The Process of Creating an American Identity:
Issues & Events that Helped Create a Nation, 1754-1776
Battles at
Lexington & Concord
Bunker Hill
Sons of Liberty , Stamp Act Congress,
No Taxation without Representation!
I am a
proud
English
Subject
Post-War Impositions and Taxes on the Colonies:
Proclamation Line of 1763, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Boston Massacre,
Boston Tea Party
1763-1773
1750
1
1754
French and
Indian War
1754-1763
Albany Plan of Union
Colonial “Homeland”
1763
Who am I ?
The Beginning of the
Colonial Identity Crisis
2
First Skirmishes
between British
and Colonists, 1775
3
Intolerable Acts and the
1st Continental Congress
1774
Declarations & Resolves
Petition to the King
4
I am an American!
Declaring our
American Identity
5
1776
2nd Continental
Congress, 1775
Olive Branch Petition
Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776
Becoming: The Final Stage of Identity
Formation
Moving from One State of Being to Another State of Being
The Final Stage of Colonial Identity
Formation: Becoming American

Sugar Act

BTP
Int
1st Cont
Acts Congress
1764
1773 1774
Lex and
2nd Cont
Concord
Congress D of I
1775
The
1776
Becoming American:
The First Continental Congress
September – October 1774
December, 1773
A Collision of Wills
in Boston Harbor
This is the most magnificent Movement
of all. There is a Dignity, a Majesty, a
Sublimity, in this last Effort of the
Patriots, that I greatly admire.
The People should never rise, without
doing something to be
remembered something notable and
striking.
-- John Adams
“…vigorous measures
appear to be the only
means left of bringing the
Americans to a due
submission to the mother
country, the colonies will
submit.”
— King George III
The Party’s OVER!
The British Respond with The Coercive ACTS
• Closed the Port of
Boston
• Suspended the
Massachusetts
Legislature and banned
town meetings
• Admin of Justice Act –
Colonials would be
transported and tried by
Jury in England
• Quartering Act –
Bostonians forced to
house British Soldiers in
their homes or
businesses
Calling all colonists!
To Philadelphia we
shall go….
Philadelphia 1774
• The Largest
Colonial City
• Busy Port
• Centrally located
• Cultured and
Refined
• Less agitation
meant less of a
British Military
Presence
1st Continental Congress
56 men in Attendance
Representatives from all Colonies but
Georgia
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Patrick Henry
George Washington
Stated Purpose:
How should the Colonies “respond” to the
Coercive Acts
Ben Franklin was in England trying to voice
the American Colonists’ position to
Parliament and the King
John Adams called the
gathering a “School” for the
subject of Liberty
On the Way to Philly Video
Opening Prayer of the
First Continental Congress
Be Thou present, O God of
wisdom, and direct the
councils of this honorable
assembly; enable them to
settle things on the best
and surest foundation.
That the scene of blood
may be speedily closed;
that order, harmony and
peace may be effectually
restored, and truth and
justice, religion and piety,
prevail and flourish
amongst the people.
September 7, 1774
Objective: Respond to the British
Impositions and Abuses
Competing Perspectives in Congress – The Great Debate
Radicals  Independence Now!
Conservatives  Make Peace
Outcomes of the 1st Continental Congress
1.
New Economic Boycott of British Trade;
2.
A Declaration of Rights & Grievances;
3.
A Petition to King George III for Redress of those
Grievances;
4.
The Establishment of Militias in the Colonies;
5.
A Promise to Meet Again in 1775 to await the
King’s response and evaluate the status quo
The
Continental
Association
The First
formal
Statement of
Unification
between the
13 Colonies
The Continental Association:
A Boycott of English Goods
“A
complete
and total
ban on
all trade
between
America
and
Great
Britain”
Declaration
and Resolves
• Both a Declaration
of Rights and a
Listing of
Grievances Against
Parliament
• A proto-type of the
Declaration of
Independence
Declaration and Resolves
Whereas, since the close of the last war, the
British parliament, claiming a power of right to
bind the people of America, by statute in all
cases whatsoever, hath in some acts expressly
imposed taxes on them…
And whereas, in the last session of parliament,
three statutes were made…All which are
impolitic, unjust, and cruel, as well as
unconstitutional, and most dangerous and
destructive of America
And whereas, Assemblies have been frequently
dissolved, contrary to the rights of the people,
when they attempted to deliberate on
grievances; and their dutiful, humble, loyal, &
reasonable petitions to the crown for redress,
have been repeatedly treated with contempt, by
his majesty's ministers of state:
Declaration and Resolves
The inhabitants of the English Colonies in North
America, by the immutable laws of nature, the
principles of the English constitution, and the several
charters or compacts, have the following Rights:
Resolved, 1. That they are entitled to life, liberty, and
property, and they have never ceded to any sovereign
power whatever a right to dispose of either without
their consent.
Resolved, 2. That our ancestors, who first settled
these colonies, were at the time of their emigration
from the mother country, entitled to all the rights,
liberties, and immunities of free and natural- born
subjects, within the realm of England.
Resolved, 3. That by such emigration they by no
means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those
rights, but that they were, and their descendants now
are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such
of them, as their local and other circumstances enable
them to exercise and enjoy.
Petition to the King from the American Colonists
• Hand Delivered to the King
on behalf of the Congress
• PURPOSE:
1. To communicate that they
were loyal to the King and that
they wanted to remain as
British citizens;
2. To ask the King to override
Parliament and resolve their
grievances and establish their
rights under British law
Petition to the King from the American Colonists
October 1774
This our humble Petition, beg leave to lay our
Grievances before the Throne…and implore His
clemency for protection.
Your Royal authority is over us, and our connection
with Great Britain, we shall always carefully and
zealously endeavor to support and maintain….
We ask but for Peace, Liberty, and Safety. …
We therefore most earnestly beseech your Majesty,
that your Royal authority and interposition may be
used for our relief, and that a gracious Answer may
be given to this Petition.
That your Majesty may enjoy every felicity through a
long and glorious Reign, over loyal and happy
subjects,
The Establishment of Militias Across
the 13 Colonies
A Citizen Army
Representing a Town or City
Lead by Local Leaders
Lightly Armed
Little Training
The Minutemen of Massachusetts
Congress Ends: October 26, 1774
• Delegates
returned to their
Colonies to report
on the activities
• Should we Stay or
Should we Go???
– Colonists and Colonial
Legislatures begin
debating the question
of Independence
• A 2nd Congress was
set for May 10, 1775
Patrick Henry “Give me Liberty
or Give me Death!”
The Continental Congress was the Catalyst that
helped dissolve British identity and Colonial
division.
It created the Spirit of American Unity that would
propel us to Declare our Independence
The Final Stage of Colonial Identity
Formation: Becoming American

Sugar Act

BTP
Int
1st Cont
Acts Congress
1764
1773 1774
Lex and
2nd Cont
Concord
Congress D of I
1775
The
1776
Next Time….
England Responds to the
Colonists …
And, the Colonists
make some Noise!