1. The Empire in Transition
The Thirteen Colonies in 1763

2. New Imperialism King George III George Grenville Political Blunders
Standing armies
George Grenville
Sugar Act (1764)
Lowers excise tax on foreign molasses
Increased enforcement
Admiralty Courts
Mutiny Act (1765)
King George III-22 years old at the time assumed power in 1760
suffered from bouts of insanity
intellectual and psychological limitations explain his erratic and paranoid behavior during administration
Ministries lasted an average of 2 years during his reign
George Grenville
Mutiny Act of 1765: stationed troops permanently in the colonies
Colonists required to provision and maintain army
Customs services enlarged
Passes Sugar Act; results in increased smuggling and boycotts

3. New Imperialism Currency Act (1764) Targeting Virginia
Virginia war bonds
inflation
Only Great Britain can create currency
Impacted other colonies
All taxes paid in British legal tender
Colonies must stop printing their own currencies

4. Stamp Act Revenue February 1765 “Virtual Representation”
Tax all paper goods: contracts, playing cards, books, etc.
“Virtual Representation”
“constituent representation”
Repealed March 1766
Perfect Method for Antagonizing Colonists!
Sugar Act didn’t raise much revenue, and only affected small amounts of colonists
Stamp Act affected Everyone!
All legal documents, bail (lawyers), petition to courts, professionals, bills of landing (merchants), peoples employed in public office outside colonial appointments, seals of officialness
Light Taxes, but Huge Precedent; evidenced the principles of the Revolution
raising revenue through taxes for the Crown without the Consent of the colonial assemblies
Revolt of the House of Burgesses in Virginia allows the repeal of the Stamp Act; ordinary colonists didn’t think they could do much more than grumble

5. Colonial Responses Pamphlet War Public sphere Patrick Henry Doc. 27
Self-taxation
Doc. 27
Virginia Resolves were the end result of Patrick Henry’s proclamations; his ideas are popularized and read throughout the colonies, including Massachusetts
Have students read document aloud; why were the last parts of Henry’s resolves so dangerous? What do they reveal about the nature of the early movement for colonial independence? How willing were the British colonial assemblies willing to cut their ties with the mother country? The document obviously illustrates a divide.

6. Stamp Act Congress (Oct. 1765)
9 of 13
Declaration of Rights and Grievances (John Dickinson of PA)
12 Resolves
External Tax
Internal Tax
Taxes: “gifts of the people”
Correspondence networks
Internal Tax Versus External tax
External Tax: excise tax upon a commodity; consumers have a choice whether or not to buy a particular excised commodity; these are the kinds of taxes that characterize the mercantilist system
Internal Tax: something that is taxed that is unable to be opted out of; the nature of the tax itself leaves no room for choices; it’s a mandatory tax; Parliament doesn’t have the right to create this sort of tax according to colonists because they are acting without consent

7. Non-Importation Agreements
New York, Albany, Philadelphia, Boston
National Strike
Dec. 1765
Most stamped paper destroyed
Act defeated
Grenville replaced
300K pound sterling lost
Declaratory Act (1766)
Scholars refer to the Stamp Act Crisis as the Prelude or Dress-Rehearsal for Revolution
By December 1765, business as usual has returned to the colonies because there was no way that the Stamp Act was going to be enforced.
George Grenville’s government had been replaced, illustrating the lack of consistency in the British administration; also setting up similar mistakes to be made in the future. Grenville’s government is replaced by Rockingham.
London Merchants actually work for the repeal of the Stamp Act because commerce was interrupted so much.
Benjamin Franklin was summoned before the House of Commons to consult about the possible repeal of the Stamp Act; the questions were distributed in advance; it was known that the Stamp Act was going to be repealed; it was political theater
In repealing the Stamp Act; Parliament passes the Declaratory Act, stating that Parliament reserved the right to govern the colonies “in all cases whatsoever:
The Declaratory Act didn’t recognize the theoretical position of the American colonies evidenced by the Stamp Act

8. Crowd Reaction to Stamp Act
“Crowd Action”
Boston (Port city)
Sons of Liberty
Bankrolled by J. Hancock
Effigy
August 1765
Thomas Hutchinson
Doc. 29
Sons of Liberty were truly a horryfying group of patriots
In all major colonial cities, especially in the North
Street thugs
Gesture politics
In Providence, RI; Sons of Liberty got out of hand, began attacking anyone wealthy, took on elements of a social revolution
In reading document 29, students should see the types of constituencies that were drawn together by the Sons of Liberty and their method of economic protest; who is really being targeted by their platform?
Economic warfare prior to formal independence

9. The Tory’s Day of Judgment (Library of Congress)

10. The Empire in Transition
Townshend Crisis (1767)
Mutiny Act
New York, Boston
Duties on imported goods (luxury items)
Governor’s salaries
Boycott of British goods
Nonimportation Agreements
Daughters of Liberty
Townshend Acts are the first act to enforce the Declaratory Act
No one in Parliament spoke out against the Townshend Duties; like some had against Stamp Act; taxes were normative in Britain
Charles Townshend was the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the cabinet’s chief financial minister)
Grenville writes Townshend a letter warning him of the potential backlash against the Townshend Duties.
New York had protested Mutiny Act in 1767, but to no avail .

11. The Empire in Transition
Stirrings of Revolt
The Boston Massacre
Rebellious Boston
March 5, 1770
“Tavernites & lobsterbacks”
5 dead
The Boston Massacre (Library of Congress)

12. Crisis of Empire: Or How England Lost Its North America Colonies

13. Problems of the East India Company
British vs. Dutch East India Co.
Indian bumper-crops
Coffee
Anti-Importation Agreements
British shareholders

14. The Tea Act (1773) Mercantilism Cheaper than smuggled tea
Innovation
Cheaper than smuggled tea
Tea, not coffee
nationalism
Save company
monopoly
“British East India Company Enabling Act”

15. Boston Tea Party (Dec. 1773) “gesture politics” Tea Destroyed
Trade Boom
Tea Destroyed
Merchants undermined
British Occupation
Sam Adams
Politics of provocation

16. Coercive Acts, 1774 (Intolerable Acts)
Aim: pay for Boston Tea Party
Boston Port Bill
Harbor closed
Quartering Act
Soldiers in Private homes
“Murder Act”
Transfer of trials to London
MA govt. act
Ending town-halls
Quebec Act
Securing French loyalty
French civil rights
First Continental Congress
1774

17. The Empire in Transition
Cooperation and War
Lexington and Concord
“Minutemen”
General Thomas Gage
The War for Independence Begins
Recruiting Poster (Library of Congress)

18. The Empire in Transition
The Battles of Lexington and Concord, 1775

19. The American Revolution
The States United
Defining American War Aims
Divergent American War Aims
Common Sense
Common Sense (Library of Congress)

20. Declaring Independence: Revolutionaries vs. Loyalists
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
Doc. # 31
James Chalmers, Plain Truth (1776)
Doc. 32

21. The American Revolution
The States United
The Declaration of Independence
Independence Declared
Articles of Confederation
Thomas Jefferson
A-9 – A-12 (appendix)
Thomas Jefferson (Library of Congress)