Events Leading Up to the
American Revolution
A Change in British Policy Financial Problems
• The costs of governing and defending Britain’s vast
empire made the British people the most heavily
taxed people in the world.
• While Britain struggled with its heavy debts and
taxes, its colonies in America were prospering.
• The British government decided that the colonists
should begin to pay some of the costs of their own
government and defense.
 The passage of the Sugar Act in 1764 marked the
start of a new British policy designed to raise more
income from the colonies.
• The Quartering Act of 1765 required colonists to
provide housing and supplies for British troops in
America. Needed to enforce the tax collection
because of the Sons of Liberty scaring the tax
collectors.
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• Colonists complained that the changes violated their
rights as British subjects, but mostly they went
along with them.
• In March 1765, the British Parliament passed the
Stamp Act. This law placed a tax on newspapers,
pamphlets, legal documents, and most other printed
materials. The Stamp Act marked the first time
that the British government taxed the colonists for
the stated purpose of raising money.
• The colonists’ reaction to the Stamp Act was
widespread and extreme. In October 1765,
delegates from nine colonies met in New York for a
gathering that became known as the Stamp Act
Congress.
• James Otis, a lawyer from Massachusetts, argued
that Britain had no right to force laws on the
colonies because the colonists had no
representatives in the British Parliament. This
argument called for “no taxation without
representation.”
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• THE RESULT:
American merchants organized a boycott of British
goods. A boycott is a refusal to buy certain
products or use certain services as an act of
protest.
• Groups, known as the Sons of Liberty and Daughters
of Liberty, sprang up to enforce the boycott and
organize other ways of resisting British policies.
• By November 1765, when the Stamp Act was to take
effect, most stamp distributors had resigned or
fled, leaving no one to sell the stamps. In 1766,
Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.
HOW DID THE BRITISH REACT?
• In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts.
The colonists protested these acts, which put
import taxes on certain goods, such as glass and tea.
• British troops were sent to Boston, Mass., to put
down violent resistance to the Townshend Acts.
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Things Begin to Heat up - British & Colonial Reactions Clash
• In March 1770, a small crowd threatened the British
soldiers. In what became known as the Boston
Massacre, the soldiers opened fire and killed five
colonists.
• Called by the Colonialists, Boston Massacre
(Crispus Attucks)
• Parliament canceled all the Townshend taxes, except
for the duty on tea.
• In May 1773, the Parliament passed the Tea Act, an
act that gave a British company special tax
exemption in the colonies. The American colonists
protested. On December 16, 1773, colonists
boarded three tea ships in Boston and dumped all of
the tea into the harbor. This incident became known
as the Boston Tea Party.
• In the spring of 1774, Parliament passed a series of
laws known as the Coercive Acts to punish
Massachusetts. The measures seemed so harsh that
the colonists called them the Intolerable Acts.
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The Colonialist Become Angry
• On September 5, 1774, a gathering of 56 delegates
met in Philadelphia in what became known as the
First Continental Congress.
• The delegates decided to renew a boycott of
British goods and organize armed militias.
• They also made a direct appeal to the king,
outlining their grievances and asking for
understanding.
SO Where Did the Ideas Behind the
Revolution Come From???
• The Age of Enlightenment
• John Locke – “Social Contract”
• Thomas Paine, a pamphlet called Common Sense,
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• It was an important document during the Revolution.
Paine wrote about the importance of armed struggle
against the British Empire and provided the
ideological importance of American independence.
• The pamphlet, written in a simple, direct style,
appealed to the American people. Common Sense
convinced many readers, including many who had
favored a peaceful settlement with the British
government, to support a complete—and likely
violent—break with Britain.
Fighting at Lexington and Concord
• The Americans, whom King George had labeled
“rebels”, called themselves Patriots, followed
the call of the First Continental Congress and
began to form armed militias.
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• Massachusetts Patriots gathered guns and
ammunition and stored a major stockpile in
Concord, a town about 20 miles from Boston.
• On April 18, 1775, a force of about 800 British
troops moved out of Boston to seize the
weapons.
• Boston Patriots learned about the British
soldiers’ plan. When the main British force
arrived at Lexington, about five miles from
Concord, they encountered an armed militia
BUT the minutemen ran.
• HOWEVER, later the battles that ensued
became known as the Battles of Lexington and
Concord.
• The Battles of Lexington and Concord
sparked the Revolutionary War, which
became a war for American independence
from Britain.
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• The Second Continental Congress met in
Philadelphia.
• This Congress met less than a month after the
Battles of Lexington and Concord, and it
continued to meet throughout the Revolution.
• The Congress sent an Olive Branch Petition to
King George III of England.
• This petition, written by moderates,
expressed the colonists’ loyalty to the king and
requested a halt in fighting until a solution
could be found. The king refused the petition.
• In June 1776, after more than a year of war,
the Congress decided it was time for the
colonies to cut ties with Britain. They
prepared a statement of the reasons for
separation—a Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Jefferson drafted the statement.
Remember the Ladies
• In the 1770s, John Adams was one of the
leaders of the opposition to British rule.
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• His wife, Abigail Adams, expressed her
opinions about independence in a letter to him.
• In this letter Abigail asked John to
“Remember the Ladies” in the new code of law.
She asked him not to put unlimited power in
the hands of husbands.
• Her complaints about the status of women in
the society employed the same ideas that men
were using in their fight against Great Britain.
Abigail suggested that it was time to rethink
the relationship between men and women.
• Earlier in the same letter, Abigail raised the
issue of slavery. She felt it contradictory for
the delegates to speak of liberty for
themselves and not for all.
• However, John felt that the question of
slavery would divide the delegates when unity
was most crucial for success.
• The questions raised by Abigail Adams, of
liberty and equality for all people, were very
important.
• However, John Adams believed that it was
more important to win the war than to engage
in a debate about liberty for all.
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