Chapter 4 – Road to
Independence
Activity: Laws/Acts/Actions with Colony and British Reactions
Stamp Act
• The Stamp Act required colonists to purchase special stamped paper for
every legal document, license, newspaper, pamphlet, and almanac, and
imposed special “stamp duties” on packages of playing cards and dice
Colony Reaction
Colonists harass stamp distributors, boycott
British goods, and prepare a Declaration of
Rights and Grievances
British Reaction
March 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act
but issued the Declaratory Act asserting
Parliament’s full right to make laws “to bind the
colonies and people of America…in all cases
whatsoever”
Townshend Acts
• Indirect tax, or duties levied on imported materials – glass, lead, paint, and
paper – as they came into the colonies from Britain
Colony Reaction
British Reaction
Colonists protest “taxation without
representation” and organize a new boycott on
imported goods
June 1768 the British seized the Liberty
belonging to John Hancock saying he was
smuggling in wine from Maderia and didn’t pay
the customs taxes – triggered riots against
customs agents
Intolerable Acts
• Britain tightens control over Massachusetts by closing Boston Harbor and
making colonist quarter (house) troops
Colony Reaction
Colonial leaders form the First continental
Congress and draw up a declaration of colonial
rights
British Reaction
Kept Boston, Massachusetts under martial law
(military rule)
Boston Massacre
• British troops stationed in Boston are taunted by an angry mob. The troops
fire into the crowd, killing five colonists.
Colony Reaction
Colonial agitators label the conflict a massacre
and publish a dramatic engraving depicting the
violence
British Reaction
King George named a special commission to seek
out the suspects and bring them to England for
trial for the Massacre incident and burning a boat
Tea Act/Boston Tea Party
• Britain gives the East India Company special concessions in the colonial tea
business and shuts out colonial tea merchants
Colony Reaction
Colonists in Boston rebel, dumping 18,000
pounds of East India Company tea into Boston
harbor
British Reaction
Passed the Intolerable Acts and putting Boston
under martial law
Lexington and Concord
• General Gage orders troops to march to Concord, Massachusetts, and seize
colonial weapons
Colony Reaction
Minutemen intercept the British and engage in
battle – first at Lexington and then at Concord
British Reaction
British troops continued from Lexington to
Concord, but once they reached Concord they
were outnumbered – retreated after shots were
fired
Second Continental Congress
• May 1775 – John Adams suggested that each colony set up its own
government and that the Congress declare the colonies independent
Colony Reaction
British Reaction
• Colonies continued to get ready for the war
• July 1775 – Olive Branch Petition – urging a
return to “the former harmony” between
Britain and the colonies
Britain rejected the Olive Branch Petition and
issued a proclamation stating that the colonies
were in rebellion and urged Parliament to order
a naval blockade of the American coast
Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Jefferson Wrote
• Drew on the concepts of the English philosopher John Locke, who
maintained that people enjoy “natural rights” to life, liberty, and property
Colony Reaction
British Reaction
Declared the American colonies were free and on Revolution began, Britain would not give up their
July 4, 1776 adopted the Declaration of
colonies without a fight
Independence
Treaty of Paris
• September 1783 – confirmed US independence and set the boundaries of
the new nation
Colony Reaction
Now colonist needed to determine the best
course of action to set up a new government
British Reaction
Treaty did not specify when the British would
evacuate their American forts – leading to a long
road ahead trying to cut ties with Britian