Magna Carta• Protections from
unjust punishment• Protection of life,
liberty, and property• Certain taxes must
have the consent of Parliament
English Bill of Rights• Rejection of absolutism• Parliament must approve:
Suspension of laws, Taxes, Standing Army
• Monarch cannot interfere in Parliamentary elections or debate
• Guarantee of fair and speedy trial by peers
• Forbids Cruel and Unusual Punishments
Locke: “Two Treatises on Government”
• Social Contract: rulers given authority by the consent of the governed
• Inalienable rights: Life, liberty, and Property
• Governments formed to protect rights
FACT:• The American Revolution was a
bad break-up that was just waiting to happen … taxes were just the straw that broke the Camel’s back–Like the lemons in “The Break-Up”
Colonial History• Virginia – Jamestown (1607)
– Chartered as a merchant colony; tobacco main cash crop (hoped for gold); indentured service and rough men; slavery – first natives then
– 20:1 ration men to women; drinking gambling
• Massachusetts – (1620; 1630)– Pilgrims: Plymouth; first go to Netherlands, then to America; working class
and humble– Puritans: Boston; very religious (intolerant); high education and
professional; carefully plan colony, legislature based on English government; high living standard
• Maryland (1632)– Founded as catholic refuge later begin to allow protestants; becomes slave
colony
Colonial History
• New York (1670)– Originally New Amsterdam; set up as trading post (fur) with no future
plans and no military presence; English take over in 1670 and rename
• Carolinas – Settled by plantation owners from Barbados, bring system with them;
rice plantations spring up, need for slave labor (African); slaves out number colonists 2:1 by 1700s
• Pennsylvania– Founded by Quakers; radical and egalitarian, universal suffrage;
maintain friendly relations with natives, outlaw slavery
Colonial Governments• Diversity
— Religious vs. Commercial roots—Escape from primacy
• Written Constitutions– Separation of Powers– Limited government
• Colonial Legislatures– Made policy for day-to-day
issues– British policy of Salutary Neglect
Road To Revolution• The Proclamation Line (1763)
– barring colonial settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania
• The Sugar Act (1764)– establish a British monopoly in the American sugar
market– allowed royal officials to seize colonial cargo with
little or no legal cause
Road To Revolution• The Stamp Act (1765)
– “taxation without representation.”– Sons of Liberty and Stamp Act Congress
• The Townshend Duties (1767)– taxed glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea entering the
colonies.– profits used to pay the salaries of the royal governors
• Boston Massacre (1770)• Committees of Correspondence (1770-1772)
Road To Revolution
• Boston Tea Party (1773)– Tea Act in 1773 eliminated import tariffs on tea entering England – a group of colonists dressed as Native Americans dumped about $70,000 worth of
the tea into Boston Harbor
• Intolerable Acts (1774)– Closed Boston Harbor to trade until the city paid for the lost tea. – Removed certain democratic elements of the Massachusetts government, most
notably by making formerly elected positions appointed by the crown. – Restricted town meetings, requiring that their agenda be approved by the royal
governor – Declared that any royal agent charged with murder in the colonies would be tried in
Britain. – Instated the Quartering Act, forcing civilians to house and support British soldiers