1. Do you want a Revolution??
DAY 1
Roots of Self-Government

2. England’s Colonies Prosper
Target of the day: To understand that the colonial system of self-governing colonies was the forerunner of our modern system of self-governing states

3. England’s Colonies Prosper (mid-1600s)
Because of the terrain, land, and industries that arose in the Colonies, the Colonies prospered
And so did Britain…
Mercantilism: a theory that holds that a country’s ultimate goal was self-sufficiency and that all countries were in a competition to acquire the most gold and silver “Gold and silver…silver and gold!”

5. Parliament and the Navigation Acts
The colonists exported a lot of goods to France, England, Holland:
Britain saw this exchange with foreign markets as a threat…
So they (Parliament, Britain’s legislative body), passed a series of laws restricting colonial trade called the Navigation Acts…
(TAXES, restrictions on trade, goods pass through English port)

7. The Navigation Acts… Caused colonists to engage in illegal trade
Eventually (1684), King Charles II acted to stop these violations, and punished the leaders and merchants of MASSACHUSETTS.
And England revoked the Charter, making Massachusetts a Royal Colony, under strict control of the crown.

8. Then England gets a new King…
“The King is dead…long live the King!”
King James, a Roman Catholic, takes the throne, and threatens Protestantism at home and abroad.
In response, the British Parliament enacted laws to establish its authority over the Monarch by voting to offer the throne to James’ protestant daughter, Mary and her hubby William.
No, not the butterfly…
And no, not this guy…
This is known as the Glorious Revolution

9. Salutary Neglect
1688, England turned attention away from the colonies.
They attempted to increase control…strengthening the Navigation Acts. But they failed to enforce.
Called “salutary neglect”—beneficial relaxation of enforcement of most regulations.

10. Seeds of self-government planted…
Salutary neglect had an effect on colonial politics and economics…
In almost all colonies, had a governor (with an assumed wide range of power) who presided over political structure:
Advisory council
Even though the governor was not as powerful as he seemed, IN ESSENCE, THEY GOT A TASTE OF SELF-GOVERNMENT…that would eventually pave the way to rebellion and WAR…

11. Then why didn’t they just rebel?
NORTHERN MANUFACTURE PROSPERS
Many colonists maintained their loyalty to Britain. They “identified” with Britain. They considered themselves “loyal British subjects.”
What do you identify with?
The colonies actually had very little in common with one another around 1700…especially the Northern and Southern colonies, which had distinctly difference ECONOMIES…
SOUTHERN PLANTATION ECONOMY RISES

12. THE SOUTH… Plantation life… Cash crops (purpose = Indentured servants
Immigration (Germans, Scots-Irish [hills of Western North Carolina])

13. The Commercial North… Urban centers for commerce and trade…
Great Awakening 1730s -1740s (series of religious revivals)
The Enlightenment (ideas about nature and rational thinking) Benjamin Franklin…
Some slavery existed in the North
Influx of immigrants…(Scandanavians, Jews, Scots-Irish, Dutch)

14. FRENCH A ND INDIAN WAR
7 years war,

15. French & Indian War France is Britain’s largest rival
Technically, France was there first (1534)
In 1682, France claims entire Mississippi Valley, and names is Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV
The population was less than 1/10 of its North American British counterpart (1,000,000)
However, New France had friendlier relations with the Native Algonquian peoples of North America, trading furs and such

16. British and French empires collide…
The French built a fort in land already “claimed” by the British near the Ohio River…
The Virginia governor sent a militia—a group of ordinary citizens who performed military duties—to evict (or kick out) the French…
They were led by GEORGE WASHINGTON!

17. 1754  The First Clash The Ohio Valley British French
Fort Necessity Fort Duquesne * George Washington * Delaware & Shawnee Indians

18. French soldiers & Native American Allies vs
French soldiers & Native American Allies vs. Britain, who gains support from Iroquois tribes…

19. The Treaty of Paris, 1763… The French & Indian War comes to a close…
Great Britain claims all of North America east of the Mississippi River, which includes Florida (Britain acquired it from Spain)

20. The Colonies and Britain Grow Apart…
British policies anger colonists…
Problems resulting from the war…
Smuggling of goods cause Britain to enforce a series of acts on the colonists that pave way to war…

21. 1754  Albany Plan of Union
Benjamin Franklin’s early attempt to join colonies together.

22. Causes of the Revolution
DAY 2

23. The stirrings of rebellion…
So it begins…

24. Proclamation of 1763
Settling west of the Appalachian Mountains was forbidden by the British.

25. Sugar Act 1764 Halved the duty on foreign-made molasses
Placed duties on certain imports
Strengthened the enforcement of certain laws

26. Currency Act 1765

27. Stamp Act

28. Stamp Act 1765
Required colonists to purchase special stamped paper for every legal document. License, newspaper, pamphlet, and almanac, and imposed “stamp duties” on packages of playing cards and dice

29. The Colonists React…
When word of the Stamp Act reached the colonists, they united! Shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers formed what was called the “Sons of Liberty”
They harassed customs workers, stamp agents, and even royal governors.
Colonial protest prevented any stamps from ever being sold…

30. Sons of Liberty:
One of the founders was Samuel Adams

31. Townshend Acts…
These acts, thought up by Charles Townshend (the leading government minister of England at the time) imposed indirect taxes, or duties, on the colonists (The Stamp Act was a direct tax).
They also imposed a three-penny tax on tea. “How dare they!”
Pretty sneaky, if I do say so myself…

32. Townshend Acts

33. NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

34. Colonists begin boycotting British goods:
“Furs, feathers, rich sattins…capes”
Tea, sugar
Women boycotted British luxuries and partook in “spinning bees” or public displays of spinning and weaving of colonial-made cloth

35. The Boston Massacre (March 5,1770)

36. Boston Massacre 1770… Where? A shipyard in Boston
When? A cold afternoon in March
What? A fist-fight breaks out over jobs. A mob gathers that evening in front of the Customs House to taunt guards—they (colonists) are angry because they have to compete for jobs with poorly paid soldiers.
Who? A man named “Crispus Attucks” and several dockhands appear, an armed clash takes place, and Attucks and four others lay dead in the snow.

37. Committees of Correspondence

38. Committees of Correspondence…
After the colonists burned a British ship down near Providence, Rhode Island, King George named a special commission to seek out the suspects and bring them to England for trial.
This plan caused widespread alarm among the colonists.
Virginia & Massachusetts set up these committees to communicate with other colonies about this & other threats to American liberties.
Were their fears warranted (legitimate)?

39. Boston Tea Party (1775)

40. Boston Tea Party… Remember, the colonists had been boycotting tea.
This hit the British East India Company, which held an official monopoly on tea imports, hard.
To save the company, Lord Frederick North, British Prime Minister, devised the Tea Act, which granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay.
1773, in the evening, a large group of Boston rebels disguised as Native Americans, dumped 18,000 lbs of tea off of 3 British East India Company Ships into the waters of the Boston harbor.

41. Tea Act

42. Writs of assistance

43. KING GEORGE III WAS INFURIATED BY THE BOSTON TEA PARTY, and imposed a serious of acts that seriously infringed upon the colonists’ rights.

44. Intolerable Acts

45. Quartering Act
Colonists forced to quarter British soldiers in their homes. Imagine that…

46. Tar and Feathering

47. First Continental Congress…
The Sons of Liberty were furious, and immediately assembled in September, 1774 in Philadelphia.
They drew up a declaration of colonial rights, and supported the protests in Massachusetts. They stated that if the British used force against the colonies, the colonies would fight back.
They decided to meet again in May 1775 if their demands were not met.

48. Paul Revere…
After the First Continental Congress, the colonists stepped up military preparations.
Minutemen, or civilian soldiers, stockpiled firearms and gunpowder.
They stored their supplied near Concord, a town outside of Boston, .
John Hancock and Samuel Adams, two of the most prominent leaders of the resistance, were in hiding near Lexington (close by)
Rumor had it that the British (led by General Gage) were coming—and a source informed the proxy leader, Joseph Warren who told Paul Revere (member of the Sons of Liberty) to notify Adams & Hancock.

49. First Continental Congress (STOP HERE)

50. THE WAR
DAY 3

51. The British Are Coming . . .
Paul Revere & William Dawes make their midnight ride to warn the Minutemen of approaching British soldiers.

52. April 19, 1775 The King’s troops reached Lexington
70 minutemen were there waiting
British commander ordered them to leave
Someone FIRED! British followed suit.
Eight Minutemen killed
The British marched on to Concord. Nothing there, so they march back to Boston.
Quickly became a slaughter—3,000-4,000 Minutemen had assembled, and they fired at the marching troops.
Adams and Hancock were fleeing deeper into the woods, but heard the gunshots.

53. The Shot Heard ’Round the World! Lexington & Concord – April 18,1775

54. Second Continental Congress

55. To revolt, or not to revolt?
As promised, in May 1775 the Americans reconvened for the Second Continental Congress.
Here, they devised a radical plan—that each colony set up its own government and that Congress declare the colonies independent!
American citizens were deeply divided...
Debates carried on into June
Colonial militia-men stationed in Boston; Congress appointed Continental Army.
George Washington appointed as commander

56. Battle of Bunker Hill…
British General Thomas Gage strikes militiamen near Bunker Hill (actually near Breed’s Hill), close by Boston
Colonists shot down advancing “redcoats,” as British soldiers were called.
450 colonists lost, 1,000 British casualties

57. Olive Branch Petition
The colonists were still divided, and just wanted peace, so they sent the king the Olive Branch Petition, urging a return to the “former harmony” between Britain and the colonies.

58. KING GEORGE REJECTED THE PETITION

59. Revolutionary Ideas…
In the months after the Olive Branch Petition, a thin document called Common Sense containing the powerful words of an angry citizen began to circulate through the colonies and change public opinion.
In this pamphlet, Thomas Paine attacked King George III.
Paine declared that the time had come for colonists to proclaim an independent republic!
He stated that independence would give Americans a chance to create a better society—one free from tyranny, with equal social and economic opportunities for all!

60. Common Sense 50 page pamphlet attacking King George III
Independence was our American destiny
Sold 500,000 copies
Got the colonist stirred up!!!

61. Thomas Paine: Common Sense

62. John Peter Zenger Case

63. John Locke’s revolutionary ideas…
Jefferson’s masterful Declaration of Independence drew upon concepts of English philosopher, John Locke:
People enjoy “natural rights” to life, liberty, and property.
Jefferson called them “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Jefferson kept with the spirit of Locke’s writings:
governments derive their power from the people,
All men are created equal.

64. Jefferson & the Declaration of Independence
By summer of 1776, Congress pushed colonies to declare independence
Congress appointed a committee to prepare a formal declaration explaining the reasons for the colonies’ actions to break away from Britain
Virginia lawyer, Thomas Jefferson, was chosen to express the committee’s points.
The Declaration was adopted July 2, 1776.

65. Declaration of Independence
July 4th 1776
Written by Thomas Jefferson
Let the British know we were our own country

66. Declaration of Independence (1776)

67. George Washington
Lead the American Army to victory in the Revolutionary War

68. Military Strategies The Americans The British
Attrition [the Brits had a long supply line].
Guerilla tactics [fight an insurgent war  you don’t have to win a battle, just wear the British down]
Make an alliance with one of Britain’s enemies.
Break the colonies in half by getting between the No. & the So.
Blockade the ports to prevent the flow of goods and supplies from an ally.
“Divide and Conquer”  use the Loyalists.

69. Washington Crossing the Delaware Painted by Emanuel Leutze, 1851

70. Which side would you be on?
Loyalists: People who stayed loyal to the British during the war
Patriots: wanted their independence from Britain

71. Cornwallis’ Surrender at Yorktown:
“The World Turned Upside Down!”
Painted by John Trumbull, 1797

72. Treaty of Paris 1783 Confirmed US independence and set boundaries
Peace treaty

73. North America After the Treaty of Paris, 1783

74. Shays’ Rebellion:
Farmers angry about coming back from war and being in debt because of taxes.
Significance: Made Founding Fathers realize they needed to write some kind of constitution.
What is a constitution?