ROAD TO REVOLUTION

RESISTANCE

Felt British did not care about their needs

Britain in financial crisis

Tighten laws against smuggling Writs of assistance --- search warrant Searching business --- homes

MERCANTILISM

Justified control over the colonies

Benefit mother country

Currency problems

Royal Veto

Favorable Balance of Trade Export more than Import Navigation Laws = 1650

Transported only on British ships

Salutary Neglect

SUGAR ACT

1764

Increased the duty on foreign made molasses West Indies

Taxed imports = not been taxed before

Those accused of smuggling would be tried in vice-admiralty court

Had little impact on colonists

QUARTERING ACT

1765

Provide food and shelter for redcoats

Use Stamp Act to pay for new military force

STAMP ACT

1765

Tax on documents and printed items Wills, Newspapers, Playing cards

Stamp = prove that tax had been paid

Boycott British goods until Stamp Act was repealed March 1766 --- Parliament repealed law

RESISTANCE

Stamp Act Congress – 1765 27 delegates / 9 states Intercolonial unity Nonimportation Agreements Protests

Sons of Liberty Daughters of Liberty Sam Adams Committees of Correspondence

Spread resistance

DECLARATORY ACT

1766

Passed the same day the Stamp Act was repealed

“Bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever”

TOWNSHEND ACTS 1767

Taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain Lead, glass, paint, and

paper Tax on tea

Pay salaries = Governors/Judges

Boycotted British goods Sam Adams

BOSTON MASSACRE March 5, 1770

Taunted British soldiers

Shot accidentally fired 11 killed / wounded

Townsend Act costing more to enforce Repealed Act Kept tax on tea

TEA ACT

1773

British East India Company Going bankrupt Allowed to sell tea to the colonies free of taxes

Cut colonial merchants out of tea trade

Colonists did not want to buy cheaper tea

BOSTON TEA PARTY December 16, 1773 Boston rebels board British ships Dressed as Native Americans Dumped 18,000 pounds of tea into Boston harbor

INTOLERABLE ACTS 1774 Shut down Boston Harbor

Boston Port Act

Quartering Act House soldiers in vacant

private homes and other buildings

Thomas Gage Appointed the new

Governor of Massachusetts Placed Boston under

martial law --- military force

French guaranteed their Catholic Religion Retain old customs

Boundaries extended southward to Ohio River

FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

September 1774 55 Delegates – Philadelphia

12 / 13 Colonies represented

7 weeks

Drew up Declaration of Colonial Rights Right to run own affairs If British used force colonist would fight back

Established militia Stockpiled firearms - gunpowder

CONT.

Association Complete boycott of British goods

Nonimportation

Nonexportation

Nonconsumption

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD April 18 1775

Paul Revere Sent warning out 700 British troops = Redcoats

Headed to Concord

70 minutemen - Lexington 8 minutemen killed --- 10 wounded 1 British soldier injured

First Battle of the Revolutionary War

CONCORD Redcoats marched on to Concord

Arsenal was empty Headed back

3,000 – 4,000 minutemen assemble now

Fired on the troops as they marched home

Strengths

7.5 million Brits to 2.5 colonists

Naval power

Professional army v. militia

Hessians

Loyalists / Native Americans

Weaknesses

Sympathy

Distance

Geography

Strengths

Leadership

European officers

Fighting Defensively

Self sustaining

Moral Cause

Weaknesses

Disorganized

Jealousy / States /Sectional

Continental / Inflation / Currency

Deserters

Supplies