Causes and Events
Leading to the
American Revolution
1763-1775
PERSPECTIVE
• What is perspective?
• If two people look at the same
thing but see it two different
ways, how do we know which
person is right and which one
is wrong?
• Here are some examples
using pictures… but
sometimes the way
people “see” something
doesn’t mean visually…
it means in their opinion.
• When you
first look at
this, do you
see an old
man with ivy
leaves
around him,
or do you
see a couple
kissing?
• A rabbit,
looking right?
• Or a duck,
looking left?
• Who is right
and who is
wrong?
Do you see the
old man?
Do you see a
woman with a
baby?
Do you see the
dog?
What else do you
see?
Do you see the
old woman?
OR
Do you see the
young woman?
PERSPECTIVE
• Here are two different
points of view on what the
purpose of the American
colonies was.
• Who is right???
• "The Colonies were acquired with no
other view than to be a convenience to
us, and therefore it can never be
imagined that we are to consult their
interest."
Editorial
• The London Chronicle, 1764
• “If our trade be taxed,
why not our lands, or
produce... in short,
everything we possess?
They tax us without
having legal
representation."
Samuel Adams, 1765
Founder of the Sons of Liberty
• There wasn’t just one single event that
caused the American Revolution. And
there wasn’t just one opinion on what the
colonists should do. If there had been,
then all colonists would have joined in the
fight against the British. They didn’t.
Many remained loyal to the king and
opposed a revolution. They remained
loyal…they were loyalists!
• The following
events are just
some of the
things that led
many to believe
that theirs was
a cause worthy
of risking their
lives.
• After viewing, you decide…
–would you have remained loyal to
the King – or would you have
chosen to break away?
–would you have risked your life for
something you believed in?
–many people died during the
revolution…was it a worthy cause?
• Turn your paper on it’s side and at the
top, label the page “American
Revolution Timeline”
• Make a timeline that looks like this...
When you see a slide with the
British Flag, record the date
and event above the line.
1763
Treaty of Paris
•When you see a slide with
a minuteman, record the
date and event below the
timeline.
1763
Treaty of Paris
1764
Beginning of
Colonial Opposition
Try to look at each event from
the perspective of both the
British and the Colonists.
• By the way, you won’t need to record
something from every slide. Just the
slides with either a British flag or a
minuteman.
The Events
Leading to the
American
Revolution
FRENCH and INDIAN WAR
1754 – 1763
Who was it between?
What was it over?
Who won?
What happened with the peace treaty?
Then what….?
1763
• British and French sign the
Treaty of Paris, ending The
French and Indian War. The
cost of the war left a huge
national debt hanging over
the government of Britain.
Perspective
• The King felt that
the colonists should
bear the burden of
the expense of
maintaining the
colonies.
• The Colonists felt they did enough already without
adding additional taxes:
– Colonies provided raw materials to England.
– They provided markets for goods produced
in Britain (in other words, it gave England customers
to sell to).
AND…All of this they did with little or no say in a
government that passed laws without consulting
them first (in other words, they had
no representation in Parliament).
1764
• Sugar Act. Parliament, desiring revenue from its
North American colonies, passed the first law
specifically aimed at raising colonial money for the
Crown.
• The Sugar Act increased duties (tax) on non-British
goods shipped to the colonies. In other words,
anything that was not sold by the British, cost the
colonists more money.
• It also restricted the sale of lumber to only Britain.
• And INCREASED ENFORCEMENT of duties/taxes
on molasses from the West Indies to stop smuggling!
• Why would the cost of sugar affect the
colonists? What did they need sugar for?
• Answer: To make and sell rum.
• If sugar (a necessary ingredient in making
rum), cost them more it would cut into
their profits. They would make less money
on the rum—which was a huge New
England industry at the time. This
impacted manufacturers, merchants, and
the shipping industry.
1764
• Currency Act. This
act prohibited
American colonies
from issuing their
own currency,
angering many
American colonists.
• This meant that colonies must pay all taxes
with gold or silver coins.
• The more taxes that were required, the more
gold and silver went to England, making it
more and more scarce in the colonies.
• Without currency of their own, forced to pay
for everything with gold, silver, or bartering
(trading one thing for another), it became
increasingly difficult for colonists to buy the
things they needed.
1764
• Beginnings of Colonial Opposition.
American colonists responded to the Sugar
Act and the Currency Act with protest. By
the end of the year, many colonies were
refusing to use imported English goods.
1765
• The Stamp Act was passed by
Parliament
• The act levied a tax on all newspapers,
legal documents, pamphlets, almanacs,
playing cards and dice by requiring that
they bear a stamp.
• The money from the tax was to be used to
pay for the defense of the colonies.
• The STAMP ACT ignited a major spark
of the American Revolution.
• With no representatives in parliament to
plead their case, the colonists grew
increasingly angry at having no say
in laws being passed that affected
their lives.
• They protested against…
“taxation without representation.”
1765
The Stamp Act Congress
• Meeting in New York City, this group of
colonists sent petitions to King George III
and to Parliament, saying Parliament had no
right to tax the colonies.
• Parliament and the king ignored the
petitions.
• Becoming increasingly frustrated at
not being heard, American
opposition was intense. Merchants
refused to buy British goods (boycotts),
stamp agents were threatened and
official stamps were destroyed.
Tarring and
Feathering
• After the enactment
of the Stamp Act, it
was common to
threaten or attack
British government
employees in the
colonies. One way
was by tar and
feathering.
• Applying the burning
hot tar to bare skin
usually caused painful
blistering and efforts to
remove it often made
the condition worse.
The adding of feathers
which stuck to the tar
added to the
humiliation and made
the victim a comical
figure.
• Tar could easily be found in the
shipyards and everyone had feathers
in their pillows. With the materials at
hand, tarring and feathering was a
common threat and punishment.
Though the tarring was not usually
fatal, it was extremely unpleasant.
• By November 1, 1765, the day the
Stamp Act tax went into effect, there
were no stamp commissioners left in the
colonies to collect it.
1765
• Quartering Act. The British further angered
American colonists with the Quartering Act,
which required the colonies to provide
barracks and supplies to British troops.
1767
• Townshend Acts. To help pay
the expenses involved in
governing the American
colonies, Parliament passed
the Townshend Acts, which
initiated taxes on glass, lead,
paint, paper, and tea.
October 1, 1768
• British troops arrive in
Boston to quell the
growing unrest in the
American colonies
March 5 1770
• Boston Massacre. The
arrival of troops in
Boston provoked
conflict between
citizens and soldiers.
• A group of soldiers
surrounded by an
unfriendly crowd
opened fire, killing five
Americans.
May 10 1773
• The Tea Act. Passed in Parliament to save the
British East India Company - a British companyfrom bankruptcy.
• No new tax was imposed but what this act did
was take the tea from the East India Company
and ship it directly to the colonies to be sold at a
bargain price. Because the act did away with the
tax on British tea but kept the tax on the
colonists’ tea, the company was able to
undersell the colonial merchants’ tea.
• The British company's unfair advantage led to
the near destruction of the American tea
merchants trade.
December 16 1773
Boston Tea Party
• In protest over the
Tea Act, members of
the Sons of Liberty
dressed as Indians
boarded three British
ships in Boston
Harbor and threw the
valuable tea
overboard.
May 13, 1774
• Thomas Gage
(British General)
replaced the
colonial
Governor of
Boston.
INTOLERABLE
ACTS
(aka Coercive Acts)
To PUNISH the people of BOSTON
for the Boston
Tea Party!
September 5 - October 25 1774
• Twelve colonies, all but Georgia, sent 56
delegates to Philadelphia to participate in
the First Continental Congress.
• The purpose of the First Continental
Congress was to debate and plan a
unified response to British policy and
actions. It was the first time many of
these influential men had met face to
face.
September 1774
• General Gage, the Governor
of Boston, responded to
increased threats of violence
from the American colonists
by fortifying Boston Neck,
the thin spit of land
connecting Boston to the
mainland.
• This move effectively meant
that Britain closed the city
of Boston off from the rest of
Massachusetts, placing the
city under siege.
October 1774
• General Gage
dissolved the
Massachusetts
General Court in an
attempt to lessen
the power of the
colonists and
increase the power
of the king in
Massachusetts.
Members of the court reconvened as the
Massachusetts Provincial Congress and
voted to recruit 12,000 men for a militia-composed of American minutemen
(colonists prepared to fight the British on a minute's notice)
and purchase 5,000 muskets and
bayonets.
March 25 1775
• Patrick Henry
delivered his
"give me liberty
or give me
death" speech
to the Virginia
Assembly in
Richmond.
March 30 - April 5 1775
• General Gage ordered his troops on a
practice march around Boston.
• The Massachusetts Provincial
Congress at Concord viewed the
British march as an act of open
hostility. They issued formal
grievances against the British
government and adopted fifty-three
articles of war against the British
army.
April 18, 1775
• General Gage planned a secret night march to
arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock in
Lexington and then on to Concord to seize the
colonists' store of weapons.
• Paul Revere rode towards
Lexington to warn John
Hancock and Samuel
Adams, fellow members of
the Sons of Liberty.
• After Revere reached
Lexington, he went to
Concord where he was
caught and questioned by
British officers. The officers left
Revere horseless and stranded near
Lexington.
• William Dawes and Dr. Samuel
Prescott also rode that night,
taking different routes.
April 19 1775
• In Lexington, 130
minuteman met the
British troops in attempt
to stop the army from
reaching Concord. The
American patriots were
outnumbered and began
to disperse.
• However, a shot was fired
and the British troops
killed eight colonists and
wounded ten.
• The “Shot Heard
‘Round the World”
• And so began the American Revolution.
After looking at some of the
causes and events that led to
the American Revolution, you
must now decide if you would
have joined the struggle for
independence or if you would
have remained loyal to the king.
List reasons
for independence
against independence
• Your decision?
• Are you a patriot? Or a loyalist?