•King of England.
•Strong supporter of taxing the
colonies to pay for the debt.
•He opposed any compromise
with the colonial government in
America.
“Once vigorous measures
appear to be the only
means left of bringing the
Americans to a due
submission to the mother
country,
the colonies will submit.”
•After losing the colonies, he
withdrew his efforts at personal
government and went insane.
Restless Colonials
1763
• British concerned by disloyalty of American
shippers in war
– Many colonies refused to provide money or troops for
war
– Colonists wanted rights of Englishmen, but not
responsibilities.
• Inter-colonial disunity had continued through
war (distance, religion, ethnicity, class), but
participants in war had found commonality
Too Late…
Tea Act (1773)
8 British East India Co.:
 Monopoly on British tea
imports.
 Many members of
Parliament held shares.
 Permitted the Company
to sell tea directly to
colonies without colonial
middlemen
(cheaper tea!)
8 North expected the
colonies to eagerly choose
the cheaper tea.
Tea Act, East India Company
•Made it illegal for the colonies to buy nonBritish tea and forced the colonies to pay the
tea tax of 3 cents/pound.
•The Colonists had to buy tea from the East
India Tea Company----gave them a monopoly
•Colonists claimed it was “taxation without
representation”
•Sons of Liberty protested against the Tea Act in
Dec. 1773 by dumping 342 chests of tea into
Boston Harbor
Boston Tea Party (1773)
•To the British, the Boston Tea Party
represented a crucial change in the
relationship with the Colonies, an act of
defiance.
WHAT IS THE BRITISH
RESPONSE?
The Coercive Acts (1774)
1. Port Bill
2. Government Act
3. New Quartering
Act
Lord North
4. Administration of
Justice Act
THE COERCIVE ACTS
• Convinced that severe punishment was essential to
British credibility, Parliament passed four Coercive Acts
during the spring of 1774
– Boston Port Act closed Boston Harbor until Boston paid for the
tea, British also hoped to isolate Boston from other colonies
– Massachusetts Government Act – overturned Mass Charter of
1691, made the council appointive, and restricted town meetings
– New Quartering Act allowed army to house soldiers on any
civilian property
– Administration of Justice Act permitted a British soldier or officer
charged with a crime while carrying out duties to be tried in
another colony or in England
Closed the port of Boston from
Colonial trade and placed
Massachusetts under martial
law until Colonists paid for the
tea.
Colonists referred to these as
the “Intolerable Acts”
Boston Tea Party
COLONIAL RESPONSE
• To the colonists they became known as the Intolerable
Acts
– these acts united the colonists
• When royal governors dismissed assemblies, colonies
would elect provincial congresses
– As more people joined resistance, royal governments
began to collapse
• But the Government act was ignored by the colonists
and it does lead to the summoning of the First
Continental Congress
First Continental Congress (1774)
55 delegates from 12 colonies
Agenda  How to
respond to the
Coercive Acts
1 vote per colony
represented.
FIRST CONTINENTAL
CONGRESS
• Met in Philadelphia's Carpenter Hall in September
1774
– They agreed on non-importation on most British goods
especially tea and molasses
• They agreed to meet again in May of 1775 if
British response was unsatisfactory
• The Continental Congress began to act as the
official government of the United States
•Colonies send their
representatives to
Philadelphia to form a
Congress in response
to the Intolerable Acts
in 1774
•Main goal was to try
and negotiate with
King George and
Parliament
•Moderates argue with Radicals whether or not to go to war.
•Representatives send a document “Declaration of Rights and
Grievances” in 1774 to King George and Parliament
•In the meantime, Congress ordered militias to prepare for war.
1770
•After the Boston
Tea Party the
British send more
troops to enforce
the Intolerable
Acts.
•Colonial militias
prepare for war.
Patrick Henry
(1736-1799)
Revolutionary War
orator, radical and
statesman. In a
speech urging
armed resistance
against the British.
Speech was given
in March of 1775.
There is no retreat but in
submission and slavery! Our
chains are forged! Their clanking
may be heard on the plains of
Boston! The war is inevitable
and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let
it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the
matter. Gentlemen may cry,
Peace, Peace -- but there is no
peace. The war is actually begun!
The next gale that sweeps from
the north will bring to our ears
the clash of resounding arms!
Our brethren are already in the
field! Why stand we here idle?
What is it that gentlemen
wish? What would they have?
Is life so dear, or peace so
sweet, as to be purchased at
the price of chains and
slavery? Forbid it, Almighty
God!
I know not what course others
may take but as for me:
“Give me liberty or
give me death”.
PHenry
AND SO IT BEGINS
• News of the Congress hits England
– They know of colonists building up arms supplies
– Britain was determined to stomp rebellion by force
• Lord North ordered General Gage to send troops to
Lexington to and arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams
• They would then move to Concord to destroy the arms
there
• Word had spread through the countryside and Boston
radicals became prepared
The British Are Coming . . .
Paul Revere & William Dawes make their
midnight ride to warn the Minutemen of
approaching British soldiers.
The Shot Heard ’Round the World!
Lexington & Concord – April 19,1775
•June 17, 1775
•The British suffered over 40%
casualties.
•2,250 men
•1,054 injured
•226 killed
•Americans: Moral victory
•800 men
•140 killed
•271 wounded
•King George sends 10,000
Hessian soldiers
to help put down the rebellion.
Lexington
British
attempt to “search and
seize” stolen weapons.
First
shots of the Revolution in
Action
Battle of Bunker Hill raised the moral of the American Army though the British
won the battle and suffered severe casualties. The Americans held there own
against the greatest army in the world. The British never broke out of Boston or
gained access to the countryside which the American army held.
•Would stay
together
throughout the
war and became
our first
government of
the United
States.
Meets in May 1775, it inherited a war
Voted to turn militia besieging Boston into a Continental Army
On June 15, at urging of John Adams, Congress made George Washington commanding general
of Continental Army
In 1775 the colonial objective in fighting was to restore government by consent under the crown
and British rule
•Came together
again after the
battles of
Lexington and
Concord, May
10, 1775.
•Organized first American army called the Continental Army and appointed
George Washington as our Commanding General.
•Willing to stay part of the empire but King must “redress our grievances”
•Congress prepares for war…….
The Second Continental Congress
(1775)
Olive Branch Petition
• On July 5 1775 Congress approved an Olive Branch
Petition to King George III in the hopes of ending
bloodshed
– Affirmed colonial loyalty
– Did not mention “rights”
– Asked the king to take the initiative in finding a
solution
• The ultimate goal stated is these documents was to
preserve the British-Colonial union, not destroy it
• The king’s refusal to even receive the documents
emboldened radicals
THE IMPROVISED WAR
• After George III dismissed the Olive Branch Petition
Congress began debating the possibility of
Independence
• Resistance to Independence came mostly from midAtlantic colonies (NY to Maryland)
– Many are still loyalists that believe the war can come to a
peaceful resolution
• This is due to the presence of royal assemblies in those
colonies which were still competing for the loyalties of
people
Thomas Paine: Common Sense
•Written by Thomas Paine in
January 1776
•Came to America in 1774 from
England and got caught up in the
Revolutionary Spirit
•Wrote a 50 page pamphlet that
would convince many Americans
that King George was a tyrant and
declaring independence from
Great Britain was our only choice.
•“There is something very
absurd, in supposing a
Continent to be perpetually
governed by an island”
Any dependence on Great Britain tends directly
involve this continent in European wars and
quarrels, and sets us at odds with nations who
would otherwise seek our friendship…….
Everything that is right or natural pleads for
separation…”TIS TIME TO PART”…
The king has shown himself an enemy to liberty and
discovered a thirst for arbitrary power. Is he, or is
he not, a proper man to say to the colonies. “You
shall make no laws but what I please”? The whole
power of the crown will be exerted to keep this
continent as low and humble as possible……
Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related….
TIS TIME TO PART
INDEPENDENCE
• Finally on May 15 1776 Congress voted to reject authority of the British
• In early June, Congress decided to create a committee to draft a
resolution that would state their reasons for separation
• The committee chosen to prepare the statement:
–
–
–
–
–
Virginia plantation owner Thomas Jefferson*
Boston lawyer John Adams
Connecticut judge Roger Sherman
New York lawyer Robert Livingston
Philadelphia printer Benjamin Franklin
• On July 2, Congress passed Richard Henry Lee’s resolution to dissolve
the relationship with Great Britain and declare the United States free
– 2 days later the colonies approved the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence
(1776)
•Explain to the world why
separation from England was
necessary
•New theory of government
(democracy---people rule)
•27 grievances listed against
King George
•Declaration of War
•We became the United States
of America
Plantation owner from
Virginia
Renaissance man
Owned slaves
Representative to the 2nd
Continental Congress from
Virginia
Father of the Declaration
of Independence.
Independence Hall
Declaration in Word!
• http://www.youtube.com/user/officevideos
?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/0/xw_1I1oYApw
NEXT LECTURE!
• WHO ARE THE COSMOPOLITANS AND THE
LOCALISTS