The Road to American Independence:
An Overview of the Events Leading to the
Revolutionary War
• Beginning in the late 1600’s – France and England
competed for control of North America – Most
Indians sided with France – series of wars for
control
• French believed that British were trying to take
away their fur trade
• British believed that the French were stopping
their expansion west
• French and Indian War – 1754-1763 – England
wins
• Treaty of Paris – 1763 – peace treaty ending the
war
• 1. French lose all of their North American
territories
• 2. England controls everything east of the
Mississippi – Spain controls everything west
British Soldier
Delaware Indian
• Afterwards, English colonists (pioneers) begin
expanding west into the Appalachians and Ohio
River Valley - backcountry
• Conflicts with Native Americans – Indians did not
believe European treaties applied to them – would
not give up land – Pontiac’s Rebellion - 1763
• Proclamation of 1763 – British government
wanted to avoid future conflicts
• 1. Banned British settlers from moving west of
the Appalachians
• 2. Any settlers already there had to move back
• Caused great anger in the colonies and was widely
ignored
• These conflicts left the British in financial
difficulty, looking for new ways to pay these debts
King George III
George Washington
The Colonies develop…in spite of England
• Salutary Neglect
– England imposed little
– The colony existed for the
to no authority over the
economic benefit of the
colonies.
mother country
– Mercantilism satisfied
– All trade rules were dictated
by the mother country
England’s needs
– Raw materials were for the
– Over time, colonists
sole benefit of the mother
became less British and
country
more American
• Mercantilism
– Finished goods were
returned to the colonies and
sold at a great profit.
– An early version of
Imperialism
MERCANTILISM: AN
ECONOMIC SYSTEM IN
WHICH NATIONS SEEK TO
INCREASE THEIR WEALTH
BY OBTAINING GOLD &
SILVER AND WITH A
FAVORABLE BALANCE OF
TRADE
MERCANTILISM
• England had many debts from French and
Indian War – believed that the colonies
should help pay for these
• Navigation Acts – 1650-1696 – required
colonies to trade primarily with England
• Set taxes on some imported goods for the
first time
Sugar Act 1764
•
•
•
•
•
British needed money to pay back war
debts.
George Grenville – British Prime
Minister
3 cent tax on foreign sugar.
Higher import tax on non-British cloth,
coffee, indigo, and Madeira Canary
wines.
Resulted in…
– Banning of importation of foreign rum
and French wine
– Local production increased.
– Colonies begin to protest British
taxation.
– Increased smuggling
No Taxation Without
Representation
• James Otis/Sam Adams/John Hancock – first colonial
leaders to speak out against British taxes
• 1. Otis – Mind of the Revolution
• 2. Adams – Mouth of the Revolution
• 3. Hancock – Money of the Revolution
• Parliament could not tax the colonies since the colonies
had no representatives in it. This was unfair.
• Committees of Correspondence – spread info about
British acts and how to resist them – Boycotts – refusing to
buy or use a particular good or service
Quartering Act 1765
• England kept a standing army in
the Colonies after the French and
Indian War.
• Act required colonial assemblies to
house and provision the British
soldiers.
Stamp Act 1765
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Americans had to pay a tax on…
Paper
Legal Documents
Newspapers
Playing Cards
Other Documents
Americans had to buy the special
stamp to put on these
• Tax equaled half a penny
• “Most Vicious Tax” – affected
everyone
•
•
•
•
•
Resulted in…
Stamp Act Congress – asked England to
repeal Stamp Act -Declaration of Rights
and Grievances
Repeal – get rid of or take back
Colonists’ boycott of British goods.
King George repealed the Stamp Act on
March 18, 1766
• Sons of Liberty – secret
protest group created in
Boston – used violence
to protest British acts –
created by Sam Adams
• Colonists were never
asked to pay any taxes
that people in England
were not paying – British
were paying 25 times
more – Colonists would
have paid an extra dollar
per year.
Stamp Act Protests
Sam Adams
Townshend Acts 1767
•
•
•
•
Established a board of customs collectors
in Boston.
Writs of Assistance – search warrants for
smuggled goods
Money from taxes paid salaries of British
colonial officials.
New import taxes…
– Glass
– Lead
– Paints
– Paper
– Tea
• Colonists boycotted all
imports from England.
• Daughters of Liberty
• March 1770 - repealed all
taxes, expect for tax on tea.
The Regulators
• Western NC was increasingly unhappy with
all political power being held by Eastern
NC – corruption/Embezzlement
• Tryon’s Palace – William Tryon
• Regulators – Westerners who refused to pay
taxes or follow state government’s laws
• Herman Husband
• Battle of Alamance – May 16, 1770 –
Regulators lose
Tryon’s Palace
Battle of Alamance
Boston Massacre
• Sons of Liberty began attacking tax collectors –
British soldiers begin arriving in Boston in 1768 to
restore order - Redcoats
• Boston Massacre – March 5, 1770 – five
colonists are killed by British soldiers (Crispus
Attucks – free black – maybe runaway slave)
• Sons of Liberty used this as propaganda (only
telling one side of the story) against British
• Bias – favoring one side over another
• John Adams defended the British in court case
• All but two British soldiers found not guilty – the
two get light punishments
Boston Massacre
John Adams – lawyer for Redcoats
Paul Revere – engraver who
created propaganda engraving
for Boston Massacre
Ben Franklin – America’s Renaissance
Man
1. Printer
2. Author – Poor Richard’s Almanac
3. Inventor/scientist – fire department,
Post Office, bifocals, library
4. Statesman – only man to sign all
major founding documents
5. Colonial representative – ambassador
to France and England
Tea Act 1773
• Created to save the ailing East
India Company.
• The Company could sell its
surplus tea in the American
colonies.
• The act retained the import tax
on tea (Townshend Acts).
• 3 pennies per pound
• This Tax resulted in the
Boston Tea Party.
The Boston Tea Party
December 16, 1773
• Group of men disguised as
Blacks and Mohawk Indians.
• Led by Samuel Adams.
• Dumped 342 chests of British
tea into the Boston Harbor.
• 3 million dollars damage
• Second Boston Tea Party –
March 7, 1774
Boston Tea Party
INTOLERABLE ACTS (COERCIVE ACTS)
• Intolerable Acts – 1774 – shut down
Boston
• Disbanded Massachusetts legislature
• Put Massachusetts under military rule
• – made colonists even angrier since it
violated their rights as British citizens
• Proposed total boycott of British goods –
(refusal to buy or use)
• NC – Edenton Tea Party – Penelope Barker
“No Taxation Without Representation!”
First Continental Congress Meets in Philadelphia
September 1774
First attempt to unite the colonies to protest British
taxation
Boycott of British goods
No one yet willing to pursue independence