The Crisis of Empire, 1763-1776
Early American Social History
Term 3 Week 1
Introduction
• Problem of rapid change. GB seemingly at
height of power in 1763, yet Declaration of
Independence in 1776.
• How and why does this happen so quickly?
• Why are colonies and GB unable to get
along?
• Importance of events, but also
mentality/ideology
America in
1763
Problems in 1763
• War and aftermath brings problems:
– debt
– vast new territory to police
• Solutions :
– stationing regular army in colonies,
– limiting white settlement so more defensible,
– raising revenue through taxation in colonies.
Americans?
• Growing sense of difference from GB
• Most Americans not born in GB by 1760s.
• Significant proportion not ethnically British
(French, German, African, Dutch).
• Departure from GB because something ‘missing’
• Unique colonial events eg Gt Awakening
fostered sense of common identity.
• Life of average American very diff from life of
average Englishman.
Controlling the colonies
• loose control since Gl Revn – cols start to function
as independent political and cultural entities
•
• Colonies claim ‘rights of Englishmen’ secured in
1690 eg liberty, constitutional govt, rule of law etc
• Cols saw themselves as EQUAL part of empire
• Preconditions of independence in place?
Taxation
• Debt problem
• All attempts to tax
resisted, ‘no taxation
without representation’
• Stamp Act 1765, revoked
1766
• Townshend Acts 1767
• No significant revenue
stream to treasury
‘Funeral of Miss Ame. Stamp’
Protagonists
• Revolution led by elite, merchants, lawyers,
planters - ‘founding fathers’
• Revn as a conservative movement?
• Needed popular support.
George Washington, 1732-1799
Planter, Soldier, Politician. Member of both Continental Congresses,
Commander of Continental Forces, President of the Constitutional
Convention; First President of the United States, 1789-1797
Benjamin Franklin,
1706-1790
Philadelphia Printer,
editor of Pennsylvania
Gazette 1729-49; London
representative of several
colonies 1757-75; helped
draft and signed
Declaration of
Independence;
Ambassador to France
1778-83; wrote the
Treaty of Paris 1783;
signed the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson
1743-1826
Drafted and signed
Declaration of
Independence; 3rd
President of the United
States, 1801-1809.
John Adams,
1735-1826
Member of both
Continental
Congress;signed
Declaration of
Independence; helped
draft Treaty of Paris;
Vice-President 1789-97;
2nd President of United
States, 1797-1801
Samuel Adams, 1722-1803
Member of Sons of Liberty;
created Committees of
Correspondence, 1772;
member of Continental
Congress 1774; signed
Declaration of Independence
Ideology
• Need to win “hearts and
minds”
• Stress on “virtue”, natural
rights, heroic struggle vs
oppression & slavery.
• Importance of
demagogues, eg James Otis
and Samuel Adams
• Propaganda war
• Media
Benjamin West, The Cricketeers (1763)
L-R: James Allen, b.
Philadelphia, 1742, studied law
in London 1761-5, stayed in the
US but remained a loyalist.
Ralph Wormeley b.Virginina
1745, Eton 1751-62, Trinity
Hall, Cam 1762, stayed in the
US but remained a loyalist.
Andrew Allen, b Philadelphia
1740, studied law in London
1761-5, joined British Army in
1776, lost all his property and
moved to London
Ralph Izard, bn South Carolina 1742, Hackney School then Trinity Hall, emissary
of American govt in Paris 1776-9; served in Continental Congress from 1779
Arthur Middleton, bn South Carolina 1742, Hackney School then Trinity Hall;
signed Declaration of Independence, served in Continental Congress, British POW
in Florida by end of war.
Thomas
Paine
• Pre-existing
Role of
Organised
Violence
Provocation
W.D. Cooper. "Boston Tea Party." The History of North America. London: E. Newberry,
1789. Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58.
’The able doctor; or America swallowing the bitter draught’ London magazine, v. 43 (1774 May), p. 184.
Slide to war
• Lexington and Concord April 1775
Press
Reports of
Lexington
Jefferson’s rough draft
of the Declaration of
Independence, with
corrections by
Benjamin Franklin
and John Adams
Printed final version
of the Declaration of
Independence
Why the British lost (or why the
Americans won!)
•
•
•
•
Tactics
France
Logistics
Mistakes
Surrender of Cornwallis at
Yorktown 1781
The
United
States of
America,
1783