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“Crisis in the Colonies” Chapter 5.3 “From Protest to Revolution”
“Crisis in the Colonies”
Chapter 5.3“From Protest to
Revolution”
Most tea was brought to the colonies by the British East India Tea Company.
The tea was harvested in southern Asia Shipped to the colonies
Sold to tea merchants for a profitThen sold to the public, for a profit
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Parliament had kept the tax on tea as a symbol of its right to tax the colonies.
As a result colonists boycotted British tea15 million pounds sat unsold in British
warehouses
The Tea Act helped the British East India Company’s finances by allowing it to bypass tea merchants and sell directly to the colonists. British tea therefore cost less. Parliament hoped colonists would buy more tea
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The colonists protested against the Tea Act because it cut them out of the tea trade.Colonists believed this was a violation of their right to conduct free enterprise.They thought of it as a trick by Parliament to control the colonies.
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The colonists boycotted the tea and began to brew coffee and drink “liberty
tea”. Tensions increased as cargoes sat in harbors.
Sons of Liberty demand removal of ships from Boston Harbor
Governor Hutchinson rejects the demand
“This meeting can do nothing further to save the country!
Boston harbor, a teapot tonight!
The Boston Tea Party was the famous protest against British rule by the Sons of
Liberty. On December 16, 1773 they disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians
and dumped 342 chests of tea off the British ship Dartmouth, into Boston
Harbor.
•The Intolerable Acts were laws passed by Parliament and King George to punish the colonies for the Boston Tea Party.
•Also known as the Coercive Acts….because they were intended to “force” the colonists to “behave”.
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The Intolerable Acts included 4 laws:1) Parliament shut down the port of Boston.2) Forbade town meetings in Massachusetts more than once a year without permission.3) Allowed British officials accused of serious crimes to be tried in Britain.4) Forced colonists to house British troops.
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The Quebec Act set up a government for Canada and gave complete religious freedom to French Catholics; it also
designated land between the Ohio and Missouri Rivers as a part of Canada.
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• Newspapers, nightriders and Committees of Correspondence informed the other colonies about the events in Boston.
• Other colonies sent help and protested the actions taken by Parliament
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• Colonial leaders called a meeting of the First Continental Congress.
• It met in Philadelphia beginning in September of 1774.
• Representatives of all of the colonies except Georgia attended.
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After much debate the delegates to the First Continental Congress voted to do the following:
1. Support Massachusetts in its struggle
2. Boycott British goods3. Stop exporting goods to Britain4. Each colony was encouraged to raise
and train a militia……just in case!
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A Militia is an army of citizens who serve as volunteer soldiers in an
emergency. Minutemen and colonial militia are examples.
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The minutemen were militia volunteers in Massachusetts who
were trained to be ready to fight at a moment’s notice.
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• General Thomas Gage was the commander of British troops in Massachusetts.
• Scouts had told him that the minutemen were keeping a stockpile of arms in Cocord.
• General Gage planned a surprise march to Concord to seize the arms and arrest the colonial leaders, Sam Adams and John Hancock.
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• On the evening of April 18, 1775 troops secretly marched from Boston under the cover of darkness.
• Patriots who had been watching them hung two lamps from the old North Church as a signal the British were marching.
• Paul Revere and other Patriots rode throughout the countryside alerting the minutemen that the “…the redcoats are coming!” 18
• “The shot heard ‘round the world” marks the beginning of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.• The minutemen confronted the British at Lexington, as they were marching to Concord, when the fighting broke out. 8 were killed.
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• The British continued on to Concord, but found nothing as the Patriots had been warned.
• They then retreated back to Boston.
•Fighting broke out against 300 minutemen on a bridge outside Concord.
•The colonists then fired upon the British and harassed them as they retreated to Boston.
• There were hundreds of casualties.
• The Revolution had begun! 20
