New British
Laws/Taxes

 Huge National Debt to
pay off:
 10,000 NOW stationed
in America
 British thought
Colonists should pay
for the Protection
 Sugar Act:
New British
Laws/Taxes

 Sugar was used to
sweeten tea and create
rum
 Tax on Sugar to make
money
 Taxes =
 increase in price of
sugar and rum
 A Breach of English
Rights?
 “No Taxation without
Direct Representation”
New British
Laws/Taxes

 The Stamp Act – 1765
 All official documents
required to have a
stamp on it – a stamp
that was paid for
 Affected Middle Class
 Artisans & merchants
 Literate and involved
 Caused Major
Demonstrations!
New British
Laws/Taxes

 The Stamp Act Congress
 October 1765: 9 colonies sent delegates to NYC
 Petitioned the King to Remove the Tax
 The Colonial Boycott:
 Boycott of all British Goods
 Successful: Stamp Act repealed
 Parliament Stated they had the RIGHT to tax
New British
Laws/Taxes

 The Quartering Act:
 1765: Colonists had to
provide living
arrangements for
British Soldiers
 In their homes or
barracks
New British
Laws/Taxes

 Townshend Act:
 1767: Taxed goods FROM GB
 Writs of Assistance:
 Allowed GB to search homes for smuggled goods
without a warrant
 Right to privacy in ones home is cherished
 COLONISTS ANGRY!!! COLONISTS SMASH!!!
 Act Repealed except for Tax on Tea!
Boston Massacre

 British troops in Boston were BIG RED SYMBOLS of
BRITISH RULE!
 Unskilled labor hated them:
 British Troops 2nd Jobs
 Would take jobs from Colonists
Boston Massacre

 March 1770:
 Mob formed outside customs house
 Mob threw snowballs at the Guards outside
 Someone yelled “fire” and the British soldiers fired
into the crowd
 5 people died
 Sons of Liberty played up the attack
 Historical Bias? Paul Revere’s Engraving
Boston Massacre

 Soldiers on Trial for Murder
 Defended by John Adams
 All soldiers released except for 2
 Served Light sentences
 British soldiers were removed from Boston to the
countryside
The Boston Tea Party

 Dec 16,1773:
 3 east India tea ships
in Boston Harbor
 Samuel Adams +70
Sons of Liberty
boarded the ships and
sent $1 million in tea
overboard
 Hundreds watched
The Coercive Acts

 1774: Parliament response to Tea Party
 Closed Port of Boston
 GB brought in more troops and strict Gov. until tea
was repaid
Sons of Liberty renamed it “Intolerable Acts”
 Historical Bias?
First Continental
Congress

 Intolerable Acts further unified the Colonists
 1774: First Continental Congress met in Philly
1. Agreed parliament had too much control
3. Agreed to a non-importation Agreement
4. “Minutemen” formed
 King George III wants Mass. Under Control!
 Tells Gen. Thomas Gage to handle it!
Hostilities Begin

 April 18, 1775 700 British Troops to
Concord Mass.
 Secure Colonial
Supplies and arrest
Leaders
 Spreading the Alarm:
 Paul Revere and 20+
riders inform the
Minute Men in Mass.
Hostilities Begin

 Lexington:




70 Minutemen met at Lexington to stop the British
70 Colonists vs. 700 British
“Shot Heard ‘round the World”
8 Colonial Casualties – Colonists lose
 The British continued on the Concord
 OPEN CONFLICT HAS BEGUN!
Hostilities Begin

 Concord:




Hundreds of Minutemen there
Concord supplies/ leaders moved
Both sides exchanged shots
The British retreated back to Boston
 Militiamen fired on Redcoats all the way back to
Boston
 Surrounded British in Boston
John Adams vs. Samuel
Adams

 Battle of Two Styles of Protest!!
COUSIN vs. COUSIN!
LETS DO THIS!
 Born in 1735
 Father
John Adams

 Involved in Politics
 Puritan Deacon
 Adams family was on the Mayflower
 Rise to Prominence:
 Stamp Act of 1765
 Wrote and Published on Enlightenment ideas and Stamp
Act legality
 Wrote “Braintree Instructions” in defense of colonial
rights against Parliament aggression
 Defended the 8 British soldiers of the Boston Massacre –
And Won
John Adams

 Philosophy:
 Enlightened Thinker
 Believer in Republican Government
 “Rule by People AND by LAW”
 Huge supporter of the RULE OF LAW
 Law and Facts do not change – men do
 Supporter of Bicameral Legislature and Separation of
Powers
 THE PATRIOT BY PEN!
 Trial of the Boston massacre soldiers in “John Adams”
Samuel Adams

 Born 1722
 Family leading figure in local Politics
 Mass. House of Reps.
 1748: Began a local Newspaper that criticized British Rule
 Became a very popular man among the common people
 Involved in Sugar Act Protest
Sam Adams

 1748:
 Began a local Newspaper
 Criticized British Rule
 Became a very popular man among the common
people
 Sugar Act Protest
 Involved in Protest – led many
 1765: Helped Found the “Sons of Liberty” of Boston
 Group of Middle class Boston residents who opposed
British Authority
Sons of Liberty

 Tactics:





Boycotts
Effigy Burnings
Mob Intimidation
Tar and Feather
1773: Boston Tea Party
 SAM ADAMS: LEADER OF THE SONS – THE
PATRIOT’S MUSKET
 Tar and Feather example from “John Adams”