The Midcentury Challenge:
War, Trade, Social conflict
Period 3 1754-1800
Key theme
• Two European cultural movements, the Enlightenment and Pietism
changed the tone of intellectual and spiritual life
• Rational thought or divine grace?
Scientific revolution
• Galileo
• Copernicus
• World should be governed by observation and interpreted by reason
• Newtonian Universe: God was the great clockmaker
• Benjamin Franklin
Question:
• Can society function without government and laws?
• What would society be like if there was no government?
What do we know?
• Get into groups of 2 or 3 for about 5 minutes and discuss what you
know about:
•
•
•
•
•
Locke
Rousseau
Hobbes
Montesquieu
Voltaire
• As well as their impact on American ideals and government
The Enlightenment
“The Age of reason”
The Enlightenment in Europe
• Enlightenment thinkers used reason to interpret laws
governing human behavior
• Applied it to government, economics, religion, and education
• Philosophes- social critics of this period who advocated
the application of reason to human behavior
• Pillars of the Enlightenment Philosophy: Reason,
Nature, Happiness, Progress, and Liberty
Thomas Hobbes
• Wrote Leviathan in 1651
• Viewed humans as selfish
• Said that a lack of
government would result in
a “war of every man against
every man”
• If humans adhered to their
ruler, they would get law
and order in return
John Locke and Natural Rights
• John Locke had a more positive view of humanity than
Hobbes
• People could “govern their own affairs and look after
the welfare of society”.
• Believed in self-government, not absolute monarchies
JOHN LOCKE AND NATURAL RIGHTS
• All people are born with natural rights – life, liberty, property and it is
the duty of the government to protect these rights.
• Wrote Two Treatises on Government- argued for the overthrow of
James II
• Thought that if government didn’t protect natural rights, people had right to
overthrow the government
• What event would occur in the American colonies that expressed that ideal?
Voltaire
• Wrote satire against elites
such as the clergy,
aristocracy, and
government.
• Champion of tolerance,
freedom of religion, and
freedom of speech
• Was jailed and exiled for
his offensive work
Baron de Montesquieu
• The Separation of Powers
• Prevent each branch from
gaining too much power
• “Power should be a check
to power”
• How is this ideal
represented in our
government?
Rousseau: the social contract
• Saw civilization “corrupting people’s natural goodness”
• “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”
• Freedom and Equality were destroyed once people
forced to obey unjust laws of civilized governments
• Said direct democracy was best form of government
because it is ALL about the people’s beliefs- no
representatives at all
• A successful government “came from the consent of the
governed”.
The Social Contract
• Rousseau
• Social Contract- agreement between the government and
the governed that law and order will be given in exchange for
adherence to their rule
• Idea that people enter a social contract with a strong ruler to
gain safety and security
• They have ruler over them in return for just laws and order to the
society
How do people defy or break the social contract in today’s society?
Question
• In what ways would the enlightenment influence American colonial
society? In what ways does the Enlightenment influence society
today?
• Socially, politically, economically
Enlightened People Turn to Themselves
• Questioning religious authority more
• Scientific discoveries started changing people’s views
towards the traditional religious views
• With this, comes the rise of the individual: people
started trusting themselves and their logic to guide
themselves rather than obey the church or royalty.
• Revisits this quest for progress.
Enlightenment Ideals in Early America
• How did enlightenment ideas influence the colonists?
• The king breaking the social contract
• No taxation without representation
• Declaration of Independence
• Based on ideas of Locke and his views of natural rights
• life, liberty, and property (the pursuit of happiness)
• Locke talked about the right of the people to rebel against an
unfair ruler
• List of grievances
• Checks and Balances
• Montesquieu
• “Power checks power”
The Spread of Ideas
• Both salons and the encyclopedia spread ideas to
intellectuals and middle class people
• Allowed everybody to read-up on the latest
theories and ideas which would then spread
Franklin’s contributions
• Voracious reader
• Writer
• Printer
• Scientist
• Librarian
• “formed a club of mutual improvements”
Franklin’s contributions
• Deism
• “I am of a sect by myself” Thomas Jefferson
• “My own mind is my own church” –Thomas Paine
• Franklin, a one time slave owner, began to question and finally
repudiate the institution
What was the Great Awakening?
George Whitefield preaching
•Religious revival
movement
•Evangelicism –
“new birth”
considered the
ultimate religious
experience
•Followers
accepted that they
were sinners and
asked for
salvation
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Before the Great Awakening
•Before the 1730s, most colonies had two
established religions.
•Congregationalism was the largest
religion in New England (Puritans and other
dissidents who broke away from the Church
of England).
•Anglicanism was the largest religion in
New York and the Southern colonies (same
as the Church of England).
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Question
• What was the difference between the old lights and the new lights?
What political ideology’s of the time are reflected in those
differences? In other words how were changes in religious thought
similar to changes in political thought?
Awakening and revivalism
• Deism vs pietism
• Pietism
• A renewal of religious enthusiasm
• A Christian movement originating in Germany around 1700
• Emphasized pious behavior through emotional worship
• Mystical union with god
New England Revivalism
• Christian zeal found a solid foundation in the puritan establishment
• Jonathan Edwards
• Created a movement that spread throughout the CT river valley
George Whitefield
• Attracted huge crowds from Massachusetts to Georgia
• Did not read his sermons but spoke from memory
• Dramatic, charismatic, excellent speaker
Leaders of the Great Awakening
George Whitefield
Jonathan Edwards
Old Lights vs. New Lights
•Churches that grew as a result of the Great
Awakening: Presbyterianism, Methodism,
Baptist (New Lights)
•Great Awakening challenged authority and
hierarchy of established churches (Old
Lights: Congregationalists and Anglicans)
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Old lights verse New lights
• Old lights condemned the emotions, the speaking of tongues, and
allowance of women to speak in public
• New lights criticized the involvement of government in their religion
• Were funded by voluntary contributions
• Suggested that anyone who had felt God’s redeeming grace could
speak with ministerial authority
Presbyterian Revival
• The democratization of religion challenged the Anglican church
• 1743, Samuel Morris, led a group of Anglicans away from their church
to hear New Light Presbyterian Samuel Davies
• Davies urged them to feel “ardent passion”
• Threatened the social authority and tax-supported status of the
Anglican Church
Baptist insurgency
• During the 1760’s thousands of white farm families converted to the
Baptist sect
• Radical Protestants; Adult Baptism
• Slaves were welcome
• Baptists repudiated social distinctions and urged followers to call one
another “brother” and “sister”
• Virginia gentry responses with violence but could not stop the church
from growing
Conflict with the Natives
• 1600- 2 million natives East of the Mississippi
• 1700 -250,000 natives
• Ohio River Valley
• Indians traded furs for guns, metal tools, and cloth
• French colonial gov. had wanted to regulate and tax the trade by
setting up forts and trading posts
• Independent traders established their own networks
Competing Visions
SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON AND THE IROQUOIS: INDIAN VISIONS vs. BRITISH ARMS
The Onondaga Chief told of
the Great Spirit’s displeasure
with the British displacement
of Indian peoples. His
revelation contained a thinly
veiled threat about the
consequences of continuing
this policy.
Sir William Johnson
dismissed Native American
religious beliefs as foolish
superstitions. He reminded
the Iroquois that British
weapons were superior to
theirs and that resistance
would not be tolerated.
How did Johnson react to Native American demands
that western expansion be halted?
33 Visions of America, A History of the United States
Conflict in the Ohio River Valley
• 1720- Displaced natives moved back into the Ohio River Valley
• 1740’s- British traders begin encroaching on French and Iroquois
territory and trading routes
• 1748- Ohio Company of Virginia received a 200,000 acre grant from
the crown to establish a new settlement on the upper Ohio
Conflict in the Ohio River Valley
• Governor Dinwiddie sent Colonel George Washington to the Ohio
River Valley
• Discovered most of the natives had decided to side with the French
• Washington’s party fired on a French detachment
• Tanaghrisson killed a French officer to ensure war
• Washington’s contingent was defeated by a larger French force
• War was now in demand
The Albany Congress
• June 1754
• Britain’s goal was to sign a treaty with the Iroquois
• MA, RI, PA, MD,CT, NY, NH, sent representatives
• Mohawk- Hendrick Peters Theyanoguin told Britain to defend
interests more aggressively
• Benjamin Franklin called for a “Plan of Union”
• Trade, policy, defense
The Albany Plan of Union
• July 10, 1754 a plan of inter-colonial union was established but never
carried out
• Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette 1754
• A missed chance to reform colonial-imperial relations?
Native American Tribes involved
• Many Indian tribes became involved.
• The main tribes at this time were the Shawnee, Sandusky Seneca,
Wea, and Kickapoo on the French side.
• The Cherokee, Seneca, Mohawk, Montauk, Oneida, Cayuga,
Onondaga, Creek, Chickasaw, and Tuscarora were fighting with the
American-British forces.
French & Indian War
• Lasted from 1754-1763 ( or 7 years) ( or 23 years)
• War between Great Britain and France
• British Colonists allied with Great Britain
• Major cause was control over Ohio River Valley in
North America.
French & Indian War
• June 1755 British and New England troops captured Fort Beausejour;
Nova Scotia; Acadia (BOSAYJUAH)
• Forced migration of 10,000 French Acadians to Louisiana
• English and Scottish Protestants took over the farms left behind
French & Indian War
• Fort Necessity July 3-4, 1754
• July 9, 1755; Fort Duquesne (DuKenna)
• 1,500 troops under General Edward Braddock
• Did not utilize Indian allies, denied rank and authority to colonial
officers like George Washington
• A French and Indian force overcame them
• 400 killed and 500 wounded
A Worldwide War for Empire
• Britain and Prussia against
• France, Spain, and Austria
• Britain led offensives in India, West Africa, and the West Indies
44 Visions of America, A History of the United States
William Pitt: Seven years war
• The architect of the war
• Pitt knew he had numbers on his side; 14:1
• Mobilized the colonists; paid half the salary of the troops, sent arms
and equipment
• 1 million pounds a year
• Fleet of British ships
• 30,000 British soldiers
The French & Indian War
• 1758 British forced the French to abandon
• Fort Duquesne
• Fort Ticonderoga July 8, 1758
• Fort Louisbourg July 26th 1758
• British General James Wolfe
• September 13, 1759-Quebec• Montreal September 8, 1760
• What important role did the British navy play?
Effects
• Britain defeats France
• Britain claims Canada and North America east of Mississippi
• Native Americans suffer under British domination
• Britain bans further incursions into Native American territory
Distribution of land
• France has no land on North American continent
• Spain is given area west of the Mississippi ( New Orleans)
• Britain claims land in West Africa and India
• Britain ,Minorca in the Mediterranean
• Cuba is given back to Spain, Spain gives Florida to the British
• France retains, St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Martinique
• Great Britain’s land holdings in North America increase by billions of
acres
Revolutionary American
Change and Transformation 1764-1783
Yesterday the greatest question was
decided…and a greater question perhaps
never was nor will be decided among
men. A resolution was passed that these
United States are, and of right ought to
be, free and independent states
John Adams, 1776
Taxation without representation
• Lord Bute, 1762
• 1763 George Grenville-Prime Minister
• American customs duties produced less than 2,000 a year
• Molasses trade alone should have yielded 200,000 a year
• Grenville was determined to enforce existing laws and enact new
taxes
• Compared to the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland the tax burden on
colonists in the United States was low
Taxation without representation
• Revenue Act of 1762
• Tightened the customs service, seized more vessels, increased penalties for
smuggling
• Currency Act of 1764- banned colonists from using paper money
• Lowered duties colonists had to pay on molasses
• Taxed sugar and other goods imported to the colonies Increased the
penalties for avoiding these taxes
• Could be prosecuted in British vice-admiralty courts
• What basic protections do people expect when brought to court?
Sugar Act of 1764
• Smaller duty of 3 pence per gallon of molasses which would allow
molasses from British sugar islands to compete with French
• Buying molasses was an incentive for colonists. If they could not sell
their wheat, lumber, and fish in the West Indies they would lack funds
to buy British manufactures
• Men like John Hancock, feared that the sugar act would wipe out
trade with the French West Indies due to increased prices
Taxation without representation
• Violated two long held beliefs
• Idea that the colonists could not be taxed without their consent
• Equally sacred idea that Englishmen were entitled to a trial by a jury of their peers
• James Otis
• Attacked the sugar act
• Had already gained notoriety by opposing writs of assistance used by custom
officials
• Otis did not recommend active resistance to the sugar act. Patience, until
repealed
The very act of taxing exercised over those
who are not represented appears to me to
be depriving them of one of their most
essential rights as freemen
James Otis, “The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved” 1764
Taxation without representation
• The British viewed the tax as a moderate imposition necessary to
pay for the cost of the French and Indian War
• British debt
• 75 million pounds 1754
• 133 million pounds in 1763
The Stamp Act Crisis
• Britain reacted to the colonists resistance to the sugar act by imposing
another harsher tax, the stamp act
• The stamp act required colonists to place special stamps on everything
from newspapers to playing cards; almanacs, college diplomas
• A similar tax existed in Britain
• Would cover the cost of British army in colonies; 385,000 pounds/year
• Believed requiring the colonists to pay that tax at a lower rate than their
British counterparts was reasonable
• Many colonists rejected that argument
The Stamp Act Crisis
• Franklin proposed giving representation in Parliament
• British politicians said that was to radical
• Colonists and British politicians thought geography made that idea
impossible
• Passed in Parliament 205 to 49
• Violators would be tried in vice-admiralty courts
The Stamp Act crisis
• Where was opposition to the stamp act most intense?
• What groups of people would be most burdened by the stamp act?
• The Massachusetts House of Representatives called on other
colonial assemblies to send delegates to New York to create a
response to the Stamp Act crisis
• 9 of the 13 colonies sent a representative to the Stamp Act Congress
• “Declaration of the Rights and Grievances of the Colonies” was an
important step toward articulating a common response to British
policy. Why?
Stamp Act
• Opposition to the stamp act spilled out of doors and into the streets
of America
• Patrick Henry ardently spoke out against the tax in the House of
Burgesses
• Angry crowds attacked tax collectors and officials
• Few cases of crowds attacking the homes of British officials
• Andrew Oliver, Thomas Hutchinson, Jared Ingersoll
Quartering Act of 1765
• General Thomas Gage- British military commander in America
• Colonists would provide food and barracks to soldiers
Ideological Roots of Resistance
• English Common Law
• Writs of Assistance, James Otis invoked English legal precendents
• John Adams, Magna Carta, to defend John Hancock
• Enlightenment Rationale
• Natural rights
• The Republican and Whig strands of the English political tradition
• In 1688-1689 the Whigs had created a constitutional monarchy which
prevented the King from imposing taxes
• In MA slaves submitted four petitions asking slavery to be abolished
Prime Ministers
• George Grenville dismissed in 1765
• Charles Wentworth became the new PM
Ministerial Instability in Britain, 1760-1782
Leading Minister
Dates of Ministry
American Policy
Lord Bute
1760-1763
Mildly reformist
George Grenville
1763-1765
Ardently reformist
Lord Rockingham
1765-1766
Accommodationist
William Pitt/Charles Townshend
1766-1770
Ardently reformist
Lord North
1770-1782
Coercive
Which prime ministers were the most effective at avoiding conflict with the colonists? Which prime
Ministers helped to move Great Britain and the colonies closer to war?
Charles Wentworth/Lord Rockingham
• Initiated two new pieces of legislation on the colonists
• The Declaratory Acts, 1766
• Affirmed Parliaments right to make policy regarding the colonies
• The other piece of legislation repealed the Stamp Act
• Britain believed it had shown its authority over the colonists while
removing the main objective of protest
• It appeared to colonists that Parliament had embarked on a path of
tyranny
Tyranny
• Colonial politics had moved from the margins to center stage
• The issue of what to do with the colonies would define English
politics for the next decade
• Transformed colonial politics
• Resulted in the creation of groups of Patriots including the Sons of Liberty
An assault on liberty
• Townshend Acts (1767)
• Created new taxes on glass, paint, paper, and tea imported into the
colonies
• Charles Townshend misinterpreted the protests against the Stamp Act
• Believed the colonists were protesting internal taxes rather than external taxes,
such as customs duties
• In reality the colonists were against both
• “Letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania”
• John Dickinson
• Did not believe Parliament had a right to tax at all
An assault on liberty
• Dickinson
• Parliament could regulate trade among different parts of the empire
• Only the people’s representatives could tax to raise revenues
• Response to the Townshend Acts
• Nonimportation movement
•
•
•
•
Organized boycott against the purchase of imported British goods
Women took an active role in the boycott, homespun fabric instead of imported
Tea boycott
“ drinking rye coffee and dining on bear venison”
An assault on liberty
• Women in the colonies were given a chance to express their political
views which was quite radical
• The taxes were only one part of the new political involvement of the
British in the colonies
• Between 1765 and 1768 the British transferred the majority of their
armed forces from the frontier to the seaports along the Eastern coast.
Why there?
• In 1768, seized John Hancock’s ship Liberty
• Thought that he was smuggling goods into Boston but they never found
proof
An assault on liberty
• Symbolic significance of a ship named Liberty
• Bostonians rioted forcing customs officials to leave town
• In response the British send even more troops and warships to the
area
• 1769 there were 4,000 troops in an area with a population of 15,000
• Redcoats
Parliament Wavers
• 1768 colonists had cut British imports by half
• By 1769 the colonists had a trade surplus of 816,000 pounds
• British merchants and business owners petitioned Parliament to
repeal the Townshend duties
• Lord North repealed the duties, lower duties would spur consumption
he argued, but kept the tax on tea
An assault on liberty
• The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770
• A group of citizens taunted a patrol of soldiers and pelted them with
snowballs
• Captain Thomas Preston, called in additional soldiers that were then
attacked
• Some of the soldiers fired on the crowd, killing five civilians
• 3 killed instantly, black sailor named Crispus Attucks, Ropemaker Samuel
Gray, mariner named James Caldwell, and wounding 8 others,
• Two died later ,Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr
Identify the historical
Inaccuracies in Reveres
engraving
John Adams, Boston massacre
• Was a vocal critic of the British but volunteered to defend them
anyway
• What civil liberty was Adams presenting an example of?
• A gifted lawyer he secured acquittals for all but two soldiers
• They were convicted of the lesser crime of manslaughter
• Revere’s engraving was shown to be inaccurate at the trial
John Adams on Boston Massacre Trial
“The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured
me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most
gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life,
and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country.
Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a
Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches,
anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly
right.”
Instructions to Jury
• Justice Trowbridge instructed the jury that "malice is the grand
criterion that distinguishes murder from all other homicides.“
• “Dying declaration”
• Justice Oliver discussed Patrick Carr's dying statement to his
physician: "This Carr was not upon oath, it is true, but you will
determine whether a man just stepping into eternity is not to be
believed, especially in favor of a set of men by whom he had lost his
life."
Outcome
• Captain Preston was acquitted along with 6 of the 8 soldiers
• Why would a jury in Boston acquit these individuals?
• Two soldiers were convicted of murder.
• “benefit of the clergy”
• Sentence was reduced to manslaughter and their thumbs were
branded with “M”
Sovereignty Debated
• Franklin, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams remained the most outspoken
Patriots
• Franklin suggested the colonies were now, “distinct and separate
states”
• Statement outraged Governor Thomas Hutchinson
• Massachusetts assembly responded to Hutchinson
“ There is more reason to dread the consequences of absolute
uncontrolled supreme power, whether of a nation or a monarch, than
those of total independence”
Samuel Adams
• Persuaded at Town Meeting in Boston to set up committee’s of
correspondence to “state the rights of the Colonists of this Province”
• 80 MA towns set up similar committees
• The burning of the customs vessel Gaspee and the threat of arresting
those colonists who did it for trial in Britain led to House of Burgesses
setting up committees of correspondence
• By 1774 only PA lacked a committee
The Tea Act
• The Tea Act of May 1773
• Radical Patriots accussed the British government of bribing the
colonists with lower tea prices
“ The use of (British) tea is considered not as a private but as a public
evil…a handle to introduce a variety of…oppressions amongst us”
• Sons of Liberty prevented tea shipments in New York, Philadelphia,
and Charleston
Tea Party
• “Indians” boarded three ships
• Dartmouth
• Eleanor
• Beaver
• December 16th, 1773
• 342 chests of tea, $900,000 in today’s currency, were thrown into
Boston Harbor
Concessions have made matters
worse…The time has come for
compulsion”
George III, 1773
Coercive Acts/Intolerable Acts
• Four parts to the Coercive Acts
• George Washington proclaimed, “The cause of Boston now is and
ever will be considered as the cause of America”
I am a daughter of liberty, I chuse to
wear as much of our manufactory as
possible
13 year old Anna Green Winslow
Relations remained strained
• Parliament repealed most of the Townshend Acts of 1770 but
relations were still very tense between the colonists and the British
• Colonists continued to demand the traditional rights of Englishment
such as trial by jury
• American protests moved in a new direction
• View that taxation without representation was a violation of fundamental
rights/natural rights
• Resistance was becoming more organized and coordinated, Sons of
Liberty,
Tea prices and taxes
• 1773 Parliament assisted the East India Company
• Many members of Parliament had investments in this company
• Gave the company a monopoly on the tea trade with the colonies
• Lowered the price of tea but kept the tax.
• Tea was very cheap but that was not the point
• Merchants resented the monopoly and it was still taxed
Response to new tea arrangement
• Philadelphia- The Tar and Feathering Committee
• Being tarred and feathered was painful.
• More painful to remove the tar and feathers
The Boston Tea Party
• December 1773
• Bostonians dressed as Indians, boarded a British ship and tossed
over 340 chests of tea overboard
• Many Boston citizens witnessed this event
The Intolerable Acts
• To punish the colonists that were responsible for the vandalism
Parliament passed the Coercive acts known to the colonists as the
Intolerable Acts
• Closed the port of Boston
• Annulled Massachusetts colonial charter
• Dissolved or restricted MA political institutions
• Allowed the British to quarter their troops in private homes
• Which amendment?
The Intolerable acts
• British officials charged with capital crimes would be tried outside the
colonies
• “murder act”
• Colonists were divided
• Some saw the actions at the Tea Party as radicals who were causing
problems
• Others expressed outrage at Parliaments actions that had led to the event
• Most significant was the decision to convene a Continental Congress in
Philadelphia in late 1774
First Continental Congress
• All the colonies except for Georgia sent representatives
• Patrick Henry, John Adams, George Washington
• The congress endorsed the Resolves of Suffolk County,
Massachusetts which denounced the Intolerable Acts
• Said it violated their “rights and liberties”
• Congress recommended that every town and city and county create
a committee to enforce the boycott of British goods
• These committees now had a slight legal status
First Continental Congress
• Patrick Henry urged colonists in 1774 to prepare for the inevitable
conflict that was to come
• Give me liberty or give me death
• Rather than subdue the colonies, British policy only strengthened
the resolve of Americans to defend their rights
Lexington and Concord
• Colonists had come to depend on their own local militias as their
primary means of defense
• The laws of the individual colonies regulated these organizations of
citizen soldiers
• The militia offered more than protection from Indian attacks
• Enforced public order, put down riots, and other civil disturbances
• 1775 Virginia’s George Mason called on the colonists to put their
militias in good order
A well regulated militia, composed of
gentlemen freeholders, and other freeman, is the natural strength and only
stable security of a free government
George Mason, 1775
Lexington and Concord
•
•
•
•
British saw the militias as an obvious military threat
Disarming them became a priority
Their first target was in Massachusetts which was a hotbed of resistance
British dispatched troops to Concord in April 1775 to seize gunpowder
and other military supplies
• Paul Revere was charged with riding from Boston to Lexington and
Concord to warn citizens that British troops were on the march
• Revere was captured by a British patrol in Lexington
Lexington and Concord
• Dr. Samuel Prescott another Sons of Liberty members, received the
message before Revere’s capture so there was warning
• 700 British troops faced 6-70 militiamen
• The militia agreed to disperse but then a shot was fired
• It was not clear who fired the first shot
• The Battle of Lexington marked the first military conflict between
Britain and America
Lexington and Concord
• 8 minutemen killed, 9 wounded, one British soldier injured
• Lasted 15 minutes
• British then continued onto Concord
• Concord weapons arsenal was basically empty
• Brief skirmish with minutemen at North Bridge
• British began to march back to Boston without reinforcements
Lexington and Concord
• 3,000 to 4,000 militiamen had assembled in the meantime
• Hid in the forest, and behind stone fences
• The British column were easy targets and many fell quickly
• Saved only when British reinforcements came from Boston
• Then returned to Boston
• The colonial militia surrounded Boston and held the city under siege
The Virginia militia
•
•
•
•
•
•
British used a stealthier tactic with the Virginia militia
Attacked the weapons arsenal in Williamsburg under cover of darkness
Seized gunpowder and destroyed the firing mechanisms on the muskets
Citizens marched to the royal governors house to protest
As word spread, Patrick Henry rounded up the militia and organized them
Lord Dunmore, governor, threatened to free the slaves and reduce the
city of Williamsburg to ash
• A compromise was worked out
Dunmore’s proclamation
• Offered freedom to any slave who joined the British forces
• Within a month 300 slaves had joined him
• Would reach almost 1,000 in number
• Many noticed the hypocrisy in this matter
The Battle of Bunker Hill
• American forces had dug in at Bunker Hill and nearby Breed’s Hill
• Main fighting actually took place at Breed’s Hill
• The British underestimated the colonists resolve to hold the hill
• British took both hills but at a large cost
• Over 1,000 British lives lost, 400 colonists lost
Lessons learned
• “A dear bought victory, another such would have ruined us.”
• British Officer
• The War would not be quickly won by the British
• The American could “Hold Their Own”
• Even a weaker army can win if they are fighting for a noble cause they believe in
Olive Branch Petition
• Pleaded with George III to abandon the “cruel” policies of his
ministers
• In response the King declared that the colonists were, “in open and
avowed rebellion”
• The Prohibitory Act banned all trade with the 13 colonies
• Combined with Paine’s Common Sense, this resulted in more
colonists moving towards the side of rebellion
The Declaration of Independence
• June 11, 1776 appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration
of independence
• John Adams was the chair of the committee
• Robert Livingston NY, Thomas Jefferson VA, Roger Sherman CT,
Benjamin Franklin PA
• June 28th a draft was presented, a quarter of which was taken out,
revisions made
• July 4, 1776 Congress approved the final text of the Declaration of
Independence
Film Clips
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS-tshQ9sys
Chapter Review Questions
1. How did changes in architecture and home furnishing reflect
Anglicization and the rise of gentility in colonial America?
2. What were the leading Enlightenment ideals, and what was
the significance of America’s role in that movement? In what
ways did the colony of Georgia strive to embody
Enlightenment ideals?
3. How did the experience of slavery differ between the upper
South and the lower South?
4. How did the French and Indian War affect colonial–Indian
relations? What new problems did the British victory create
for the empire?
108 Visions of America, A History of the United States
COMMON SENSE
Thomas Paine
January 10, 1776
Rallying, Influencing,
Motivating.
Thomas Paine
• Born in Great Britain,
January 29, 1737
• Self-taught
• Immigrated to America
1774
• Involved in American
political life
“I offer nothing more
than simple facts,
plain arguments, and
common sense,”
Argued strongly for COMPLETE
American Independence, not just
freedom from British taxation
What was “Common Sense?”
• Revolutionary war pamphlet
• English, 48 pages
• First published anonymously January 10, 1776
• Sold 500,000 copies in first year & 25 editions
• Precursor to the Declaration of Independence, which was written six months
later
How did Common Sense succeed
in inspiring so much revolutionary
feeling?
• Used forceful everyday language, influencing workers
to attack the idea that the British King should rule the
American Colonies
• American independence would be a victory for
humans everywhere
• Words convinced many Americans that the cause of
independence was a just one
• Played a central role in rallying public opinion;
convinced many who were unsure of the purpose of
the war
• ‘The sun never shined on a greater cause of worth, tis not the
concern of a day, a year or an age. Prosperity will be affected, even
to the end of time’
– Paine.
• “There is something very absurd in supposing a
continent to be perpetually governed by an island,”
• “We may as well assert that because a child has
thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat.”
-Paine
Chapter I. ‘Of the Origin and Design of
Government in general, with concise Remarks on
the English Constitution.’
• Introduces idea that there is a difference
between Government and Society
• “Society in every state is a blessing, but
government even in its best state is but a
necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable
one…”
-Paine
Chapter 2 - ‘Of Monarchy and Hereditary
Succession’
• Paine argues that all men are born equal and there
should be no distinction between kings and subjects.
• ‘In England a king hath little more to do than to make
war and give away places; […]A pretty business indeed
for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand
sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain! Of
more worth is one honest man to society and in the
sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever
lived.
-Paine
Chapter 3 - ‘Thoughts on the present
State of American Affairs.’
• Examines hostilities between American Colonies and
Britain
• Argues for independence
• Continental Charter "should come from some
intermediate body between the Congress and the
people… [we must ensure] freedom and property to
all men, and… the free exercise of religion.”
Chapter 4 – ‘On the Present Ability of
America, with some Miscellaneous
Reflections.’,
• Paine's optimistic view of America's military potential.
• “It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies; yet our
present numbers are sufficient to repel the force of all the world”
-Paine
Paine’s PAIN.
• It was absurd for an island to rule a continent.
• America was not a British nation
• Britain the "mother country" should take better care of it’s ‘child’,
the colonies.
• Being a part of Britain would drag America into unnecessary
European wars,
• The distance
• Puritans believed that God wanted to give them a safe haven from
the persecution of British rule.
• Britain ruled the colonies for its own benefit, and would not let the
colonies have a say
Common Sense Succeeds?
• Crucial in turning American opinion against Britain and
was one of the key factors in the colonies' decision to
engage in a battle for complete independence
• Continental congress in 1774 not all convinced that
complete independence was desirable.
• "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the
sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.”
– John Adams
Success again
• December, 1776, New Jersey
• ‘[to] reap the blessings of freedom, [we] must
undergo the fatigue to support it’
• “These are the times that try men’s souls. The
summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this
crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he
that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of
man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily
conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that
the harder the conflict, the more glorious the
triumph.”
-Paine