Growing Confrontation
Change in British Imperial Policy
 End of “Salutary
Neglect”
 Re-Assert authority
over Colonies
 Taxation for Revenue
Industrial Revolution
 Because of Industrial
Revolution
 American raw
material production
grew
 Main exports




Tobacco
Rice
Indigo
wheat
 20% financed by
British creditors
Industrial Revolution
 Results
 Results
 Good
 Bad



Growth of British
economy
Wealth for American
merchants
War created markets
for goods


Americans relying
heavily on credit
end of French and
Indian/Seven Years
War = decreased
markets
What economic confrontation
could this create?
Post War Tension – Military
Issue
Methods of
Colonials
•Indian-style guerilla
fighting
tactics
Organization •Militias served under
own captains
•No military
Discipline
deference or
protocols observed
•Resistance to raising
Finances
taxes
•Casual, nonprofessionals
Demeanor
British
March in formation or
bayonet charge
Officers wanted to
take charge of
colonials
Drills and tough
discipline
Colonists should pay
for their own defense
“Prima Donna”
officers with servants
and tea
Post War Tension – Military
 Troop deployment
 British left about
10,000 troops in
America




Fear of French rebellion in
Canada
Fear of Indian attacks
Keep colonists from
crossing Proclamation
Line
Fear of independence
movement
What confrontation could this
create?
Post War Tension – Economic
 War taxes
 Massachusetts refused to
pay without military
control
 Virginia refused to pay;
printed money to pay
debts (inflation)
 British response

Currency Act of 1764
must pay with British
currency
 Parliament controls
colonial currency


Revenue Act of 1762
Ensure collection of
customs
 Royal Navy prohibit
trade with French

Post War Tension – Economic
 Result of French and
Indian and Seven Years
War




National debt doubles
New Prime Minister Lord
Bute needed payment
plan
New King, George III,
wanted debt paid
Began to strictly enforce
taxes in England
Post War Tension –
Political Reforms
 King George III = more
monarchial control
 Real Whigs:


banks and financiers too much
power
greater representation in
Parliament
 American colonies


critical to economic improvement
hadn’t paid fair share
 End of Salutary Neglect
British Attempts at Control
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE
FROM THE AMERICAN
PERSPECTIVE?
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE
FROM THE BRITISH
PERSPECTIVE?
British Attempts at Control
AMERICAN
ACQUIESCENCE OR
RESISTANCE?
The Sugar Act
 Instituted by Prime Minister George




Grenville
Lowered tax on imported sugar
allowed American surplus goods to
be sold to French
American smugglers angry
“taxation without representation”?
Vice-Admiralty Courts
 Allowed judges to
sentence smugglers
 trial without jury
 Why is this wrong,
from the American
perspective?
 Why is this right, from
the British perspective?
The Stamp Act – 1765
 offset cost of British troops in
colonies
 Had to pay for stamps on






Court documents
Land titles
Contracts
Cards
Newspapers
Other printed items
 Violators tried in Vice-
Admiralty courts
 Ben Franklin proposed colonial
representation
 seen as too radical
The Quartering Act – 1765
 Related to Stamp Act
 Colonies provided barracks,
food for British troops
 Colonial assemblies becoming
powerless
 Taxes
 Trial by juries
 Whether or not to have a
standing army
 How does this represent a
change?
Colonial Reaction
 Loyal Nine – Boston
 Burned tax collector Andrew
Oliver in effigy
 Attacked Lt. Gov. Thomas
Hutchinson’s house
 Sons of Liberty
 Began in New York City
 Artisans/Merchants (stood
to lose economically)
 Evangelicals (worked hard;
didn’t like work supporting
corrupt officials)
 People (tyranny of king)
Colonial Reaction
 Boycott
New
York, Boston, and Philadelphia
refused to import British goods
 Mobs forced tax collectors to turn over
stamps
 British officials intimidated – wouldn’t
require stamps
 Leaders were upper class
British Attempts at Control
ARE THE AMERICANS
JUSTIFIED IN THEIR
REBELLION?
Intellectual Rebellion
 Merchants losing economically
 Lawyers (defending merchants); a political issue
 How do following relate?
 John Locke
 Enlightenment philosophy
 Magna Carta
 Glorious Revolution
 Real Whigs
Stamp Act Congress (1765)
 Nine colonies sent 28
representatives (no
GA, NC, VA, or NH)
 three major resolves



Only taxed by elected
representatives
right to trial by jury
want to remain loyal
subjects to King
 British Reaction





New Prime Minister Lord
Rockingham repealed
Stamp Act
Reduced sugar tax on
French sugar; added tax on
British sugar
British merchants happy
(suffered from boycott)
Hard liners unhappy
Declaratory Act
 Parliament has full
power and authority over
colonies
Townshend Acts (1767)
 Pitt back in power


Very ill
Sympathetic to colonies
 Charles Townshend in
charge


Chancellor of the Exchequer
No sympathy for colonies
Townshend Acts (1767)
 Townshend Duties
 Import Duties on lead, paint, glass, tea, paper
 Customs Service Reorganization
 Customs Commissioners; Vice-Admiralty Courts
 New York Restraining Act
 New York refused Quartering Act, legislature suspended
 How does Townshend view the relationship?
Colonial Response
 John Dickinson’s Letters from
a Pennsylvania Farmer

British only want money
 NONIMPORTATION

Boycotts in Boston and New York
 Massachusetts assembly
protest
Colonial Response
 1768 2nd non-importation movement:
 “Daughters of Liberty”
 spinning bees
 Riots against customs agents:
 John Hancock’s ship, the Liberty.
 4000 British troops sent to Boston.
 Parliament primarily targeting Massachusetts
Compromise, again!
 Other problems in Empire (England, Ireland),




British looked to diffuse situation
Boycott hurting economy
Repeal Townshend Acts (1770)
Left tax on tea (demonstrate authority)
Led by John Wilkes, Radical Whig in Parliament
Do you feel the British are
trying to meet the Colonists’
needs?
Why or why not?
Still Tension . . .
 British troops in American
cities
 Fighting in New York,
Boston Massacre (1770)




British fired on mob
Killed five
Soldiers acquitted (defended
by John Adams)
Mob taunted soldiers
Leaders
Samuel Adams
Leaders
Patrick Henry
Leaders
John Adams
Leaders
Ben Franklin
Committees of Correspondence
 Purpose


warn neighboring colonies
about incidents with
British
Gaspee

British customs ship
burned in Rhode Island
 Effect

Broadened resistance
movement
Tea Act (1773)
• Americans liked Dutch tea (illegal)
• British East India Co.:
• Monopoly on tea imports
• Members of Parliament held
shares
• Company sold tea directly to
colonials without colonial
middlemen (cheaper tea!)
• Lord North expected colonials to
choose cheaper tea
• Who wins and who loses?
Boston Tea Party (1773)
 Massachusetts (particularly Boston) = hotbed of resistance
Adams cousins, John Hancock, Boston Massacre
Ships arrived with tea
Governor Hutchinson made sure ships cleared customs
Ships couldn’t leave without unloading tea (and duties
being paid)
December, 1773
 Patriots disguised as Indians boarded Dartmouth and
dumped tea overboard





Boston Tea Party (1773)
The Coercive or REPRESSIVE or Intolerable
Acts (1774)
 Boston Port Act
 Port closed until tea paid for
 Government Act
 Annulled Massachusetts charter
 New Quartering Act
 Colony had to build soldiers’
barracks or people quarter them
 Administration of Justice Act
 Those accused of capital crimes
could be tried in Britain
Quebec Act
(1774)
Extend boundaries
of Quebec into Ohio
River Valley
Restricted American
colonies expansion
Legally recognized
Roman Catholicism
•
•
French-Canadians
happy
American
colonists angry
(esp. Puritans)
First Continental Congress (1774)
 All colonies invited
Met in Philadelphia
 55 delegates from 12 colonies (not
Georgia)
 No Canadian colonies or Florida
Agenda
 How to respond to Coercive Acts
& Quebec Act?
New England and Southern colonies
favored union and war
Middle colonies favored compromise
Unity?





First Continental Congress (1774)
 Declaration of Rights and
Grievances



Condemned Coercive Acts
Demanded repeal of Coercive
Acts
Denied Declaratory Act
 Economic attacks
 Less restriction on American trade
 Nonimportation
 Nonconsumption
First Continental Congress (1774)
Pitt’s compromise
• British
• Remove troops from Boston
• Recognize Continental Congress
• Stop taxing
• Colonies
• Acknowledge Parliament supreme
• Provide Britain revenue for war debts
• Lord North did opposite:
• Higher military presence
• Blockade
•
Who were the two sides?
Patriots
 Merchants: harmed





economically
Lawyers: political
injustice
Farmers: heavily taxed
Land seekers
Planters relying on
British merchants
LIBERALS
Loyalists (Tories)
 Large landowners and
wealthy merchants
(feared mob rule)
 Rural people: upper class
backing patriot cause
 Non-English ethnic
groups: feared political
change
 CONSERVATIVES
Compromise Fails
Patriots
Loyalists (Tories)
 Massachusetts: open
 General Thomas Gage
rebellion
 towns near Boston
created militias
 Set up own legislature
 Amassed weapons
became governor
 3,500 troops in
Boston
 Lord Dartmouth
ordered Gage to put
down rebellion
The British Are Coming . . .
Night of April 18, 1775 General Gage heads for Concord
Paul Revere makes famous ride to warn Minutemen of
approaching British soldiers
The Shot
Heard
’Round the
World!
• Lexington &
Concord
•
April 18,1775
• Colonial losses
•
49 dead
•
39 wounded
• British losses
•
73 dead
•
174 wounded
Was the Revolutionary War
avoidable?