1. A Change in Thinking Anger over Boston Massacre begins to die down…
British government didn’t do anything else to anger colonists and colonists didn’t do anything to anger British government
3 years of calm….

2. Calm before the storm
Important changes in how colonists thought about England
Considered it their “mother country” or “home”
Were the colonists now “grown” and able to be on their own?
Some Americans started to think they could only keep their liberty by breaking away from the British Empire

3. Sam Adams Sam Adams came from an important Boston family.
Lost most of his family’s money because he was a poor businessman (not very interested in his work)
1765 Sam organized the Sons of Liberty
Led the boycott of the Stamp Act
Led the boycott when British government tried taxing the goods the colonies imported
Time to separate from Britain!
Committee of Correspondence
An exchange of letters
If the British took away any “rights of Englishmen”, committee members would send letters to other towns in Massachusetts with the news

4. Sam Adams Cont’d
This idea spread to other colonies and lead to a large network of Committee correspondence
Patriots started exchanging many thoughts through their letter system
Ideas of independence started spreading through the colonies
Still only the minority of colonists were thinking of independence… the rest were still very loyal to their king.
But what if the British threatened the colonists’ liberties again?

5. What was the purpose of the Committees of Correspondence?
Idea of alerting others based on the threats of the British Government on the liberties of Bostonian.
Committee members would immediately send letters to other towns in the Massachusetts colony with the news. This spread quickly and then progressed from colony to colony.
Did most colonists want to break away from Britain at this time?
Those who wanted to were still in the minority.
People were still unsure of what would happen if the British threatened liberties again, so they were still loyal to the king.
Who was Sam Adams?
From an important Boston family
Not a great businessman
Lost a lot of his family’s money
Helped organize the Sons of Liberty, was a leader in boycotting, and really wanted to separate from Britain

6. A Tea party in Boston Expression: “He was too clever for his own good”
Meaning: Sometimes a person thinks he has a clever solution to a problem, but in reality he only made things worse.

7. Parliament makes another mistake
Parliament had decided to keep the tax on tea
Colonists continued to boycott tea
They purchased tea from the Dutch
Parliament’s plan to make money off of the tea tax? Failed!
1773: Parliament passed the Tea Act
Lowered the price of tea
Kept the tax on tea
Cheaper than the tea the colonists were getting from the Dutch
Parliament figure the colonists couldn’t pass up a bargain like this!
Loaded up 2,000 chests of tea and headed for America
Colonist would not pay for the tea, no matter how low the price!
They considered the tax on tea to be “taxation without representation”
Not buying the tea was now a matter of principle, not just a matter of money

8. News travels fast
Committees of correspondence swung into action
Sons of Liberty prevented these ships from docking in New York and Philadelphia
Sent a letter to the captain of the ship in Philadelphia- “I wouldn’t try to land the ship if I were you. Your ship may just happen to catch fire and you yourself will be in for some rough treatment. We Pennsylvanians will never pay your tax on tea, for no power on the face of the earth has a right to tax without our consent. We are passionately fond of freedom… and are determined to enjoy it.”
The British captain did not land the ship!
Similar situations occurred in other colonial port cities

9. Boston tea party
Early December 3 ships entered the harbor of the city of Boston
Citizens gathered at a town meeting
Demanded that the governor make the ship leave, but he refused
December 16, 1773: group of men dressed as Indians rowed out to the tea ships, boarded them, and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water
This was done very quietly. They swept the deck, put everything back into place, and left the ship
Many people in the city knew this was going to happen
People showed up with torches and watched quietly

10. The intolerable acts The King and Parliament were outraged!
They decided they were going to teach the colonists a lesson
Parliament passed several laws to punish the people of Massachusetts
Closed the Boston port until the colonists paid for dumped tea
City depended on trade and fishing, so they needed the port!
Took away Massachusetts right to self-government
Appointed the army general to be the governor
Sent more troops to Boston
Ordered colonists to house these troops and feed them

11. Making Enemies How do you think the colonists felt?
Some families did not agree with the Sons of Liberty, but all the colonists were being punished along with the Sons of Liberty
Colonists called the new laws the “Intolerable Acts”
They could not tolerate or endure them
British government was losing friends and making enemies