Unit II1763-1800
Part 1The Road to Revolution
After The Peace of Paris France was no longer a major
colonial power The American colonists wanted to
move West The Americans no longer needed the
British for protection from the French and the Indians
The British extended the policy of extermination to the Iroquois.
Brits believed that the Iroquois did not do their fair share during the war
The British were angry with the American colonists
During the war Americans refused to fight, avoided taxes which paid for the war, and smuggled with the enemy
British believed it was time for the Americans to do their fair share for the Empire
British Debt after the War
Land given to the Brits from the French added much territory…expensive to maintain
British national debt doubled between 1754-1763
Cost of administrating the empire 5 times as high as before the war
Debt fell on the shoulders of the British taxpayer
The End of Benign Neglect
New taxes Enforcement of laws
Note: The taxes were reasonable and just and were used to pay off the debt incurred by the British during the French and Indian War
BUT the new taxes will be the spark for the Revolutionary War
1763 The end of the French and Indian
War Pontiac’s Rebellion Proclamation of 1763 The Paxton Boys The End of Benign Neglect
The West Americans believed the end of the
Fr. and Indian War meant opening up the West
The British could not afford it: Would need more troops to protect the
Americans from the Indians Could not afford to administrate in this
vast area The British Board of Trade would not be
able to curtail colonial manufacturing in the interior of the country
The West American Fur Traders wanted
access to the West but wanted to deny others
Farmers were always looking for new land…tobacco exhausted soil
Land Speculators wanted opportunities
Different colonies had boundary disputes regarding western claims
1758 The Treaty of Easton
During the war, the British made a treaty with the Ottawa tribe promising not to allow settlement west of the Appalachians
After the war, Americans went West Pontiac’s Rebellion 1763: The
Ottawa Indians led by Pontiac struck back at the colonists
The Brits sent troops and defeated the Indians
The Proclamation of 1763
The British forbade access to the west to the colonists
Was meant to be temporary Colonists angry British offered new settlements in
East and West Florida and in Quebec (but no local assemblies)
Americans wanted West…not south or north
1763 The Paxton Boys Scotch-Irish in mountains of western
Pennsylvania murdered a village of peaceful Indians and then threatened to burn Philadelphia to the ground
Benjamin Franklin talked them down by promising to get the colonial legislature to put a bounty on Indian scalps
The End of Benign Neglect
1763 Mass. Writs of Assistance: general search warrants enabling customs agents to invade homes and warehouses to search for smuggled goods
The British had cause: colonists smuggled during the war
BUT American resentment: claimed it was a violation of their civil liberties
New Courts to try smugglers
Eliminated sympathetic colonial juries BUT under new system judges were
corrupt and could sometimes keep 1/3 of confiscated items
Salaries of colonial governors to be paid by the crown rather than by colonial legislatures
Customs Service revamped: Royal customs officials were required to take up their posts. They could not hire an underling to do the job for them
Customs Officials Would no longer accept bribes Became very unpopular Brits had to send troops to protect
them from the American colonists
1763 Grenville (Prime Minister)
Introduced new taxes to pay the war debt
New taxes were the spark for the Revolution
1764 The Sugar Act similar to the old 1733 Molasses Act: Colonists had to pay duties on sugar and molasses
Colonists objected to this one (1764) because it was enforced (the other was not) but said they objected on principle
More taxes Taxes on imported European products
were doubled
1765 Mutiny Act said Colonies were required to assist in provisioning and maintaining British troops (WHY were the troops there? To protect customs officials from the Americans!)
Colonies that resisted would have assemblies dissolved: Mass in 1767, NY in 1768
Colonial Manufacturing Was restricted in ALL British
colonies
1764 Currency Act: required colonies to stop issuing paper money
This one DID cause hardship: no specie in colonies, trade imbalance, colonists could not pay off British creditors, colonists were reduced to bartering with each other
1765 The Stamp Act The first internal tax in the American
colonies Taxes on paper items produced and
sold within the colonies Wills, deeds, newspapers, almanacs,
cards Impacted the most verbal element of
society: ministers, newspaper publishers, lawyers
They lived in the city and could organize easily
Had captive audiences
The Stamp Act There was a real fear that a new
series of internal taxes would follow Internal taxes seemed unnatural Totally unlike taxes regulating trade Import duties were considered
Britain’s right; internal taxes were different
Everyone else in the empire had been paying
internal taxes all along
Challenge to the Stamp Act
Patrick Henry in the Va. House of Burgesses: denied the right of Parliament to levy internal taxes
James Otis in Mass. Colonial assembly called for an intercontinental congress to act against the tax
Cited John Locke: Property ought not to be taken from a man without his consent…
Taxation without Representation
Was the least important reason for the revolution
As far as the British were concerned, the colonists WERE represented…in the House of Commons just like the rest of the empire
Taxes were justified…The Brits spent big bucks protecting the colonists
The Stamp Act Congress The very first sign of colonial
unification Representatives from 9 colonies met They petitioned the King and
Parliament for relief Pledged loyalty but claimed that the
colonists should be taxed only by their own assemblies
Colonial Action When the ships carrying the stamps
showed up in NY harbor… ….All vessels in port lowered their
colors in protest Some stamps were burned All universally barred Business at a standstill for days
Sons of Liberty Created by Sam Adams Terrorized customs agents, burned
stamps, incited riots…especially in Boston
Organized a boycott of British goods Used much intimidation Merchants (American and British)
suffered
Non-importation Agreement
Boycott was a huge success 1766 Stamp Act was repealed
BUT 1767 Declaratory Act: said that England had the right to bind the colonies in all cases
Brits believed the colonists: that they objected to the Stamp Act because it was an internal tax
So… 1767 Charles Townshend
(Chancellor of the Exchequer) introduced…
The Townshend Acts: New taxes on “luxury” goods imported from England: Lead, paint, paper, tea
Purpose to pay off the British debt To replace the Stamp Act with
“acceptable” taxes
Violations of the Townshend Acts
Trials to be held in England without juries
BY THIS TIME colonists were objecting to England’s right to tax them at all
John Dickenson wrote “Letters from a Farmer in Penn. to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies in North America” convincing the Americans that the Brits had no right to tax them at all!
Another Colonial Boycott of British goods
Circular Letter from the Mass. Assembly to the other colonies urged all to resist all British taxes
Brits were made aware of the Circular Letter and sent one of their own saying that colonies supporting the resistance would have their assemblies dissolved
The French and Indian War
Revealed that closer colonial cooperation was needed to solve common problems
1767 Charles Townshend died suddenly!
Lord North (Prime Minister) repealed Townshend Acts
North was sympathetic to colonists Wanted to mend relations so no new
taxes All was quiet for three years and
then…
1770 The Boston Massacre
Since Americans continued to harass British Customs Officials (because they would not be bribed) More British soldiers were sent here to keep order
Soldiers were not paid well so they sometimes looked for part-time jobs to make ends meet
Colonists resented this THEY wanted the jobs!
What Happened? A few British soldiers were walking
toward a factory to look for work A colonial mob began jeering and
pelting them with snowballs Mob grew More soldiers came to protect job
seekers Lots of name-calling, chaos British commander yelled, “Hold
your fire!”
It was noisy… The soldiers only heard, “Fire!” and
they did Five were killed Colonists called it a “Massacre” Paul Revere, a silversmith, did an
etching making it LOOK like a massacre
Soldiers were defended by John Adams who thought that the only way the soldiers would get a fair trial in front of a colonial jury would be if he personally defended them
The Verdict A colonial jury found three of the
soldiers innocent and two guilty of manslaughter (accidental death) and the two were branded on the thumb.
So…was calling the incident an exaggeration?
1772 The Gaspee Incident
A British Revenue ship was chasing suspected smugglers along the Delaware River
A group of Rhode Islanders went caught up with the British ship, put the captain and crew on a rock in the middle of the river, and burned the ship
1772 Committees of Correspondence
Sam Adams Organized it Patrick Henry and other joined John Hancock bankrolled the
troublemakers
It was a loose network to publish grievances and coordinate activities of colonists resisting British rule
The Boston Tea Party (late 1773)
Began a chain of events leading directly to the Revolutionary War
When the Townshend Acts were repealed, the tax on tea remained
The East India Tea Co. was in trouble: mismanagement, shrinking American market (due to smugglers)
East India Tea Co. The company was relieved of its
taxes at home and was given a monopoly of the American tea trade
AND the Company could sell the tea directly…eliminating the middleman saved $
This was done to save the corporation (a bailout)
American objections Americans objected to the tax on tea
and to the monopoly of their business
BUT even with the tax the tea was 75% cheaper than it had ever been before!
If the colonists bought the tea, it meant that they accepted the tax and the monopoly of their tea trade
The Tea Party The EITC sent 4 ships to America:
Boston, NY, Philly, Charleston At Charleston, the tea was loaded
into a warehouse and the warehouse was locked up…no tea was sold
At NY and Philly, the ships were not allowed to dock and were turned away
Boston In Boston, 3 groups of 50 colonists
(Sons of Liberty) dressed up like Mohawk Indians and dumped the tea into the harbor.
Vandalism. The tea was valuable and no one was forcing the colonists to buy it
Mercy Otis Warren formed the Daughters of Liberty. Pushed coffee, pamphlets, etc
The Brits could not let this one slide
What really irked the Brits was their certainty that no colonial jury would convict the tea dumpers
The Intolerable Acts aka The Coercive Acts An effort by the British to make the
punishment fit the crime The Brits really thought the other
colonies would see the fairness of it…NOT
The Intolerable Acts (1774)
The Boston Port Act: The port would be closed until the tea was paid for
The Administration of Justice Act: British officials accused of crimes would be tried in England and troops could be quartered anywhere in Mass.
The Mass. Government Act: Assembly would be appointed-not elected and Town meetings to be held only once a year.
The Quebec Act As far as the Brits were concerned
the Quebec Act had nothing to do with the American colonies
Americans believed the Quebec Act was part of the Intolerable Acts French in Quebec could practice their
own religion French in Quebec could continue using
their own legal systems Quebec boundary extended to the Ohio
River
1774 Virginia assembly called for a Continental
Congress In Philadelphia September 1774 12 colonies represented (not Georgia) Listed Grievances Petitioned the king for relief Boycott British goods Continental Association to enforce boycott Demanded a repeal of all oppressive
legislation since 1763 (colonial objections were escalating)
Agreed to meet again
The Americans wanted the British to recognize
American rights Volunteer armies set up in every
colony Planters armed workers and drilled
them at their own expense The Quaker Blues Towns ordered to stockpile weapons
and ammo
The Revolution may not have happened if…
…the British had adopted a policy similar to what she later adopted with Canada and Australia…Commonwealth status
The Brits didn’t get it. No member of Parliament had ever visited the colonies 1607-1776
Lord North’s offer North offered the colonists the
Resolution on Conciliation: Any colony willing to pay for its own administration and defense would be free of all taxes
Not one colony responded
Think First the colonists objected only to
“internal taxes)…after the Stamp Act (1765)
Then colonists objected to Britain's right to tax us at all (after the Townsend Acts (1767) and John Dickenson’s “Letters…”
Then (1774) the First Continental Congress claimed the British could not legislate for us!
Wanted an end to all “oppressive” legislation since 1763! (the end of Benign Neglect)
Think Again Were the British actions and laws
reasonable? Were Americans asked to do more than any other part of the British Empire? Why did the Brits need money? (Why did they HAVE a debt?)
Were American actions reasonable or were they overreactions?...Boycotts, Tea Party, calling the Boston Massacre a “massacre,” calling the Acts of 1774 “Intolerable” or “Coersive”