You say you want a Revolution?

You say you want a Revolution? How it happened

Contributing factors • Proclamation of 1763 – Organized new territories gained as a result of the French and Indian war, reserving areas west of the Appalachians for the Indians

Sugar Act - 1764 • the Sugar Act imposed duties on molasses and other forms of sugar, textiles and dye, coffee, and wines. The duty on molasses, a key ingredient in rum and one of the more important products that the colonists used, was actually cut in half under the Sugar Act. The difference was that England intended to strictly enforce the new duties.

Question • How was this different from the previos policy of ‘salutory neglect’?

Stamp Act - 1765 • Idea of Lord George Grenville. The first direct tax to be levied on the American colonies, it required that all newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents, commercial bills, advertisements, and other papers issued in the colonies bear a stamp. The revenue obtained from the sale of stamps was designated for colonial defense. • Effects? Objections?

Quartering Act - 1765 • Passed in conjunction with the Stamp Act • Obligated the Colonies to provide lodging and supplies for British soldiers.

Colonial Reactions to the Stamp and Quartering Acts • Boycotts of British goods • Also, nine of the thirteen Colonies, on the advice of the Massachusetts Assembly, formed the Stamp Act Congress to labor for the revocation of the Stamp Act. The Congress approved a Declaration of Rights and Grievances.

Sons of Liberty • Formed in Boston in 1765 by ordinary tradesmen to protest the Stamp Act • Soon Sons of Liberty existed in all of the colonies

Daughters of Liberty • Daughters of Liberty" formed in reaction to the Stamp and later acts, and after the ‘Sons’ • announced they would accept the attentions of only those young men who were willing to fight against the act "to the last extremity." • During the nonimportation campaign women in organized groups worked with great zeal to provide cloth and other articles which had formerly come from England. • It was the “Daughters” and women who were the primary enforcers of the tea boycott

Declaration of Rights and Grievances • This Declaration proclaimed that the Colonists were the equal of all British citizens, objected to taxation without representation and set forth that the British Parliament could not tax the Colonies unless the Colonies had representation in Parliament. • Parliament divided over this issue

Declaratory Act - 1766 • Passed when the Stamp Act was repealed, the Declaratory Act asserted Britain's exclusive right to legislate for and tax its colonies. Most colonists considered it a face-saving measure by the British

Townshend Acts 1767 • Passed by the English Parliament shortly after the repeal of the Stamp Act. They were designed to collect revenue from the colonists in America by putting customs duties on imports of glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. • The colonials, spurred on by the writings of John Dickinson, Samuel Adams, and others, protested against the taxes. The Boston merchants again boycotted English goods, the Massachusetts Assembly was dissolved (1768) for sending a circular letter to other colonies explaining the common plight

Boston Massacre - 1770

The Boston Massacre 1770 • Was a reaction to the presence of British troops as a result of colonial protest over new laws

The Boston Massacre 1770 • An eyewitness account of what happened: • "A number of persons, to the amount of thirty or forty, mostly boys and youngsters, who assembled ... near the sentry at the Custom-house door, damned him, and bid him fire and be damned; and some snow ball were throwed ... I saw a party of soldiers come from the main guard, and draw themselves up ... the people still continued in the street, crying, 'Fire, fire, and be damned,' and hove some more snow balls, whereupon I heard a musket go off, and in the space of two or three seconds, I heard the word 'fire' given ... and instantly the soldiers fired one after another."

The Boston Massacre 1770 • When the smoke and confusion cleared, five Bostonians were dead or dying. John Adams, a lawyer (and future President), helped win acquittal for six of the soldiers, but his cousin, Sam Adams, a patriot leader, called the incident a "plot to massacre the inhabitants of Boston" and used it to rouse fellow colonists to rebel. • Paul Revere’s engraving of the so called massacre became popular colonial art

The Boston Massacre 1770 • The British captain, Thomas Preston, and his men were tried for murder, with Robert Treat Paine as prosecutor, John Adams and Josiah Quincy as lawyers for the defense. Preston and six of his men were acquitted; two others were found guilty of manslaughter, punished, and discharged from the army

The Gaspee Incident - 1772 • the British customs schooner Gaspee grounded near Providence, Rhode Island and was attacked by several boatloads of Colonists who looted then burned it. The Royal governor of Rhode Island extended a reward for the capture of the Colonists, planning to ship them to Britain for trial. This only fueled the Colonists outrage.

Committees of Correspondence • Created during a Boston town meeting called by Samuel Adams. Similar committees were soon initiated all through the Colonies • Sons (and later Daughters) of Liberty become more organized

Tea Act - 1773 • Decreased the tax on imported British tea and in effect, gave British merchants an edge in selling their tea in the Colonies. On May 10, Parliament sanctioned the East India Tea Co to ship half a million pounds of tea to the Colonies. Parliament was planning to rescue the bungling company from bankruptcy by not imposing the normal duties and tariffs on the tea. Therefore, the firm could undersell any other tea obtainable in the Colonies, including smuggled tea. • Most colonial merchants were selling smuggled tea

Tea Act 1773 • One of the most prominent tea smugglers was a man named John Hancock, who had become wealthy smuggling tea • He helped organize the boycott

Boston Tea Party 1773 • On November 27, British tea ships arrived in Boston harbor. On December 16, a group of Colonists, supposedly disguised as Indians, sneaked onto the ships and tossed 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor rather than see it unloaded for sale.

The Intolerable Acts - 1774 • Britain’s response to the Boston Tea Party • included the Boston Port Bill which closed the Port of Boston • Massachusetts Government Act – dissolved the Massachusetts assembly • Quebec Act – reestablished the borders of Canada along the St. Lawrence • Quartering Act was broadened

Committees of Correspondence • First permanent committee formed by Virginia’s House of Burgesses in 1773 • Virginia urged other colonial assemblies to do the same • One of the results was the planning for the first Continental Congress in 1774

More Unified Protest • Massachusetts proposed a return to non-importation as protest of the Intolerable Acts. • However, with the exception of Georgia, via the Committees of Correspondance, the Colonies selected delegates to attend the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia on September 5.

Questions • Why did Georgia not attend the first Continental Congress? • Why Philadelphia (instead of Boston) as a meeting place?

First Continental Congress • The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia from Sept. 5 to Oct. 26, 1774, to protest the Intolerable Acts. • Leaders included Samuel Adams and John Adams of Massachusetts and George Washington and Patrick Henry of Virginia. The Congress voted to cut off colonial trade with Great Britain unless Parliament abolished the Intolerable Acts.

First Continental Congress • Approved resolutions included advising the colonies to begin training their citizens for war. • Attempts made to define America's rights, place limits on Parliament's power, and agree on tactics for resisting the aggressive acts of the English Government. • Set up the Continental Association to enforce an embargo against England.

First Continental Congress • The Congress also agreed they would meet again the following year • By the time the Congress met again in May 1775, hostilities had begun

You say you want a Revolution?