•Before we go to the 1st
continental congress
•I want focus on one of the
other intolerable acts
•The Massachusetts Government
Act
–And its role in the start of the
revolution
• If we treat American patriots as
innocent victims
–i.e. the attack by well armed British
regulars on a few militiamen at
Lexington and Concord
• We suppress their revolutionary
might
–Nation came into being because people
stood up for themselves and their own
best interests
• Revolution did not begin with the
shot heard ‘round the world.”
• Started more than half a year
earlier
• When thousands of angry patriots
overthrew British authority
throughout Massachusetts
–Except in Boston
• Massachusetts Government Act
dictated people could no longer
–come together in town meetings
without permission from Governor
–discuss any thing not approved by
the Governor
–Meet more than once a year
• in addition
• People’s elected representatives no
longer determine the Council
–upper house of the legislature
• Elected representatives could no
longer approve or remove
– judges, juries, or justices of the peace
•local officials who could put people
in jail or take away their property
• Citizens of Massachusetts were
deprived of the power of their votes
• Massachusetts Government Act
affected not only
–the 5 percent of the populace in Boston
–but the 95 percent in towns and villages
across the province.
• People would not and did not allow it
Due to take effect
August 1 , 1774
– first court scheduled to sit in
Berkshire County
Court never met
When Crown-appointed
officials showed up for
work on August 16
Found themselves shut
out of the courthouse by
1,500 committed patriots.
• In direct violation of the new law
– people continued with their chosen meetings.
• Governor Gage arrested seven men in Salem
for calling a town meeting
– 3,000 farmers marched on the jail & set them
free
• By early October 1774
– more than half a year before the “shot heard
round the world”
• American patriots seized all political and
military authority outside Boston
• How to defend Revolution against British
army
• October 1774
– five months before Lexington
• Patriots from Massachusetts formed
representative body
• The Provincial Congress
– assumed the basic functions of government.
• Foremost among its duties
– collect taxes and prepare for war.
• December 1774
– four months before
Lexington
• patriots in Hampshire
made first offensive
move of the war
• 400 militiamen
stormed Fort William
and Mary in
Portsmouth
• Patriots
• took down the king’s colors
–carried away one hundred
barrels of gunpowder
• Following day
• 1,000 patriots marched again
on the fort
–removing all the muskets and
sixteen cannon.
• Armed attack on a British fortress
– an act war, not merely a prelude to war
• February 1775
– two months before Lexington,
• British intelligence reported that 15,000
“Minute Men” were “all properly armed”
– With thirty-eight field pieces and a
considerable supply of gunpowder
• During the preceding decade,
patriots had
–written petitions
–staged boycotts
–burnt effigies
–this was something new.
• In late summer and early fall of
1774 patriots did not simply protest
government
• they overthrew it
•Back to Boston
and the call for
a multiple
colony meeting
But first…
• Reminder
• 1st section of Portfolio due on Thursday
• Thursday Feb 18th
• This should include everything up to, and
including, Chapter 5 Asserting
Independence of Kierber
• Please make it clear which documents and
questions you are answering
• Chap. 1: Bonds of Empire
• “The Revolution Ode”
• How did the author of “Ode” describe James II.
How did this poet envision the king's ideal
relationship to his subjects?
• He wrote that James II reigned…
• Why was the anti-French and anti-Catholic
rhetoric so appealing to the colonists in 1760?
• The author suggests that Anglican
Protestantism…
• “Of the Constitution of England”
•Boston gets all credit for
calling this meeting
•first continental congress
•In actuality both
•Rhode Island and Virginia
–put out calls about a week
before Boston did
• Fifty-five delegates from 12 colonies heeded the call of
•
the Massachusetts Assembly for a Continental
Congress.
Held in Carpenter Hall Philadelphia
• Leading political figures,
lawyers, merchants, and
planters
• Attended Philadelphia
Congress
• Massachusetts
delegation included
both Samuel Adams
• and his younger
cousin John
• New York sent
John Jay
• Pennsylvania
John Dickinson
• and the
conservative
Joseph Galloway
• Virginia Richard
Henry Lee, Patrick
Henry, and
George
Washington.
• Most had never met before
– Became chief architects of the new nation
• Congressmen faced three tasks when they
convened
• The first two were explicit:
– Defining American grievances
– Developing a plan resistance.
• Third
– outlining a theory of their constitutional
relationship with Great Britain
• less clear cut and proved troublesome.
• The most radical
– like Lee of Virginia
• Argued that colonists
owed allegiance only
to George III
• That Parliament was
nothing more than a
local legislature
• for Great Britain
– with no authority over the
colonies.
• The conservatives – Joseph Galloway
and his allies
• Proposed a formal plan of union
• Required Parliament and a new
American legislature to consent
jointly to all laws pertaining to the
colonies
• After heated debate, delegates
narrowly rejected Galloway’s proposal
• They were not prepared to accept the
radicals’ position either
• Back in Massachusetts
• Suffolk County Convention of the
Committees of Correspondence
• September 6, 1774,
• Joseph Warren introduced the first
draft of the Suffolk Resolves
• edited and approved three days
later
• Attacked Coercive Acts also made
several specific demands
• 1. Boycott British imports, curtail exports, and refuse
•
•
•
•
•
to use British products;
2. Pay "no obedience" to the Massachusetts
Government Act or the Boston Port Bill;
3. Demand resignations from those appointed to
positions under the Massachusetts Government Act;
4. Refuse payment of taxes until the Massachusetts
Government Act was repealed;
5. Support a colonial government in Massachusetts
free of royal authority until the Intolerable Acts were
repealed
6. Urge the colonies to raise militia of their own
people.
• September 16, 1774
– Resolves delivered to Philadelphia by
– Paul Revere
• compromise position worked out by John Adams
• Crucial clause that Adams drafted in the Congress’s
Declaration of Rights and Grievances read in part
• ”From the necessity of the case, and a regard
to the mutual interest of both countries, we
cheerfully consent to the operation of such
acts of the British parliament, as are bona
fide, restrained to the regulation of our
external commerce.”
• “From the necessity of
the case”
– declared that Americans
would obey Parliament
when in the best interest
of both countries
• “Bona fide, restrained
to the regulation of our
external commerce”
– made it clear they would
continue to resist taxes
in disguise, like the
Townsend duties
Notice the key phrases.
• Such language
–Which only a few years before would
have been regarded as irredeemably
radical
• easily and comfortably presented,
and accepted, in the fall of 1774.
• Americans had come a long way
since first hesitant protests against
the Sugar Act ten years earlier
• With constitutional issue resolved
– delegates readily agreed on the laws
they wanted repealed
• Planned to implement an economic
boycott while petitioning the king for
relief
• To enforce Continental Association
• Congress recommended election of
– committees of observation and inspection in
every American locality
• “committeemen” became local
leaders of resistance
• seven to eight thousand in the
colonies as a whole
• officially charged only with
overseeing implementation of the
boycott
• Over next six months became de
facto governments
• They examined merchants’
records
–published the names of those who
continued to import British
manufactures
–promoted home manufactures
• Thus committees gradually
extended their authority over
many aspects of American life
• They attempted to identify opponents of
American resistance
– developed elaborate spy networks
– investigating reports of dissident remarks and
activities
• Suspected dissenters were first urged to
support the colonial cause
• if they failed to do so the committees
– had them watched
– restricted their movements
– or tried to force them to leave the area
• People engaging in casual political
exchanges with friends one day
– charged with “treasonable conversation” the
next
• One Massachusetts man called before
local committee for maligning the
Congress as
• “a Pack or Parcell of Fools” that was “as
tyrannical as Lord North and ought to be
opposed & resisted.”
• he refused to recant
– committee ordered him watched
• Those who dissented more openly
received harsher treatment
• e.g. Reverend John Agnew of VA
• Agnew, insisted on warning his
congregation of “the danger of
rebellion.”
• rejected the committee’s summons
• Was officially ostracized by its
order
• Millers would not grind his corn
• Doctors would not treat his sick
wife and children
• committee tried to intimidate him
– sent armed men to his church to beat
drums and drill during services
• When that failed
– patriots nailed shut the church’s doors
and windows
• Finally Agnew and his oldest son
fled
• but the persecution of his wife
and younger children continued
• His wife was, she later recalled,
“daily insulted and robbed . .
. [and] searched under
various pretense.”
• Late 1774 and early 1775
provincial conventions
• Approved Continental Association
• Elected delegates to the Second
Continental Congress (scheduled
for May)
• Organized militia units, and
gathered arms and ammunition
• In short during six months preceding the
battles at Lexington and Concord
• Independence was being won at the local
level
• Without formal acknowledgement
– and for the most part without bloodshed
• Not many Americans fully realized what
was happening.
• Majority still proclaimed their loyalty to
Great Britain and denied that they sought
to leave the empire
Moving
toward
bloodshed
“The New England
Governments are in a State
of Rebellion, blows must
decide whether they are to
be subject to this Country
or independent”
King George III
• Gage took over as
•
•
governor of
Massachusetts in May
1774
had both civil powers of
provincial governor and
military powers of his
command
Radical leaders knew the
time was coming when
they must either
surrender or raise
resistance to a new level
• Gage’s plan
• Remove powder, remove ability to rebel
• September 1st 1774 Gage dispatched a group of
soldier to confiscate 250 barrels of powder from
Cambridge MA
• Response to seizure in Cambridge
–almost overwhelming.
• Rumors swirled through New
England
• Militia from as far away as
Connecticut marched to Boston’s
aid
• About 4000 men gathered
• They were prepared to fight
• Tensions rising in
Boston and
elsewhere
• Radicals began to
expand their
information
networks
• When the troops did
anything out of the
ordinary word went
to Joseph Warren
• Joseph Warren
– Graduated from Harvard in 1759
– Practiced medicine in Boston.
• Member of the Provincial Congress in
1774,
– Served as president
– Drafted the Suffolk Resolves
• Chairman of the Provincial Committee of
Safety. Intelligence
• Commissioned second major-general in
1775
– but served as a volunteer in the battle at
Bunker Hill in which he was killed
• Warren forwarded
news to the
committee of
safety in Concord
• Jan 1775
– Lord North sent orders
to Gage to send troop
to Concord
• “Destroy Arms and
capture Adams and
Hancock”
• Gage organized
two groups
• One, regular
army, under
Colonel Francis
Smith
• Light infantry led
by Major John
Pitcairn
• The shortest way to Concord from Boston was across
•
•
•
Back Bay
Boats to carry the troops hauled out of the water and
repaired
April 16 were rowed to the men-of-war swinging at
anchor in the Charles River.
There they lay ready to use.
• Joseph Warren heard of these
preparations almost immediately.
–no way to conceal the repair of
the small boats and their
collection in the bay.
• Morning of April 16,
• Warren sent Paul Revere to
Lexington to warn John Hancock
and Samuel Adams
• Revere returned that
night, stopping in
Charlestown to arrange
signals should the
British move at night:
• one lantern to be hung
in the steeple of North
Church if the troops
moved inland over the
Neck
• two if they came by
water
• Gage tried to keep his movements secret
• Ten at night, April 18
– Troops quietly roused from bed by sergeants
shaking them rather than shouting commands
• Unlike previous September the rebels were
ready
• Their intelligence system
– virtually the entire population of Boston
• Marked the day when the troops were to
march: 18 April 1775
• Lets hear Paul Revere tell the story
Paul Revere
• Before Revere even got started
on his mission to warn Adams
and Hancock
• A tanner named William Dawes
made his way across Boston
Neck with the same message
• Revere got to Lexington about
midnight
• Joined by William Dawes
• They rested briefly, then rode
on to Concord
• Never got there, captured
by a British patrol
• Dr. Samuel Prescott of
Concord
– who had been courting his
fiancée at Lexington until late at
night.
• dashed away from the
ambush, leaped a wall, and
made good his escape
• And then fulfilled Revere’s
mission to Concord.
• Picture of Dr.
Samuel
Prescott
• Revere was released
and walked back to
Lexington
• He found Sam Adams
and John Hancock
• Hancock mouthed off
about how he
personally would face
down the Regulars.
– as the troops came nearer
the bravado evaporated.
• He insisted on traveling in high state
in his heavy coach, taking Sam
Adams
• But abandoned Aunt Hancock and his
fiancée to the mercies of the Regulars
• He also abandoned a trunk full of
papers that
• “contained the innermost secrets of the
Whig cause, and written evidence that
could incriminate many leaders.”
• After fleeing, he hungered for the
delicacy of a freshly caught salmon
given to him at Lexington
– So he sent back for it
• Hancock’s salmon joined him in
Woburn and his aunt and fiancée also
• By command, the salmon was cooked;
• but (woe!) another alarm caused it to
be abandoned and the fleeing hero
had to make this sacrifice for his
cause.
• Lexington militia company
• commanded by Caption John Parker
• mustered on Lexington Green
• After about an hour they were told
to return home but to be ready
• drum sounded at half-past four,
when Thaddeus Bowman galloped
in with the news that the regulars
were near.
In a few minutes Parker had two ranks of a
little over seventy men drawn up about a
hundred yards from the road to Concord,
which ran along the base of the Green
• In order to ensure that all students, and I,
get the full benefit of the class,
attendance will be mandatory - non
attendance will be penalized. Miss four (4)
classes and you will automatically lose on
grade point from your final grade.
• After Lexington the British marched on to
Concord
– Arms had already been moved
• Soldiers began to trash and fire the town
• Militia began to attack
• British soldiers fled from Concord back to
Boston
• Followed by an ever increasing number of
patriot militia
• Knowing direction
soldiers had to take
– militia provided a
rolling attack that
picked of British troops
• By time British column
reached Lexington
• The British ranks had
fallen apart
– fighting developed into
hand to hand combat
• Gage had sent out relief column under
General Percy
– Gave the British support and hope
• Difficult and deadly retreat to Boston
• Militia now numbering around 30,000
– Surrounded the town of Boston and cut if of
from the rest of America
• On this the first day of military conflict
• 95 Americans
• 273 British died
• Gage takes the
news badly
• It is thought that
his American wife
may have been the
spy who feed the
news to the militia
• She was sent to
England for her
“safety” and the
two were never
reconciled
• May 1775
substantial
reinforcements
arrive
• 5000 men
• Under three
generals
• Burgoyne
• Howe
• Clinton
• May 1775
• The Continental Convention
meets again at Philadelphia
– A political body that inherited
a military conflict
• Voted to militia surrounding
•
Boston into a Continental
Army
“Oh that I was a Soldier – I
will be – I am reading
military books. – Every Body
must and will, and shall be a
soldier”
– John Adams
• June 15 George
Washington
–who arrived at the
convention dressed
in his old uniform
every day
• Made the
commanding
officer
• Still uncomfortable with
the idea of breaking
away fully
– Divided ideas and plans
• Congress was
• “a Coach and six – the
swiftest Horses must be
slackened and the
slowest quickened, that
all may keep an even
pace”
– John Adams
• Sent two petitions to George III
• One known as the “Olive Branch” petition
– pleaded with the King to take the initiative in
devising a “happy and permanent
reconciliation”
• Second
– written mainly by Thomas Jefferson
• “The Declaration of the Causes and
Necessities of Taking up arms”
• Both Olive branch petition and Jefferson’s
declaration
– Still couched in terms of reconciliation
• Declaration stated to the British people
that
• “we mean not to dissolve that Union
which has so long and happily
subsisted between us”
• The petitions reached London at the same
time as news of Bunker (Breeds) Hill
• George III declared a formal proclamation
of rebellion on August 23, 1775
The Battle of
Bunker (Breeds) Hill
• May 1775 worried about the
•
possibility of British troops
coming from behind
Group of Connecticut Militia
under Ethan Allen marched on
Fort Ticonderoga
• Independently Benedict
•
•
Arnold left from
Massachusetts
British in the fort had
not heard of the conflict
in Boston and did not
resist
May 10th 1775
– Fort easily taken
weapons now in
American hands
– 1st day of second
continental congress
• July 3 1775,
Washington assumes
control of continental
army
• During the Seven
Years War had
admired, and wanted
to be part of, British
Army
• What he found in
Boston, shocked and
dismayed him
• Most euro armies at this time were led by
aristocrats and staffed by the dregs of society
– drilled relentlessly until they obeyed commands
without thinking
• Massachusetts militia - volunteer army full of
many different classes
–
–
–
–
They elected officers
They granted furloughs easily
Many slept away from the army at home
Some sneaked over the lines to take pot shots at
people
• None of this was want Washington knew or
wanted
• Washington began difficult task of training an army
•
•
•
– whilst it was involved in military action
Had few subordinates he was confident in so he
was involved not only in the grand planning
But also attempting
– To clean up conditions
– Improve defenses
– Ensure regular supplies
– He also demoted or fired officers
All in an attempt to gain the order he knew was
needed
• As Washington was in
Boston
– continental congress ordered
Major General Philip Schuyler
to take Canada
• If “practicable” and not
• “Disagreeable” to the
canadians
• Washington ordered
Benedict Arnold to north to
Canada as well
• Schuyler travelled up
through Montreal
• Whilst Arnold moved out
from Massachusetts
• Richard Montgomery,
– 2nd in Command to
Schulyer
• Captured Montreal
before heading on to
Quebec
• At same time Arnold
led his forces on one
of the most dramatic
marches of the war
• 45 days through
terrible conditions
• Late in year two groups meet close to Quebec
• After a short period of rest
•
•
•
•
– Assault plan was made
An assault rather an a siege
– As soldiers enlistments due to end
December 31st the attack began in a freezing
blizzard
– Montgomery was killed quickly Arnold
received a wound in the leg
– A couple of hours later the attack was over
Several hundred Americans were captured and
Quebec remained in British hands
Meanwhile back to Boston
• Washington now had weapons to push siege
• He set up the guns on Dorchester heights,
– overlooked the city and harbor
• General Howe
– taken over from Gage
• Initially intending to attack, bad weather
forced Howe to change his plan
• March 17
• British loaded all the soldiers and 1000 loyalist
supporters on board ships and evacuated
Boston
• Headed to Nova Scotia
• Group IDs
• When answering the ids it is always
good to think of
–A) Who, what, when, where, why
–B) Causes and Consequences
• Firstly, get into 5 groups
• I will put 8 ids up on the screen
• First come first served
• Your answer must be in sentence form
Who, what, when, where, why
Causes and Consequences
• “A Society of Patriotic Ladies, at Edenton
in North Carolina”
• Vice Admiltary Courts
• HMS Gaspee
• Lord North
• The Massachusetts Government Act
• Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth
• Joseph Warren
• Aggressive neutrality