❖ Crash Course #6 ➢ The British Government​ had to borrow 150 million pounds because of war debt ■ And in order to pay off the war, the British had to raise taxes ● Plus, the colonists had no say about the new taxes that were being placed upon them ■ And so the British put some of that burden onto the American colonists ■ A lot of colonies have been setting their own taxes for more than 100 years ➢ They cut the tax of Molasses in the Caribbean from 6 cents per gallon to 3 cents per gallon ■ But with that, they started to enforce smuggling ➢ The Stamp Act​ in 1765 declared that all printed materials had to have a stamp on it ■ And the stamp wasn’t free so that boosted the revenue for Britain ● But in October, there were protesters organizing the Stamp Act Congress ● And after a meeting, that decided to boycott British goods ● And they convinced the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act but passed another act called the Declaratory Act ➢ Charles Townshend​ got into the Parliament and passed new taxes in 1767 and passed a new board of customs to stop smuggling ■ Merchants didn’t like the boycott because it made their job a lot harder because they couldn’t import their goods ➢ The Tea Act​ in 1773 offered tax rebates which allowed them to dump cheap tea into colonies ■ And with that, it actually dropped the cost of tea ■ People got mad because people dressed up like Indians and dropped enough tea that could’ve made them 4 million dollars ● They were mad because it was cutting into the profit of smugglers and tea merchants ➢ The tea partiers thought that England wouldn’t respond, but the British made the “Intolerable Acts.” ■ The Quartering Act ​forced colonists to let British soldiers stay in colonist’s homes when ordered to ■ The Quebec Act​ extended the southern boundary of Quebec and granted religious toleration to Catholics ● The response of these acts was the cause of the start of the American Revolution ◆ They first disobey the “Intolerable Act”, then stop paying taxes, and then had to prepare for war ➢ In September 1774​, a group of delegates met in Philadelphia to talk about the resistance of the Intolerable Acts. ■ Many colonists had a change of attitude because instead of standing up for their rights, they began to make claims about freedom and natural rights ➢ The American Revolution​ and the American War for Independence was not the same thing ■ The fighting for the American War of Independence started 15 months before the Declaration of Independence was even signed ■ Plus, just declaring independence doesn’t mean that you have independence ➢ On April 19th, 1775​, fighting broke out between the British and the colonists (more specifically the British soldiers and the Massachusetts militia men) ■ The colonists lost on Bunker Hill, but the British took a lot of casualties so they had to leave Boston ■ But the colonists got revenge in New York, which they continued to hold during the rest of the war ● But not all of the colonists were up for independence ➢ The Continental Congress​ sent the ​Olive Branch Petition​ to ​King George III proposing that Americans were loyal subjects to the British and they want to reunite with what they are used to ➢ Thomas Paine’s​ pamphlet Common Sense appeared in January 1776 and had arguments like, “of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.” ■ Paine’s pamphlet also touched on the idea that America was special ■ And america got their freedom for many reasons but Paine’s pamphlet was a really important reason ■ Within only 6 months of publishing the pamphlet, the second Continental Congress declared independence and signed one of the most important documents in history ❖ Crash Course #7 ➢ The main thing that the British did during the ​Revolutionary War​ was to capture cities and make the colonists surrender ■ And it kinda worked because the British captured Boston, New York, and Charleston ● But the colonists didn’t quit ■ Washington won the battle in Tremont, which came after a long streak of defeats ➢
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■ The key battle​ ​was in​ Yorktown in ​1781​, because this was the battle that the colonists was able to make the British surrender ● This battle made the British lose the war Joseph Plumb Martin​ wrote “starving in detail for an ungrateful people who did not care what became of us.” So, many colonists were fighting not for independence but they were fighting for England ■ So, ​in 1775​, the ​British governor Lord Dunmore​ wrote a proclamation stating that if you were a slave and you left your servant to fight for England, then you would be granted freedom ● And about 5,000 slaves went and took Lord Dunmore up on his proclamation ■ Many more slaves after that thought that the Revolution was the perfect time to escape so about 100,000 slaves fled to England Native Americans​ didn’t want to be on either side of the Revolution but they were still being affected by the war. ■ And the Native Americans wanted the colonists to stay neutral as well ■ American troops were defeated by the American Indians (which was on the British side) by burning their villages and enslaving prisoners For women, during the American Revolution, it wasn’t fantastic ■ Some women had to fight in the war, but for most of the colonial women, they didn’t get much out of the war ■ Women were also the main educators, so they needed to learn so they could “instruct their sons in the principles of liberty and government.” But when the war was over, it didn’t change a lot of things that needed to be changed besides needing to gain independence ■ The one main thing that changed was that the colonies became states, and each state created constitutions ● And that opened up voting for more people (but mostly for white man) ■ Another big thing that came out of the Revolution was the freedom of religious belief ■ The Revolution also change the economy as well ■ But the thing that made the American Revolution revolutionary was that Americans had and proposed visions of liberty But a lot of people say that the Revolution was hypocritical because of people that were saying that we should stop slavery or people saying that they are enslaved were having slaves of their own ■ Jefferson​ wanted to stop slavery in the ​Declaration of Independence​ but that meant that he couldn’t live a good life if he didn’t have slaves ■ There was a lot of protests about slavery and most of the protesters were African American ● And that got the pace moving because a lot more slaves were being freed in the North Unit 2 Notes ❖ Consequences of the Seven Years’ War (107) ➢ The war made the American colonists have to act against a common enemy ■ The friction on ​1756­1757​ over ​British requisition​ and the ​1758​ return of authority established an important example ● It confirmed the illegitimacy of English interference ■ The Seven Years’ War​ was a really important socializing experience for the Americans ■ The contrast of the British regulars helped shape the American response to British imperial policies ➢ In​ the French and Indian war​, the British victory causes a great deal of damage ■ The Iroquois​ (which is allied with Britain) did a little better ● When the Iroquois broke their alliance with the British, the Iroquois Confederacy started to break apart from the inside out. ❖ The New Imperialism (107) ➢ England began at peace for about 50 years because of a treaty that was signed in 1763 ■ But sooner or later, they couldn’t avoid expanding ❖ Burdens of Empire (108) ➢ The experience of the French and Indian war showed that increasing involvement would be more difficult ■ It was proved more difficult because of the colonists resistance to British power, plus the colonial assemblies respond to British needs slowly ❖ Commercial versus Territorial Imperialists (109) ➢ Problems with managing the empire got more difficult after ​1763​ because the imperial design for Britain shifted ■ It was easier to focus on it back then because it was mostly focused on trade, but now there is a growing number of English and American leaders and they are arguing about the land ■ These debate between old commercial imperialists and new territorial imperialists came to a head at the conclusion of the end of the French and Indian war ➢ The mercantilists are making trades of lands to everyone involved in the war ■ They want England to return Canada to France, and in return they get Guadeloupe ❖
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● Which is a great sugar island in the West Indies ➢ With the territorial seizuring in 1763, ​the British Empire​ became twice as good as they were ■ But with that, it made controlling the land a lot more difficult ● The main problem was that they were spreading too fast and that would start conflicts with the Indians ● Plus, they didn’t know who was going to control the western lands Britain's Staggering War Debt (109) ➢ The government in London were running out of ideas on how to pay back the war debt ■ They tried increasing taxes ● For England, only taxes could save them from war debt because of troops in different places (like the Indian border) ➢ The English government experience of changes when it came to power and George III​ got power in 1760 because of the death of his grandfather ■ And to the throne, he brought regretful qualities to the throne ● One, he was determined to be a responsible monarch because of pressure by his mother, he removed a stable coalition from power and created one of his own George III’s Shortcoming (109) ➢ George III had serious intellectual and psychological problems because he has a rare disease which made him go insane ■ And since he was crazy, he couldn’t perform any official functions ■ Even when George III was rational enough, he wasn’t as mature as he could be (because he was 22 when he started ruling) ■ Because he tried to prove his worth to the throne, he keeps on finding himself ill. The British and the Tribes (109­110) ➢ The problem with the western lands was the most important and urgent. ■ The settlers and traders had to move over the mountains and into the Ohio area because of the departure of the French ■ So the British government made a ​proclamation of 1763 ● Not letting any settlers advance past a certain point along the Appalachian Mountains Proclamation of 1763 (110) ➢ This helped the British because it helped with controlling the western lands ■ So, then was able to expand the western lands more ■ Tribes didn’t like the Proclamation because they needed to give land to the white settlers ● But people agreed to it ■ Relations got between the British and the tribes in some area after the Proclamation though ■ John Stuart​ was the charge of the Indians in the south and ​Sir William Johnson​ in the north ❖ White Encroachment (110) ➢ The Proclamation of 1763 failed to meet the expectations of the ​Native Americans ➢ White settlers continued to take land ■ Which made the white colonists push the line of settlement ❖ The Colonial Response (110) ➢ The Grenville ministry increased the authority in the colonies ■ Some British troops were permanently placed in America ■ Plus, ​the Mutiny Act of 1765, ​the colonists had to assist in maintaining the army ● Ships had to patrol for smugglers ● Officials had to come in person instead of substitutes ❖ Sugar, Currency, and Stamp Acts (110­111) ➢ The Sugar Act of 1764​ was made to stop illegal sugar trade between the French and Spanish West Indies and the continental colonies ■ It started new courts in America to try to accuse these smugglers ➢ The Currency Act of 1764​ made the colonies stop issuing paper money and to stop all paper money being made ➢ The Stamp Act of 1765 ​made it so you need a stamp on newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, deeds, wills, and licenses ■ The new imperial program was a way to apply to old tactics of mercantilism ● Sometimes it was effective ■ And this whole thing was a way for the British to get a lot more money faster ● But they started more problems than solve old problems ❖ Paxton Boys​ (111­112) ➢ America were disobeying London because of harboring a lot of grievances ■ These conflicts were arounded the societies in the Atlantic or in the west ■ They sometimes felt surrounding because of living so close to the Indians ➢ The Paxton Boys (a group of people) went to Philadelphia and asked to not have to pay taxes and asked for money to defend themselves ❖ Regulator Movement​ (112) ➢ The Regulator Movement started in 1771 in North Carolina ■ It was a small­scale civil war ■ The people in this war was farmers (Regulators) from the upcountry who wanted to not pay high taxes ● So they armed themselves and started resisting taxes collection with force ■ Governor William Tryon ​sent an army after the Regulator and defeated them in the ​Battle of Alamance ➢ Everyone didn’t like the ​Grenville program ■ The Northern didn’t like it because of the extreme taxation that was happening ● Because of fear of debt, the Southern planters fear that they would lose their ability to ease their debts ■ Small farmer were also scared that they would suffer from increasing taxes ❖ Postwar Depression​ (113) ➢ Because of new restrictions, there is an economic depression ■ They put a ton of money into the war but then the war stopped which started an economic bust ■ A solution was to take money out from the colonies ● A lot of colonist was scared that they wouldn’t be able to live like this ■ Americans were still able to live with the British policies because it didn’t mean that America had a economic decline ● But they were scared that they would have an economic decline ❖ Political Consequences of the ​Grenville Program ​(113) ➢ The economic consequences were bad but the political consequences were a lot worse ■ Anglo­Americans ​were use to broad powers of self government ➢ There was a movement to stop of new imperial policies ■ Which a lot of people fight and died for ❖ The Stamp Act Crisis (113­114) ➢ Merchants and lawyers needed to buy stamp for legal documents ■ Tavern owners also needed to buy stamps for license ■ Even printers (which was the most important group in distribution) had to buy stamps for newspapers ➢ The Stamp Act didn’t do that much to the economic because they weren’t that expensive ■ Americans figured out they the Stamp Act was for England to gain money ❖
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➢ The Virginia House of Burgesses​ convince Americans to take action everywhere ■ Patrick Henry​ gave a speech to the House of Burgesses and predicted if present policies weren’t revised, George might lose his head Virginia Resolves (114) ➢ Henry introduces that Virginians should pay no taxes except for those voted for Parliament ■ The House Burgesses defeated Henry’s resolutions ➢ James Otis​ tried to call an intercolonial congress to stop a new tax ➢ The Stamp Act Congress went to New York and decided to petition the king in October 1765 Sons of Liberty​ (114) ➢ Riots broke on in Boston in the summer of 1765 ■ So the Sons of Liberty terrorized stamp agents and burn stamps ■ There was also a group of people attacking pro­British “aristocrats” ■ The protesters also burned ​Thomas Hutchinson​’s house ● But Thomas was opposed to the Stamp Act but went along with it when it became law ■ The authorities didn’t abandon this crisis because of the riots, petitions, and resolutions ■ Everyone was already protesting because of the Sugar Act a year before ■ Merchants of England begged the Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act Parliament Retreats (114) ➢ The Marquis of Rockingham tried to calm everyone down and convinced the king to stop the Stamp Act ■ So, on March 18 1766, the Parliament stopped the Stamp Act ■ But the Parliament passed another act called the ​Declaratory Act ● Which states Parliament authority over the colonies The Townshend Program ​(115) ➢ English landlords angrily protested about the government “scarified” the landed men . ■ They feared that the government would increase taxes on them ➢ The king dismissed the Rockingham ministry and replaced it with ​William Pitt ■ Pitt was a favorite because of being considered a friend to the colonists and didn’t like the Stamp Act ■ But when Pitt went into office, he suffered with gout and had a mental illness ● So, the power went to ​Charles Townshend Mutiny Act​ (115) ➢ Townshend’s first challenges was dealing with America’s hate for against Parliament and so he made the Mutiny or Quartering Act of 1765 ■ This made it so that the colonists provide somewhere to live and supplies for British troops ■ Troops were placed in North America to protect the colonists from any Indian or French attacks ● But the colonists didn’t like it because it was another attack on their rights ■ The colonists weren’t opposed to it because they wanted to be safe and they found it to be a requirement ❖ Internal and External Taxes (115­116) ➢ Townshend proposed 2 measures through the Parliament in 1767 (that were called the ​Townshend duties​) ■ One of them was to stop break up the ​New York assembly​ until colonists agreed to the Quartering Act ■ The other one was imposed new taxes on various goods imported to the colonies from England ● Like lead, paint, paper, and tea ■ Townshend thought that the colonists couldn’t object to this because it met standard ■ Colonists thought that this was another way for England to get money ■ Plus, the suspension of the New York Assembly awoken the resentment of the colonies ➢ So, the Massachusetts assembly took action and started to oppose against every tax imposed by the Parliament by writing a letter ■ After, ​Lord Hillsborough​ wrote a letter back saying that any endorsing from any assemblies would be dissolved ➢ Townshend made a new board of customs commissioners and the commissioners pretty much ended smuggling ■ But there was still smugglers ❖ Colonial Boycotts ​(116) ➢ The Boston merchants didn’t like the new commissioners because they diverted the smuggling elsewhere and this started another boycott ■ In 1768, they got a lot of merchants from all around America ● Like Philadelphia, New York, and even the southerns ■ The colonists boycotted the British goods that were in the Townshend Duties ■ But late in 1767, Townshend died and everyone about the Townshend duties stopped and therefore to the new prime minister, ​Lord North. ❖
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■ Lord North repeal all of the Townshend duties besides the tax on tea in March 1770 The Boston Massacre​ (116) ➢ There was presence of redcoats and that made the colonists have a sense of independence and a reminder of British oppression ■ Plus, the army wanted off­duty jobs because being in the army, you didn’t get paid well ➢ A group of dockworkers threw rocks and snowballs at the custom house on the night of ​March 5th 1770 ■ Because of that, one soldier was knocked out and the others shot five people from that crowd Samuel Adams​ (116­117) ➢ This incident was then named the Boston Massacre ■ The British soldiers were guilty of manslaughter and sentenced them to a punishment ■ The leading figure of the outrage was Samuel Adams ● He became a unflagging voice for expressing outrage ● He spoke at town meetings in Boston ● He suggested creating a committee of correspondence in Boston so people can talk about the grievances against England England’s Balanced Constitution (117­118) ➢ Government was needed to protect from the evil of one another ➢ Most people thought that the English Constitution was the best system ■ But in the mid­17th century, both England and America thought that the constitution was in danger ■ England was okay with changes in the government but America thought everything had to be written on paper ● America didn’t like the idea of changing basic principles ■ Americans believed that there was a right of people to be taxed with their own consent ■ But for the English theory, members of the Parliament didn’t represent individuals but represented the whole nation (which was virtual representation) ● And for America, they actually believed in actual representation Virtual vs Actual Representation (118) ➢ The Parliament had the right to have one person represent the empire as a whole ■ While America was arguing about a sovereign in other ■ But to the British that would be weird because that there needed to be one ultimate authority ❖ Revolutionary Discourse (118) ➢ In town and cities, men would gather to talk about politics ➢ At one point, colonists took a British revenue ship on the Delaware ■ Plus, in ​1772​, people got on the British schooner ​Gaspee​ and burned it ● They also put the accused attackers in trial ➢ There was a new act on selling tea ■ Britain’s East India Company​ was about to be bankrupt because they had a lot of tea that they couldn’t sell on England ■ So the government passed a new act called the ​Tea Act of 1773​ and it let the company export the tea directly to colonies without paying for navigation taxes ❖ The Tea Act​ (118­119) ➢ This act made colonists mad for a lot of reasons ■ First, it made merchants mad because they were also about to go bankrupted ■ Also, it brought back to live America passions about “taxation without representation” ■ The colonists responded to the Tea Act by boycotting tea ● By boycotting tea, it mobilized larger amounts of the population, plus women (who were the primary consumers of tea) ■ Women were very important to the resistance of tea ● They were also a main part of riots and crowd activities ❖ Boston Tea Party​ (119­120) ➢ In the last weeks of 1773, protesters wanted to stop the East India Company from landing their cargo ■ So on ​December 16, 1773, ​150 men went on three ships and started throwing tea chests into the harbor ■ After all of this, Lord North and George III made ​4 Acts of 1774 ● Parliament closed the port of Boston ● Reduced colonial self­government ● Made royal officers to be tried in other colonies ● Having troops live in colonial barns and empty houses ❖ Coercive Acts​ (120­121) ➢ Parliament followed the Coercive Acts (America called it the Intolerable Acts) ■ The Quebec ​Act was to extend the boundaries of Quebec to include the french communities ■ This granted rights to Roman Catholics ● But in the 13 english speaking colonies, there found this a threat ❖
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● People thought that this was a plot by England to appoint a bishop th America New Sources of Authority (121) ➢ Local institutions answered by taking away authority on their own ■ Samuel Adams ordered a convention of delegates to sit in place of the General Liberty ■ Committees of citizens started to meet perform additional political function First Continental Congress​ (121­122) ➢ Virginia started the first intercolonial committees of correspondence ■ Virginia also called for a Continental Congress in ​1774 ■ The First Continental Congress meeting was in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia in ​September 1774 ● They made 5 major decisions ◆ They didn’t like a idea for colonial union ◆ They supported a statement of grievances ◆ They agreed on a series of resolutions that the colonists should be prepared for any attacks from the British ◆ They agreed to stop all trading to Great Britain ◆ And they agreed to met again in the Spring The ​Conciliatory Propositions​ (122) ➢ The Parliament in London came together to talk about how to appease the colonists ■ William Pitt thought that they should take out the troops from America ■ Edmund Burke thought that they should repeal the Coercive Act ■ Lord North created a series of measures known as the Conciliatory Propositions ● The colonies would be able to tax themselves at Parliament demand ● But Lord North was too late and the first shots of war had been fired already Lexington and Concord (122) ➢ The townspeople was being prepared to step into the war at minutes notice (minutemen) ➢ General Thomas Gage was the commander of the Boston garrison ■ He didn’t take the advice of officers General Thomas Gage​ (123) ➢ Gage knew that the minutemen had stored a lot of gunpowder ■ But because of that, the British found it and burned it all ■ At the end of that day, the British lost 3x as much men than America ➢ There was two stories of how fired first ■ Major Pitcairn said to spread out but they ignored the command ■ But the British thought that the minutemen had fired first ❖ Conclusion (124­125) ➢ When the French and Indians War ended in ​1763, ​America and Britain had a better relationship because of that war ■ They also got a lot of land ➢ But when the colonists wanted independence, British thought that they needed more control ■ Since America was a part of that war, British wanted them to pay as well so they wanted to take out as much money from the colonies as possible ➢ In the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775, America and Britain realized that they are two different societies