Governing the Empire
John Peter Zenger
A Cause of Liberty
Zenger – printer of the New York
Weekly
• prints story critical of royal governor
• Arrested, 10 months in prison, before
and during his trial, defended by a
former indentured servant, Andrew
Hamilton, freedom of press was vital to
the freedom of man
• Colonial jury finds him not guilty
• Verdict will encourage papers to print
political viewpoints
•Account of Zenger Trial
Governing the Empire
Mercantilism
• Economic theory
•Nations should become wealthy by
acquiring gold and silver
•Colonial possessions needed to supply
raw materials
•Colonies also provide a market for
exported goods
Navigation Acts
• Parliamentary Acts that placed
restrictions on colonial trade
• Goods must be shipped in English
vessels
• Goods destined for Europe must go to
England first for tax purposes
• Enumerated goods can only be
shipped to England
• Colonial manufacturing restricted
• Imports exceed exports
Movie Up!!!!!!!!
Think About It!!!!!
• “A wise owner doesn't disembowel the
goose that lays the golden egg”
• Relate this statement to British colonial
policy
Writs of Assistance 1761
General search warrant for
smuggled goods
No court orders needed
Colonial leader James Otis,
questions British authority in
court
Coins the phrase “No taxation
without representation”
Otis argues
• “If heaven I cannot bend, then hell I’ll stir”
Virgil
•British attempt to enforce tax laws
•Homes and warehouses could be
searched
•Merchants challenge legality of writs
•“A man’s house is his castle”
•Which is more important, protecting the
liberty of an individual or collecting the
taxes efficiently?”
The Verdict
• Otis lost the case
• the writs of assistance were renewed
• few officials in the future were willing to
employing the orders
George Grenville
• Prime Minister of England
• 140 million pound debt – half from the
French & Indian War
• Orders enforcement of Navigation Acts
Sugar Act - 1764
• First revenue tax on Colonials
• Enforced and raised the duties on sugar,
molasses, and other products to pay for
garrison of British troops
• Hurt triangular trade
• Protests take place
• England lowers tax
Quartering Act 1765
• Colonists required to
provide food and
lodging
• Colonists don’t
comply
• Expired in 1770
Stamp Act - 1765
• Direct Tax on
documents at time
of sale:
• newspapers,
licenses,
playing cards,
marriage licenses,
bills of lading,
diplomas
American Reactions
• What was the
British army for?
• Legislation &
Taxation are
different things
• Stamp Act
Congress, NYC
1766
• One more step to
unity
• Non-importation
agreements
• Sons/Daughters of
Liberty protest
Non Importation Agreement
•Boycott of British goods
•Colonial strategy is to hit British in the
pocketbook nerve
•Stamp agents resign
•English reaction – merchants lose money
•Parliament repeals Stamp Act in 1766
•Passes Declaratory Act – have the right to
make laws for the colonies
•Colonists gaining momentum
Champagne Charles Townshend
British minister of the Exchequer
“pluck the feathers from the colonial goose”
The Townshend Acts
• Import duty on articles of everyday use: glass,
paint, lead, paper, tea
• Tax collected at port of entry – Indirect tax
• Tax would pay salaries of Royal governors &
judges
• Colonists return to non-importation agreements
• More smuggling
• British send troops to Boston
The Boston Massacre
• March 5, 1770
• Colonial Mob in confrontation w/ British
sentry at the Customs House
• 11 killed and wounded
Crispus Attucks among the dead
Incident used for propaganda
John Adams will defend British soldiers
Involved in shooting
Two will be branded as punishment
Eyewitness
Account
The Committees of
Correspondence 1772
Sam Adams
• Formed by Sam
Adams & James Otis
• Share information
between colonies
• Keep the fire of liberty
burning
• Forerunner to 1st
American Congress
The Tea Act
• British attempt to save British East India
Company
• Parliament lowers price on BEIC tea, with
tax their tea is the cheapest
• Colonists refuse to buy tea due to tax
The Boston Tea Party 1773
• December 16, 1773
• Violent protest over
the Tea Tax
• Sons of Liberty
disguised as
Mohawks destroy 342
chests of British Tea
• Boston Harbor is
closed with the
Intolerable Acts
Boston Tea Party
Cohansey Tea Party
Intolerable Acts - 1774
• British reaction to Boston
Tea Party
• Closed port of Boston
• Revoked Massachusetts
charter
• Colonial trials to be held
in London
• New Quartering Act
• Continental Congress
– Philadelphia 1774
• Need to help
Massachusetts
• The Association –
Complete Boycott
Quebec Act - 1774
• To maintain allegiance of
former French colonists
• Allowed French to
practice Catholicism
• Border to be the Ohio
and Mississippi Rivers
• Keep old customs and
Institutions
• No elected assemblies or
trial by jury
• Colonists outraged
• Set precedents against
freedoms – jury trial and
elected assemblies
• Loss of land west of the
Appalachians
• Aroused anti-Catholic
sentiment
First Continental Congress
• 56 men w/ various
viewpoints meet in
Philadelphia
• Protesting Intolerable
Acts
• Express loyalty to
England
• Wont follow all
English laws
Congress con’t.
•
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Colonial boycott will continue
Call for armed militias/minutemen
Issue the Declaration of Resolves
Agree to meet again
King George III – “colonies are in a state
of rebellion”
• The Avalon Project : Declaration and
Resolves of the First Continental
Congress
Richard
Henry Lee
Patrick
Henry
George
Washington
John Adams
John
Hancock
PATRICK HENRY
• STATESMAN FROM VIRGINIA
• March 23,1775
The Shot Heard Around the
World
• Lexington and
Concord
• Paul Revere, William
Dawes & Samuel
Prescott make a
“Midnight Ride”
• British are coming
• Minutemen make
ready
Blood is Spilled, April 19, 1775
• British will attempt to
seize colonial war
materials & arrest Sam
Adams & John Hancock
• On Lexington Green 70
minutemen meet 700
British regulars
• Colonists are ordered
from the “King’s Green”
• Gun fire erupts
The March to Concord
Eight colonist die at Lexington
British move on to Concord
Destroy colonial supplies
4,000 minutemen materialize
British return to Boston
Colonists use guerilla warfare to kill and
wound over 300 British soldiers
The Retreat