French & Indian War- Trouble with Taxes
Jill Ellenburg
Sedgefield Middle School- 2015

Part 1: French & Indian War
•
French/British  competing for control over European affairs
•
Britain & France BOTH want western lands of America
•
French
 using it for fur trade
•
British
 want to expand colonies westward
•
Last in a series of wars between Great Britain and France
•
Known as Seven Years War in Europe
•
Called French & Indian War in colonies because Britain was fighting against France and her Indian allies

French Advantage
• Organized Central government
• Alliances with most local Indians
• 6,600 well-trained troops
• Forts in GREAT locations
• Practiced Guerilla warfarelaunched surprise attacks on
British Troops
British Advantage
• Larger colonial population
• Superior Navy
• Alliance with Iroquois
• Stronger economy

War
•
1754

War breaks out
•
Early part of the War

French and
Native victories
• due to guerilla warfare
•
British= face to face combat
•
British colonial troops lost most of the battles in the first 2 years
•
France began to lose Indian allies &
British gained some
•
Turning point

British captured
Quebec

• Little military involvement
• War contributed to the Cherokee
War
SC in French/Indian War

•
Great Britain wins
 become most dominant power in the Americas
•
1763- Treaty of Paris
•
British got all lands east of the Mississippi River
•
Control of ALL of Canada
•
Took Florida from the Spanish
•
Exceptions
•
Louisiana still under French control
•
Spanish had control of the West
• British didn’t have the money to pay for the war
•
SOLUTION= raise taxes on the colonists

• British accumulated debt from F/I War
• Thought the colonists should pay off the debt
• Attempted to impose a series of taxes on colonists

1764
1765
1767
1770
1773
1774
Sug ar
Townshen d Duties
Act
Stamp Act
(march 22)
Stamp Act
Congress
Tea Act
Boston Tea
Party
Continental Congress

• Required colonists to purchase sugar/molasses from British merchants
• Britain started cracking down on smuggling
• Anyone accused of smuggling  tried in a court with British judges NOT colonists
• Often found guilty  judges got 5% of seized cargo
• VIOLATED colonists right to jury of peers as stated in the Magna Carta

•
Boycott (refuse to buy) of British merchandise
• Stamp Act Congress
• Meeting of reps from 9 colonies opposing the
Stamp Act
• “No Taxation without Representation”
• SC sends 3 delegates
• Christopher Gadsden
• John Rutledge
• Thomas Lynch
• Eventually led British to repeal the Stamp Act
(March, 1766)

• Patriotic group that protested abuses by the
British government
• Used violence to scare away tax collectors
• Tar & feathering

• Leader of the “Sons of Liberty” in SC
• Boldly spoke out against Stamp Act
• Boldly encouraged boycotting British goods through persuasion and intimidation
• Became a leading proponent of going to war with England
• At Stamp Act Congress, Gadsden expressed his vision of a United America
“There Ought to be no New England man, no New
Yorker…but all of us AMERICANS”

• A series of new taxes on imported goods
• Paper, Paint, Glass, Tea
• Money was used to pay salaries of colonial governors
• Sons of Liberty began attacking houses of tax collectors
• Caused G.B to repeal the Townshend duties except the tax on TEA

• Sons of Liberty dressed as Indians and raided a docked British Tea Ship
• Dumped 342 Chests
(90,000 lbs.) of tea into the Boston Harbor
• Cost East India
Company thousands of dollars

nd
• British ship, The HMS London , arrived in Charles Town with
257 chests of tea
• Assembly decided to store the tea in the basement of the
Exchange building
• Sold it to pay for war costs

 1. Boston Harbor was shut down until Britain was paid for the tea
 2. The Massachusetts gov. shut down
 3. Trials against British Soldiers were to be held in
England
 4. The Quartering Act – Forced Colonists to allow
British Soldiers to stay with them if necessary

• All colonies (except Georgia) send delegates to Philadelphia
• Henry Middleton of SC  elected pres. Of congress
• Wanted Britain to overturn all laws passed since 1763
• If G.B did cooperate, colonies would boycott ALL British goods
• If GB STILL didn’t cooperate, colonies would STOP shipping
American goods to both GB and the Caribbean Islands

• SC sends 5 delegates:
• Edward Rutledge
• Thomas Lynch (was too sick to sign and died before he could)
• Thomas Lynch, Jr.
• Arthur Middleton
• Thomas Heyward, Jr.
• After much discussion, agreed on a complete split

• Thomas Jefferson drafted a document announcing a
 DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
• The signing led ultimately to the
AMERICAN REVOLUTION