Discontent and
Revolution
1750 - 1783
Today’s Lecture
• Seven Years War (17561763)
• Rising Tensions
– The Stamp Act (1765)
– “No Taxation Without
Representation”
– Religion
– Townshend Duties
• Revolutionary Women
• Boston ‘Massacre’ (1770)
– The Tea Act (1773)
– Boston Tea Party
• The Intolerable Acts (17741775)
• The Road to Independence
– Common Sense
– The Declaration of
Independence
• Revolution!
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–
–
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Saratoga
The War
Yorktown
The Treaty of Paris
Seven Years War
• 1753: French settlers built forts in Ohio Valley
• George Washington was sent to investigate by the
Virginia Colony but was driven home by Native
tribes
• Six Nations Iroquois/ Albany Congress
• General Braddock (British) dispatched with
Regulars
• Decimated by
French/Indian
troops in an
ambush in 1755
(45% loss)
Seven Years War
• 1758: Iroquois and Ohio
Indians abandoned the
French cause
• Newly elected Prime Minister William Pitt
reinvigorated the Colonial Troops
• Britain agreed to foot the bill
• 1760: Montreal
Surrenders
• 1763: Treaty of Paris
• End of French
America
Rising Tensions
• Seven Years War
created debt in both the
Colonies and Britain
• Taxes levied to help pay it off
• 1760: Writs of Assistance
• General search warrant for smuggled goods
• Colonists considered it unconstitutional; ‘rights of
Englishmen’
• “Limits beyond which, if Parliament goes, their
Acts not bind” – James Otis
Rising Tensions
• The Sugar Act (1764)
•
Tax on imported goods
changes to shipping
administration
• Resulted in higher prices
and confiscated
• Mostly affected Northern
Colonies
• Pontiac Rebellion/ Proclamation of 1763
• Restoration of lands to the French/ Defeat by British
• Accused of putting Native needs ahead of Colonists’ wonts
• Established a peacetime standing army
The Stamp Act (1765)
• British tax burden = 26 shillings pp/
Colonists = 1/1 ½ shillings pp
• Stamp Act called for special ‘stamped’ or watermarked paper to
be used for all official purposes (newspapers/ licenses etc.)
• Internal tax which affected the American public
• Projected to cover roughly 20% of American military expenses
• Demonstrated Parliament’s indifference to the Colonies
• Petitions in opposition prior to passage were not even heard in London
• Largest protests heard in Boston
• Suffered most from the Stamp Act
• Pressured Stamp Distributors to
resign before the tax was due
• Andrew Oliver (Boston)
• 1766 Repeal and Declaratory Act
No Taxation Without Representation!
• The Colonists were opposed to the new taxes
• They already levied taxes through their Assemblies
•
Parliament could not tax British subjects who were not
represented, but they claimed ‘virtual representation’
• Also claimed Assemblies counted as representation
• Colonists argued that America was similar to Ireland: Self
Governed, but answerable to the Crown
• 1765: Virginia Assembly passed a
Resolution against the Act; seven
more Colonies followed suit by
year’s end
• ‘Sons of Liberty’ groups sprang up
throughout the Colonies to protest
the ‘unlawful’ taxation
Religion
• Clergymen discussed resistance to the
British in their sermons and Town
meetings
• They were in a far better position to
disseminate information
• Few Americans had access to pamphlets or newspapers,
especially in rural areas (those who did often couldn’t read)
• Clergymen were trusted sources of information and influence
• Believed that personal liberty was Godly, and the denial
of such a sin
• Lead by Congregationalist, Calvinist, Presbyterian and
Baptist Clergy
• Quakers were pacifist; Anglicans answerable to the King
The Townshend Duties (1767-1770)
• Actually called the Revenue Act, but named after British
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend
• A customs tax on glass, paint, lead, paper and tea; Constituted
an ‘external’ tax, unlike the Stamp Act which was ‘internal’
• Control measure, not trade regulation or moneymaking
measure
• Intended to fund Governors salaries to free them from the
control of the assemblies
• Samuel Adams’ ‘Circular Letters’; An
‘incentive to rebellion’ – Lord
Hillsborough. Overreaction
• 1768: Nonimportation
• “Save your money and you save your country”
• 1770: Lord North repeals the
Townshend Duties (Except the tea tax)
Revolutionary Women
• Enabled middle and upper class
white women to play a part in
politics
• Forefront of the boycott
• Denounced the consumption of tea
• A more effective threat than nonimportation; homespun
• Legitimacy: “women might recover to this country
the full and free enjoyment of all our rights,
properties and privileges… which is more than the
men have been able to do” – Rev. John Cleveland
• Demonstrated that resistance to British tyranny was
widespread
The Boston Massacre (1770)
• British troops dispatched to
Boston in 1768
• March 5th 1770: Crowds
gathered outside the Boston
Customs House to protest;
Goaded the Redcoats
• A Private fired indiscriminately into the crowd; 5
killed, several wounded
•
Crowd unarmed despite taunts
• Soldiers responsible either acquitted, or branded.
• Highlighted the tensions between Colonists and British
The Tea Act (1773)
• Non-consumption of tea brought the British East
India Company to the brink of bankruptcy
• British East India Co. vital to colonial rule in India
• The Tea Act repealed all import duties on British
East India Co. tea entering Britain; direct sale
• Americans resolved to prevent
the ships from docking
• One ship docked however
• 50 Bostonians dressed as Native
Americans boarded the ship and
threw the tea into the sea.
The ‘Intolerable Acts’
(1774-1775)
• The Boston ‘Tea Party’ inflamed Parliament
• Response: The Coercive Acts
1) Boston Port Bill: Closure of Boston Harbor
2) Massachusetts Government Act: Revoked
Massachusetts’ government charter and the Assembly’s
right to vote in the Upper House
3) Administration of Justice Act: enabled royal officials to
be tried in Britain rather than the Colonies
4) Quartering Act: Allowed the Governor to requisition
empty buildings for billeting of troops
• Quebec Act: established Roman Catholicism as
Quebec’s official religion
The Road to Independence
• 1st Continental Congress (Sept. 5th 1774)
• Called for the repeal of the Intolerable Acts and trade boycott
• Prevented the British intention to isolate Boston
• “We are deficient in genius, in education, in travel, in fortune,
in everything” – John Adams
• “Everyday we sit, the more we are
convinced that the designs against us
are hostile and sanguinary” – John
Adams
• “One if by land, two if by sea” (April 18th-
19th 1775)
• Minutemen; Samuel Prescott’s Ride to
Lexington and Concord
Revolution!
• Battle of Bunker Hill
– Actually the battle of Breed’s Hill
• Farmers vs. Soldiers
– Leads to a favouring of guerrilla warfare tactics and localised
skirmishes over full-scale battles
• Slave Soldiers
– Around 5,000 free and enslaved blacks fought for the rebels
Common Sense
• Published anonymously, 10th Jan.
1776
– Written by Englishman Thomas Paine
• Immediate bestseller
• Largest sale and circulation on any book in American
history at the time
• Focused on the importance of self-government
• Anti-royalist sentiments – monarchy is sinful
• Argued that British rule had run its course
• British rule was no longer beneficial to American colonists
• Britain was not a benevolent protector and therefore no
longer deserving of American loyalty
• Penned by Southern planter Thomas Jefferson
– John Adams believed this would reduce MA-centricity
• Noted 21 examples of Britain’s tyrannical rule
– Taxation without representation; imposition of military rule; use of
brute force
• “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with
certain inalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness”
– Jefferson’s dilemma
• Signed July 4th 1776
The Battle
of Saratoga
• October 1777
• New York State
• Washington’s
‘American Army’s’ first significant victory
– Forced the surrender of British General Burgoyne
• Turning point in the war for independence
• Boosted both morale at home and ‘the cause’
overseas
The War of American
Independence
• The Battle of Saratoga
spurred French interest
– France formally recognised American independence after
the victory
– France no longer wanted to reclaim American territories
for itself, but it also did not want Britain to have them
– Spain and the Netherlands followed suit soon after
– Victory! But the war continued anyway
• Washington’s Smallpox vaccination campaign
– Controversial, and as revolutionary as the War itself
Yorktown
• October 1781
• Virginia
• Washington abandons New York
– Surprises British troops stationed in Virginia
– Trapped Lord Cornwallis in York Penninsula
• Blockade from French
Fleet prevented retreat
or reinforcements
• Cornwallis surrendered
– Abandoned all American
slave soldiers he had
recruited by promising
freedom
The Treaty of Paris
• The Treaty of Paris signed on 3rd September 1783
– Peace talks had begun in 1782 after the British defeat at
Yorktown
– Signers included Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
– Ratified by the
Continental Congress
• Ended the
Revolutionary War
– Recognised US
independence from
Britain; established
land borders
In Sum…
• “Without American courage and
endurance, the conflict could easily
have been lost, but without
French support, the war would have dragged on indecisively
for years” – Historian David Reynolds
• Many states largely untouched
• Major battlegrounds: NC, SC, NY, GA, not MA, VA, PA
• Around 25,000 American casualties
• 1/3 lost in battle; 2/3 lost to disease; loss would have been
much higher without Washington’s smallpox campaign
• 1/5 American colonists had remained loyal – most migrated to
Canada or Britain
• John Adams first US Ambassador to Britain – Met by George III
as a friend
Next week…
The Young Republic