A Timeline of the Early Republic
by Prof. Darren Staloff
The First Crisis (1763-1766)
a)
1763
i) Proclamation of 1763
b) 1764
i) Sugar Act (American Revenue Act)
(1) lowers molasses duty (tax)
(2) new or higher duties on coffee, some wines, non-Brit textiles (cotton)
(3) doubles duties on reshipped goods
(4) bans foreign rum and French wines from colonies
(a) expected to raise £45,000
ii) Enforcement –
(1) Vice Admiralty Court in Halifax, Nova Scotia
iii) Colonial Response
(1) merchants start non-importation
c) 1765
i) Stamp Act
(1) meant to raise £60,000 to offset cost of colonial military (which cost roughly £300,000)
(2) Colonial Response –
(a) denunciation of virtual representation
(b) Sons of Liberty form
(c) Stamp Act Congress in NY
(d) nonimportation takes off leading British Merchants to demand repeal of Stamp Act
d) 1766
(1) Repeal of Stamp Act
(2) Declaratory Act – Parliament reaffirms supremacy over the colonies (instead of the king)
The Second Crisis
a)
1767
a.
b.
b) 1769
a.
c) 1770
a.
b.
c.
d) 1772 –
a.
Townshend Acts –
i. external taxes on lead, paints, paper and tea
ii. intended to raise £40,000
Colonial Response –
i. revival of nonimportation agreements
ii. John Dickinson’s Farmer’s Letters – in which he argued that the purpose of the tax is what matters (not
whether it’s internal or external) – a tax with a purpose of generating revenue is unacceptable
colonial imports drop £1,000,000
Townshend Acts repealed (save tea)
nonimportation stops
Boston Massacre
Governor Tom Hutchinson announces he will take his salary from the crown, not Massachusetts (removing the
“power of the purse”)
b. Committees of Correspondence in Boston by Sam Adams and James Otis – soon spread BETWEEN COLONIES
Third Crisis
a)
1773
a. Tea Act
b. Tea Party
b) 1774
a. Coercive Acts (May)
i. Boston Port Bill
ii. Administration of Justice Act
iii. Mass. Government Act
iv. Quartering Act (extended to all colonies)
v. Quebec Act
b. Thomas Gage replaces Hutchinson in Mass (martial law)
st
c. 1 Continental Congress
i. write the Declaration of Rights and Grievances
d. Massachusetts Provincial Congress meets to prepare for war (October)
c) 1775
a. New England Restraining Act stops trade and fishing
b. Lexington and Concord
nd
c. 2 Continental Congress
d. Bunker Hill
e. Olive Branch Petition
f. Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation
d) 1776
a. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
b. Independence voted in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia
c. British take NY
d. Victory at Trenton