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Ngumtangie
RoadToRevolutionpwrpt.pptxThe Road
to Revolution:
(1770-1776)
1763 Pontiac’s Rebellion
Fort Detroit
British “gifts” of smallpox-infected blankets from Fort Pitt.
The Aftermath: Tensions Along the Frontier
“Delaware Prophet”
Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763 - 66)
Impact of Pontiac’s Rebellion?
Convinced the British:
To avoid future conflicts, colonists’ settlements into the territories needed to slow down
Result?
Proclamation Line of 1763
British Proclamation Line of 1763
Colonials Paxton Boys (PA)
BACKLASH!
Proclamation of 1763
Acknowledged that Natives owned the lands on which they were then residing
White settlers in the area were to be removed
Forbade the colonies from making land grants beyond the Appalachian divide
This enraged colonists
They had just supported the British army in its quest for land only to be kept from lands in the western frontier
A number of settlers ignored the proclamation entirely and moved into the prohibited area.
1. Sugar Act - 1764
2. Currency Act - 1764
4. Stamp Act - 1765
3. Quartering Act - 1765
George Grenville’s Program, 1763-1765
Loyal Nine - 1765
Sons of Liberty – began in NYC, 1765
Stamp Act Congress – 1765
Declaratory Act – 1766
Stamp Act Crisis
During a series of protests linked to the Sons of Liberty, colonists burn and sack the house of Thomas Hutchinson, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.
Opposition was so stiff to the Stamp Act, and so many people were boycotting, Britain repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. Shortly thereafter, however, Britain issued the Declaratory Act of 1766 which stated that Parliament could take "whatever action they thought fit for the good of the empire." Colonists were so overjoyed at the repeal of the Stamp Act, however, they failed to see the importance of the Declaratory Act.
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"patriots!"
For the first time,
many colonists began
calling people who
joined the
non-importation
movement,
Townshend Act ~ 1767
Charles Townshend persuaded Parliament put taxes on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea, raising $$ to pay for the British troops stationed in the colonies.
Repealed by Parliament because it raised little $$, but they kept the tax on tea.
Significance: Increased intercolonial unity and increased the revolutionary spirit in colonists, enraged by the principle of taxation without representation.
Was the
American Revolution
Inevitable??
Tar and Feathering
The Boston Massacre (March 5,1770)
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry.
The presence of British troops in the city of Boston was increasingly unwelcome. The riot began when about 50 citizens attacked a British sentinel. A British officer, Captain Thomas Preston, called in additional soldiers, and these too were attacked, so the soldiers fired into the mob, killing 3 on the spot (a black sailor named Crispus Attucks, ropemaker Samuel Gray, and a mariner named James Caldwell), and wounding 8 others, two of whom died later (Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr).
The Boston Massacre was a signal event leading to the Revolutionary War. It led directly to the Royal Governor evacuating the occupying army from the town of Boston. It would soon bring the revolution to armed rebellion throughout the colonies.
The incident started when a wigmaker's apprentice, Edward Gerrish, complained to local army British soldiers that a man named John Goldfinch had not paid his bill. Goldfinch ignored these claims, but Gerrish returned later with a small crowd. The tension grew. The crowd grew, shouting insults at the soldiers, and as the evening grew later an estimated 300-400 people surrounded the troops and pressed them into a tight circle. The soldiers fired their muskets under duress and killed five colonists.
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The Gaspee Incident (1772)
Providence, RI coast
Customs ships continued to patrol the sea off the coast of America. They would regularly stop merchant ships to examine their cargo looking for illegal goods, and enforcing British customs and taxation laws. The Gaspee was a British Royal Navy ship assigned to customs duty. On June 9, 1772, the Gaspee was chasing a merchant ship believed to be smuggling goods. The Gaspee ran aground in Narragansett Bay, near Providence. The next night, a group of men boarded the Gaspee. They were led by John Brown, a wealthy merchant from Providence. They wounded the lieutenant who was commanding the ship, and set the ship on fire.
The British ordered a full investigation. They offered a reward to anyone identifying the people responsible. No one came forward, and no one was ever charged for the offence.
The British once again tried to gain more control over the colonies. The British began to directly pay the governors' salary, rather than being paid by the colonies. The British hoped that by paying the governor's salary, they would eliminate the colonies ability to control the governor by withholding salary.
The colonies saw this as another step to put them under British control, and to eliminate their freedoms.
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Committees of Correspondence
Purpose warn neighboring colonies about incidents with British broaden the resistance movement.
Tea Act (1773)
British East India Co.:
Monopoly on British tea imports.
Many members of Parliament held shares.
Permitted the Co. to sell tea directly to colonies without colonial middlemen (cheaper tea!)
Lord North expected the colonies to eagerly choose the cheaper tea.
Boston Tea Party (1773)
In 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act, which gave the English East India Company a chance to avert bankruptcy by granting a monopoly on the importation of tea into the colonies. The new regulations allowed the company to sell tea to the colonists at a low price, lower than the price of smuggled tea, even including the required duty. The British reasoned that the Americans would willingly pay the tax if they were able to pay a low price for the tea.
A group of some 50 men, unconvincingly disguised as Mohawk Indians, moved the short distance to Griffin’s Wharf where the three ships were moored.
The vessels were boarded, the cargo carefully taken from the holds and placed on the decks. There, 342 chests were split open and thrown into the harbor. A cheering crowd on the dock shouted its approval for the brewing of this “saltwater tea.”
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Why did the Colonists dress up as Indians?
Possibilities?
Prior to the Revolution there were several instances of colonists dressing as Indians while protesting British rule.
Protesters dressed as Natives to connect the demonstration with a symbol of liberty.
Hide their identities, liberating them from punishment
342 chests of 45 tons of tea. Took nearly 3 hours for more than 100 colonists to empty the tea into Boston Harbor.
The water in the harbor was brown for several days.
Cost the British gov’t $3 million in today’s $.
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The Coercive or Intolerable Acts (1774)
Lord North
Prime Minister of Great Britain, January 1770-March 1782
Boston Port Act (June 1, 1774)
Quartering Act (June 2, 1774)
Administration of Justice Act (May 20, 1774)
Massachusetts Government Act (May 20, 1774)
1. The measure closed the port facilities in Boston effective June 1, 1774, until the city saw fit to reimburse the East India Company for the cost of the tea destroyed in the Boston Tea Party, and paid for the damage caused to the customs offices during the unrest. Bostonians were also required to prove to the crown's satisfaction that they were peaceable subjects.
2. Lord North’s disciplinary program against Massachusetts following the Boston Tea Party. Under previous legislation, the colonies were required to provide soldiers with living accommodations in public facilities, such as inns and taverns or unoccupied buildings. The Quartering Act differed from the other Coercive Acts in that its terms applied to all of the American colonies, not Massachusetts alone.
3. Parliament’s offensive against Massachusetts, the perpetrator of the Boston Tea Party, included an effort to afford legal protections to officials serving in the disobedient colony. The Administration of Justice Act provided that British officials accused of capital crimes in the execution their duties in suppressing riots or collecting lawful taxes in Massachusetts could avoid hostile local juries. Angry colonists labeled this particular Coercive Act the “Murder Act,” because it offered a means for accused murderers to escape colonial justice.
4. Ended the colony’s charter and provided for an unprecedented amount of royal control. Severe limits were placed on the powers of town meetings, the essential ingredient of American self-government. Further, most elective offices in the colony were to be filled with royal appointees, not with popularly elected officials.
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The Quebec Act (1774)
On the heels of the Intolerable Acts, Parliament passed the Quebec Act, a well-intentioned measure designed to afford greater rights to the French inhabitants of Canada, which had come under British rule through the Treaty of Paris in 1763. In the succeeding years, British efforts to incorporate Quebec into the empire had been a notable failure.
American opposition to the Quebec Act stemmed from a deep-seated hatred of the French. Colonists a decade earlier had celebrated the demise of the French Empire, but now feared that it was making a comeback. Similar feelings about the Catholic Church sparked dread in the hearts of Protestant Americans.
The fear of a resurgent Roman Catholic France in North America was one of the prime reasons that early in the War for Independence, the Americans would invade Quebec in an effort to end the threat once and for all.
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First Continental Congress (1774)
55 delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies
Agenda How to respond to the Coercive Acts & the Quebec Act?
1 vote per colony represented.
In response to the Intolerable Acts and Quebec Act, the colonist banded together to fight back. Several committees of colonists called for a convention of delegates from the colonies to organize resistance to the Intolerable Acts. The convention was later to be called the Continental Congress.
Georgia did not attend because they were facing attacks from the restive Creek on their borders and desperately needed the support of regular British soldiers.
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The British Are Coming . . . ?
Paul Revere & William Dawes make their midnight ride to warn the Minutemen of approaching British soldiers.
Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"): His mission depended on secrecy, the countryside was filled with British army patrols, and the Massachusetts colonists (who were predominantly English in ethnic origin[43]) still considered themselves British.[44] [45] Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming out."[
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The Shot Heard ’Round the World!
Lexington & Concord – April 18,1775
British soldiers in Boston were sent to capture the militias weapons.
Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Israel Bissell warned the colonists that, “The Red Coats are coming.”
British troops marched to Concord to capture colonial leaders and the ammunition and weapons that were stored there.
The first two battles of the American Revolution were fought at Lexington and Concord, when the American militia met up with British forces.
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There are Only 22 Countries in the World Britain Has NOT Invaded
The Second Continental Congress (July, 1775)
Olive Branch Petition
In July 1775, the Second Continental Congress made a final effort to seek reconciliation with Britain and end the fighting. The chief advocate of this effort was John Dickinson, a conservative delegate from Pennsylvania, who authored the Olive Branch Petition.
The king refused to receive the petition, perhaps being especially sensitive because word had recently been received that the Americans had launched an invasion of Canada — an act of unbelievable aggression in British eyes.
On August 23, George III proclaimed the American colonies to be in rebellion and urged that all efforts should be made “to suppress such rebellion, and bring the traitors to justice.”
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Thomas Paine: Common Sense
Declaration of Independence (1776)
Independence Hall
DID THIS REALLY HAPPEN?
New National Symbols
