The Road to Revolution
1754 - 1775
Gentry:
Church officials,
Wealthy
landowners, and
successful
merchants
Lower Class:
Poor Farmers,
Free servants, and
Unskilled laborers
Social Class
System of the
American
Colonies
Middle Class:
Skilled Artisans,
Shopkeepers, and
professional people
Indentured Servants
and Slaves
The Great Awakening
George Whitefield
Jonathan Edwards
Enlightenment
“Age of Reason”
Emphasized science and reason
as the guides to life
John Locke
• English writer
• Wrote about the social
contract that people
made with their
government
• Purpose of gov’t was
to protect people’s
natural rights --- life,
liberty and ownership
of property
Benjamin Franklin
• Discovered electricity
• Published his opinions
in Poor Richard’s
Almanack ------“Early to Bed, and
early to rise, makes a
Man healthy, wealthy
and wise.”
• Library Company of
Philadelphia
Colonial Writers
Anne Dudley
Bradstreet - 1st
American poetry to
be published.
Phillis Wheatley 2nd American
woman to be
published
The French and Indian War
Ohio River
Valley
England’s Allies:
The Iroquois
League
France’s
Allies: The
Algonquins
and The
Hurons
French and Indian War
• Rivalry between France and England along
with the tensions among Native Americans
set the stage for the French and Indian War.
• Part of a larger conflict known as the Seven
Years’ War being fought in Europe and Asia
as well as North America
George Washington
• Born in Virginia to a
wealthy plantation family
• At age 15 was a surveyor.
• Married Martha
• Had no children of his
own
• Father of our country
• 1st President of the United
States of America
Washington Sent . . .
• by Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia
to warn the French to retreat.
• French refused.
• Washington was sent out again to build a
fort where the Allegheny and Monongahela
Rivers meet to form the Ohio River.
• The French were building Fort Duquesne on
that site.
Allegheny
River
Monongahela
River
Battle at Fort Duquesne
Fort Necessity
Albany, NY
June 1754
• Meeting with colonists from 7 colonies and
Iroquois to make sure that the Iroquois
would support British colonists against the
French
• Colonial delegates discussed working
together, especially on defense.
• Agreed on plan based largely on an idea
presented by Benjamin Franklin (a delegate
from Pennsylvania)
Albany Plan of Union
• Council made up of delegates from each colony,
with a leader appointed by the British king
• Council would manage relations with Native
American (acting for all colonies) and have
authority to raise and equip an army and navy.
• In order to pay for these actions, the council would
have the right to tax the colonists.
• This was sent to the colonial assemblies and none
approved it.
• Each colony wanted to control its own taxes and
make its own decisions on military affairs.
• Based on the organization of the Iroquois League
Editorial Cartoon
• An editorial cartoon, also known as a
political cartoon, is an illustration or comic
strip containing a political or social
message.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editorial_cartoons
Franklin’s Join or Die
Editorial Cartoon
• He thought that the colonies were not
connected.
• They needed to join together, or they would
die.
The Albany Plan
Advantages
• English
– More people (20:1
ratio; more than 1
million to about
60,000)
– Colonies were more
compact
geographically, thus
easier to defend
– British navy ruled the
seas
– Best leaders
• French
– Single government
– United
– Many Indian allies
General Edward Braddock
• 1755 army Used to
European battle tactics
- - soldiers lined up in
neat rows and fought
in open fields
• Didn’t listen to
Washington’s
warnings
Results
• Disastrous for British
• July 9, 1755 -- British were ambushed near
Turtle Creek.
• 1,000 British soldiers were killed.
• Braddock was wounded and would later die.
• His men buried him in the middle of the
trail so that the opposed Indians wouldn’t
dig him up and dismember him.
France and Great Britain
declared war in 1756.
William Pitt
• Appointed Minister
of War by King
George II
• Showed great skill
in planning troop
movements and
strategy.
• Believed the war
would be won or
lost in America.
Turning Point in the War
England started winning after Pitt
was made Minister of War.
General James Wolfe
• The most difficult
task of the war---capturing
Quebec, the
capital of New
France.
General Marquis de Montcalm
• French leader at
Battle of Quebec
and the Battle of the
Plains of Abraham
Plains of Abraham
Battle of Quebec
Marked the end of French power
in North America
General
Jeffrey
Amherst
takes
Montreal,
the other
major city in
New France.
The Treaty of Paris, 1763
1 British gained Canada and all French lands
East of the Mississippi River.
2 Spain gave Florida to England.
3 France kept only the sugar growing islands
in the West Indies.
4 France gives all land West of the
Mississippi River to Spain (plus New
Orleans).
Great Britain’s North American
Empire had doubled in size.
• Problems:
– Expensive to support
– Expensive to defend
– Tried to make colonists pay
Taxes and Boycotts
Proclamation
of 1763
As a result of Pontiac’s
Rebellion, Britain closed all
western lands beyond the
Appalachian mountains.
Some ignored the line and
settled west anyway.
Britain sent troops to enforce
this ruling.
Solving money problems
• Britain thought the colonies should help pay
for the French and Indian War.
• Colonies thought it was responsibility of the
mother country.
George Grenville
New British Prime Minister
•Tax on foreign molasses
and sugar.
Sugar Act
of 1764
•Colonists refused to
pay it.
Quartering
Act
(1765)
Required colonists to
pay for quartering
British soldiers in their
area.
Stamp Act, 1765
• Pay special tax on certain items that were
then stamped to show the tax had been paid
• newspapers, playing cards, and legal
documents (diplomas or licenses)
• “No taxation without representation”
• protests, riots, Sons of Liberty, boycott,
Stamp Act Congress
Declaratory Act, 1766
Parliament had
the right to
rule and tax
the colonies
Townshend Acts
Import tax on . . .
Paint, glass, lead,
paper, and tea
Colonists reaction . . .
Nonimportation
Agreements
Merchants and
planters signed
these agreeing to
not import taxed
goods.
Plus. . .
the Daughters of Liberty formed.
Boston News
March 6, 1770
Boston Massacre
5 Killed, One African American sailor
A mob of youths and dockworkers began throwing snowballs at a British guard on
duty last night. Reinforcements arrived and an angry mob surrounded them.
In the confusion, soldiers began to fire their guns into the crowd. When the
shooting stop, five lay dead in the street. One was Crispus Attucks, an
African American sailor.
British Captain Preston denied that he gave the order to fire and it appears that he
maybe cleared. Samuel Adams spoke for many colonists when he called the
incident the Boston Massacre.
Boston News
April, 1770
Repeal of Townshend Acts
In an effort to
salvage
salvage
relations
relations
between
between
Britain
Britain
andand
thethe
colonies, Lord North, the new Prime Minister, had the
Townshend Acts repealed. However, there was one catch.
The tax on tea would remain in effect. It appears that the
tax is to remind the colonists of Parliament’s authority and
as everyone knows tea is a very popular drink in the
colonies.
Committees of Correspondence
• Organized by
Samuel Adams
• Towns of
Massachusetts
• Network of passing
news
TEA ACT, 1773
East India Company gained exclusive rights to
sell tea directly to the Americans without
paying the British import tax.
They also won the right to delivery it in their
own ships straight into the harbors.
Boston Tea Party
Coercive Acts, 1774
a.k.a. Intolerable Acts
1 Closed port of Boston until payment for tea was
made
2 British officials accused of a crime were to be
tried in England rather than American courts.
3 British troops could be quartered in any town in
Massachusetts - - even private homes.
4 Massachusetts’ charter was amended to greatly
reduce the colony’s right of self-government
Quebec
Act
French Canadians
were allowed to
keep their laws,
language, and
Roman Catholic
religion.
Ohio River
Colonists’ Reaction
• Saw this as the 1st step in doing away with
jury trials as well as Protestantism
• Believed it was done to keep American
settlers out of the western lands
Causes
• Quebec Act allows French settlers in Ohio
valley
• British quarter soldiers in Boston colonists’
homes
• Committees of Correspondence unite
colonial opinion
• Coercive Acts close the port of Boston
Meeting of
First Continental Congress
First Continental Congress
• September 1774 - 56 delegates from every
colony except Georgia met in Philadelphia
• Suffolk Resolves - brought from a meeting
in Boston by Paul Revere
• Approved Massachusett’s plan for arming
and training a militia
• John Locke
• Made an appeal to King George asking him
to make peace
Effects
• Colonies approve protests in Boston.
• Colonies ban trade with Great Britain.
• Congress appeals directly to
King George III for relief.
• Delegates agree to meet again the next year.
Colonists take arms.
A call for minutemen
General Thomas Gage
• Spring 1775 - hear
that British are
making a move
• Supply of guns and
powder at Concord
were the target as
well as the arrest of
Samuel Adams and
John Hancock
Samuel Adams
John Hancock
One if by land, two if by sea
Robert Newman would flash a light
in the church bell tower according to
how the British were planning their
attack. William Dawes and Paul
Revere were the minutemen waiting
to deliver the message.
Page 199
70 Minutemen
700
British
soldiers
Second Continental Congress
• May 1775
• Meet to: appoint a military commander and
to raise an army
• Chose George Washington
• Still trying to avoid war, they sent the Olive
Branch Petition begging the King to stop
war and make peace, but he declared the
Americans to be rebels
• Led American colonies directly into to war
Olive Branch is a
symbol of peace.
The American Revolution begins.