10th Grade United States
History
Unit Four: The Road to
Independence
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• During the French and Indian
War, the British treasury had
accumulated a huge debt.
• In April 1763, John Stewart
resigned, and George Grenville
(who had served as Chancellor
of the Exchequer (def):
Britain’s chief financial officer)
became Prime Minister of
Great Britain.
• The British government
decided that if the colonists
were going to benefit from
British military defense, they
would also help pay for it.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• Grenville pushed through Parliament heavy
duties (taxes) on numerous commodities
imported into the colonies—most notably
molasses and sugar.
• Sugar Act of 1764: Placed heavy taxes on
sugar and molasses imported into the
colonies.
– This was the first act passed by the British
Parliament for the specific purpose of
raising tax revenues in the colonies.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• At the same time,
• Parliament also decided at
Parliament passed the…
this time to strictly enforce
the Navigation Acts that had
• Currency Act of 1764:
been passed in the 1650s,
Prohibited the colonies
but were never really put
from issuing paper money
into effect.
and required the use of
gold in all business
• What was the purpose of the
transactions.
Navigation Acts?
• This act guaranteed that • Required colonial goods to be
the colonies would be
transported on British ships
economically dependant
to ensure Britain was the
on Great Britain.
main benefactor of colonial
trade.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• Britain used these various acts to raise addition revenue.
• The colonists, reeling economically from a business recession
caused by the French and Indian War (and also the frontier
regions—resentful of the Proclamation Line) were stunned and
outraged at being taxed without the benefit of Parliamentary
representation.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• _____________
Representation in government was a basic
Magna
English right that was guaranteed by the ______
Carta (def): A document guaranteeing certain
_____
civil rights and liberties approved in 1215.
• This concept is a central cause of the
Revolution—the colonists didn’t enjoy paying
taxes, but…
• The colonists were willing to pay their share of
the costs of ___________--providing
that they
government
voice in that government.
had a ______
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• The colonists argued that they were not represented in
___________,
Parliament and in a speech at a Boston town meeting,
Boston lawyer James Otis shouted the resounding phrase
that became the slogan and rallying cry against the
Taxation Without
oppressive British government: “________
Representation is ________!”
Tyranny
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• The first colonial protest in
response to the Grenville
Acts was non-violent: On
May 24, 1764, a
_______________
Non-Importation
Agreement was made by
the colonies—pledging to
boycott a wide variety of
English goods.
– ________
boycott (def): The
refusal to buy or use
certain goods or
services.
• By the end of the year, a number
of colonies had joined the
boycott.
• Parliament should have taken
heed to this protest, for it was a
UNITED protest.
• Instead, Grenville reacted by
pushing through Parliament even
more taxes on the colonies.
Stamp ____
Act of 1765: Passed
• ______
by Parliament to help offset
the cost of maintaining
soldiers in the
British _______
colonies.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• But the colonists had gotten
their fill of British soldiers
during the French and Indian
War and they resented this
additional tax.
• STAMP ACT OF 1765:
• Required that ever ______
paper
_________,
document including
newspapers, playing cards,
and legal documents bear a
revenue ______
stamp purchased
________
from royally-appointed
colonial stamp agents.
• Violations of the Stamp Act
were to be tried by viceadmiralty courts, in which
there were no _______.
juries
• A trial-by-jury was another
right guaranteed to British
Magna Carta
citizens by the ___________.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• As a result of the Stamp Act,
secret societies were formed in
many towns to protest British
and organize additional boycotts
of British goods.
• One such group was organized
Samuel
by Boston brewer _______
_______
Adams and was known as “The
Sons
Liberty
_____ of ________.”
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• Although the Sons of Liberty
worked to control mob violence,
the organization also functioned as
an instrument of coercion. (DEF?)
• Coercion: Force or threats used to
make somebody do something
against his or her will.
• Along with organizing opposition
to the Stamp Act, the Sons of
Liberty intimidated all of the
officials responsible for
administering it in the colonies,
forcing them to resign.
• “Tarred and Feathered” (1100s)
• “Ridden out of town on a rail”
• Some modern use…Belfast
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• In Virginia, House of Burgesses
Patrick ______
Henry
member _______
Virginia ________
Resolves
introduced the _______
of 1765, which stated that only
Virginia’s legislature had the right to
tax Virginia and to legislate on purely
Virginian issues.
• Similar measures were
• Henry was a brilliant orator, pushing
taken in Massachusetts
the Virginia resolves through the
John _______,
Adams
by _____
House of Burgesses with a speech that
whose “Instructions to
he closed very provocatively: “Caesar
had his Brutus—Charles I, his
the Town of Braintree”
Cromwell—and George III may profit
became the model
by their example… If this be treason,
other towns followed in
make the most of it.”
their objections to the
• The resolves passed on May 30, 1765.
Stamp Act.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• Documents such as the
• The Mutiny Act included a
Virginia Resolves were
provision for quartering
communicated throughout
(housing) troops in private
the colonies.
homes.
• Local in their origins, the
• Responding to colonial outrage,
protests against the actions of
Parliament passed
the British government
supplemental legislation that
quickly became continental in
removed this provision, but did
scope.
require the housing of British
soldiers in taverns and inns at
• Adding fuel to the fire, at the
the expense of the colonists.
same time the Stamp Act was
legislated, Parliament passed • _________
Quartering _____
Act of 1765:
the Mutiny Act of 1765,
Required colonial governments
ostensibly as a measure to
to provide housing and supplies
improve discipline among
to British soldiers.
British troops stretched over
• …with the colonists having to
the far-flung empire.
foot the bill.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• Not only were these measures a • October 1765: Delegates
further financial hardship on the
from 8 colonies were sent to
colonists, they began to reach far
New York for a meeting of
beyond economics and money.
the colonies known as the
• The Quartering Act was an
______
___ ________.
Stamp Act
Congress
invasion of privacy and an affront
• This Congress drafted a
to personal liberty.
Rights and
“Declaration of ______
• Even colonists who were not
Grievances that asserted
__________”
personally affected by the
that the colonists had the
revenue acts were enraged by
rights of British subjects and
the Quartering Act.
taxation without
that ________
• Coming after more than 50 years
representation was a
_____________
of salutary neglect, these new
violation of those rights.
laws and regulations alarmed
and enraged the colonists.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• In response, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but on the
same day (as a political “slap in the face”) passed the Declatory
________
Act, affirming Parliament’s authority to make laws binding on
the American colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”
• In other words, Parliament had acknowledged colonial rights—only to
deny them again.
• In 1767, Parliament reasserted its power by placing even more duties
on goods imported by the colonies, hoping the colonists would react
more favorably to this type of taxation rather than direct taxes.
Charles ___________
Townshend pushed
• Chancellor of the Exchequer ________
through Parliament a bundle of acts intended to raise
revenue tighten ________
customs enforcement, and assert British
________,
authority in America.
__________
Acts levied import
• Enacted on June 29, 1767. the Townshend
_________ _____
taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• Additional bills in the package authorized “writs of
assistance” (blanket search warrants), created additional
juryless vice-admiralty courts, and suspended the New York
assembly for its defiance of the 1765 Quartering Act.
• The protests began again as the American colonists said
that it made no difference whether Britain raised taxes
through import duties or direct taxation—they were still
being taxed without representation in Parliament and
without their consent.
• Under the traditional form of government in the colonies,
what branch of government dominated the colonial
governments?
• (Legislature with the “power of the purse.”)
•
•
•
•
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
Now, Britain would use the money generated by Townshend
Acts to pay the salaries of the royal governors (who had
previously been dependent on the legislatures for their
salary).
This change would tremendously weaken the colonial
legislatures, giving almost dictatorial powers to the royal
governors and would severely undermine the selfgovernment the colonists had grown accustomed to.
During 1768 and 1769, all of the colonies with the
exception of _____
New __________
Hampshire boycotted English goods.
The Virginia House of Burgesses, led by Patrick Henry, created
the Virginia Association to enforce the boycott. This led the
royal governor of Virginia to dissolve the House of Burgesses,
further inflaming anti-British passions.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• In April of 1770, the British Parliament again bowed to
pressure and repealed the Townshend duties—except
for a tax on _____.
tea
• Royal customs officials sent to Boston to enforce the
troops
new taxes requested that a regiment of British _______
be sent to aid them.
• To put it mildly, the British soldiers were not popular
among the colonists.
• On March 5, 1770, one of the British soldiers got into a
brawl with a civilian worker, triggering an evening of
protests by bands of colonists who roamed the streets.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• March 5, 1770: A squad of _________
Redcoats
• The event was
(Name given by the colonists to British
described in the
soldiers) led by Captain Thomas
colonies as the
Preston fired into a group of protesters
_______
Boston _________.
Massacre
in front of the Boston Customs House,
resulting in the death of ____
five
colonists.
• The leader of this Boston mob was a
black man named _______
Crispus ________,
Attucks
the first to die for the cause of
American liberty.
• Attucks was a 40-year-old runaway
slave from the town of Framingham—
he took 2 musket balls to the chest and
died where he stood.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• British authorities immediately withdrew the troops from town,
but this event became the focal-point of anti-British propaganda
and heightened American fears about standing armies
established in the colonies.
• This event also drew the colonies closer together in opposition
to the Crown.
• By 1773, the only duty remaining from the Townshend Acts was
a tax on tea. Not that big of deal, right? If you don’t want to
pay a tax on tea—stop drinking tea! However…
• In the 1700s, _____
tea was a very valuable trade commodity.
• The East India Company, Britain’s chief tea producer, was vital to
the British government because it had extensive influence in
India.
• By the 1770s, the East India Company was close to bankruptcy
and to bail out the firm, Parliament suspended the tax paid on
tea in England.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• Many colonists had been smuggling tea to avoid taxes—The Tea
Act would make East India Company tea less expensive than
even smuggled tea.
• Would this not be better for the colonists?
Tea Act of 1773: Passed by Parliament to help the
• _______
East _____
India Company—giving
financially struggling _____
them the right to sell tea in America without paying any
taxes, driving American tea merchants out of business.
• Samuel Adams and other Bostonians formed the
Committee of _______________
Correspondence to coordinate
__________
resistance to Britain throughout the colonies and
spread word to oppose the tea duty and impose an
absolute boycott of English tea.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• When the royal governor of Massachusetts refused to send the
tea back to England, resistance became more than just a
boycott…
• December 16, 1773: A group of colonists dressed as _______
Indians
boarded 3 British tea ships in Boston and dumped 342 chests
of tea into Boston Harbor—this event in known as the
Boston Tea Party
“_______________.”
• The cargo was valued at £9,000—a tremendous amount of
money in a day when a man earning £100 a year was
considered pretty wealthy.
Unit 4: The Road to Independence—Note Packet 4-2
• In response, Parliament passed a • These acts were intended
series of laws called the
to restore order in
Coercive Acts
Massachusetts, but
________
___ (Colonists called
backfired, leading the
these laws the “___________
Intolerable
colonies to recognize
Acts
_____”).
Boston Harbor was closed until
– _____________
the destroyed tea was paid for.
Self-government in
– _______________
Massachusetts was virtually
eliminated.
Town meetings not authorized
– _____________
by British authorities were
banned.
their common cause and
First
to convene the _____
Continental Congress
__________
________.