2
The American Rebellion
and world war
In the mid-1760s the British government’s finances were in a terrible
state. A debt of £140 million had been left by the demands of the recent
Seven Years’ War. Government ministers searched for a way to start to
pay this back and to help pay for further costs, such as stationing troops
in North America. The ministers knew that Britain had just saved the
American colonies from attack by the French and that they were enjoying
the protection of the Royal Navy. Moreover, the British Empire provided
a huge market for American goods. They decided that it was time for the
American colonists to shoulder their share of the financial burden.
By the late 1760s, the thirteen British mainland North American
colonies had a combined population of nearly 3 million people. There
were a number of large cities such as New York, Boston and Charleston,
while Philadelphia, with a population of around 40 000 people, was the
second-largest city in the British Empire. The language and culture of
the colonies was English, but in some there were large groups of other
nationalities, such as Germans, Scots and Irish. There were also large
numbers of black slaves, particularly in the southern colonies. Each
colony, with its governor and assembly, like a local parliament, was
loyal to the British Crown, but
there was little co-operation
between the colonies and they
sometimes argued with each
PROVINCE OF
other, often over their borders.
QUEBEC
MAINE
However, land and
NEW YORK
NEW HAMPSHIRE
religion were to draw these
MASSACHUSETTS
quarrelsome, often selfish
RHODE ISLAND
colonies together.
Providence
PENNSYLVANIA
Plantation
Immediately after the end
of the Seven Years’ War, the
INDIAN RESERVE
CONNECTICUT
British government made the
NEW JERSEY
VIRGINIA
Proclamation of 1763. This
DELAWARE
was designed to reorganise the
MARYLAND
British colonies of North America
NORTH CAROLINA
now that the French lands had
SOUTH CAROLINA
become British. It recognised
200 miles
Atlantic Ocean
Catholicism as a permitted
GEORGIA
religion in former New France
■● The American colonies in 1770
(Catholicism was banned in
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some British American colonies), established a firm border between the
thirteen mainland colonies and British Canada, and finally established
rules for relations with the Native American tribes and peoples. However,
several of the existing British colonies resented the fact that new borders
stopped them expanding westward. Many colonists hated Catholicism
and wanted it banned throughout North America.
●●The Stamp Tax
The British government angered even more colonists when it claimed
that the British Parliament had the right to tax people in the colonies.
Previously the governor and assembly in each colony had decided
what taxes their residents should pay. After several other taxes, in
1765 the Stamp Tax was passed. This required that legal documents,
newspapers, playing cards and dice had to carry a stamp that had
been bought from the government.
In Boston, Massachusetts, groups calling themselves the Sons of
Liberty used intimidation to prevent anyone from selling the stamps.
The outcry against the Stamp Tax caused nine colonies to send
representatives to sit in what became known as a Stamp Act Congress
in New York City, which then declared:
Possibly the most damaging action of all was the boycott of British
goods enforced by groups like the Sons of Liberty.
All this protest and violence in the colonies caused the British Parliament
to repeal the Stamp Tax in 1766, while at the same time passing (largely
unnoticed by the colonists) the Declaratory Act which stated that:
The king and Parliament have full power and authority to make laws
and statutes of sufficient force to bind the
colonies … in all cases whatsoever.
●●Tea and massacre
The government saw a need to tighten up
Britain’s control of its American colonies, not
only by taxing them, but also by stopping the
widespread smuggling of goods. The colonies
were meant to buy only British goods, but
the smugglers brought in merchandise from
France, Spain and other countries.
In many American colonists’ eyes the new
rules were an attempt to undermine their
rights as freeborn Englishmen. Their battle
■■ Part of the heading of an anti-Stamp Act American
newspaper, printed in 1765
2
The American Rebellion and world war
That the only representatives of the people of these colonies are
persons chosen by themselves, and no taxes ever have been, or can be
constitutionally imposed upon them, but by their respective legislatures.
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More trouble with tea
cry was ‘no taxation without representation’,
meaning that the right to tax in each colony
lay with the local colonial assemblies alone,
not the distant Parliament in London.
In 1766 William Pitt, now Earl of Chatham,
helped form a new government. Although Pitt
generally supported the American colonies,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles
Townshend, decided to pass a new set of
taxes. These Townshend Duties of 1767 were a
set of customs duties on goods such as paint,
paper, glass and tea.
There was a strong reaction in the colonies
against these taxes and in a number of places
there was violence against customs officials.
Once again, it was a campaign started in
■■ An engraving of the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere,
the colonies to boycott English goods. In
silversmith, and a member of the Sons of Liberty
Boston a former tax collector named Samuel
Adams stood out as a leader of the Sons of
Liberty. The Massachusetts Assembly, with Samuel Adams’s urging,
declared the Townshend Duties illegal. So, in response, regiments of
British troops were sent to Boston to enforce them. Friction developed
between the soldiers and some citizens of Boston, and a propaganda
war was fought between those backing Adams, who called themselves
‘Patriots’, and those who supported the government, who were known
as ‘Loyalists’.
On a cold night in early March 1770, all the tensions exploded
outside the Customs House in Boston, where a group of local men and
boys began to taunt the British soldiers on sentry duty. An unknown
person – perhaps a soldier, perhaps a member of the crowd – fired
a shot. The soldiers, thinking they were under attack, fired into the
crowd, hitting eleven men and killing three immediately, with two
more later dying of their injuries.
Samuel Adams and his followers branded this the ‘Boston Massacre’
and accused the British of deliberately murdering colonists. The soldiers
involved were put on trial and found not guilty. However, Adams and
the Patriots still used the incident to whip up anti-British feelings.
●●More trouble with tea
In Britain there was a new government headed by King George III’s
favoured politician, Lord Frederick North. North had repealed all the
Townshend Duties, except for the import duty on tea. George III had
decided:
I am clear there must always be one tax to keep the right, and as
such I approve the Tea Duty.
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For the next four years there was little trouble in the American
colonies. Lord North had other problems to deal with. Most pressing
was that the large and powerful East India Company was almost
bankrupt. The government decided to sell the millions of tons of East
India tea to the American colonies at knock-down prices. This would
boost company funds, and the government would collect import tax
on the tea as well.
The Tea Act of 1773 sparked a major confrontation between the
British government and the Patriots, who resented the imposition
of a tax from London. Again, they demanded ‘no taxation without
representation’. In Boston, three tea ships waited to be unloaded.
On the night of 16 December 1773 Samuel Adams and the Patriots
held a large public meeting, after which they decided to take
direct action.
John Andrews, a Boston merchant, wrote the following to a friend
in Philadelphia about what happened next:
The event became known as the ‘Boston Tea Party’. The British
Parliament was outraged and decided to bring the troublesome
colonists to heel. Lord North believed it was no longer a dispute
about a tax on tea, but about who had the right to rule in the
colonies.
Even friends of the colonists, like William Pitt, believed the
destruction of the tea had been ‘certainly criminal’. Parliament passed
a set of acts the Patriots were to call the Coercive Acts: the port of
Boston was to be closed, a military governor named General Gage
was to take over and the authority of the colonial assembly would be
reduced.
Samuel Adams and other Patriots summoned the colonies to send
delegates to a Continental Congress in September 1774 to discuss
the situation. Delegates arrived from New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Georgia preferred to stay away from a meeting that appeared
determined to cause trouble with Britain. The congress declared that
the colonies were still loyal to Britain, but then set out a list of
demands that the British government would not accept.
2
The American Rebellion and world war
They mustered, I’m told, upon Fort Hill, to the number of about two
hundred, and proceeded, two by two, to Griffin’s wharf, where Hall,
Bruce and Coffin [the three merchant ships] lay, each with 114 chests
of the ill-fated article [tea] on board; … and before nine o’clock in
the evening, every chest from on board the three vessels was knocked
to pieces and flung over the sides. They say the actors were Indians
… Whether they were or not, to a transient observer they appeared
as such, being clothed in blankets with heads muffled … being each
armed with a hatchet or axe, and a pair of pistols.
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More trouble with tea
■■ The able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught, a cartoon in The London Magazine, 1 May 1774. This shows
that there was some sympathy in Britain for the American colonials. Tory ministers are forcing the Coercive Acts on
the helpless figure representing America. Lord North is pouring tea down America’s throat, while Britannia is in the
background hiding her face in shame. To the left, Spain and France look on.
Exercise 2.1
Write two or three significant things you have discovered about each of the
following terms, events or people.
The Proclamation of 1763
The Stamp Tax
The Sons of Liberty
The Townshend Duties
Samuel Adams
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Tea Party
The Coercive Acts
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Exercise 2.2
Propaganda played an important role in raising the tensions in both Britain and
the American colonies before the outbreak of war.
1 Write a newspaper article for a Boston or London newspaper about either
the Boston Massacre or the Boston Tea Party. Write either in support of
the Patriots or defending the position of the British Crown in the way you
describe the event.
2 Draw a cartoon in the style of the one on page 17 that comments on either
the Boston Massacre or the Boston Tea Party from either viewpoint.
●●War breaks out: Lexington, Concord
General Gage in Boston did not trust the local militias of
Where was tea grown
Massachusetts to be loyal to Britain. On 19 April 1775, he
and how did it end
up in the homes of
planned to disarm them by marching to the town of Concord
colonists living in
and seizing military supplies stored nearby. He also hoped to
America?
arrest Samuel Adams and fellow Patriot John Hancock at Lexington
on the way.
The British soldiers marched through
the night and early morning. They heard
muskets being fired in the distance as the
Patriots raised the alarm. At 5 a.m. the
British advance guard, under Major Pitcairn,
arrived at the village of Lexington Green, to
find 70 armed militiamen drawn up on the
green. Pitcairn ordered the militia to lay
down their weapons and go home. Instead
the militia commander, Captain Parker,
told his men to go home but to keep their
weapons.
Suddenly a single shot rang out, apparently
from near the village tavern. In reply, the
British infantrymen fired two volleys and then
charged the retreating militia with bayonets.
The fight was over in less than two minutes:
eight American militiamen lay dead and
ten wounded, while one British soldier was
slightly hurt.
The British troops marched on and reached
Concord at 7 a.m. They seized and destroyed
■■ The clash between British soldiers and American
a few military supplies and set some
militia at Lexington Green, wood engraving, 1883, after
Howard Pyle
buildings in the town on fire. This alerted
2
The American Rebellion and world war
and Boston
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