Revolution in Thought
1607 to 1763
•British Condescension
•Colonial ignorance of law
•Colonial Disunity
•Encouraging signs from French and Indian
War
•Page 107 – 109 in Pageant textbook
What was the first instance of
biological warfare in American
History?
•Chief Pontiac was an influential Ottawa leader who
encouraged his people not to make peace with white
settlers.
•He was eventually murdered by rival tribes who opposed
his political views.
AMHERST AND BOUQET
• General Amherst: (1717-1797)
– rose to Commander in Chief of British Forces in North America
– leader behind 1st biological instance of warfare by giving
blankets infected with smallpox to Indians
• Colonel Henry Bouqet: Commander at Fort Pitt
– was ordered by Amherst to distribute smallpox infected blankets
– set off a lethal epidemic in 1763-64, the goal was genocide
Pontiac
•Colonists moved
into this new
territory causing
Indian attacks on
their settlements.
•Provincial forced
restored peace in
1764
•Between 176466 peace treaties
are signed with
the Indian groups
British land policy to
temporarily keep the
colonists out of
Indian land until
treaties could be
negotiated with the
tribes.
•Not designed for colonial oppression
•Colonial pioneers such as Daniel Boone, defied the Proclamation of 1763
and crossed the Appalachians and settled areas in what would become
Kentucky.
•The belief that the land westward was sacred land, fought and died for
and that it was their birthright….It belonged to them.
•The “American Dream” could be found out west led many colonists to
defy the Proclamation of 1763 and cross the Appalachians.
Indian Attacks force
British to build forts to
protect settlers moving
westward
Northwest Territory
The Undoing of a Union
• Britain leaves an army in the colonies after 1763 and
taxed the colonies to pay for part of it
– Colonists agreed that they should contribute to their own
defense but insisted that taxation without representation violated
their rights as Englishmen
– A series of three successive crisis would shatter England’s North
American Empire by 1776
• Stamp Act Crisis, Townshend Crisis, The Tea Act of
1773
George Grenville’s
Program, 1763-1765
1. Sugar Act - 1764
2. Currency Act - 1764
3. Quartering Act - 1765
4. Stamp Act - 1765
EARLY BRITISH LEADERSHIP
• In 1760, George III (1760-1820) inherits British throne at
age 22
– George Grenville is appointed as Lord of Treasury in April 1763
• George Grenville: (1712-1770)
– Eventually became Prime Minister of Great Britain
– responsible for Sugar & Stamp Act
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
• Victory over France would mean new burdens not relief for
the colonists
– Protection comes at a cost
• In 1763, they decided to leave 7,000 soldiers in the
colonies and abroad
– Because the colonists would receive the benefit of this protection,
Grenville argued they ought to pay for most of it
• Pass a series of tax laws and have the Colonists help pay back the
debt.
• Grenville resorted to coercive methods in dealing with the
colonists
•Writs of Assistance (1763)
unrestricted British search warrants to stop
Colonial smuggling……
•Stop the smuggling of Colonials by enforcing the
Navigation Acts with a series of unrestricted search
warrants.
• The smuggled anyway
THE SUGAR ACT
• Grenville issues in 1764
• Felt it was a “just and necessary” revenue to be raised in
the defending the American colonies
• Placed duties on wine, coffee, and molasses
– Actually cuts the duty in half
ENFORCEMENT OF SUGAR
ACT
– To enforce tax he placed strict regulations
• Ships were seized if they did not pay the tax
• British Navy patrolled Atlantic coast looking for
smugglers
• Smuggling cases were tried in British admiralty
courts
• Cases decided only by a judge
• Judge received commission on all fines
QUARTERING ACT
• Passed in early 1765
• Required colonists to provide housing and supplies to
British troops who remained after French & Indian War
– Housed when they were away from barracks
• Required assemblies to provide supplies which they
were already willingly doing
• BOTH ACTS ARE NOT STRONGLY OPPOSED
Stamp Act Crisis
• The Stamp Act passed in Feb of 1765 to go into effect
November 1
– All contracts, licenses, newspapers, pamphlets, playing cards,
and most other legal documents would be void unless executed
on officially stamped paper
– Courts of law would not accept any document not stamped
• This would be considered an internal act and was the
most intolerable by the colonists
Customs Commissioner
John Malcomb being tarred
and feathered and “paid” his
tea
Titled “Public Punishment
for the Exise Man” (1774)
•Tax on legal documents, playing cards,
newspapers, etc.
•A direct tax which went to the British
government.
•Paid for debt and British troops in the
Colonies.
•Colonists hated the Stamp Tax = “taxation
without representation”
STAMP ACT CONGRESS
• Resistance began in spring of 1765
• Soon a Stamp Act Congress was created to meet in
New York in October 1765 in which 9 colonies sent 27
representatives
– They passed resolutions affirming colonial loyalty to the king but
condemned the Sugar and Stamp Acts
– Adopted non-importation agreements against British goods
– Small step towards unity
What or who were the Sons of
Liberty?
SONS OF LIBERTY
• Resolutions did not repeal the Stamp Act
– but street violence would and it would be led by Boston
• The movement would be led by a group called the Sons
of Liberty
– Samuel Adams is given credit for it’s start in 1765 in protest of
the Stamp Act
• Daughters of Liberty
– Non-importation (wool & lamb)
– Spinning bees; making homespun cloth instead of British textiles
Paul Revere
Samuel Adams
•Sons of Liberty was a secret
society formed in protest of British
rule.
•They had a large role in the repeal
of the Stamp Act and the Boston
Tea Party.
• They protested, boycotted,
harassed soldiers and
officials, tax collectors,
burned effigy’s
•9 original members which included
the leaders Samuel Adams and Paul
Revere
“If our trade be taxed, why not our
lands, or produce, in short,
everything we possess? They tax us
without having legal representation.”
Samuel Adams
Britishlaws
•Between 1765 to 1766,
the Sons of Liberty led
over 40 protests up and
down the colonial
coastline.
•Successful in forcing the
British Parliament to
repeal the Stamp Act by
running off tax collectors
Stamp Act Protests: 1765 to 1766
•Nullified in Spring of
1766
What is the Declaratory Act?
THE DECLARATORY ACT
• Declaratory Act:
• Parliament has full power and authority to make laws
binding to the colonies in all cases
• Declares absolute sovereignty over colonies
– Repeals Stamp Act in 1766
– The repeal was met with wild celebration, almost a national
holiday
Townshend Duties
Crisis: 1767-1770
1767  William Pitt, Prime Minister
Charles Townshend, chief financial officer
Shift from paying taxes for British war
debts & quartering of troops  paying
colonial government salaries
Increase custom officials at
American ports  established a
Board of Customs in Boston.
Townshend Acts, 1767
•Passes series of revenue measures which taxed items
imported into the colonies, including paper, lead, tea, and
paint.
-goal was to use American revenues to pay salaries of colonial governors
and judges which would free them from dependence on assemblies
-British army began withdrawing from the frontier and concentrating on the
north coasts, this was mostly to save money but it looked aggressive
-Colonists were ok to pay for an army to protect the frontier, but to pay for
an army to police them?
•Colonial outrage and boycotts
Colonial Response to
the Townshend Duties
1. 1768  2nd non-importation
movement:
* not as effective
* taken less seriously because they get still get smuggled tea
2. Riots against customs agents:
* 4000 British troops sent to Boston
in 1768
1770
1768—1770,
British
soldiers arrived in Boston,
MA to maintain order and
enforce the taxes the
colonists were asked to
pay after the French and
Indian.
The
people of Boston
resented the British
soldiers and considered
them a foreign presence.
An eyewitness account
"An unruly gang of civilians (colonists), to the amount
of thirty or forty, mostly boys and many of them drunk,
left a local tavern and saw a regiment of British soldiers.
The gang assembled ... near the sentry at the Customhouse door, began taunting the British, calling them
names and throwing snow balls, along with horse
manure and ice balls ... I saw a party of soldiers come
from the main guard, and draw themselves up ... the
people still continued in
An eyewitness account
the street, crying, 'Fire, fire, and be damned,' and threw
more snow balls. British Captain Preston could not
control the crowd as they taunted the soldiers. He
ordered his troops "Don’t fire!" but with the commotion I
heard the word 'fire' given ... and instantly the soldiers
fired one after another." The troops fired and killed
three men instantly; another two died later. The first
man to die was Crispus Attucks, a black man. “
When the smoke and confusion cleared, five Bostonians
were dead or dying. John Adams, a lawyer (and future
President), helped win acquittal for six of the soldiers,
but his cousin, Sam Adams, a patriot leader, called the
incident a "plot to massacre the inhabitants of Boston"
and was used to rouse fellow colonists to rebel.
High
tensions between
British and Bostonians
over enforcing British
policies.
March
1770, the British
shed Colonial blood for
first time.
The
relationship between
the Colonies and England
would never improve
Used
as propaganda to
convince people of the
colonial cause.
Art and Propaganda
• News of the massacre spreads fast
Boston Mass.
Boston Mass.
•The 5 Colonists killed at the
Boston Massacre would
become martyrs for the
Colonial cause
•They would be buried in the
same cemeteries as Paul
Revere and Samuel Adams.
•British soldiers were tried
in court and 2 were found
guilty of manslaughter.
Partial Repeal
• Soon after the Massacre, Parliament repeals the
Townshend duties except for tea in 1766
– This caused the non-importation movement to
collapse
• However, there was no rejoicing in the modification of
this act
– Many colonists blamed each other for failure of
complete repeal
– There was no public rejoicing at this repeal
The Gaspee Incident (1772)
Providence, RI coast
GASPEE INCIDENT
• The years of 1770-1773 were fairly calm
• In 1772 the customs vessel Gaspee ran aground and is
attacked
– British officials are sent to investigate and sent perpetrators back
to England
• The colonies considered this a huge threat of Americans
standing trial in England
CRITICAL ISSUES AFTER
GASPEE
• There is a growing feeling that the British government
is conspiring to destroy liberty in America
• The Committees of Correspondence will eventually
form into the First and Second Continental
Congresses
• These incidents convince Britain that is pointless to
prosecute individuals for politically motivated crimes
– Whole Communities need to be punished
• Britain has an important choice to make – what holds
the empire together – consent or force?????
Committees
of Correspondence
Purpose  warn neighboring colonies
about incidents with Br.
 broaden the resistance
movement.
Virtual Representation
• The 13 Colonies were
represented under the
principle of “virtual”
representation.
• It did not matter if the
Colonists did not elect
members from each colony
to represent them in the
British Parliament.
• Not all citizens in Britain
were represented either.
• The British Parliament
pledged to represent every
person in Britain and the
empire
Actual Representation
• Americans resented “virtual”
representation.
• Colonists governed themselves
since the early settlers.
• They had direct representation
by electing colonial assembly
members to represent their
interests.
• Colonists were not opposed to
paying taxes because the
Colonies taxed their citizens.
• If the British Parliament was to
tax them, they should be able to
elect a representative from their
colony to represent their
interests in Parliament.
The Power to Tax is
the Power to Destroy
If you have the power to tax, you
have the power to take all their wealth
from them.
If there is no check upon the people
who posses the “power to tax” then
they have the power to destroy.
Colonists wanted an “actual”
representative elected from them to
address their concerns to Parliament.