Unit 1 Notes ● The war forced colonists for the first time to bond together against a common enemy ● Native Americans from the Ohio Valley and the third largest party in the French and Indian war were hurt badly by the British victory ● The tribes that had allied with the French worsened their relationships the English as did the Iroquois Confederacy due to its passiveness ● The alliance with the British fell apart and the Confederacy crumbled and though they continued to struggle for control of the Ohio Valley with England for the next 50 or so years they never regained control or were the same military power. ● After signing the treaty of 1763 the British found themselves at peace but with their massive debt from the war and responsibility for the colonies England became very involved with the New World ● Colonists were already resistant to British rule with Pitt having to scale back his policies in 1758 ● Colonists were reluctant to tax themselves and even more so to be taxed by Parliament to pay for the war efforts. ● Colonists also resisted lots of other British policies and if they did it was very reluctantly ● The Americans after the French and Indian war took French territories because territorialism argued the land had great value and that the American people would need the space. ● The British Empire was twice it’s size with the territorial annexations which brought with it new problems ● There were lots of opinions and argument between the colonists about what should be done with the land ● Britain after the war was left with a massive debt plus there was the cost of stationing soldiers on the Native American borders ● with neither the colony government and or the English merchants willing to pitch in to cover costs Britain used taxes to help cover their tab. ● King Georges Prime Minister George Grenville put in office in 1763 decided it was time to tighten the reins on the colonies ● After the French and Indian War English colonists began to move quickly into the upper Ohio Valley ● Native Americans angry at the British intrusion attacked led by Ottawa Chief Pontiac ● Tok keep peace in 1763 a proclamation was made state setters could not advance past a line drawn through the Appalachian mountains ● Britain did this to keep better tabs on the colonies not allowing people to expand too quickly and it avoided what could have been very costly fighting and it kept people in the money making coastal markets and it gave England the upper hand in the fur trade. ● Although not happy having to give up land Native Americans in the area decided to cut their losses. ● In the end the proclamation of 1763 was a failure and while it did help in controlling the fur trade settlers continued to expand west ●
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Grenville in his mission to control the colonies more announced British troops would be stationed permanently in the colonies and under the Mutiny Act in 1765 had to supply and maintain the army British ships also patrolled American border with the hopes of catching smugglers and manufacturing was restricted so the colonies could not compete with Britain The Sugar Act of 1764 was designed to eliminate the illegal sugar trade between the French and West Indies It also opened courts in the colonies that tried to convict smugglers. The Currency Act of 1764 stopped the circulation of paper money and the biggest of all the acts the Stamp Act of 1765 taxed everything paper All the acts were created in an attempt to apply mercantilism to the colonies These acts multiplied British revenue from the colonies by 10 but it came with it’s own problems In 1771 a small civil war broke out in North Carolina between farmers called Regulators and local sheriffs responsible from collecting the taxes for the British The western farmer felt underrepresented and decided to resist tax collections but Governor William Tryon behind and army of 2000 militiamen who defeated the Regulators with on 9 killed and six later hung for treason in the Battle of the Alamance. By 1763 even though there was disagreement between colonies they found common complaints with the new policies of the British government and after they stopped sending the colonies funder in 1763 it created an economic bust making the fact the British were coming up with new way to take money from the colonies very frustrating to colonists Most colonists found ways around British policies but there was still unrest in some of the major cities Anglo­Americans were happy with self government and were determined to protect that power from the British As the 1760’s went on more and more did tensions escalate between the British and the colonists. The Stamp act of 1765 drove colonists wild with the fact paper was used everywhere in the colonies and while the cost was not awful it was the precedent of it. The other acts the colonists could stand but the Stamp Act seemed like a blatant way to raise British revenue with the consent of colonists of their representatives Colonists thought they had to put their foot down here worried not protesting could lead to even more taxation in the future The Virginia House of Burgesses was very opposed to the tax and Patrick Henry a rebellious member even made a speech calling for a stop to the taxes of the kings head Henry said colonists possessed the same rights as the English especially their right to be taxed only by their representative and that those who advocated for Parliament right to tax were the enemy of the colonies. In Massachusetts James Otis called for an intercolonial congress to take action against the Stamp Act ●
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In October of 1765 the Stamp Act Congress met in New york with representatives of nine colonies and wrote a petition at denied taxation from the British and that insisted they could only be taxed by their own representatives During the summer of 1765 there was rioting along the coast with the largest ones being in Boston with men belonging to a group called the Sons of LIberty terrorizing stamp agents and destroying their stamps Other Bostonians attacked aristocrats who were loyal to the British. Eventually the Act was repealed due to economic repercussions of colonial boycotting of British goods, but Parliament also passed the Declaratory acts stating Britain had total authority over the colonies but colonists paid little attention. The English people were very angry with Parliament essentially giving in to colonial demands and they feared it meant they would be taxed instead Britain filled the Prime Minister seat with William Pitt who had good relations with the colonies but due to his gout most of his power fell to Charles Townshend a flamboyant politician Townshend published the Mutiny act which forced colonists to provide housing and supplies for British troops which Britain saw as fair since their soldier had been patrolling the borders Colonists had already been doing this but responded defiantly when it became mandatory with Massachusetts and New York refusing to give supplies to the British troops To enforce the law and try to gain revenue for the colonies Townshend pushed two measures through Parliament the first disbanding the New York assembly until they obeyed the Mutiny acts and the second adding new taxes to on lead,paper,paint, and tea. Townshend argue these taxes were fair since the British themselves delayed with them but the colonists only saw it a more taxation with representation The colonists saw the disbanding of the New York assembly as the British attacking the rights of all the states The Massachusetts colony took lead rebel against e measures by sending letters to all colonial government urging them to stand up to the taxes and after a struggle the colonies came together supporting Massachusetts Townshend also changed the staff of the Colonial customs house and they stopped smuggling in Boston leading to many merchants boycotting in 1768 with merchants from Philadelphia and New York joining in and working to make their own things to avoid British taxes Townshend died late in 1767 and his replacement was Lord North who in March 1770 repealed all the Townshend acts except the Tax on Tea In Massachusetts poorly paid British soldiers fought with colonists for jobs then on March 5th a fight between liberty boys and redcoats ed to the massacre of 5 people most noticeably Crispus Attucks The massacre served as an example of British brutality with Samuel Adams being one the most outspoken colonists against the event he called for a “committee of ●
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correspondence” in 1772 in Boston to publicize colonial problems with the British rule and many other colonies followed his lead creating their own committees A new Ideology emerged in the colonies about what government should be with the seemingly ideal English Constitution appearing to be faulty with the King and the Prime minister turning the country into a tyranny One thing most colonists believed was no taxation without governmental representation The British did not understand what it meant to have representation from specific areas with each Parliament member thought to represent all of Britain leaving colonists feeling underrepresented Colonists argue for power to be distributed between Parliament and Assemblies while the British believed in one authority .Colonists spoke of revolutions through leaflets and met in churches and taverns to discuss things There was occasional rebellion showing the true anger of the colonists like when colonists stole a British revenue ships and when colonists burned the Gaspee a British schooner In 1773 the East India Company was close to bankruptcy with large amounts of tea they could not sell to the British to save the company Britain passed Tea Act of 1773 which gave to mpany the right to import the tea without paying the customs taxes allowing them to undercut colonial tea prices and monopolize the colonial tea trade This act enraged merchants who feared going bankrupt just so the East India Company could stay in business The act also brought up the topic of taxation without representation and angered many colonists even though it made no new tax on tea leading many colonists to boycott tea This was a very important boycott due to the sheer size of it Woman as the leading consumers of tea played a large role in the boycott Woman had always played a role in resistance by helping write anti­taxation literature and participating in riots and protests Now led by the Daughters of Liberty Women gave up tea Colonists tried their hardest to keep British tea out of their harbors and on December 16 1773 when three ships full of English tea came into the Boston harbor about 150 men dressed as Mohawks boarded the ships and tossed the tea into the bay When Bostonians refused to pay for the damage they had done Lord North and George the third published a series of acts designed to shut down resistance in Massachusetts which was viewed as the leader in rebellion and boycotts. In 1774 fours acts were published that massively reduced Massachusetts self government, closed Boston ports, allowed royal officials to be tried in other colonies and made colonists house British troops. These were known as the Intolerable acts Parliament followed all this with the Quebec act which was different in origin and in purpose. Its goal was to make a civil government for French­speaking Roman Catholic people living in Canada and the Illinois country The law extended Quebecian borders to French communities between the Ohio and Mississippi River.It also recognized legalty of the Roman Catholic Church. ●
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While it was long overdue most colonists considered it a threat Colonists feared the Church of England was going to appoint a bishop in the colonies who would impose Anglican authority. Some believed it was passed to stop westward expansion and others thought it was to give the pope powers of the colonies ● The Intolerable acts sparker resistance down the coast with legislatures writing resolves that supported Massachusetts and women's groups found substitutes for British tea and textiles ● Colonies began to find ways to govern themselves despite the British with Sam Adams finding a replace for the General Court by calling together representatives from different towns. ● The Sons of Liberty became another source of power making sure everyone boycotted British goods ● The most effective of these groups were the committees of correspondence which Adams made in 1772. Virginia later established a intercolonial committee of correspondence ● In 1774 Virginia took a huge step after the royal governor dissolved the assembly they met in a tavern in Williamsburg and called for a Continental Congress elected by assemblies.Delegates from all thirteen colonies with the exception of Georgia were present in September in 1774 when the first meeting was held in Philadelphia ● They made 5 decisions the first rejected a plan for a colonial union under British authority, the second was the endorsement of a statement that appeared to concede Britain's right to colonial trade but also called for a repeal of legislation passed in 1763.Third they approved some resolutions that recommended colonists making military preparation in case of a British attack, fourth they agreed to stop all trade with Great Britain and fifth they agreed to meet the next spring suggesting a the Congress would be a continuing organization ● That winter Parliament discussed conciliating the colonists and Lord North won approval for the Conciliatory Propositions which said instead of Parliament directly taxing the colonies, they would tax themselves at Parliament's demand with hopes of reasserting peace in the colonies but it was to little too late ● For months colonists in Massachusetts had been stockpiling guns and ammo to be prepared whenever the British might attack ● British General Thomas Gage knew of the preparations but did not have enough men to overpower them Crash Course 6 ● The 7 years war ended with the treaty of paris in 1763 because it limited the land they could take from Native Americans and left them paying a lot of Britain's war debt in their taxes ● This was not the first time the colonies were taxed as Britain had already taxed a lot of things in order to lower competition with Britain but these taxes were often avoided through smuggling ● Britain felt this was fair as the colonists had made lots of money of the war ●
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Colonists were angry they had no say in the taxation The most famous act by the British was the stamp act in 1765 which said anything printed had to have a British stamp this act was purely for revenue and hurt newspapers and lawyers ● In October the stamp act congress was made by the colonies and it decided to boycott british goods and was a first time of united action among the colonies ● The sons of liberty spurred protests ● The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act ● Britain still needed money so in 1767 they wrote the Townshend act to tax colonists and made efforts to stop smuggling much to the disdain of the colonists ● Again there were boycotts with groups like the Daughters of liberty joining in ● Not everyone joined in. Merchants from Philadelphia and New York didn't because they made a lot of their money importing and selling British goods ● Again it was repealed leaving only a tax on tea ● Colonists were still unhappy and tossed an modern equivalent of 4 millions dollars worth of tea in the Boston Harbor ● Britain responded with the Intolerable acts ● This led to the start of the American Revolution with Massachusetts telling people to not pay taxes obey the acts and prepare for war ● in September 1774 delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies (not Georgia) gathered and created the resistance of the intolerable act and was the first colony wide government in British America ● People in the colonies started thinking about independence and human rights ● The war began in 1775 when fighting broke out between Brits and Minute men and Lexington and Concord ● They eventually pushed the British out of Boston but then the British took over New York which they held for a while ● Some actually were scared of the war and what it would bring ● In July of 1775 the congress actually sent an olive branch petition asking for peace but the pamphlet Common Sense seemed to cancel it out Crash Course 7 ● Main strategy of British in the war was to capture major cities and forced colonists to surrender and while they had some success Americans ruled the country sides and had easier supply lines and a home field advantage ● Most famous battle was the battle of Trent where George Washington crossed the Delaware river on Christmas and surprised British forces ● The most important battle in the north was the battle of Saratoga which was a large defeat for the British ● In the south the British took the city of Charlestown but continued to lose smaller battle to the guerilla warfare of the Americans ● The biggest battle was the battle of York in 1781 which cemented the American as victors ● American troop spirits were often now though with little for and not often enough pay ●
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Some Americans fought for the British and some Quakers dues to their peaceful nature of their land stolen from them Some slaves joined British forces with the promise of freedom if they escaped their masters and fought for the Crown and about 15,000 of the 100,000 attempted escapees got away when the British eventually left The US congress urged Native Americans and especially the Iroquois to remain neutral during the war but they fought for the British anyway with the exception of the Oneida who fought with the Americans When the colonies became states they wrote their own constitutions which opened voting up to more people although it was still mostly white men the land requirement to vote was smaller Religious freedom grew and there was an end to Theology The revolution also changed the economy and indentured servitude. There became a noticeable difference in the how the north leaned towards paid labor and the south towards slavery which was actually in decline until 1793 when the cotton gin was invented There were some protests against slavery between 1777 and 1804 all states north of Maryland got rid of slavery in 1830 there were still 3500 slaves By 1810 190000 more people of color were free The revolution introduced the idea of equality among people.