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”