Progression to the
Revolution
Conditions in the Ohio Valley
• Claimed by
French,
Iroquois
policies,
French
construct forts,
Iroquois align
with British
Fort Duquesne / Fort Necessity
(1754 and 1755)
• Fort Duquesne, Washington constructs Fort Necessity,
• Washington loses and surrenders, French/Indian tactics
• British attempt again under Braddock and lose
The French &
Indian War Begins
The Ohio River Valley
Washington as Colonel of
the Virginia Regiment, by
Charles Willson Peale,
1772.
The War Intensifies
Braddock being shot, Washington is trying to help
him.
• Outbreak of War (1756)
– French land in Canada, colonists under
attack, Europeans realign
• Resulting British Policies
– William Pitt leads, enlisting colonists, seizing
supplies, quartering
• Colonial Reactions to British Policies
– Resentment, NYC riot (1757), British relax
policies (reimburse, colonial recruitment, more
Br. troops)
North American conflicts
• British seize forts, Iroquois passive, Battle of
Quebec (Sept 13, 1759) French surrender in 1760
Harsh Tactics
• Dispersal of Acadians, “scalp bounties”,
killings on frontier
Worldwide
• French consistently lose (Caribbean, India,
Africa)
Treaty
of Paris
(1763)
• British Gains in NA:
– Canada and E of Mississippi River from France
– Florida from Spain
• Spanish Gain in NA: French Louisiana W of
Mississippi River from France
• British
– Gains large territory, debt, shifting view of
colonies,
– end of salutary neglect, resentment of colonial
leaders
• Colonists
– Common efforts, authority of colonial
assemblies,
– resentment of British soldier, pride in colonial
soldiers
Native
Americans
• Iroquois
alliance fades,
colonists
encroach, loss
of lands,
• Pontiac’s
Rebellion,
Proclamation
of 1763
Ending of the French and Indian War
• British gain land, Pontiac’s
Rebellion, Proclamation of
1763.
• British need to pay debt and
for 10,000 soldiers
• King George III choses
George Grenville (Prime
Minister) to get Britain out of
debt
• Grenville suspects colonists
were smuggling in goods
• Crack down on mercantilism
policies (Navigation Acts)
American Revenue Act
(Sugar Act) (1764)
• INDIRECT TAX,
Changed rates on
foreign imported
sugar, mainly hurt
New England
traders
• Eliminated due
process and
allowed seizure of
goods
Currency Act (1764)
• Colonies must stop using paper money,
harder to pay debts
Stamp Act (1765)
• DIRECT TAX, tax placed on
printed (and gaming) goods
– Requires colonists to purchase
official stamped stationary for all
legal documents
– Tax affects items such as
• newspapers
• licenses
• contracts
• playing cards
• dice
• …and much more
Stamp Act (1765)
• Complaints regarding “No
taxation without
representation”
• Stamp Act congress and
colonial boycotts
Sons of Liberty formed (1765)
• Started by Isaac
Sears in CT to protest
Stamp Act
• Spread and take hold
in Boston
Raising Money, Clamping Down
• 1765: Sons of Liberty
FYI: Samuel Adams was a
brewer, but is not related to the
beer of the same name.
– secret resistance group,
partly under control of
Sam Adams
– harassed the British
officials with threats,
mobs and
demonstrations
– almost all of the Stamp
Act officials resigned
Mutiny Act (Quartering Act)
(1765)
• Colonists must pay for barracks for
soldiers OR pay for them to stay in other
buildings
Declaratory Act (1766)
• British had repealed Stamp Act
• Asserts Parliaments ability to make laws
for colonies
Townshend Acts (1767)
• INDIRECT TAX, new
customs on imported
goods, allowed general
writs for searches for
smuggling, boycotts
The Colonists Push Back
Nonimportation agreements (1768-1769)
• Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia agree to not
import British goods
Virginia Resolves (1769)
• States that only House of
Burgesses have right to tax Virginia
• Statewide nonimportation law
Daughters of Liberty (1769)
• Helped lead boycotts, creation of
homespun cloth industry
The
Women
of
Edenton
Boston Massacre (1770)
• Britain sent 1000
troops (lobsterbacks) to
Boston,
• Colonists throw snow
and rocks at troops at
customs house,
• British fire and kill 5
colonists
• Charged with
manslaughter and only
lightly punished
• British withdraw all
Townshend taxes
except on tea
Gaspee Incident (1772)
• customs ship Gaspee
abuses powers to
search for smugglers
• Rhode Islanders board
Gaspee after it runs
aground
• Suspects to be sent to
Britain, RI asks for help
Committees of Correspondence
(1773)
• Jefferson’s idea, to coordinate efforts
against the British
Tea Act (1773)
• British East India company in trouble,
• Lowered tax to make cheaper than
smuggled Dutch tea
• BEI could sell directly to shopkeepers, hurt
merchants
• Committee on correspondence tries to
prevent tea shipments
Boston Tea Party (1773)
• NYC and Philly turn tea ships back,
Charleston confiscates,
• Boston – 150 men board ship dressed as
Mohawks, dump 342 chests of tea into
harbor
Coercive Acts and Quebec Act
(Intolerable Acts) (1774)
• Meant to punish Massachusetts and end
colonial challenges,
• Shut down Boston Harbor until tea is paid for,
• All Massachusetts officials appointed, not
elected
• British officials have trials moved to England
• 2000 troops sent to New England to be
quartered in homes
• Quebec has officials appointed and given
Ohio Valley lands
First Continental Congress
(1774)
• House of Burgesses
dissolved after
supporting Boston
• Call made for a
Congress of all
colonies, 12 show (no
GA)
• Condemned Coercive
Acts and organize
boycotts
• Pledge to meet again
in one year
Lexington and Concord, (1775)
• Massachusetts
organized
Provincial
Congress
• General Gage
order to arrest
Provincial
Congress
• Wanted to take
Concord supply
depot
• Shots fired at
Lexington, British
turned back at
Concord
Second Continental Congress
(1775)
• Named militia army around Boston the
Continental Army
• Named George Washington commander
in chief
Bunker Hill and struggle over
Boston (1775)
• Colonists stand up to British at Bunker Hill
• British trapped in Boston and evacuate
Prohibitory Act (1775)
• British shut down all colonial trade, naval
blockade,
• Recruit mercenaries
Common Sense (1776)
• Published by
Thomas Paine,
100,000 copies
are sold,
• Shifts focus of
colonial anger
from Parliament
to George III
Patriots vs. Loyalists
• Growing rift between colonists who want to break
with England and those who want to remain loyal
• Patriots: colonists who feel the colonial life will
improve by splitting with England and achieving
independence
• Loyalists: colonists who feel either that the colonies
are better off under the British crown or that the
colonies can’t successfully split from the crown and
therefore they don’t want to be tried for treason (or
both)
Declaration of Independence
(1776)
• Issued by Continental Congress, authored
by Jefferson
Declaration of Independence (1776)
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that
they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient
causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer,
while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they
are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their
future security.
Excerpted grievances from the Declaration of Independence
which translate into the adoption of
the United States Constitution
• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable,
and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose
of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be
elected; whereby the Legislative powers
• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the
Consent of our legislatures.
• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
• For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States
• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury