The Empire in Transition
The Thirteen Colonies in 1763
1
New Imperialism
• King George III
– Political Blunders
• Standing armies
• George Grenville
– Sugar Act (1764)
• Lowers excise tax on
foreign molasses
• Increased enforcement
• Admiralty Courts
– Mutiny Act (1765)
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
Stamp Act
• Revenue
• February 1765
– Tax all paper goods:
contracts, playing cards,
books, etc.
• “Virtual
Representation”
– “constituent
representation”
• Repealed March 1766
Colonial Responses
• Pamphlet War
• Public sphere
• Patrick Henry
– Self-taxation
• Doc. 27
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
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)
Crowd Reaction to Stamp Act
• “Crowd Action”
• Boston (Port city)
• Sons of Liberty
– Bankrolled by J. Hancock
• Effigy
• August 1765
– Thomas Hutchinson
• Doc. 29
The Tory’s Day of Judgment (Library of Congress)
9
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
.
10
The Empire in Transition

Stirrings of Revolt
– The Boston Massacre
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


Rebellious Boston
March 5, 1770
“Tavernites & lobsterbacks”
5 dead
The Boston Massacre
(Library of Congress)
11
Crisis of Empire: Or How
England Lost Its North America
Colonies
1770-1776
Problems of the East India Company
• British vs. Dutch East
India Co.
• Indian bumper-crops
• Coffee
• Anti-Importation
Agreements
• British shareholders
The Tea Act (1773)
• Mercantilism
– Innovation
• Cheaper than smuggled
tea
• Tea, not coffee
– nationalism
• Save company
– monopoly
• “British East India
Company Enabling Act”
Boston Tea Party (Dec. 1773)
• “gesture politics”
– 1770-71 Trade Boom
•
•
•
•
•
Tea Destroyed
Merchants undermined
British Occupation
Sam Adams
Politics of provocation
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
The Empire in Transition

Cooperation and War
– Lexington and Concord
 “Minutemen”
 General
Thomas Gage
 The War for
Independence
Begins
Recruiting Poster
(Library of Congress)
17
The Empire in Transition
The Battles of Lexington and Concord, 1775
18
The American Revolution

The States United
– Defining American
War Aims
 Divergent American
War Aims
 Common Sense
Common Sense (Library of
Congress)
19
Declaring Independence: Revolutionaries
vs. Loyalists
• Thomas Paine, Common
Sense (1776)
• Doc. # 31
• James Chalmers, Plain
Truth (1776)
• Doc. 32
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)
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