Building Colonial Unity
Chapter 5-2
Chapter 5-2
• Protests for Liberty and against unjust
treatment and action by Parliament in Boston
led to large quantities of British troops being
sent to occupy Boston
• British troops treated Bostonians poorly
• How did the colonists feel about being policed
and monitored by British troops
5-2
• The Boston Massacre
– Protest turned violent when colonists threw
objects at British troops
– British troops fired into a mob and killed 5 people
– One being Crispus Attucks an African American
– Samuel Adams called this even a Massacre
5-2
• The word of the deaths spread
• Colonial leaders used propaganda,
information designed to influence an opinion,
against the British
– Sam Adams and Paul Revere Made posters and
other items to spread the word
• Colonists boycotts of British goods increased
• Parliament repeals all the Townshend acts
except the one on Tea
5-2
• Colonists felt this was a victory and ended
their boycotts except on Tea
• Some Colonial leaders still called for a
resistance to the British
• 1772 – Samuel Adams revives the committee
of correspondence to help circulate
grievances about Britain
5-2
• Colonists think of British colonial policy as a
“conspiracy against liberty”
• Tea Act 1773
– Issued to save The Dutch East India company from
ruin
– Allowed them to bypass most of the taxes placed
on imported tea in the colonies
– This allowed them to undercut, or sell their tea
cheaper than, their colonial competition
5-2
• Colonial Merchants called for an immediate
boycott of British tea
• Most colonies turned the ships containing The
Dutch East India Company’s tea away or left
the tea to rot on the docks
• In Boston however, the royal governor ordered
the ships to be docked and the tea unloaded
5-2
• Sam Adams and The Sons of Liberty took
action
• They dressed as Mohawks and on December
16 threw 342 chests of tea overboard
• This even became known as the Boston Tea
Party
5-2
• When word reached King George III he
realized that Britain was losing the colonies
– “We must master them or totally leave them
alone”
• 1774 Coercive Acts
– Response by Parliament to the Boston Tea Party
– Closed Boston Harbor until the colonists paid for
the tea
Coercive Acts continued
• Harbor closing prevented new supplies and
food from being shipped into Boston
• Laws also took away rights from the colonists
such as Assembling, and forced Bostonians to
quarter soldiers
• Colonists felt the Coercive acts violated their
rights as English citizens
5-2
• Quebec Act
• Gave French Catholics the right to worship
freely
• Also gave Quebec the land west of the
Appalachians and north of The Ohio River
• Colonists renamed the Coercive Acts
“The Intolerable Acts”