townshend Duties, 1767-1770
(cont.)

• Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania
• John Dickinson
• Expressed majority American view
• Parliament could use duties to keep trade within
  the empire but not to raise revenue as the
  Townshend duties did
• Samuel Adams circular letter made the same
  point
• Mass. Legislature sent it to other colonial
  assemblies

38
Crisis over the Townshend Duties, 1767-1770
(cont.)

• August 1768Boston merchants adopted a
  nonimportation agreement that spread to other
  cities
• 1770Lord North (new British Prime Minister)
  eliminated most of the duties
• Kept the tea duty
• Colonial leaders called for a policy of
  nonconsumption of tea (refused to drink British
  tea)

39
Women and Colonial Resistance

• White womens participation in public affairs had
  been widening slowly and unevenly in the colonies
  for several decades
• Daughters of Liberty play a part of defeating the
  Stamp Act
• To protest the Revenue Acts tax on tea, more
  than 300 mistresses of families in Boston
  denounced consumption of tea

40
Women and Colonial Resistance (cont.)

• Women bolstered the boycott by refusing to serve
  taxed tea
• organized spinning bees to produce homespun
  apparel rather than buy British-made clothing

41
Customs Racketeering, 1767-1768

• Corruption of customs officials
• Seized ships and cargoes for technical violations
  of the Navigation and Sugar Acts
• Broke open sailors chests to search for small
  amounts of undeclared merchandise
• Contributed to Americans growing alienation form
  the mother country
• Violent attacks by seamen and others on customs
  inspectors happened more frequently
• Liberty in Boston

42
Wilkes and Liberty, 1768-1770

• Boycotts only reduced imports by about 40
• Hurt British merchants and artisans enough to
  make them to implore Parliament to rescind its
  taxes
• Part of a larger protest by English citizens
  against King George III and Parliament
• John Wilkes led this protest
• Felt the King and Parliament was dominated by a
  few elite wealthy landowners and not concerned
  about the common person

43
Wilkes and Liberty, 1768-1770

• Govt. arrested Wilkes
• Denied Wilkes a seat in the House of Commons (he
  had been elected to it)
• The govt.s actions prompted dissident Englishmen
  and American colonists to further question the
  authority of an unpresentative Parliament

44
The Deepening Crisis, 1770-1774

• The way in which British officials enforced
  Parliaments trade regulations made more and more
  colonials broaden their cry from no taxation
  without representation to no legislation at all
  without representation.
• The British responded to the violence of the
  Liberty incident by sending another 4,000
  soldiers to Boston,
• their presence was hotly resented

45
The Boston Massacre

• http//www.bostonmassacre.net/
• British soldiers were trying to enforce the
  Townshend Act
• March 5, 1770
• Group of British soldiers at a guard post in
  front of the customs office fired into a
  disorderly crowd that was hurling dares, insults,
  and objects at them
• 5 civilians killed
• 6 more wounded

46
The Boston Massacre (cont.)
47
The Boston Massacre (cont.)

• Mass. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson promised to try the
  soldiers, and the British removed their troops to
  a fortified island in Boston harbor.
• John Adams was the lawyer for the redcoats
• 4 of the 6 were acquitted
• http//www.history.com/media.do?actionclipidgah
  q_kid_jane_seymour_broadband

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The Committees of Correspondence, 1772-1773

• 1772Lord North revived trouble when he prepared
  to implement Townshends plan to pay royal
  governors salaries out of customs revenue
• Sam Adams and others responded by organizing
  committees of correspondence in each New England
  town to exchange information and coordinate
  activities in defense of colonial rights

50
The Committees of Correspondence (cont.)

• March 1773
• Virginians also set up a committee of
  correspondence
• Within a year every colony but Pennsylvania had
  such committees that linked Americans together in
  a communications web

51
Conflicts in the Backcountry

• Clashes happened in the West between Native
  Americans, various groups of colonists, colonial
  governments, and imperial authorities
• Rapid population growth because of whites moving
  into the Appalachian backcountry
• British govt. could not enforce the Proclamation
  of 1763
• Colonial speculators took any land they could
• Settlers, traders, hunters all trespassed on
  Indian land
• British forts were not strong to enforce laws and
  treaties

52
Conflicts in the Backcountry (cont.)

• Treaty of Fort Stanwix
• 1768
• Granted land on the Ohio River to PA and VA
• The land was claimed by the Shawnees, Delawares,
  and Cherokees
• Increased tensions in Ohio Valley
• KY was established as a colony
• 1774coloniest killed 13 Natives (Mingos and
  Shawnees)
• Indians (under Logan--leader of Mingos)
  retaliated and killed 13 Virginians

53
Conflicts in the Backcountry (cont.)

• Lord Dunmores War
• 1774
• Virginians vs. Logan
• Point Pleasant, VA
• VA gained uncontested rights to the lands south
  of the Ohio in exchange for its claims on the
  northern side

54
Conflicts in the Backcountry (cont.)

• Conflicts also occurred between the colonists
• Mass vs. NY
• NH vs. NY
• CT settlers vs. PA

55
Conflicts in the Backcountry (cont.)

• Conflicts between backcountry settlers and their
  colonial governments
• Tensions generated by an increasing land-hungry
  white population and its willingness to resort to
  violence against Native Americans, other
  colonists, and British officials

56
The Tea Act, 1773

• Colonists consumed more than 1 million pounds of
  tea a year
• Purchased only 1/4 of it from the British East
  India Company
• Colonists smuggled the rest in
• Tea Act eliminated all remaining import duties on
  tea entering England and thus lowered the selling
  price to consumers
• East India Company was allowed to sell its tea
  directly to consumers rather than through
  wholesalers

57
The Tea Act, 1773 (cont.)

• Reduced cost of tea well below the price of all
  smuggled competition
• Tea Act alarmed many Americans
• They saw it as a menace to liberty and virtue
• As well as to colonial representative government
• British govt. would make more which would be
  used to pay royal governors
• Committees of correspondence decided to resist
  the importation of tea (without violence or
  destroying property)

58
The Tea Act, 1773 (cont.)

• Tactics to prevent East India Company cargoes
  from being landed
• Pressuring the companys agents to refuse
  acceptance
• By intercepting the ships at sea and ordering
  them home
• Worked in Philadelphia but not Boston

59
The Tea Act, 1773 (cont.)

• Dec. 16, 1773
• Boston Tea Party
• 50 young men
• Assaulted no one and damaged nothing besides the
  tea
• 45 tons of tea overboard

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Toward Independence, 1774-1776

• British govt. was upset with colonists
• Wanted to stop all colonial insubordination
• Colonial leaders responded with equal
  determination to defend self-govt. and liberty
• British Empire and its American colonies were on
  a collusion course

62
Liberty for African-Americans

• Many slaves wanted and hoped to gain their
  freedom from the British
• James Somerset
• Mass. slave who accompanied his master to England
  
• Ran away in England
• Recaptured
• Sent off to Jamaica
• Sued for his freedom
• Kings Court ruled that Parliament never
  explicitly established slavery in England, a
  master could not send a slave outside the country
  against his will

63
Liberty for African-Americans (cont.)

• Throughout the colonies slaves petitioned for
  their freedom
• Many slaves thought war between the Empire and
  the colonies would bring them their freedom

64
Liberty for African-Americans (cont.)

• Lord Dunmores Proclamation
• Lord Dunmoregov. of VA
• Promised freedom to any able-bodied male slave
  who enlisted in the cause of restoring royal
  authority
• Liberty to Slaves
• About 1,000

65
The Intolerable Acts

• 4 Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act
• 1st Coercive Act
• Boston Port Bill
• April 1, 1774
• Navy was to close the Boston harbor by June 1 if
  the tea destroyed in the Tea Party was repaid
• 2nd Coercive Act
• Massachusetts Government Act
• Revoked Massachusetts charter
• Restructured the govt. to make it less democratic

66
The Intolerable Acts (cont.)

• 3rd Coercive Act
• Administration of Justice Act
• Permitted any person charged with murder while
  enforcing royal authority in Mass. to be tried in
  England
• 4th Coercive Act
• New Quartering Act
• Allowed the governor to requisition empty private
  buildings for housing troops

67
The Intolerable Acts (cont.)

• Quebec Act
• Roman Catholicism as Quebecs official religion
• Gave Quebecs governors sweeping powers but
  established no legislature
• Did not use juries for property disputes
• Expanded Quebecs territory south to the Ohio
  River and west to the Mississippi River

68
The Intolerable Acts (cont.)

• Anglo-Americans believed Britain was plotting to
  abolish traditional English liberties throughout
  North America
• British meant to punish Massachusetts (Boston)
  with the Intolerable Acts but pushed most
  colonies to the brink of rebellion
• Of the 27 reasons justifying the break from Great
  Britain in the Declaration of Independence, 6
  dealt with the Intolerable Acts

69
The First Continental Congress
70
The First Continental Congress (cont.)

• To resist the Intolerable Acts, all the colonies
  besides Georgia sent representatives to a
  continental congress in Philadelphia
• Sept. 5, 1774 to October 26, 1774

71
The First Continental Congress (cont.)

• Approved the Suffolk Resolves
• Advised colonials to begin arming themselves
  against attacks by royal troops
• Created the Continental Association
• Enforce a total cutoff of trade with England and
  the British West Indies
• Sent a Declaration of Rights to George III
• Begged him to dismiss the ministers responsible
  for the Coercive Acts

72
From Resistance to Rebellion

• Committees of the Continental Association coerced
  wavering colonists into cooperating with the
  trade ban.
• Loyalists (aka Tories) were intimidated
• Volunteer militias (aka minutemen) drilled and
  prepared for war
• Extralegal congresses met and tried to supplant
  the existing colonial assemblies headed by royal
  governors

73
From Resistance to Rebellion (cont.)

• April 19, 1775
• General Gage dispatched 700 soldiers to Lexington
  and Concord
• Objectives were to seize the minutemens weapon
  stockpiles and arrest key patriotic leaders
• William Dawes and Paul Revere challenged the
  redcoats arriving from Boston
• 1st fighting of the Revolution broke out

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From Resistance to Rebellion (cont.)

• As news of the battles at Lexington and Concord
  spread, 20,000 New Englanders rushed to besiege
  Boston and oust the English
• Redcoats273 casualties
• Colonists92 casualties
• The British defeated the colonials and Breeds
  and Bunker Hills but suffered heavy casualties in
  doing so
• June 17, 1775
• 1,154 for redcoats vs. 311 colonists

76
Bunker Hill
77
From Resistance to Rebellion (cont.)

• Second Continental Congress
• Philadelphia
• May 10, 1775
• Majority of delegates still hoped for
  reconciliation with England
• Olive Branch Petition
• Pleading for a cease-fire at Boston
• Repeal of the Coercive Acts
• Negotiations to establish American rights

78
From Resistance to Rebellion (cont.)

• The British ignored the plea
• Dec. 1775, declared the colonists in rebellion
• Second Continental Congress established an
  American continental army and appointed George
  Washington to command it
• Not yet ready to declare independence

79
Common Sense

• Loyalty to the king and hopes that he would
  restrain irritated ministers and members of
  Parliament lingered on through the summer and
  fall of 1775
• Thomas Paine
• Jan. 1776
• Paine argued that monarchy was a corrupt,
  repressive institution
• And that Americans should shun and instead should
  take the opportunity to create a new kind of
  nation based on republican liberty

80
Common Sense (cont.)
81
Declaring Independence

• June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee (VA delegate)
  proposed that Congress declare independence
• Members of Congress appointed a committee
• Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin
• Draft a statement to justify the colonies
  separation form England
• Declaration of Independence
• Influenced by Enlightenment
• Natural rights philosophy
• Equality of all men
• Universal rights to Life, Liberty, and the
  pursuit of Happiness

82
Declaring Independence (cont.)

• July 2, 1776
• Congress formally adopted Lees independence
  resolution
• Created the United States of America
• July 3
• Reviewed and revised Jeffersons Declaration
• July 4
• Approved and singed the Declaration

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Declaring Independence (cont.)

• The equal rights for all championed by the
  Declaration of Independence did not exist in
  America in 1776
• the documents ideals inspired the revolutionary
  generation and many who followed to bring the
  realities of American life closer to the
  Declarations bold proclamation

85
Conclusion

• Triumphant over France in the 7 Years War, GB in
  1763 was the worlds leading power
• GB attempts to centralize power and tax her
  colonies aroused American resistance
• Between 1763 and 1776, the colonists strove to
  reestablish the colonial relationship as it had
  existed earlier when British supervision was
  minimal and colonial assemblies controlled taxes
  and internal legislation

86
Conclusion (cont.)

• Colonists peacefully protested the Stamp Act, the
  Townshend duties, and the Tea Act
• Different classes acted out of different motives
• Elites resented erosion of their autonomy
• Merchants and middle-class protested new economic
  restrictions
• Rural poor questioned all authority

87
Conclusion (cont.)

• Unable to reconcile the mother countrys and
  colonials viewpoints and buoyed by Thomas
  Paines Common Sense, the Americans finally
  severed their ties with England and declared
  independence.