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Background Information
The French and Indian War forced British officials to end the practice of Salutary Neglect and pay attention to their colonies. Britain is in massive debt, and levies new taxes on the middle/ poor class (excise taxes), rather than on land (which effected rich people). Atlantic trade was much more strictly controlled, angering American merchants who relied on trade that was technically legal but that they had previously gotten away with -
the Revenue Act of 1762
Passed by Parliament, required absentee British customs officials in the American colonies to go back to their posts rather than using underpaid assistants. More strictly regulated trade with the French West Indies, which effected the northern tribes a lot as they were supplying the islands with food. -
The Proclaimation Line of 1763
Limited settlers moving west in order to decrease conflict with Natives and prevent another expensive war -
the Currency Act of 1764
Pushed by George Grenville, a British politician who favored large imperial reform, to Parliament. This act banned the colonies from using paper money as legal tender, which they had previously been doing to pay their debts, especially to British merchants. increased B merchant profits and wealth -
the Sugar Act of 1764
Replaced the Molasses Act of 1733 which imposed a 6 pence/ gallon tax on French Molasses. Previously, merchants had bribed customs officials to look the other way for 1.5 pence/ gallon, and many had amassed large wealth due to this. Although the tax was lowered to 3 pence/ gallon and made the trade of molasses legal, it angered merchants because it was actually more expensive. Colonists raised constitutional objections to this act, saying they deserved rights as British citizens -
the Stamp Act of 1765
Required a stamp on all printed items, a tax which weighed more heavily on rich colonists. The colonists immediately scorn this act. Benjamin Franklin proposes that there be colonial representation in Parliament so the people have an impact on the laws that they live under, but this motion is resolutely rejected by the British. Also encouraged by Grenville -
the Quartering Act of 1765
ensured that British troops had to be housed in barracks and be provided food by the colonial government. This put great financial strain on the colonies as the British at that time had stationed 15 battalions or 7500 troops permanently in the colonies. -
Denouncing Imperial Legislation
Patrick Henry from the House of Burgesses in Virginia denounces the new laws as tyranny equal to that of Charles I (who was beheaded) -
The Stamp Act Congress
Delegates from nine colonial assemblies meet in NYC to protest the loss of American rights and liberties. They declare that only colonial representatives should be able to tax the colonies. -
Crowd Actions
The Sons of Liberty and other dissatisfied citizens turn to peaceful and violent protest of the Stamp Act, to the point where it was nullified in the 13 colonies. Enlightenment and Great Awakening ideals influenced this. -
The Declatraory Act of 1766
Law asserting Parliament’s unassailable right to legislate for its British colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” Used to try and take colonial attention off the disaster that was the Stamp Act -
The Townshend Act of 1767
British law that established new duties on tea, glass, lead, paper, and painters’ colors imported into the colonies. The Townshend duties led to boycotts and heightened tensions between Britain and the American colonies. George III named William Pitt to head a new government. Pitt, chronically ill and absent from parliamentary debates, left Charles Townshend in command. Pitt was sympathetic toward America; Townshend was not. Revived the constitutional debate over taxation. -
Nonimportation Movement
In response to the Townshend Acts, Boston/ New York merchants began a new boycott of British goods. Throughout New England, ministers and public officials discouraged the purchase of “foreign superfluities” and promoted the domestic manufacture of cloth and other necessities. The Daughters of Liberty played a big role in this as domestic labor became more important and the colonists still needed the same supplies, they just couldn't get them from Britain. Brought women into the public arena. -
Native response
Shawnees invited hundreds of Indian leaders to gather at the town of Chillicothe on the Scioto River. There they formed the Scioto Confederacy, which pledged to oppose any further expansion into the Ohio country -
The Boston Massacre
On the night of March 5, 1770, a group of nine British redcoats fired into a crowd and killed five townspeople. A subsequent trial exonerated the soldiers, but Boston’s Radical Whigs, convinced of a ministerial conspiracy against liberty, labeled the incident a “massacre” and used it to rally sentiment against imperial power. -
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Committees of Correspondence
A communications network established among colonial assemblies between 1772 and 1773 to provide for rapid dissemination of news about important political developments -
The Boston Tea Party
artisans and laborers disguised as Indians boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and broke open 342 chests of tea (valued at about £10,000, or about $1.5 million today), and threw them into the harbor. -
The Coercive Acts
Four acts passed to punish Massachusetts for the destruction fo tea. The Boston Port Bill closed Boston Harbor to shipping; the Massachusetts Government Act annulled the colony’s charter and prohibited most town meetings; a new Quartering Act mandated new barracks for British troops; and the Justice Act allowed trials for capital crimes to be transferred to other colonies or to Britain. -
The Quebec Act of 1774
Allowed Roan Cahtolicism in Quebec, angering Protestant Americans, land speculators, and ordinary settlers. Many saw it as an attempt to control American Affairs -
The Tea Act of 1773
British act that lowered the existing tax on tea and granted exemptions to the East India Company to make their tea cheaper in the colonies and entice boycotting Americans to buy it. -
Lord Dunmore's War
A 1774 war led by Virginia’s royal governor, the Earl of Dunmore, against the Ohio Shawnees, who claimed Kentucky as a hunting ground. The Shawnees were defeated and Virginians claimed Kentucky as their own. -
The Continental Congress
Representatives from 12 mainland colonies sent reps to Philadelphia in response to the Coercive Acts. New forms of government proposed but don't pass, instead the delegates demanded the repeal of the Coercive Acts and stipulated that British control be limited to matters of trade. Declared that Americans would stop importing British goods in Dec 1774. If Parliament didn't repeal the Coercive Acts by Sept 1775, the Congress would cut off virtually all colonial exports to the British Empire -
the Edenton Tea Party
Similar to the Daughters of Liberty, a group of fifty-one women from Edenton, North Carolina, led by Penelope Barker, created a local association to support a boycott of British goods. Patriots in the colonies praised the Edenton Tea Party, which was one of the first formal female political associations in North America, but it was ridiculed in Britain. -
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Fighting in the South
Dunmore's proclamation of freedom for slaves (Nov 1775) who fight for him is controversial- Frightened by his aggressive tactics, Patriot yeomen and tenants called for a final break with Britain. In North Carolina, following a victory (early 1776), radical Patriots in the North Carolina assembly told its representatives to the Continental Congress to join with “other Colonies in declaring Independence, and forming foreign alliances.” -
British Reponse
Branding the Continental Congress an illegal assembly, the ministry rejected Lord Dartmouth’s proposal to send commissioners to negotiate a settlement. Americans had to pay for their own defense and administration and acknowledge Parliament’s authority to tax them. imposed a naval blockade on American trade with foreign nations and ordered General Gage to suppress dissent in Massachusetts. -
Lexington and Concord
The first battle of the American Revolution. On this night, General Gage sent 700 soldiers to capture colonial leaders & supplies at Concord. Paul Revere & other riders warned Patriots in many towns, and at dawn, militiamen confronted the British first at Lexington & then at Concord. As the British retreated to Boston, militia repeatedly ambushed them. 73 British soldiers died, 174 wounded, and 26 missing. 49 Massachusetts militiamen died and 39 were wounded. -
The Second Continental Congress
As the Congress opened, 3,000 British troops attacked American fortifications on Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill overlooking Boston. After three assaults and 1,000 casualties, they finally dislodged the Patriot militia. John Adams used this to say they need an army, lead by George Washington. After bitter debate, the Congress approved the proposals. -
Colonial Invasion into Canada
invasion of Canada to prevent a British attack from the north. Patriot forces easily defeated the British at Montreal; but in December 1775, they failed to capture Quebec City and withdrew. -
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
a rousing call for independence and a republican form of government. Paine assaulted the traditional monarchical order in stirring language. “Monarchy and hereditary succession have laid the world in blood and ashes,” Paine argued for American independence by turning the traditional metaphor of patriarchal authority on its head: “Is it the interest of a man to be a boy all his life?” he asked. Within 6 months, Common Sense had gone through 25 editions and reached hundreds of thousands of ppl. -
The Declaration of Independence
Richard Henry Lee presented Virginia’s resolution to the Continental Congress: The colonies aught to be independent. Mainly written by Thomas Jefferson, proclaiming a series of “self-evident” truths: “that all men are created equal”; the “unalienable rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”; that government derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed” and can rightly be overthrown if it “becomes destructive of these ends.”