THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
Marshall High School
Civics
Mr. Cline
Unit Two- AB
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• All of this unrest in the colonies bothered the British greatly, as they never
intended any injustice to their colonies, but were only doing their best to
manage their resources, and these statements about why Parliament had
no right to legislate for them were near treasonous, and so Parliament
reasserted its authority in the Declaratory Act of 1766, which stated that;
WHEREAS several of the houses of representatives in his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America,
have of late, against law, claimed to themselves, or to the general assemblies of the same, the sole and
exclusive right of imposing duties and taxes upon his Majesty's subjects in the said colonies and
plantations; and have, in pursuance of such claim, passed certain votes, resolutions, and orders,
derogatory to the legislative authority of parliament, and inconsistent with the dependency of the said
colonies and plantations upon the crown of Great Britain: ... be it declared ...,
That the said colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and of right ought to be. subordinate
unto, and dependent upon the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain; and that the King's
majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons of Great
Britain, in parliament assembled, had, hash, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make
laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of
the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.
II. And be it further declared ..., That all resolutions, votes, orders, and proceedings, in any of the said
colonies or plantations, whereby the power and authority of the parliament of Great Britain, to make
laws and statutes as aforesaid, is denied, or drawn into question, are, and are hereby declared to be,
utterly null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever.
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• The problem with this declaration was that it was almost word for word
what the British had declared to the Irish, and now the Irish were in
basically a state of servitude to the English.
• Many colonists feared that was what they had in store for Americans, and
they saw the act as a message that there was more to come……they
weren’t wrong.
• Still needing to pay down its massive debts, the British decided they could
do so if they could only get £40,000 a year, and so the Chancellor of the
Exchequer (Secretary of the Treasury) proposed a series of revenue
generating taxes called the Townshend Revenue Acts
• These acts called for the raising of taxes on paper, paint, lead, glass and
tea, indirectly, so as not to incite the colonists as they had done over the
Stamp Act, a direct tax
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Still needing to pay down its massive debts, the British decided they could
do so if they could only get £40,000 a year, and so the Chancellor of the
Exchequer (Secretary of the Treasury) proposed a series of revenue
generating taxes called the Townshend Revenue Acts
• One of the main purposes for this new revenue was to provide for the
salaries of the Colonial Governors, and judges, so that they could be
independent of the colonial legislatures, and dependent only on the
Crown.
• The taxes on tea were meant to make tea more profitable for English
merchants, who were losing money to smuggled Dutch tea in the colonies,
and naval enforcement on smuggling was stepped up.
• However, if you thought the colonists reaction to the Stamp Act was bad….........
YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET!!
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• To start it off, the Massachusetts House of Representatives sent a petition
to King George, III asking him to repeal the Revenue Act.
• Then they sent a Circular Letter to each of the other colonies asking them
to join them in a protest, which they did, sending their own petitions to the
King and Parliament
• Protests were organized by merchants all over the colonies where they encouraged
a boycott of English goods through Non Importation Agreements in the hopes that
English merchants losing money would encourage the repeal of the Townshend Acts
• When British customs officials seized the ship Liberty owned by John
Hancock, on the basis of possible smuggling operations (which he was
doing), a mob erupted in violence, tarring and feathering the tax collector.
• The newly created Customs Board asked for naval help, afraid of the
violence, and the British warship HMS Romney docked in port. Its captain
began impressing sailors to serve on the Romney, which upset the citizens
of Boston greatly.
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• British merchants eventually convinced the Parliament to repeal the
Townshend Acts, and they felt compelled to do so….except
• Parliament wanted to make a statement that they were still in charge, and
had the right and the power to tax the inhabitants of the colonies, despite
their protests about no representation, so they left the Tea Act portion of
the Townshend Acts in place.
• The Tea Act provided that no foreign tea, particularly smuggled Dutch Tea,
could be imported and sold into the colonies, or off loaded of ships. Only
the British East India Company, could bring tea into the colonies, creating a
monopoly.
• Three British ships of already taxed tea docked in the harbor, and the
longshoremen there refused to unload it, colonists demanded it be sent
back to England, but the British refused
• Colonists, who drank a lot of tea, were very upset, and a group in Boston
(go figure), The Sons of Liberty, who were a mixture of philosophical
debating group, political action committee, terrorist cell and street gang,
dressed as Indians and boarded the British ship, and threw the tea
overboard, in what has come to be known as The Boston Tea Party
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Customs officials fled town in fear of being tarred and feathered
• The Royal Governor was instructed to send British troops into Boston and
occupy it
• He was also told to find solid evidence of treason amongst the people in
Boston, and transport the suspects to England for trial, but no one would
provide the incriminating evidence
• Tensions between the colonists, British troops and customs officials
escalated, and one day a teenage boy named Christopher Seider, in the
process of taunting a customs official with his friends, was shot dead when
the official became scared of their intentions.
• Two weeks later, as tensions continued to escalate, a mob confronted a few
British soldiers guarding a customs house, and in fear they fired upon it,
killing civilians in what has come to be known as The Boston Massacre
• The British troops relocated to their barracks in the hopes that tensions
would die down in Boston, but the unrest had risen the ire of London, and
worse was on the way.
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Intolerable Acts
• Parliament and the King insisted on their rights to govern the colonies as
they saw fit, and as punishment for what they saw as rebellion in America,
they issued the Intolerable Acts, a series of punitive laws meant to punish
the people for their behavior, particularly in Boston.
• They closed Boston Harbor to all shipping until the destroyed tea and other
looted and vandalized property had been paid for by the Massachusetts
colony (Boston Port Act)
• Anyone accused of a crime in Massachusetts could be taken into custody
and transported to Great Britain for trial, as well as any possible witnesses
the state would like to use (Administration of Justice Act)
• He disbanded the Massachusetts legislature, and began compelling the
other colonial legislatures meet away from their capitol in other locations
far from it, or to close their doors as well. The King was given the power to
appoint the government of Massachusetts, and all meetings and assemblies
of people were declared illegal (Massachusetts Government Act)
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Intolerable Acts
• Allowed for the British Army to quarter their soldiers anywhere without waiting
for the colonial legislature to pay or authorize it (Quartering Act of 1774)
• They enlarged the borders of the Province of Quebec to include much of
the western lands that had been declared off limits by the English to
American colonists
• The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and this time 12 of the
13 colonies (Georgia sent no delegates) attended out of sympathy for what
was happening in Massachusetts, and fear that it may happen to them.
• They made plans that if the King did not respond to them within a year,
they would meet again.
• Their agent, Benjamin Franklin attempted to deliver these messages, but
instead, he was summoned before a royal council, and forced to stand
before them for hours as they degraded and humiliated him as if he were
on trial for all of the colonies.
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Intolerable Acts
• General Thomas Gage, the new military governor of Massachusetts knew men
from Boston and all of the other Massachusetts towns had been convening
illegally to train as militia units, and that they had weapons stockpiled in the
countryside. He sent a large contingent of British soldiers out into the country
to take these stockpiles.
• As Massachusetts citizens heard of the march of British troops, word went forth
that “The British are Coming!” and members of the militia, who had trained to
be ready in a minutes notice, Minutemen, rushed out to meet them.
• In between the towns of Lexington and Concord, minutemen hiding behind
trees, stone fences, rocks and farms picked off the British contingent, and forced
a rout and retreat by them back into Boston, where they were then surrounded.
• In history, this battle became known as “The shot heard ‘round the world.”