9/20/2012
Britain’s Debt
Sugar Act 1764
 British debt increased
 Cut taxes on molasses in
significantly after French
and Indian War
 Colonists ignored
Navigation Acts.
half to encourage legal
sales
What should Britain do?
Molasses – Used to make Rum
Colonists React to Sugar Act
Quartering Act of 1765
 Shippers mad
 Forced colonists to house
 But taxes are actually 1/26 of those in England.
How would the debt be paid?
British soldiers after
French and Indian War
 Intensified colonists
anger towards Britain
 Expired 1767
Stamp Act of 1765
Stamp Act continued…
Sugar Act stays but doesn’t raise enough $$$.
 Taxed items had to carry an
official stamp
 Reaction of colonists
 Tax angers many colonists
Lawyers
Sailors
 Sons of Liberty
 Attacked stamp collectors
 Led protests
 Stamp Act Congress (9
colonies )announces boycott
 Stamp Act Congress pointed to the idea of “life, liberty,
property.”
 Mass. Gov’s (Hutchinson) house is ransacked.


Stamp Act repealed in 1766
 How would debt be paid?
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9/20/2012
OPVL – Stamp Act
Just a question or two
Was it reasonable for the English to tax the colonists to
help pay for a war fought in their defense? Were the
colonists justified in their resistance to England’s new
imperial policy?
Declaratory Act - 1766
 Asserted Parliament’s
power to enact laws for
the colonies in “all cases
whatsoever.”
Townshend Act 1767
 PM Charles Townshend passed Townshend Acts
 Taxed paper, lead, glass, paint, and many many more!
 Extra troops sent in to enforce the Act
 Parliament wanted some of the $ to pay royal gov.
salaries.
 NY refused to obey the Quartering Act
 British looking more oppressive to the colonists
Boston Massacre
Colonist Reaction
 Women involved in the protest
 Daughters of Liberty promoted
home cloth and sign petitions to
aid boycott
 Merchants vowed to boycott
goods rather than pay taxes
 Merchants who did not comply
were attacked in MA
 Colonial goods demanded
 TA failed… miserably
 Imports fell by 40%
• Happened same day TA was repealed.
• British soldiers taunted by colonists – “lobsterbacks”
– Hated for job competition and military presence
• Crowd harassed soldiers and shots were fired
• 5 colonists lay dead
• Crispus Attucks – black sailor active in Sons of Liberty
is first to die
• John Adams represents and acquits soldiers
Galvanizes colonists to resist and oppose English
policies.
 TA repealed - March 5, 1770
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Calm before the storm
Relative calm over colonies from 1770-1772.
Committees of Correspondence
 Organized by Sam Adams to unite and inform colonies
of any nefarious activities by the British gov’t
Tea Act of 1773
Colonists React
 English tea imports
 Citizens demand tea
dropped from 1768-72
 East India Company had
a surplus of tea = cheap
tea
 Colonists get cheap tea
and Britain gets a little
$$$ from tax.
return to England but
Gov. Hutchinson refuses.
 Boston Tea Party –
(12/16/1774) happens –
Angry colonists dress up
as Indians and dump tea
into the Harbor in the
middle of the night
Coercive Acts in 1774
1st Continental Congress – Philly 1774
Labeled “Intolerable Acts” by
colonists – 4 Parts
 Boston Port Act - Closed port
in Boston
 MA Gov. Act - MA royal
governor could appoint all
officials to run the colony
 Impartial Administration of
Justice Act – all royal officials
accused of crime to be tried in
Britain.
 Revival of Quartering Act
 Quebec Act – gave Quebec
control of Ohio land, let
French law continue
 55 delegates from every
state but Georgia
 Intolerable Acts – null
and void
 Colonists should prepare
to defend themselves
 Transformed Boston’s
cause into a National
Cause
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9/20/2012
Lexington and Concord – 1st
Battle of the American Revolution
2nd Continental Congress
May 1775
 Formed Continental Army
20,000
 British soldiers sent to seize




arsenal
British move onto
Concord/meet 300
Minutemen
“Shot heard round the
world”
Colonists – 8 dead
British -273 dead or
wounded
 Named George Washington
commander
 Olive Branch Petition
 Last attempt to peacefully
negotiate with Britain
 Olive Branch fails as King
George dispatches 20,000
troops to the colonies
1776 Colonies were made up of:
In England
Patriots (50%) those who
favor a break with England
Loyalists (20%) wealthy
conservatives and rural
dwellers who favored
continued British rule in
the colonies.
Neutral (30%) including
Quakers, Mennonites and
others who are pacifists.
 Population was divided
Battles of the Revolution
 Today we will be focusing on just a few battles and
military maneuvers of the American Revolution,
turning points in the war. They are:
 Battle of Saratoga – 1777
on colonial
independence
 Members of parliament
supported patriot cause
 Some generals refused to
fight and resigned
Battle of Trenton - 1776
1.
Who won?
2. What happened? Who was involved?
3. So what? Why was this important?
 U.S. Alliance with France - 1778
 Battle of Yorktown – 1781
Answer the questions that follow about each battle.
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Battle of Saratoga - 1777
French Alliance
1.
Who won?
2. What happened? Who was involved?
3. So what? Why was this important?
How did the alliance with the French change the war in
favor of the Americans?
Southern Strategy
Battle of Yorktown - 1781
1.
Who won?
1.
Who won?
2. What happened? Who was involved?
2. What happened? Who was involved?
3. So what? Why was this important?
3. So what? Why was this important?
Treaty of Paris 1783
 Americans, French, and British met
 U.S. is acknowledged as a free and independent
country by Britain
 Western boundary of U.S. at Mississippi
 Britain agreed to withdraw troops quickly. They did
not.
 Indians were the losers. Felt angry.
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