Colonial Resistance
Grows
SECTION 2
Review
During the last class, we looked at:
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The Proclamation of 1763
The Quartering Act
The Sugar Act
The Stamp Act
The Sons of Liberty
Boycott
Tightening British Control
Britain hoped to avoid further conflicts
with the colonists.
British Parliament passed the
Declaratory Act.
This act stated that Parliament was in
control over all colonial affairs.
The Townshend Acts
Parliament then passed the
Townshend Acts.
These placed taxes on imports such as
glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea.
The Townshend Acts
They also allowed the British to issue
writs of assistance.
Writs of assistance allowed the British
to enter homes and businesses to
search for smuggled or illegal goods.
Anger Over the Townshend Acts
The colonists were furious about the
Townshend Acts and Writs of
Assistance since they were being taxed
and search without consent.
They wanted local officials to decide
on taxation issues.
Anger Over the Townshend Acts
“We cannot be happy without being free…we cannot be free without
being secure in our property…we cannot be secure in our property, if
taxed without our consent.”
- John Dickenson
Colonists Protest
Boston organized another boycott of
British goods.
Other colonies followed Boston’s lead.
The colonies were uniting for a
common cause.
Political Activism Spreads
Women formed the Daughters of
Liberty.
They urged colonists to weave their
own cloth and to use American
products instead of British goods.
Political Activism Spreads
Colonial leaders urged the people to
remain calm and not to protest
violently.
Many continued to form mobs.
Political Activism Spreads
Samuel Adams was a violent protester
and leader of the Sons of Liberty.
“We will destroy every soldier that
dare put his foot on shore…I look upon
them as foreign enemies!”
The Boston Massacre
More violence occurred when 1000
more redcoats arrived in Boston
starting in 1768.
The Boston Massacre
March 5, 1770:
A mob of colonists surrounded a small
group of soldiers in front of Boston’s
State House.
They began trading insults…
The Boston Massacre
The colonists began to throw
snowballs packed with ice.
The British feared for their safety.
A British soldier fired his musket and
the others fired as well.
Five colonists were killed.
The Boston Massacre
The people of Boston and other colonies
were outraged.
The colonies began to print and distribute
anti-British pamphlets and posters.
The British were depicted as evil.
The dead colonists were seen as heroes of
liberty.
The Boston Massacre
The soldiers who fired were arrested
and charged with murder.
They were defended in court by John
Adams, the cousin of Samuel Adams.
The Boston Massacre
Many colonists were angry with John
Adams.
Adams believed everyone deserved a
trial and wanted to demonstrate that
everyone was under the rule of law.
The Boston Massacre
Adams argued that the soldiers acted
in self-defense.
The jury agreed and acquitted the
soldiers.
Economic Interference
In April 1770, Parliament repealed the
Townshend Acts.
The boycott worked.
The only tax that remained was the tea
tax.
The Tea Act Increases Anger
The colonists refused to drink tea
imported from British merchants.
They drank smuggled tea.
The British merchants lost money.
The Tea Act Increases Anger
In response, Parliament passed the Tea
Act in 1773.
This act lowered prices, but it forced
colonists to buy tea only from the
British east India Company.
Colonial Unity Expands
The colonists set up committees of
correspondence – organization formed
to exchange information about British
policies and resistance.
The Boston Tea Party
In Boston, the Sons of Liberty
organized the Boston Tea Party.
December 16, 1773, a group of men
dressed up like Native Americans and
boarded British merchant ships.
They threw 342 chests of tea into the
ocean in protest to the Stamp Act.
The Boston Tea Party
“We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and
take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard…In about
three hours from the time we went on board, we had thus broken
and thrown overboard every tea chest to be found in the ship; while
those in the other ships were disposing of the tea in the same way,
at the same time.”
- George Hewes
The Boston Tea Party
Colonial leaders offered to pay for the
tea if Parliament repealed the Tea Act.
Britain would not compromise.
Because of the lack of compromise,
many colonists felt rebellion was the
answer.