Chapter 5
The Spirit of Independence
Section 1:
Taxation Without Representation
Vocab.
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Revenue
Resolution
Boycott
Repeal
Effigy
Prohibit
Violate
Relations with Britain
• Proclamation of 1763
– Prohibited colonists expansion west
– Allowed Britain to control trade and commerce
in the colonies
• British Debt
– King and Parliament tax colonists heavily
– Strictly enforce tax laws
Britain’s Trade Laws
• George Grenville
– Prime Minister in 1763
– Encouraged laws that allowed smugglers to be
tried in vice-admiralty courts (without juries)
• Writs of Assistance
– 1767: Documents that allowed British officers
to enter any location to search for smuggled
goods
The Sugar Act
• Parliament Passes Sugar Act
– 1764
– Lowered the tax on imported molasses to
convince colonists to pay the tax
– Gave officers ability to take smuggled good
without going to court
• Violated Rights of Colonists
– New taxes and trade laws took away rights as
English citizens
New Taxes
• Stamp Act
– Passed by Parliament in 1765
– Placed a tax on almost all printed material
• Newspapers, wills, playing cards, etc.
• Sparked colonial resistance
– Colonists opposed being taxed without their
consent or approval
Protesting the Stamp Act
• Patrick Henry
– Persuaded the Virginia House of Burgesses
to pass a resolution
– Declared that only the Virginia Assembly had
the authority to tax its citizens
• Samuel Adams
– Helped start the Sons of Liberty
– Protestors burnt effigies and destroyed
houses belonging to royal officials
Effigy
• Rag doll figures that represented British
tax collectors
Protesting the Stamp Act (cont.)
• Boycott
– People in colonial cities refused to buy stamps
– Refused to buy other European goods also
• Nonimportation Agreements
– Signed by colonial merchants
– Promise not to buy imported goods from Britain
The Townshend Acts
• Colonists refused to pay internal taxes
• Townshend Acts
– New taxes only on imported goods from Britain
• Glass, tea, paper, etc.
• Daughters of Liberty
– Group of colonial women
– Urged Americans to wear home-made fabrics
and use goods produced in America
Chapter 5
The Spirit of Independence
Section 2:
Building Colonial Unity
Vocab
• Propaganda
• Occupy
• Encounter
Trouble in Boston
• Colonies on the brink of rebellion
– Colonists had been pushed too far by British
– By 1768 British officials were getting nervous
– British sent troops to occupy colonial cities
– Soldiers sometimes acted rudely and violently
The Boston Massacre
• March 5, 1770
– Fighting broke out between Bostonians and
British soldiers
– Nervous British soldiers opened fire on the crowd
– Five colonists were killed including
Crispus Attucks
• Part African and part Native American Bostonian dock
worker
• One of the first killed in the conflict between the British
and the American colonists
The Word Spreads
• Propaganda
– Colonial leaders used the Boston Massacre
killings to influence public opinion
– Posters showed slaughter of innocent
Americans by British soldiers.
• Parliament Repeals Taxes
– Townshend Acts are repealed
– Tax on imported tea remains in effect
A Crisis Over Tea
• Video
• Tea Act (1773)
– Allowed the British East India trading company
to sell tea directly to shopkeepers in America
– Bypassed the colonial merchants
– Colonial merchants called for a boycott against
British Tea
The Boston Tea Party
• Three British tea ships arrived in Boston
Harbor in 1773
• Boston Sons of Liberty
– December 16
– Group of men disguised themselves as
Mohawk Natives
– They threw 342 chests of Tea into the Harbor
The Intolerable Acts
• Coercive Acts
– Passed by Parliament in 1774 as punishment for
resistance to British law
– Closed Boston Harbor until colonists paid for ruined
tea
• kept food and other supplies from arriving to Boston
• Quebec Act
– Set up government for Quebec
– Gave Quebec the area west of the Appalachians
and North of the Ohio River
• Colonists believed these acts violated their right
as English Citizens
Chapter 5
The Spirit of Independence
Section 3:
A Call to Arms
Vocab
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Militia
Minutemen
Loyalist
Patriot
Approach
Volunteer
The Continental Congress
• September 1774
– 55 delegates from all colonies except Georgia
– Met in Philadelphia to create a political body
to represent American interests and challenge
Britain’s rule
Delegates of the Congress
• American Political Leaders
– From Massachusetts
• Samuel Adams and John Adams
– From New York
• John Jay
– From Virginia
• Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, and
George Washington
Decisions of the Congress
• Statement of Grievances
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Drafted by the delegates
Called for repeal of 13 acts of parliament
Violated “laws of nature” and colonists rights
Voted to boycott trade to and from Britain
• Suffolk Resolves
– Prepared by people of Suffolk County, Massachusetts
– Called for the people to arm themselves against the
British
– Colonists began forming organized militias
The First Battles
• Preparing for combat
– Militia groups began training, making ammo,
and gathering weapons in Massachusetts
• Minutemen
– Militia groups that were named because they
would be ready to fight in a minutes notice
Britain Sends Troops
• British Occupation
– By April 1775 thousands of British soldiers
were sent to Boston
• British General Thomas Gage
– Sent to disarm Massachusetts militias and
arrest colonial leaders
– Ordered 700 troops to march to Concord to
take or destroy colonial arms
Alerting the Colonists
• April 18, 1775
– British forces in Boston form ranks in common
– Begin to march out of the city
• Paul Revere
– Rode with William Dawes to Lexington
– Warned Samuel Adams and John Hancock
– Alerted colonists along the way
“The regulars are out!”
Lexington and Concord
• At Lexington
– Around 70 minutemen stood in defense on the
common
– 8 minutemen are killed and British troops march
on to Concord
• At Concord
– Colonial minutemen defeat British forces at the
North Bridge
– Militias along the road back to Boston attack
redcoats; 174 British wounded and 73 killed
More Military Action
• Ticonderoga
– Important British military fort on Lake Champlain
• Green Mountain Boys
– American force led by Benedict Arnold and Ethan
Allen
– Captured Ticonderoga May 10, 1775
• Benedict Arnold – “traitor”
– Later sold American military information to British
– Given command of British troops in attacks against
Virginia and Connecticut
Building Force
• Committees of Correspondence
– Called for volunteers to join militias
– Colonial militia for Boston area reached
around 20,000
– Both armies awaited the next move
The Battle of Bunker Hill
• June 16, 1775
– 1,200 American troops fortified area near
Boston (Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill)
– British forces assembled and charged to take
the positions
– American forces fought off several waves of
attacks until running out of gunpowder
– British won battle but suffered great losses
– British learned defeating the colonists would
not be quick or easy
Choosing Sides
• Colonists forced to make decision
• Loyalists
– Chose to stay loyal to Britain
– Did not consider unfair taxes or regulations
reasons to rebel
• Patriots
– Supported the war for independence
– Believed British rule was unbearable
Chapter 5
The Spirit of Independence
Section 4:
Moving Toward Independence
Vocab
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Petition
Preamble
Debate
Status
Colonial Leaders Emerge
• Second Continental Congress
– May 10,1775
– Began printing money and set up post offices
– Created the Continental Army
• Organized war effort against British
• George Washington named commander
• Olive Branch Petition
– Petition to King George III to avoid war
– Refused and prepared for war
The Colonies Take the Offensive
• George Washington
– Arrives in Boston in July 1775
– Begins turning the colonial militias into an
army
– March 1776 Washington and the Continental
Army drive the British forces out of Boston
Moving Toward Independence
• Colonial support growing by 1776
• Thomas Paine
– Published Common Sense
– Pamphlet that called for complete
independence
– Greatly influenced public opinion in the
colonies
The Colonies Declare Independence
• Debate in the Continental Congress
– Declare America an independent nation?
– Remain under British rule?
The Debate Over Independence
• Lee’s Resolution
– Richard Henry Lee
– Proposed that the colonies were free and independent
states
– All political connection to Great Britain should be dissolved
• Thomas Jefferson
– Chose to draft a Declaration of Independence
– Used John Locke’s ideas about natural rights and purpose
of government
• July 4th 1776:
– Final draft of the Declaration of Independence approved
The Declaration of Independence
• Signatures
– First signed by John Hancock
– 56 total delegates signed the document
• 4 Parts
– The Preamble:
• Introduction
– Declaration of Natural Rights:
• Lists the rights all people should have and role of
government to protect those rights
– List of Grievances
• Complaints against the British government
– Resolution of Independence
• Declares the colonies to be “Free and Independent States”