10th Grade United States History

Unit Four: The Road to Independence

• During the French and Indian War, the British treasury had accumulated a huge debt.

• In April 1763, John Stewart resigned, and George Grenville (who had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (def): Britain’s chief financial officer) became Prime Minister of Great Britain.

• The British government decided that if the colonists were going to benefit from British military defense, they would also help pay for it.

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• Grenville pushed through Parliament heavy duties (taxes) on numerous commodities imported into the colonies—most notably molasses and sugar.

• Sugar Act of 1764: Placed heavy taxes on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies.– This was the first act passed by the British

Parliament for the specific purpose of raising tax revenues in the colonies.

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• At the same time, Parliament passed the…

• Currency Act of 1764: Prohibited the colonies from issuing paper money and required the use of gold in all business transactions.

• This act guaranteed that the colonies would be economically dependant on Great Britain.

• Parliament also decided at this time to strictly enforce the Navigation Acts that had been passed in the 1650s, but were never really put into effect.

• What was the purpose of the Navigation Acts?

• Required colonial goods to be transported on British ships to ensure Britain was the main benefactor of colonial trade.

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• Britain used these various acts to raise addition revenue.• The colonists, reeling economically from a business recession

caused by the French and Indian War (and also the frontier regions—resentful of the Proclamation Line) were stunned and outraged at being taxed without the benefit of Parliamentary representation.

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• _____________ in government was a basic English right that was guaranteed by the ______ _____ (def): A document guaranteeing certain civil rights and liberties approved in 1215.

• This concept is a central cause of the Revolution—the colonists didn’t enjoy paying taxes, but…

• The colonists were willing to pay their share of the costs of ___________--providing that they had a ______ in that government.

RepresentationMagna

Carta

governmentvoice

• The colonists argued that they were not represented in ___________, and in a speech at a Boston town meeting, Boston lawyer James Otis shouted the resounding phrase that became the slogan and rallying cry against the oppressive British government: “________ Without Representation is ________!”

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Parliament

TaxationTyranny

• The first colonial protest in response to the Grenville Acts was non-violent: On May 24, 1764, a _______________ Agreement was made by the colonies—pledging to boycott a wide variety of English goods.– ________ (def): The

refusal to buy or use certain goods or services.

• By the end of the year, a number of colonies had joined the boycott.

• Parliament should have taken heed to this protest, for it was a UNITED protest.

• Instead, Grenville reacted by pushing through Parliament even more taxes on the colonies.

• ______ ____ of 1765: Passed by Parliament to help offset the cost of maintaining British _______ in the colonies.

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Non-Importation

boycottStamp Act

soldiers

• But the colonists had gotten their fill of British soldiers during the French and Indian War and they resented this additional tax.

• STAMP ACT OF 1765:• Required that ever ______

_________, including newspapers, playing cards, and legal documents bear a ________ ______ purchased from royally-appointed colonial stamp agents.

• Violations of the Stamp Act were to be tried by vice-admiralty courts, in which there were no _______.

• A trial-by-jury was another right guaranteed to British citizens by the ___________.

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paperdocument

revenue stamp juries

Magna Carta

• As a result of the Stamp Act, secret societies were formed in many towns to protest British and organize additional boycotts of British goods.

• One such group was organized by Boston brewer _______ _______ and was known as “The _____ of ________.”

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SamuelAdamsSons Liberty

• Although the Sons of Liberty worked to control mob violence, the organization also functioned as an instrument of coercion. (DEF?)

• Coercion: Force or threats used to make somebody do something against his or her will.

• Along with organizing opposition to the Stamp Act, the Sons of Liberty intimidated all of the officials responsible for administering it in the colonies, forcing them to resign.

• “Tarred and Feathered” (1100s)• “Ridden out of town on a rail”• Some modern use…Belfast

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• In Virginia, House of Burgesses member _______ ______ introduced the _______ ________ of 1765, which stated that only Virginia’s legislature had the right to tax Virginia and to legislate on purely Virginian issues.

• Henry was a brilliant orator, pushing the Virginia resolves through the House of Burgesses with a speech that he closed very provocatively: “Caesar had his Brutus—Charles I, his Cromwell—and George III may profit by their example… If this be treason, make the most of it.”

• The resolves passed on May 30, 1765.

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Patrick HenryVirginia Resolves

• Similar measures were taken in Massachusetts by _____ _______, whose “Instructions to the Town of Braintree” became the model other towns followed in their objections to the Stamp Act.

John Adams

• Documents such as the Virginia Resolves were communicated throughout the colonies.

• Local in their origins, the protests against the actions of the British government quickly became continental in scope.

• Adding fuel to the fire, at the same time the Stamp Act was legislated, Parliament passed the Mutiny Act of 1765, ostensibly as a measure to improve discipline among British troops stretched over the far-flung empire.

• The Mutiny Act included a provision for quartering (housing) troops in private homes.

• Responding to colonial outrage, Parliament passed supplemental legislation that removed this provision, but did require the housing of British soldiers in taverns and inns at the expense of the colonists.

• _________ _____ of 1765: Required colonial governments to provide housing and supplies to British soldiers.

• …with the colonists having to foot the bill.

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Quartering Act

• Not only were these measures a further financial hardship on the colonists, they began to reach far beyond economics and money.

• The Quartering Act was an invasion of privacy and an affront to personal liberty.

• Even colonists who were not personally affected by the revenue acts were enraged by the Quartering Act.

• Coming after more than 50 years of salutary neglect, these new laws and regulations alarmed and enraged the colonists.

• October 1765: Delegates from 8 colonies were sent to New York for a meeting of the colonies known as the ______ ___ ________.

• This Congress drafted a “Declaration of ______ and __________” that asserted that the colonists had the rights of British subjects and that ________ without _____________ was a violation of those rights.

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Stamp Act Congress

GrievancesRights

taxationrepresentation

Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2• In response, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but on the

same day (as a political “slap in the face”) passed the ________ Act, affirming Parliament’s authority to make laws binding on the American colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”

• In other words, Parliament had acknowledged colonial rights—only to deny them again.

• In 1767, Parliament reasserted its power by placing even more duties on goods imported by the colonies, hoping the colonists would react more favorably to this type of taxation rather than direct taxes.

• Chancellor of the Exchequer ________ ___________ pushed through Parliament a bundle of acts intended to raise ________, tighten ________ enforcement, and assert British __________ in America.

• Enacted on June 29, 1767. the _________ _____ levied import taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.

Declatory

Charles Townshend

revenue

Townshend Acts authority

customs

• Additional bills in the package authorized “writs of assistance” (blanket search warrants), created additional juryless vice-admiralty courts, and suspended the New York assembly for its defiance of the 1765 Quartering Act.

• The protests began again as the American colonists said that it made no difference whether Britain raised taxes through import duties or direct taxation—they were still being taxed without representation in Parliament and without their consent.

• Under the traditional form of government in the colonies, what branch of government dominated the colonial governments?

• (Legislature with the “power of the purse.”)

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• Now, Britain would use the money generated by Townshend Acts to pay the salaries of the royal governors (who had previously been dependent on the legislatures for their salary).

• This change would tremendously weaken the colonial legislatures, giving almost dictatorial powers to the royal governors and would severely undermine the self-government the colonists had grown accustomed to.

• During 1768 and 1769, all of the colonies with the exception of _____ __________ boycotted English goods.

• The Virginia House of Burgesses, led by Patrick Henry, created the Virginia Association to enforce the boycott. This led the royal governor of Virginia to dissolve the House of Burgesses, further inflaming anti-British passions.

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New Hampshire

• In April of 1770, the British Parliament again bowed to pressure and repealed the Townshend duties—except for a tax on _____.

• Royal customs officials sent to Boston to enforce the new taxes requested that a regiment of British _______ be sent to aid them.

• To put it mildly, the British soldiers were not popular among the colonists.

• On March 5, 1770, one of the British soldiers got into a brawl with a civilian worker, triggering an evening of protests by bands of colonists who roamed the streets.

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tea

troops

• March 5, 1770: A squad of _________ (Name given by the colonists to British soldiers) led by Captain Thomas Preston fired into a group of protesters in front of the Boston Customs House, resulting in the death of ____ colonists.

• The leader of this Boston mob was a black man named _______ ________, the first to die for the cause of American liberty.

• Attucks was a 40-year-old runaway slave from the town of Framingham—he took 2 musket balls to the chest and died where he stood.

• The event was described in the colonies as the _______ _________.

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Redcoats

five

Crispus Attucks

Boston Massacre

• British authorities immediately withdrew the troops from town, but this event became the focal-point of anti-British propaganda and heightened American fears about standing armies established in the colonies.

• This event also drew the colonies closer together in opposition to the Crown.

• By 1773, the only duty remaining from the Townshend Acts was a tax on tea. Not that big of deal, right? If you don’t want to pay a tax on tea—stop drinking tea! However…

• In the 1700s, _____ was a very valuable trade commodity. • The East India Company, Britain’s chief tea producer, was vital to

the British government because it had extensive influence in India. • By the 1770s, the East India Company was close to bankruptcy and

to bail out the firm, Parliament suspended the tax paid on tea in England.

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tea

• Many colonists had been smuggling tea to avoid taxes—The Tea Act would make East India Company tea less expensive than even smuggled tea.

• Would this not be better for the colonists?• _______ of 1773: Passed by Parliament to help the

financially struggling _____ _____ Company—giving them the right to sell tea in America without paying any taxes, driving American tea merchants out of business.

• Samuel Adams and other Bostonians formed the __________ of _______________ to coordinate resistance to Britain throughout the colonies and spread word to oppose the tea duty and impose an absolute boycott of English tea.

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Tea ActEast India

Committee Correspondence

• When the royal governor of Massachusetts refused to send the tea back to England, resistance became more than just a boycott…

• December 16, 1773: A group of colonists dressed as _______ boarded 3 British tea ships in Boston and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor—this event in known as the “_______________.”

• The cargo was valued at £9,000—a tremendous amount of money in a day when a man earning £100 a year was considered pretty wealthy.

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Indians

Boston Tea Party

Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2• In response, Parliament passed a

series of laws called the ________ ___ (Colonists called these laws the “___________ _____”).– _____________ was closed until

the destroyed tea was paid for.– _______________ in

Massachusetts was virtually eliminated.

– _____________ not authorized by British authorities were banned.

• These acts were intended to restore order in Massachusetts, but backfired, leading the colonies to recognize their common cause and to convene the _____ __________ ________.

Coercive ActsIntolerable

Boston Harbor

Self-government

Town meetings

First Continental Congress

Acts