1. Lesson 6.2: Colonial Resistance Grows

2. Essential Question
In what ways did Americans organize to oppose British policies?

3. Vocabulary Crispus Attucks: former slave shot during Boston protest
Townshend Acts: Law passed by Parliament suspending New York’s assembly until they agreed to provide housing for troops.
Writs of assistance: A search warrant that allowed British officers to enter colonial homes or businesses to search for smuggled goods.
Samuel Adams: Leader of the Boston Son’s of Liberty urged colonists to continue to resist British controls.

4. Vocabulary
Boston Massacre: Clash between British soldiers and colonists in 1770 in which 5 colonists were killed.
John Adams: Boston lawyer and cousin of Samuel Adams who defended the British soldiers arrested for the Boston Massacre.
Committee of correspondence: A group of people in the colonies who exchanged letters about colonial issues.
Boston Tea Party: Sons of Liberty protest of the Tea Act in 1773 by dumping British tea into the Boston harbor.

5. Focus Questions Why did Parliament pass the Townshend Acts?
Why did the colonists oppose the Townshend Acts?
How did colonial leaders protest the Townshend Acts?
What events let up to the Boston Massacre?

6. Focus Questions
5. What happened to the 4 British soldiers who killed the 5 protestors?
6. What did the Tea Act of 1773 give to one British company?
In what three ways did colonists respond to the Tea Act?
What was the purpose of the Committee of Correspondence?

7. What We Already Know…
Ever since the Proclamation Line Act of 1763, relations between the British government and the American colonists had been growing increasingly hostile.

8. What We Already Know…
Parliament’s attempts to raise revenue by taxing the colonies were met with protests, petitions, and boycotts.

9. What We Already Know…
People in the colonies, who were used to running their affairs without interference
from Parliament, became angry with the British Government over the new laws and taxes.

10. The Townshend Acts
Parliament had repealed the Stamp Act. But it still needed to raise money to pay its expenses in America. Charles Townshend, the king’s financial secretary, proposed several new laws that would raise money from the colonies.

11. The Townshend Acts
One of the first actions taken by Townsend was to prevent New York’s legislative assembly
from meeting until
the colonists agreed
to quarter British troops.

12. The Townshend Acts
Another part of the act placed taxes on certain goods that were brought into the colonies.

13. The Townshend Acts
To enforce these laws, British officers used writs of assistance. These were search warrants used to enter homes or businesses to find smuggled goods.

14. Colonists Reaction to The Townshend Acts
Once again, the colonists felt their natural rights as described by English
philosopher John Locke,
during the Enlightenment, were being violated. Locke wrote “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”

15. Colonists Reaction to The Townsend Acts
Many colonists strongly believed the writs of assistance and their inability to govern their own affairs was a violation of their natural rights and freedoms.

16. Colonists Reaction to The Townshend Acts
Anger grew over the new taxes and the closure of the New York assembly. The feeling still remained that “Parliament has no right to tax us directly!”

17. Colonists Reaction to The Townshend Acts
The Sons of Liberty were a group of ordinary shopkeepers and tradesmen organized against The Stamp Act. They organized protests and set another
boycott in motion
against the
Townshend Acts.

18. Tools of Protest
The Sons of Liberty encouraged shop-keepers not to sell goods made in Britain.
The Daughters of Liberty urged colonists to weave their own cloth and to use only American goods.

19. The Liberty Incident
In June of 1768, British Customs officials in Boston tried to search the merchant ship Liberty, which was carrying smuggled goods.

20. The Liberty Incident
Colonists rose up in protest and a riot broke out.
British officials reacted by calling for more troops to be sent to Boston.

21. The Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a scuffle broke out between colonists and a group of redcoats
guarding the Boston Customs House.

22. The Boston Massacre
One of the British soldiers guarding the Customs House called for help. Captain Thomas Preston came to the rescue with eight British soldiers

23. The Boston Massacre
After having rocks thrown at them, a British soldier fired on the protesting colonists. Three other soldiers began firing as well. Five colonists were killed.

24. The Boston Massacre
Crispus Attucks, was the first casualty of the Boston Massacre. He was a former slave and merchant seaman. He is widely considered to be the first American casualty in the American Revolutionary War.

25. The Boston Massacre
It was Samuel Adams, one of the leaders of the Sons of Liberty, who first used the phrase “The Boston Massacre”, to describe the shootings, saying that the five colonists gave their lives for freedom.

26. Aftermath of The Boston Massacre
The British soldiers involved in the shooting were arrested for murder! It is ironic that John Adams, a lawyer and cousin of Samuel Adams, successfully defended the soldiers in court. He wanted
to demonstrate that the colonies followed the rule of law.

27. Aftermath of The Boston Massacre
Parliament repealed all the Townshend Acts except the tax on tea, in order to continue demonstration of its power to govern the colonies.
Many colonists were relieved and believed the crisis was over.

28. Aftermath of The Boston Massacre
To many other colonists, however the Boston Massacre would stand as a symbol of British tyranny.

29. Aftermath of The Boston Massacre
Samuel Adams, wanted to make sure that the colonists did not forget the cause of liberty. He called upon Paul Revere to make an engraving of the Boston Massacre.

30. Aftermath of The Boston Massacre
The picture that Paul Revere created showed British soldiers firing at peaceful Boston citizens. He etched the picture into a piece of copper, so it could be printed over and over again.

31. Aftermath of The Boston Massacre
Paul Revere and Samuel Adams both knew that the picture did not show an accurate account of what had happened – but the drawing made good propaganda. It made people furious at the British.

32. Aftermath of The Boston Massacre
Samuel Adams also helped to form committees of correspondence in various towns in Massachusetts. These groups wrote letters to one another about colonial matters.

33. Aftermath of The Boston Massacre
Soon these committees were exchanging letters throughout Massachusetts, as well as with committees formed in other colonies, keeping opposition to the British alive.

34. The Tea Act
The British East India Tea Company was a major part of the British economy, but in 1773 it was facing bankruptcy.
Many members of Parliament were investors in the company, and didn’t want to see it fail.

35. The Tea Act
In 1773, Parliament gave the East India Trade Company, a monopoly on the colonial tea trade. The Tea Act stated, the tea would come to the colonies only in the company’s ships and
would be sold in the colonies only by the company’s merchants.

36. The Tea Act
Colonists would also have to pay the tax on the tea, which was a very popular drink in all the American colonies.

37. The Tea Act
Many colonists began protests against the Tea Act. Officials of the East India Tea Company were harassed and assaulted by the Sons of Liberty.

38. The Boston Tea Party
Ships belonging to the East India Trading Company were blocked from pulling into port and unloading their cargo.

39. The Boston Tea Party
On the night of December 16, 1773, a group of colonists, dressed as Native American Indians, boarded three tea ships tied up in Boston harbor.

40. The Boston Tea Party
They dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This event became known as the Boston Tea Party.

41. The Boston Tea Party
Many colonists believed that the Tea Party would show Britain how much they opposed being taxed without representation.
Others colonists questioned whether destroying property was the best way to respond to British taxes.

42. The Boston Tea Party
Some colonial leaders actually offered to pay for the tea that was destroyed if Parliament would agree to end the Tea Act.

43. The Boston Tea Party
An angry British Parliament not only wanted the colonists to pay for the tea, but they wanted the people responsible to be brought to trial and for the colony of Massachusetts to be punished.