Chapter 5: Roads to Revolution

Chapter 5: Roads to Revolution

1750-1776

Triumph and Tensions:  The British Empire, 1750-1763

·   A Fragile Peace, 1750-1754

·         neither France or Britain gained dominance in North America, the skirmishing in the Ohio Valley continued

·         1753=French build forts between the Ohio River

·         Drive out colonial traders from the Valley

·         George Washington led an expedition to block the French and it failed.

·         This left the Anglo-American frontier in danger

Albany Congress 1754

·      The attempt of the 7 colonies north of VA to forge an effective defensive union with the help of   the Iroquois. Failed

·      Colonial legislatures refused to relinquish any of their authority over taxation. No Colonies approved it

The Seven Years’ War in America 1754-1760  (A.k.a. French and Indian War)

·         After the Anglo-French clash in 1754 led by George Washington, war broke out in America

·         At first British colonist fared poorly

·         France’s Indian allies raided western settlements

·         British, William Pitt Offered $$$ to colonist to fight for the British

·         Colonist kicked French ass

·         success was aided by the decision of the Iroquois and other Ohio tribes to stop helping the French

·         After the fall of Quebec and Montreal, French resistance crumbled

The End of French North America, 1760-1763

·         Treaty of Paris (1763) officially ended Seven Years’ War

·         France ceded all of its North American territories east of the Mississippi River to Britain

·         And all of its territories west of the Mississippi River as well as New Orleans to Spain

·         During the Seven Years’ War, the British expelled many French Canadians from Acaidia (Nova Scotia) because the English feared the Acadians were still loyal to France

·         Some of the Acadians migrated to LA, where their descendents became known as Cajuns

·         The British triumph in the Seven Years’ War initially bond the colonists to the mother country

·         Soon though the sowed discord between the them

The Writs of Assistance, 1760-1761

·         Writs of assistance=blanket search warrants

·         Permitted officials to enter any ship or building to search for smuggled goods and seize them

·         British customs officers used the writs of assistance to crack down on smuggling (mostly of French goods)

·         Colonists protested, Writs violated traditional English guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure.  And that Parliament had violated their rights as Englishmen

Anglo-American Friction

·         After the Seven Years’ War, GB tried to tighten control over its expanded colonial empire

·         Imposed new taxes on Englishmen at home and overseas to finance the administration of the colonies

·         aroused opposition on both economic and constitutional grounds

·         George III became King in 1760. Wanted to govern more actively

·         His policies and frequent ministerial changes further upset British-American relations

·         British supremacy in eastern North America opened the door to conflict between the mother country and the colonists

·         The Seven Years’ War left the British people with a hug debt and heavy taxes

Frontier Tensions

·         The British upset about  more $and  military effort to put down Indian uprisings caused by western moving beyond the Appalachians

·         Proclamation of 1763 Issued by GB to pacify Chief Pontiac Forbidding whites to settle beyond the crest of mountains until the British King had negotiated treaties with the Indians under which they agreed to cede their lands

·         The colonists were angered by this interference with their western land claims

·         Continuing to protect the frontier and consolidate control over the newly acquired territories would cost around 6% of the peacetime budget

·         British govt. officials saw no reason that the colonials should not be taxed to help defray the expense

Imperial Authority, Colonial Opposition, 1763-1766

·         British tried to finance its empire through a series of revenue measures (Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Declaratory Act)

·         Enforce these and other measures directly rather than relying on local authorities

·         Colonists protested in reaction ,Successful

·         Growing division between British and colonial perceptions about the nature of their relationship

The Sugar Act, 1764

·         Import duties on sugar and other items to raise $ for the British treasury

·         Taxes and restrictions burdened Mass., NY, and Penn. Merchants in particularly

·         Accused smugglers were to be tried in vice-admiralty courts, No juries

·         Judges who had a financial stake in finding the defendants guilty

·         Violated long-standing guarantee to a fair trial

The Stamp Act Crisis, 1765-1766

·         1765=Stamp Act proposed by Prime Minister George Grenville

·         Required colonists to purchase special stamped paper

·         Periodicals, customs documents, licenses, diplomas, deeds, other legal forms

·         Violators would be tried in vice-admiralty courts

·         Affected more colonials than the Sugar Act

·         Colonists objected to Parliament’s ability to impose on them internal or external taxes designed to raise revenue because they elected no representatives to Parliament

·         Colonists conceded that Parliament might regulate trade within the empire, but there could be “no taxation without representation”

Resisting the Stamp Act, 1765-1766

·         Patrick Henry proposed resolutions against Parliament

·         1765, VA H o B & 8 other colonial assemblies passed resolutions against Parliament

·         Loyal Nine in Boston Fight the Stamp Act

·         Loyal Nine and Sons of Liberty directed outraged mobs in attacks on the homes and property of stamp distributors causing them to resign their posts

·         Oct. 1765=representatives from 9 colonies

·         Stamp Act Congress in New York

·         they reiterated the principle of no taxation without representation and no parliamentary denial of trial by jury and other English liberties

·         American merchants boycotted all English merchants

·         Most influential action of colonists

·         Decrease in their sales led British businessmen to plead for repeal of the Stamp Act

The Declaratory Act, 1766

·         Parliament revoked the Stamp Act, But adopted the Declaratory Act

·         Restating Parliament’s right to tax and legislate for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever”

·         The colonists rejoiced the repeal of the Stamp Act And Disbanded the Sons of Liberty

·         Concluded that the mother country would return to its earlier limited governance

Ideology, Religion, and Resistance

·         Resistance to the Stamp Act had revealed a deep split in thinking between England and its colonists

·         Many thought Parliament’s actions were a conspiracy of a corrupt government to deny them their natural rights and liberties

·         John Locke’s ideas, 18th century English radicals, educated colonists, classical philosophers, etc.

·         It was their duty of the free people to resist

·         Protestant clergymen (except Anglicans and pacifist Quakers) preached sermons to all classes of colonists backing the views of resistance to GB

·         They declared that “solidarity against British tyranny and ‘corruption’ meant rejecting sin and obeying God.”

·         Resistance Resumes, 1766-1770

Opposing the Quartering Act, 1766-1767

·         Charles Townshend, chancellor of the Exchequer,  Looked to the colonies for needed revenue

·         Parliament was angry with New York’s refusal to comply with the Quartering Act

·         Parliament was ready to crack down on colonial self-government

Crisis over the Townshend Duties, 1767-1770

·         Revenue Act of 1767 (Townshend duties)

·         Imposed taxes on glass, paint, lead, paper, and tea imported into the colonies

·         Townshend had intended to set aside part of the tax money to pay the salaries of royal governors

·         Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania by John Dickinson Expressed majority American view

·         Parliament could use duties to keep trade within the empire but not to raise revenue as the Townshend duties did

·         Samuel Adam’s “circular letter” made the same point

·         Mass. Legislature sent it to other colonial assemblies

·         Would have been ignored by other colonies if Lord Hillsborough hadn’t reacted so radically.

·         August 1768=Boston merchants adopted a nonimportation agreement (hurt England economy)  that spread to other cities

·         1770=Lord North (new British Prime Minister) eliminated most of the duties

·         Kept the tea duty

·         Colonial leaders refused to drink British tea

Women and Colonial Resistance

·         White women’s participation in public affairs widen slowly and unevenly in the colonies for several decades

·         Daughters of Liberty play a part of defeating the Stamp Act

·         To protest the Revenue Act’s tax on tea, more than 300 “mistresses of families” in Boston denounced consumption of tea by refusing to serve taxed tea

·         organized spinning bees to produce homespun apparel rather than buy British-made clothing

Customs “Racketeering”, 1767-1768

·         Corruption of customs officials

·         Seized ships and cargoes for technical violations of the Navigation and Sugar Acts

·         Broke open sailors’ chests to search for small amounts of undeclared merchandise

·         Contributed to Americans’ growing alienation from the mother country

·         Violent attacks by seamen and others on customs inspectors happened more frequently

“Wilkes and Liberty”, 1768-1770

·         Boycotts only reduced imports by about 40%

·         Hurt British merchants and artisans enough to make them to implore Parliament to rescind its taxes

·         Part of a larger protest by English citizens against King George III and Parliament

·         John Wilkes led this protest

·         Felt the King and Parliament was dominated by a few elite wealthy landowners and not concerned about the “common” person

·         Govt. arrested Wilkes &Denied Wilkes a seat in the House of Commons (he was elected to it)

·         The govt.’s actions made Englishmen and American colonists further question the authority of an unrepresentative Parliament

The Deepening Crisis, 1770-1774

·         The way in which British officials enforced Parliament’s trade regulations made more and more colonials broaden their cry from “no taxation without representation” to “no legislation at all without representation.”

·         The British responded to the violence of the Liberty incident by sending another 4,000 soldiers to Boston,

·         their presence was hotly resented

The Boston Massacre

·         British soldiers were trying to enforce the Townshend Act

·         March 5, 1770

·         Group of British soldiers at a guard post in front of the customs office fired into a disorderly crowd that was hurling dares, insults, and objects at them

·         5 civilians killed 6 more wounded

·         MA. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson promised to try the soldiers, and the British removed their troops to a fortified island in Boston harbor.

·         John Adams was the lawyer for the redcoats

·         4 of the 6 were acquitted

The Committees of Correspondence, 1772-1773

·         1772=Lord North revived trouble when he prepared to implement Townshend’s plan to pay royal governor’s salaries out of customs revenue

·         Sam Adams and others responded by organizing committees of correspondence in each New England town to exchange information and coordinate activities in defense of colonial rights

·         March 1773: Virginians also set up a committee of correspondence

·         Within a year every colony but Pennsylvania had such committees that linked Americans together in a communications web

Conflicts in the Backcountry

·         Clashes in the West between Native Americans, various groups of colonists, colonial governments, and imperial authorities

·         Rapid population growth because of whites moving into the Appalachian backcountry

·         British govt. could not enforce the Proclamation of 1763

·         Colonial speculators took any land they could, Settlers, traders, hunters all trespassed on Indian land

·         Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) Granted land on the Ohio River to PA and VA

·         The land was claimed by the Shawnees, Delawares, and Cherokees

·         Increased tensions in Ohio Valley

·         KY was established as a colony

·         1774=colonists killed 13 Natives (Mingos and Shawnees); Indians (under Logan--leader of Mingos) retaliated and killed 13 Virginians

·          Lord Dunmore’s War (1774)  Point Pleasant, VA

·         Virginians vs. Logan

·         VA gained uncontested rights to the lands south of the Ohio in exchange for its claims on the northern side

·         Conflicts also occurred between the colonists

·         Mass vs. NY // NH vs. NY // CT settlers vs. PA

·         Conflicts between backcountry settlers and their colonial governments

·         Tensions generated by an increasing land-hungry white population and its willingness to resort to violence against Native Americans, other colonists, and British officials

The Tea Act, 1773

·         Colonists consumed more than 1 million pounds of tea a year

·         Purchased only 1/4 of it from the British East India Company, Colonists smuggled the rest in

·         Tea Act eliminated all remaining import duties on tea entering England and thus lowered the selling price to consumers

·         East India Company was allowed to sell its tea directly to consumers rather than through wholesalers so Reduced cost of tea well below the price of all smuggled competition

·         Tea Act alarmed many Americans

·         They saw it as a menace to liberty and virtue and to colonial representative government

·         British govt. would make more $ which would be used to pay royal governors

·         Committees of correspondence decided to resist the importation of tea (without violence or destroying property)

·         Tactics to prevent East India Company cargoes from being landed

·         Pressuring the company’s agents to refuse acceptance

·         By intercepting the  ships at sea and ordering them home

·         Worked in Philadelphia but not Boston

·         Dec. 16, 1773 Boston Tea Party

·         50 young men

·         Assaulted no one and damaged nothing besides the tea

·         45 tons of tea overboard

Toward Independence, 1774-1776

·         British govt. was upset with colonists & Wanted to stop all colonial insubordination

·         Colonial leaders responded with equal determination to defend self-govt. and liberty

Liberty for African-Americans

·         Many slaves wanted and hoped to gain their freedom from the British

·         James Somerset: Mass. slave who accompanied his master to England

·         Ran away in England, Recaptured, Sent off to Jamaica, Sued for his freedom

·         King’s Court ruled that Parliament never explicitly established slavery in England, a master could not send a slave outside the country against his will

·         Throughout the colonies slaves petitioned for their freedom

·         Many slaves thought war between the Empire and the colonies would bring them their freedom

·         Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation

·         Lord Dunmore=gov. of VA: Promised freedom to any able-bodied male slave who enlisted in the cause of restoring royal authority

·         “Liberty to Slaves” About 1,000

The “Intolerable Acts”

·         4 “Coercive Acts” and the Quebec Act

·         1st Coercive Act

·         Boston Port Bill April 1, 1774

·         Navy was to close the Boston harbor by June 1 if the tea destroyed in the Tea Party was repaid

·         2nd Coercive Act

·         Massachusetts Government Act

·         Revoked Massachusetts charter & Restructured the govt. to make it less democratic

·         3rd Coercive Act

·         Administration of Justice Act

·         Permitted any person charged with murder while enforcing royal authority in Mass. to be tried in England

·         4th Coercive Act

·         New Quartering Act

·         Allowed the governor to requisition empty private buildings for housing troops

·         Quebec Act

·         Roman Catholicism as Quebec’s official religion

·         Gave Quebec’s governors sweeping powers but established no legislature

·         Did not use juries for property disputes

·         Expanded Quebec’s territory south to the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi River

·         Anglo-Americans believed Britain was plotting to abolish traditional English liberties throughout North America

·         British meant to punish MA (Boston) with the “Intolerable Acts”; but pushed most colonies to the brink of rebellion

·         Of the 27 reasons justifying the break from Great Britain in the Declaration of Independence, 6 dealt with the Intolerable Acts

The First Continental Congress

·         To resist the Intolerable Acts, all the colonies besides Georgia sent representatives to a continental congress in Philadelphia

·         Sept. 5, 1774 to October 26, 1774  Approved the Suffolk Resolves

·         Advised colonials to begin arming themselves against attacks by royal troops

·         Created the Continental Association

·         Enforce a total cutoff of trade with England and the British West Indies

·         Sent a Declaration of Rights to George III & Begged him to dismiss the ministers responsible for the Coercive Acts

From Resistance to Rebellion

·         Committees of the Continental Association coerced wavering colonists into cooperating with the trade ban.

·         Loyalists (Tories) were intimidated; Volunteer militias (minutemen) drilled and prepared for war

·         Extralegal congresses met and tried to replace the existing colonial assemblies headed by royal governors

·         April 19, 1775 General Gage dispatched 700 soldiers to Lexington and Concord to seize the minutemen’s weapon stockpiles and arrest key patriotic leaders

·         William Dawes and Paul Revere challenged the redcoats arriving from Boston

·         1st fighting of the Revolution broke out

·         As news of the battles at Lexington and Concord spread, 20,000 New Englanders rushed to besiege Boston and oust the English

·         Redcoats=273 casualties; Colonists=92 casualties

·         The British defeated the colonials and Breed’s and Bunker Hills but suffered heavy casualties in doing so

·         June 17, 1775 1,154 for redcoats vs. 311 colonists at Bunker Hill

·         Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775

·         Majority of delegates still hoped for reconciliation with England

·         Olive Branch Petition Pleading for a cease-fire at Boston & Repeal of the Coercive Acts & establish American rights

·         The British ignored the plea

·         Dec. 1775, declared the colonists in rebellion

·         Second Continental Congress established an American continental army and appointed George Washington to command it

·         Not yet ready to declare independence

Common Sense

·         Loyalty to the king and hopes that he would restrain irritated ministers and members of Parliament lingered on through the summer and fall of 1775

·         Thomas Paine(Jan. 1776) argued that monarchy was a corrupt, repressive institution

·         And that Americans should shun and instead should take the opportunity to create a new kind of nation based on republican liberty

Declaring Independence

·         June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee (VA delegate) proposed that Congress declare independence

·         Members of Congress appointed a committee(Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben Franklin)

·         Draft a statement to justify the colonies’ separation from England(Declaration of Independence)

·         Influenced by Enlightenment: Natural rights philosophy, Equality of all men Universal rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness

·         July 2, 1776: Congress formally adopted Lee’s independence resolution & Created the USA

·         July 3: Reviewed and revised Jefferson’s Declaration

·         July 4: Approved and signed the Declaration

·      The equal rights for all championed by the Declaration of Independence did not exist in America in 1776

·         the document’s ideals inspired the revolutionary generation and many who followed to bring the realities of American life closer to the Declaration’s bold proclamation

Conclusion

·         Triumphant over France in the 7 Years’ War, GB in 1763 was the world’s leading power

·         GB attempts to centralize power and tax her colonies aroused American resistance

·         Between 1763 and 1776, the colonists strove to reestablish the colonial relationship as it had existed earlier when British supervision was minimal and colonial assemblies controlled taxes and internal legislation

·         Colonists peacefully protested the Stamp Act, the Townshend duties, and the Tea Act

·         Different classes acted out of different motives:

·         Elites resented erosion of their autonomy

·         Merchants and middle-class protested new economic restrictions

·         Rural poor questioned all authority

Unable to reconcile the mother country’s and colonial’s viewpoints and buoyed by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the American’s finally severed their ties with England and declared independence.