Trouble Brewing
in the Colonies
French and Indian War Aftermath

Colonists began to become
disenchanted with British
rule after the French and
Indian War


Treatment of colonial militias
during war
Proclamation of 1763


Colonists denied the land they
felt they had earned
Taxes levied on colonies to
pay for French & Indian War
Let the Taxes begin

George Grenville becomes Prime Minister of Great
Britain in 1763


Is responsible for paying off massive debt from Seven
Years War
Parliament passes the Sugar Act in 1764

Duties on all sugar/molasses imported by the Colonists


First tax specifically to raise money


Indirect tax – tax levied on businesses who paid to import goods.
Average colonists did not directly pay this tax
NOT regulate trade
Began crackdown on smugglers


Searching ships
Vice-admiralty courts

No jury

Guilty until proven innocent
Adams and Otis in Boston


Boston colonists Samuel Adams and lawyer
James Otis began to spread their slogan “No
Taxation without Representation”
James Otis wrote pamphlets defending colonial
rights



Along with Adams, he wrote letters editors of
local Newspapers
Britain should not be allowed to tax the colonies
since they had no direct representation in
Parliament
Adams helped organize Committees of
Correspondence



Local organizations who spread the word of new
British laws and ways to challenge them
Communicated with other committees throughout
the colonies
Led boycotts against sugar, etc.
Quartering Act


Passed in 1765
Forced Colonial governments to provide free
housing, food, alcohol, etc. to British soldiers
stationed in the colonies


If governments refused, colonists had to provide
Colonies felt that this violated their rights


No taxation w/out representation in Parliament
Standing army was not authorized by Parliament
The Stamp Act

Parliament passed the Stamp
Act in 1765

Required colonists to get a stamp
on all paper items they bought


Newspapers, playing cards, legal
documents, etc.
Direct tax – a tax paid directly by
colonists when they bought a product
Sons of Liberty

Samuel Adams organized
an underground group
called The Sons of Liberty

devised ways to protest
the tax




Tarred and feathered tax
collectors
Burned and hung tax
collectors in effigy
Burned Homes
Boycotted paper products,
sugar, etc.
Patrick Henry

Freshmen Virginia
representative, Patrick
Henry, proposed the
Virginia Resolves

Claimed that Parliament did
not have the right to tax the
colonies




Only colonial
representatives could levy
taxes
Passed the House of
Burgesses by one vote
The most Anti-British
legislation to that point
Proved that anti-British
sentiment was spreading
throughout the colonies, not
just Boston
Stamp Act Repealed



A Stamp Act Congress composed of nine colonies met in New
York
 Colonies uniting
 Declared that Stamp Act was in violation of their rights and it
needed to be repealed
Due to mounting pressure from the Colonies, Parliament
repealed the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act in 1766
 Benjamin Franklin pleaded the colonial case before Parliament
 Lord William Pitt, now a member of Parliament, led the movement
to repeal the taxes
However, Parliament does issue the Declaratory Act
 Parliament has the right to issue whatever taxes it sees fit and
make laws and policy for the colonies


Trumps colonial authority
Did not want to seem weak; wanted to assert their authority
You say you want a Revolution...
Townshend Acts - 1767


Named after financial cabinet officer Charles
Townshend
Indirect tax on certain imports


Gave tax collectors to have writs of assistance



glass, lead, paint, silk, paper, & tea
Allowed tax collectors to search ships for smuggled goods
without proper warrant
Like a warrant to be used whenever they saw fit
Repealed taxes in 1770

Retained tax on tea as a matter of principle
Liberty Case - 1768

John Hancock is accused of smuggling
wine on his ship the “Liberty”


British officials sent to search the ship
Officials got locked below deck during
their search



Officials ordered arrest of Hancock and
confiscation of “Liberty”
Public riots broke out




The next morning, the officials and
smuggled wine had disappeared
Burned customs-house
Burned tax collector’s boat
Destroyed British property
Defended by John Adams

Acquitted of all charges, but his ship was
seized

Ironically, it was later armed and used by
the British to search for smugglers
Boston Massacre - 1770



Do to the oftentimes violent nature of Colonial protests and the difficulty
that British officials had in collecting the Townshend duties, over 3,000
redcoats were stationed in Boston
British soldiers were guarding a customs house in Boston
Citizens began to taunt the soldiers and threw snowballs at them


Someone yelled “Fire!”


Packed with glass, oyster shells, bricks, rocks, etc.
Redcoats fired muskets into the crowd
5 people were killed

Crispus Attucks



Known as the first martyr of the Revolution
6 others injured
Soldiers defended by John Adams



“Facts are stubborn things...”
6 Soldiers, Captain were acquitted
2 were accused of manslaughter

Branded on their thumbs
Paul Revere’s Engraving

Paul Revere quickly
capitalized on the event
by producing an
engraving of the event



A great example of AntiBritish propaganda


Titled “Boston Massacre”
Sold color prints 3 weeks
after event
Propaganda - the
attempt to influence
collective attitudes by a
systematic manipulation
of words, pictures, or
symbols.
Allowed even the illiterate
to understand
Tea Act -1773


Ever since the Townshend Acts taxed tea in 1767, boycotts by
the Sons of Liberty and others had almost bankrupted the East
India Tea Company
Britain passed the Tea Act in 1773 to help the prominent British
business
 Kept the original tax on tea from the Townshend Acts
 Allowed tea from the East India Tea Company to be imported
directly from Indian without the usual duties/taxes



Made this tea cheaper than ever
Required this tea to be sold only by certain “agents” or stores
Colonists were outraged


Saw it as a backdoor way to get them to pay the tea tax
believed this would undercut (hurt) colonial businesses

People would buy tea from only East India Tea agents and not from other
colonial business
Colonial Response to Tea Act



Colonists in Philadelphia
and New York turned tea
ships around
In Charleston, the cargo
was left to rot on the
docks
In Boston the ships were
held in port


Over 2 weeks
Sons of Liberty threatened
violence if the tea was
unloaded
Boston Tea Party

Samuel Adams organized
150 members of the Sons of
Liberty to raid the 3 East India
Tea Company Ships


Dressed like Mohawk Indians
Took hatchets and
opened/dumped 342 cases of
tea into the Boston Harbor



£10,000 worth of tea
Crowd gathered to watch
The Sons of Liberty destroyed
only tea

Hurt no one, took off their
shoes, swept the deck, and
repaired the one padlock that
they broke
Boston Tea Party
Coercive (Intolerable) Acts

A set of laws passed by Parliament in 1774
aimed at bringing the colonies back into
submission


Punishment for Tea Party, colonial rebellion
Consisted of several laws





Boston Port Act – closed the port of Boston to
all trade
Massachusetts Governance Act – did away with
elected officials in Massachusetts, making them
appointed by the crown
Quartering Act – required colonists to provide
lodging, food, etc. to British soldiers
Administration of Justice Act – authorized Royal
Governor to transfer trials of British officials to
London to avoid hostile colonial juries
Colonists called them “Intolerable”
Intolerable Acts
Intolerable Acts
First Continental Congress

In response to the
Intolerable Acts, 12
colonies sent delegates to
Philadelphia




No Georgia
Centrally located
Leading Colonial City
9/5/1774 – 10/26/1774
Carpenter’s Hall
Philadelphia, PA
First Continental Congress



55 delegates
Presided by Peyton Randolph (Va.)
Notable Names:





George Washington
John Adams
Samuel Adams
Patrick Henry
John Jay
The Rev. Jacob Duche opening the Sept. 7,
1774 session of the First Continental
Congress with an extended prayer asking
God to support the American cause.
First Continental Congress

Drafted the Articles of Association


Intended to alter Britain’s policies towards the
colonies, not to break ties
Defined American grievances against Britain



Intolerable Acts
Taxes imposed not to regulate trade
Suspended trade with Britain until Intolerable Acts
were repealed



Boycott of British Goods
No Imports from Britain (effective Dec. ’74)
No Exports to Britain (effective Sept. ’75)
Articles of Association

Precursor to the
Declaration of
Independence
 First to claim colonial
rights of “life, liberty,
property”
 Refers to the colonies as
“America”
 Unites Colonies for the
common good
First Continental Congress



Agreed to meet again in May 1775 if their
demands were not met
Urged colonies to ready their militias
Created Committees of Observation to
enforce the boycotts, etc.

Local “police” chosen by voters