Britain & Her Colonies Grow Apart The Road to Revolution Britain & Her Colonies Grow Apart

Background Mercantilism Trade & Navigation Acts (1650) wealth = power colonies sources of raw materials & food & markets for manufactured goods Trade & Navigation Acts (1650) goods carried only in English ships enumerated commodities duties paid by colonies in England on goods to & from Europe

Early Legislation Woolen Act of 1699 Hat Act of 1732 Molasses Act of 1733 Iron Act of 1750 writs of assistance no real enforcement by Britain smuggling by colonists policy of “salutary neglect”

The French & Indian War rivalry between Britain & France 1754-1763 territorial claims fur trade battles in the Ohio Valley & Great Lakes regions & Canada Battle of Quebec decisive

Results of F&I War French out of North America power of Native Americans reduced colonists’ respect for British damaged new land for the taking Britain puts troops in the colonies Britain heavily in debt Britain begins enforcing tax laws

British Point of View war was for defense of colonies so they should help pay needed to exercise more control danger from Native Americans Pontiac’s Rebellion; Proclamation of 1763 typical policy toward colonies within empire

Colonial Point of View British not so tough France gone colonists can handle Native Americans land, land, land distrust of standing armies smuggling “salutary neglect” : why the crackdown on taxes now? used to independence & self-government

Starting Down the Road Sugar Act/Revenue Act of 1764 lower duties on molasses to stop smuggling smuggling cases tried in admiralty courts (no juries) Quartering Act of 1765 colonists must provide food & shelter for British troops Stamp Act of 1765 first direct tax stamp required on all official documents affected all colonists, especially merchants & lawyers

Reaction to Stamp Act Stamp Act Congress in NY 1765 colonies come together boycotts of British goods “No Taxation Without Representation!” virtual vs. direct representation Stamp Act repealed 1766 Declaratory Act of 1766 (“in all cases whatsoever”)

Britain Tries to Back Up Townshend Duties of 1767 tea, glass, paper, lead, paint indirect tax (paid by merchants) revenue used to pay colonial officials previously paid by legislatures writs of assistance repealed 1770 except for tea

Colonial Resistance boycotts Sons & Daughters of Liberty (1765) Massachusetts Circular Letter of 1768 Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (Dickinson) Committees of Correspondence (1772) tarring & feathering hanging in effigy British customs ship Gaspee burned in RI Association

Boston Massacre March 5, 1770 tension building between colonists & British soldiers fight at the rope works confrontation with young boy snowballs & clubs “Fire!” or “Don’t fire!” colonists die Sam Adams’ “massacre” Paul Revere’s engraving John Adams defends British soldiers

Revere’s Engraving

Boston Tea Party (Dec 16, 1773) Tea Act: British East India Co monopoly on tea to colonies “Indians” dump all the tea in Boston Harbor ($75,000) other colonies sympathize with Massachusetts call for inter-colonial congress Coercive/Intolerable Acts port of Boston closed self-government reduced; Gage military governor royal officials tried in Britain British troops quartered in private homes Quebec Act Roman Catholicism no representative government boundary of Quebec to Ohio River

First Continental Congress Philadelphia, September 1774 radicals, moderates, conservatives Declaration of Rights & Grievances Suffolk Resolves repeal of Intolerable Acts boycott military preparations The Association 2nd congress May 1775 if necessary

Lexington & Concord April 19, 1775 British trying to capture military supplies in Concord Searching for Sam Adams & John Hancock “One if by land, two if by sea” “The Regulars are coming!” (Paul Revere & William Dawes) Minutemen on Lexington Green; 8 killed British repulsed at Concord’s North Bridge British chased back to Boston; 250 casualties “Shot heard ‘round the world”: War had begun