ROAD TO REVOLUTION

RESISTANCE  Felt British did not care about their needs  Britain in financial crisis  Tighten laws against smuggling  Writs of assistance --- search warrant  Searching business --- homes

MERCANTILISM  Justified control over the colonies  Benefit mother country  Currency problems  Royal Veto  Favorable Balance of Trade  Export more than Import  Navigation Laws = 1650  Transported only on British ships  Salutary Neglect

SUGAR ACT  1764  Increased the duty on foreign made molasses  West Indies  Taxed imports = not been taxed before  Those accused of smuggling would be tried in vice-admiralty court  Had little impact on colonists

QUARTERING ACT  1765  Provide food and shelter for redcoats  Use Stamp Act to pay for new military force

STAMP ACT  1765  Tax on documents and printed items  Wills, Newspapers, Playing cards  Stamp = prove that tax had been paid  Boycott British goods until Stamp Act was repealed  March Parliament repealed law

RESISTANCE  Stamp Act Congress – 1765  27 delegates / 9 states  Intercolonial unity  Nonimportation Agreements  Protests  Sons of Liberty  Daughters of Liberty  Sam Adams  Committees of Correspondence  Spread resistance

DECLARATORY ACT  1766  Passed the same day the Stamp Act was repealed  “Bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever”

TOWNSHEND ACTS  1767  Taxed goods that were imported into the colony from Britain  Lead, glass, paint, and paper  Tax on tea  Pay salaries = Governors/Judges  Boycotted British goods  Sam Adams

BOSTON MASSACRE  March 5, 1770  Taunted British soldiers  Shot accidentally fired  11 killed / wounded  Townsend Act costing more to enforce  Repealed Act  Kept tax on tea

TEA ACT  1773  British East India Company  Going bankrupt  Allowed to sell tea to the colonies free of taxes  Cut colonial merchants out of tea trade  Colonists did not want to buy cheaper tea

BOSTON TEA PARTY  December 16, 1773  Boston rebels board British ships  Dressed as Native Americans  Dumped 18,000 pounds of tea into Boston harbor

INTOLERABLE ACTS  1774  Shut down Boston Harbor  Boston Port Act  Quartering Act  House soldiers in vacant private homes and other buildings  Thomas Gage  Appointed the new Governor of Massachusetts  Placed Boston under martial law --- military force

 French guaranteed their Catholic Religion  Retain old customs  Boundaries extended southward to Ohio River

FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS  September 1774  55 Delegates – Philadelphia  12 / 13 Colonies represented  7 weeks  Drew up Declaration of Colonial Rights  Right to run own affairs  If British used force colonist would fight back  Established militia  Stockpiled firearms - gunpowder

CONT.  Association  Complete boycott of British goods  Nonimportation  Nonexportation  Nonconsumption

LEXINGTON AND CONCORD  April  Paul Revere  Sent warning out  700 British troops = Redcoats  Headed to Concord  70 minutemen - Lexington  8 minutemen killed wounded  1 British soldier injured  First Battle of the Revolutionary War

CONCORD  Redcoats marched on to Concord  Arsenal was empty  Headed back  3,000 – 4,000 minutemen assemble now  Fired on the troops as they marched home

Strengths  7.5 million Brits to 2.5 colonists  Naval power  Professional army v. militia  Hessians  Loyalists / Native Americans Weaknesses  Sympathy  Distance  Geography

Strengths  Leadership  European officers  Fighting Defensively  Self sustaining  Moral Cause Weaknesses  Disorganized  Jealousy / States /Sectional  Continental / Inflation / Currency  Deserters  Supplies