THE AMERICAN

REVOLUTIONAmerican History I

2.1 – STIRRINGS OF

REBELLION

Setting the Stage…• 1760s – GB deep in debt from French and Indian War

• Parliament passed a series of acts to raise $ by taxing

British goods bought by the colonists.

• 1764 – Parliament passed the Sugar Act

• Lowered tax on molasses

• Increased tax on other goods

• Sent smugglers to British court w/o jury, rather than a colonial

court

Stamp Act

• 1765, Placed a tax on all official documents,

newspapers, licenses, pamphlets, playing cards, dice,

etc

• Had to be printed on stamped paper

• Disobeying colonists were sent to British courts, rather than a

colonial court

Sons of Liberty

• 1765 - Samuel Adams

organized the Sons of Liberty

- a secret resistance group in

started in Boston

• Protested and harassed British

customs workers, stamp agents,

and royal governors

• Led to the resignation of British

employees in the colonies and

delayed implementation of the

Stamp Act policies

British customs official being tarred and feathered,

then having hot tea poured down his throat.

Notice the Stamp Act hanging

upside down on the Liberty tree.

Legislative Resistance

• 1765-66 – colonial

legislative bodies passed

resolutions (statements) in

opposition to the Stamp Act

• VA passed a resolution

claiming that Virginians

could only be taxed by the

Virginian government.

• Patrick Henry helped to write

the resolution – famous for

saying “Give me Liberty or

Give me Death!”

Stamp Act Congress• 1765, delegates from 9 colonies

met in New York City to issue the

Declaration of Rights and

Grievances

• Stated that Parliament had no right

to tax the colonies because the

colonies did not have

representatives in Parliament

JOIN or DIE!

• Delegates at the Stamp Act

Congress reconsidered

Franklin’s Albany Plan of

Union

• 1754, plan devised by

Benjamin Franklin before the

French and Indian War which

called for a unified colonial

council to address shared

colonial issues

• Rejected in 1754, but

influenced colonial thought

before/during the American

Revolution

Collective Boycotts

• Boycott – a refusal to buy goods or services

• Merchants in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York

boycotted goods manufactured in England

• GOAL: hurt GB enough financially to make Parliament repeal the

Stamp Act

• 1766 – Parliament passed the Declaratory Act

• repealed the Stamp Act but declared that Parliament had the right

to rule and tax the colonies

Townshend Acts

• 1767, Passed by Parliament that placed a tax on lead,

glass, paint and tea (imports coming from England to the

colonies)

• Intended to gain more $ in taxes from the colonies

• 3 penny tax on tea (the most popular drink in the colonies)

Reaction to Townshend Acts

• “No taxation without representation!”

• Sons of Liberty called for continued boycotts of British goods

• Women joined in resistance

• Resisted buying feathers, furs, fabrics

• Wealthy women joined with poorer women to form spinning clubs to weave

fabric for colonial clothes

• Exchanged recipes for homemade tea from birch and bark and sage

• British seized and searched a ship belonging to merchant John

Hancock in Boston for smuggling wine from Spain riots against

British customs officials increased British soldiers (“Redcoats”) in

Boston

Boston Massacre

• General hostility and frustration in Boston

• Increased presence of Redcoats

• Competition for jobs between colonists and poorly paid British

soldiers

• March 5, 1770

• Colonial mob formed outside of the Customs House in Boston and

harassed the guards

• Turned deadly when someone (unknown) fired a shot 5 dead

(including Crispus Attucks – young free black man in Boston)

• Samuel Adams labeled the Boston Massacre, presenting it as a

British attack on defenseless colonists

Paul Revere’s Engraving of the Boston

Massacre• Revere did not

witness the

events

• Anti-British

propaganda

• British

commander is

seemingly

ordering

Redcoats to fire

• Colonists look

defenseless

Committees of Correspondence

• A network of

communication (through

meetings and letters) set

up in Massachusetts and

Virginia to inform other

colonies of ways that

Britain threatened colonial

rights

• Formed 1772-74

• Eventually leaders from each

colony participated in the

communication

The Boston Tea Party• 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act

• Granted the British East India Company the right to sell tea directly

to the colonies free of the colonial taxes set by the merchants

essentially cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade

• Parliament believed colonists would just buy the cheaper

tea, however they protested!

• Agreeing to buy the tea with British tax (even if it was cheaper)

acknowledged Parliament’s right to tax the colonies.

The Boston Tea Party

• December 16, 1773 – a group of 200 colonists dressed as

Mohawks boarded 3 British tea ships and dumped 18,000

pounds of tea into Boston Harbor.

Eyewitness Account

Intolerable Acts

• King George III was furious and fearful about the

organized destruction of tea (British property) in Boston

• 1774 – Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts

• Shut down Boston Harbor because colonists refused to pay for the

destroyed tea

• Quartering Act – forced housing of British soldiers in colonial

homes

• Boston under martial law – rules/laws enforced by military power

and force

First Continental Congress

• Committees of correspondence

set up a meeting to discuss the

Intolerable Acts and

how to react

• First Continental Congress

• September 1774

• 56 colonial delegates met in Philadelphia

• Defended colonies’ right to run their own governments

• Supported protests in Boston

• Decided if British used force against the colonies, the colonies

should fight back

• Agreed to meet again in May 1775 if British relations did not

improve