Colonial Resistance Grows
In this section you will learn
how and why many Americans
began to organize to oppose
British policies.
The following events led to further
discontent among colonists:
Townshend Acts, 1767
Boston Massacre, 1770
Tea Act, 1773
Boston Tea Party, 1773
Intolerable Acts, 1774
Because of the uproar over the
Stamp Act, and New York’s
refusal to implement the
Quartering Act, the British
Parliament passed a plan
known as the Townshend Acts
in 1767.
The first of the Townshend Acts
suspended New York’s
assembly until New Yorkers
agreed to provide housing for
British troops. The other acts
placed duties or import taxes
on various goods brought into
the colonies.
Protest immediately broke out
at news of the Townshend Acts.
James Otis argued that the
natural rights of life, health,
liberty and possessions
described by by John Locke
were being violated.
Samuel Adams, leader of the
Boston Sons of liberty,
organized boycotts against
British goods in October 1767.
As a result, trade with Britain
fell sharply.
FOR UNDERSTANDING
Because of the uproar over the
Stamp Act, and New York’s refusal to
implement the Quartering Act, the
British Parliament passed a plan
known as the ______ in 1767.
• 1) Sugar Act
• 3) Marshall Plan
• 2) Townshend Acts
• 4) Declaratory Act
The first of the Townshend Acts
suspended New York’s assembly until
New Yorkers agreed to
provide______.
• 1) proof of colonial
citizenship
• 3) housing for British
troops
• 2) all the money
necessary to repay the
debt incurred by the
French and Indian wars
• 4) a safe harbor for
British ships
Some of the ______ placed duties or
import taxes on various goods
brought into the colonies.
• 1) Royal Governors
• 3) members of the
House of Burgesses
• 2) Sons of Liberty
• 4) Townsend Acts
______ immediately broke out
at news of the Townshend Acts.
• 1) Celebrations
• 3) Rioting
• 2) War
• 4) Protests
______ argued that the natural
rights of life, health, liberty and
possessions described by ______ were
being violated.
• 1) John Locke, John
Adams
• 3) John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin
• 2) James Otis, John
Locke
• 4) Samuel Adams,
James Otis
The Boston Sons of liberty, organized
______ against British goods in
October 1767.
• 1) boycotts
• 2) violent protests
• 3) a blockade of the
Massachusetts Bay
Harbor
• 4) the Boston Tea
Party
______ was the leader of the
Boston Sons of Liberty.
• 1) James Otis
• 3) Samuel Adams
• 2) John Adams
• 4) Crispus Attucks
As a result of the boycotts against
British goods organized in October
1767, ______.
• 1) taxes were doubled • 3) trade with Britain
fell sharply
• 2) tea was no longer
available to the
colonists
• 4) Great Britain
declared war on the
colonists
On March 5, 1770, a fight
broke out between
dockworkers and British
redcoats resulting in five
fatalities, including Crispus
Attucks. The Sons of Liberty
called the shooting the Boston
Massacre.
The Boston Massacre was an incident
involving the deaths of five American
civilians at the hands of British troops on
March 5, 1770, the legal aftermath of which
helped spark the American Revolutionary
War. A tense situation due to a heavy British
military presence in Boston boiled over to
incite brawls between soldiers and civilians,
and eventually led to troops discharging their
muskets after being attacked by a rioting
crowd. Three civilians were killed at the
scene, and two died after the incident.
Engraving by
Paul Revere
that sold
widely in the
colonies.
This chromolithograph by John Bufford prominently features a
black man believed to be Crispus Attucks
Crispus Attucks (c. 1723 – March 5, 1770)
The incident started on King Street in the early evening in
front of Private Hugh White, a British sentry, as he stood
duty outside the customs house. A young wigmakers
apprentice named Edward Garrick called out to a British
officer, Captain Lieutenant John Goldfinch, that he had
not paid his master's bill. Goldfinch had in fact settled his
account and did not reply to the insult and continued on
his way. Garrick departed, then returned a couple of
hours later with companions and continued quite vocal in
his complaints. He exchanged insults with Private Hugh
White, who left his post and challenged the boy, then
struck him on the side of the head with his musket. As
Garrick cried in pain, one of his companions,
Bartholomew Broaders, exchanged insults with Hugh
White. This attracted a larger crowd.
As the evening progressed the crowd grew larger and
more boisterous with a momentary lull. The mob grew in
size and continued harassing Private White. A group of
sailors and dockworkers came carrying large sticks of
firewood and pushed to the front of the crowd, directly
confronting the sentry. As bells rang in the surrounding
steeples, the crowd of Bostonians grew larger and more
threatening. Private White left his sentry box and
retreated to the Custom House stairs with his back to a
locked door. Nearby, from the Main Guard, the Officer of
the Day, Captain Thomas Preston, watched this situation
escalate and, according to his account, dispatched a noncommissioned officer and several soldiers of the 29th
Regiment of Foot, with fixed bayonets, to relieve White.
He and his subordinate, James Basset, followed soon
afterward.
Among these soldiers were Corporal William Wemms
(apparently the non-commissioned officer mentioned in
Preston's report), Hugh Montgomery, John Carroll,
James Hartigan, William McCauley, William Warren and
Matthew Kilroy. As this relief column moved forward to
the now empty sentry box, the crowd pressed around
them. When they reached this point they loaded their
muskets and joined with Private White at the custom
house stairs. As the crowd, estimated at 300 to 400,
pressed about them, they formed a semicircular
perimeter.
In the midst of the commotion, Private Hugh Montgomery was
struck down onto the ground by a club. When he recovered to his
feet, he fired his musket, later admitting to one of his defense
attorneys that someone had yelled "Fire". Captain Preston might
have said "Do not fire!". There was a pause, which various witnesses
reported lasted from six seconds to two minutes. The soldiers then
fired into the crowd. Their uneven bursts hit eleven men. Three
Americans—ropemaker Samuel Gray, mariner James Caldwell, and
a sailor of African American and Native American descent, Crispus
Attucks— died instantly. Seventeen-year-old Samuel Maverick,
struck by a ricocheting musket ball at the back of the crowd, died a
few hours later, in the early morning of the next day. Thirty-year-old
Irish immigrant Patrick Carr died two weeks later. To keep the
peace, the next day royal authorities agreed to remove all troops
from the center of town to a fort on Castle Island in Boston Harbor.
On March 27 the soldiers, Captain Preston, and four men who were
in the Customs House and alleged to have fired shots were indicted
for murder.
John Adams, a cousin of
Samuel Adams, defended the
British soldiers in court even
though he supported the
colonial cause.
John Adams
Samuel Adams, organized
groups in Massachusetts who
exchanged letters on colonial
affairs. These groups were
called Committees of
Correspondence.
In 1773, Parliament, upon
passing the Tea Act, gave the
British East India Company
control of the American tea
trade, so only taxed tea would
be sold to the colonists.
Protests against the Tea Act took
place all over the colonies. In
Boston, the Sons of Liberty,
organized what came to be known
as the Boston Tea Party in which
men disguised as Native
Americans, boarded three ships in
the Boston Harbor, and dumped its
cargo of tea into it.
Boston Tea Party
On Thursday, December 16, 1773, the evening before the
tea was due to be landed, the Sons of Liberty thinly
disguised as Mohawk Indians, left the massive protest
meeting and headed toward Griffin's Wharf, where lay
Dartmouth and the newly arrived Beaver and Eleanour.
Swiftly and efficiently, casks of tea were brought up from
the hold to the deck, reasonable proof that some of the
"Indians" were, in fact, longshoremen. The casks were
opened and the tea dumped overboard; the work, lasting
well into the night, was quick, thorough, and efficient. By
dawn, 90,000 lbs (45 tons) of tea worth an estimated
£10,000 had been consigned to waters of Boston harbor.
Nothing else had been damaged or stolen, except a single
padlock accidentally broken and anonymously replaced
not long thereafter. Tea washed up on the shores around
Boston for weeks.
FOR UNDERSTANDING
The Sons of liberty called the
shooting of dockworkers on March 5,
1770 the ______.
• 1) Boston Tea Party
• 3) Crime of the
Century
• 2) Intolerable Acts
• 4) Boston Massacre
Three Americans- Samuel Gray,
James Caldwell, and a sailor of
African and Native American
descent, ______ died in the Boston
Massacre.
• 1) Crispus Attucks
• 3) Marcus Garvey
• 2) Patrick Henry
• 4) James Monroe
______, a cousin Samuel Adams,
defended the British soldiers in court
even though he supported the
colonial cause.
• 1) John Quincy Adams
• 3) John Adams
• 2) Crispus Attucks
• 4) Patrick Henry
Samuel Adams, organized groups in
Massachusetts who exchanged letters
on colonial affairs. These groups
were called:
• 1) Vigilance
Committees
• 3) Committees of
Correspondence
• 2) Redcoats
• 4) Sons of Liberty
In 1773 Congress passed the ______
giving the British East India
Company control of the American
tea trade.
• 1) Intolerable Acts
• 2) Stamp Act
• 3) North American
Free Trade
Agreement
• 4) Tea Act
Men disguised as Native Americans
boarded three ships in the Boston
Harbor, and dumped its cargo of tea
into it. This came to be known as the:
• 1) Boston Tea Party
• 3) Boston Massacre
• 2) Tea Act
• 4) Sons of Liberty