The Stirrings of Rebellion
US History-10.15.13
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• Detail
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Outline notes
• The Stamp Act
• Required colonists to buy stamped paper for every legal document,
newspapers, etc.
• EVERY colonist was affected
• If they broke the law on the Stamp Act, they would be tried in court/convicted
• Stamp Act Protests
• Sons of Liberty
• Led by political activist, Samuel Adams
• Organized to protest the Stamp Act
• Patrick Henry
• Put forth a resolution in the Virginia Assembly: Virginian’s could only be taxed
by the Virginia Assembly/their own representatives
• Merchants in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia did not import goods until
the Stamp Act was repealed.
• It worked until Parliament passed the Declaratory Act: Asserted Parliaments right to
make laws that bound the colonists in all cases.
The Colonies Organize to Resist Britain
• The Townsend Acts
• Charles Townsend figured out a new way to collect money from colonists
• Indirect taxes
• Taxes on imported materials that went into the colonies from Britain
• Three penny tax on tea, the colonies’ most popular drink
• Colonists continue to protest
• “Taxation without representation”
• Sam Adams called for more protests specifically on British goods
• Women became involved by protesting lavish British fabrics and
adornments
• Conflicts intensify
• British seized John Hancock’s ship, Liberty
• Said Hancock imported goods from Madeira and did not pay his tax
• British stationed “Redcoats,” or British soldiers in Boston
The Colonies Organize to Resist Britain
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The Boston Massacre
• March 5, 1770
• Fight broke out over jobs
• Colonists were looking for work as were the British colonists who were not paid well
• Crispus Attucks and dockhands arrived outside a Customs House. He was killed
An attack on a British boat later broke out in Rhode Island. The attackers were brought to England
for trial.
• Committees of Correspondence
• Linked leaders in all colonies to communicate about threats to America.
The Boston Tea Party
• British East India Company was hit hard by colonial tea boycotts and about to go bankrupt
with 17,000 million pounds of tea in warehouses
• Wanted to sell tea to the colonies free of taxes
• Colonists protested on December 16, 1773
• Colonists dressed at “Indians” dumped 18,000 pounds of tea into the Boston Harbor
QUESTION: Why would the colonists be angry about the desire to sell tea to the colonists at
a cheaper price?
Tension Mounts in Massachusetts
• Intolerable Acts: King George III was angry of
destruction of British property
• Shut down harbor
• Quartering Act: Housing of soldiers
• Martial Law: rule by the military
• Colonial Response
• First Continental Congress
• September 1774 56 delegates met in Philadelphia
• Declaration of Colonial Rights
• Defended the colonies’ rights to run their own
affairs
Tension Mounts in Massachusetts
• Minutemen
• Civilian soldiers stocked up on firearms
• Spring 1775: British General Gage sent troops to look for the stockpiles of firearms and
ruin them
• Gage got news of where Hancock and S. Adams were and planned to seize them
• “The Redcoats are coming!”
• Adams and Hancock were in hiding as the colonists heard rumors of the attack
• The resistance leadership was then led by Dr. Joseph Warren
• Warren assigned Paul Revere, of the Sons of Liberty to gather messengers to warn
people
• Revere warned Adams and Hancock to escape and warned other colonists of the
attack
• “This is a glorious day for America,”-Sam Adams
• The British made it to Lexington where they defeated the colonists
• When they made it to Concord the colonists slaughtered the British
• Adams and Hancock could hear the gunshots as they rode off deeper into hiding.
• QUESTION: Why was it so important that Adams and Hancock were not
injured?
Fighting Erupts at Lexington and Concord