The American Revolution
Debts, Taxation, and
Misunderstanding lead to war and
independence
American Heroes: 1763
Victory and the treaty of Paris meant?
• Peace? An end to French intrusion in the
colonies.
• Prosperity in commerce with England/
• Protestant unity
Consequences
• Pontiacs Rebellion (see
500 Nations)
• Washington becomes a
hero
• Indians lose big in the
treaty…they are not
included in the treaty,
resolved a bit by the
Proclamation of 1763,
but the encroachment of
their lands will continue.
Consequences
• Proclamation of 1763
Consequences
• France loses all
claims to lands East
of the Mississippi,
gives land West of
the Mississippi to the
Spanish for their
contributions to the
war.
Impact of Pontiac’s Rebellion
• The incredible assault by the Odawa
illustrated that the British had to keep an
army in North America.
War Debts
• Britain accumulated
130,000,000 in war
debts.
• An annual budget of
250,000 to maintain a
military presence in
colonies.
The Sugar Act
• Lowered the tax (duty)
on sugar by ½.
• Colonial tax burden?
1:26
• Set up special courts
for smugglers.
• Response? Led by
Samuel Adams—non
importation.
The Stamp Act
• Nature of discontent?
• The Law?
Virtual Representation
• “the right of
exemption from all
taxes without their
consent…would
deprive them of every
privilege distinguishing
freemen from slaves.
The Protest
• Stamp Act Congres
• Harassment: Andrew
Oliver and Thomas
Hutchinson
• Key components of
protest: restating of
civil rights and nonimportation.
The Virginia Resolves
• The resolves claimed
that Virginia was an
independent realm of
the British Crown,
subject to taxation
only by its colonial
assembly and not by
Parliament.
“The Repeal”
The Declaratory Act
• The Declaratory Act
asserted Britain's
exclusive right to
legislate for and tax its
colonies
External v. Internal Taxes
• Colonists tended not to mind “external
taxes” such as the Molasses Act.
• These were meant to regulate trade.
• Internal or “direct” taxes were much more
contemptible to the colonists. They were
designed not to regulate trade, but to raise
revenue.
Townshend Acts: 1768
• Revenue Act: a duty placed on items such as
tea, lead, paper, and barrels.
• Townshend’s view on taxes
• Taxation and the salary of governors…a key
component.
• NY Suspending Act
Response to the Townshend Acts
• Daughters of Liberty (Daughters of the
American Revolution)
• Samuel Adams Circular Letter
• Non-Importation (40% dip in already strained
British commerce)
• Townshend Acts Repealed.
John Dickinson
• Letters from a farmer in
Pennsylvania
• “an imposition on the
subject for the sole purpose
of levying money.”
• Opposed to independence:
• “torn from the body to
which we are
united…where shall we
find another Britain to
support us”
3/5/1770: Joy and Sorrow
• The Townshend Acts
Repealed
• Boston Massacre
• Ended a period of calm
Eyewitness Account
• "A number of persons, to the amount of thirty or
forty, mostly boys and youngsters, who assembled ...
near the sentry at the Custom-house door, damned
him, and bid him fire and be damned; and some
snow ball were throwed ... I saw a party of soldiers
come from the main guard, and draw themselves up
... the people still continued in the street, crying,
'Fire, fire, and be damned,' and hove some more
snow balls, whereupon I heard a musket go off, and
in the space of two or three seconds, I heard the
word 'fire' given ... and instantly the soldiers fired
one after another."
Tea Act of 1773
• Changes in the tea
policy.
• Dutch smuggling
• Cheaper yet better tea!
• Goal to sell 17,000,000 lbs of tea in the colonies at a
discount.
• Taxes within England were refunded at the expense of the
colonies.
• NO COLONIAL SALESMAN—all done by representatives of
the British East India Company.
Boston Tea Party:
Response: The Coercive Acts
• Boston Port Act: prohibited the loading or
unloading of ships in the port of Boston after June
1 and until the town had paid for the tea.
• Massachusetts Government Act: abolished the
charter of 1691 and restored it to English control.
• Administration of Justice Act: treasonous criminals
tried in England not the colonies.
• Quartering Act: permitted British troops to be
quartered with towns throughout the entire
colonies.
Goal?
• Divide the colonies and
punish
Massachusetts…crush
any remnants of revolt.
• Result: Colonies bound
together.
First Continental Congress
• Coordinating event
that saw 12/13 (Ga.)
colonies meet in
Philadelphia. Their
powers were limited,
but it was unified.
• Boycott
• Continental
Association
• Committees of
Correspondence
Goal of the 1st CC?
• “We ask for only for peace, liberty, and
security. We wish no diminution of royal
prerogatives, we demand no new rights.”
• Purpose: coordinate the colonists opposition to the
Coercive Acts.
• Any response such as non-importation would be
conducted everywhere.
• Sought reconciliation minus taxation.
Suffolk Resolves
• Delivered to the 1st CC
by Paul Revere.
• Encouraged people to
not pay taxes, disobey
the coercive acts, elect
militia officials and
train for war.
Final Steps Towards War
• Neither the King nor Parliament willing to
back down.
• When the colonists submitted their petition
to address Parliament on grievances they
voted no 218-68
• Referring to them as “unruly children” and
“rude rabble”
King George III
• “The New England
Governments are in
rebellion, blows must
decide whether they
are to be subject to
this country or
independent”. King
George III
The Battles
• Lexington and
Concord-response to
the British occupation
of Boston (since 1768)
– Gage’s goal was to
remove ammunitions
from local patriots. His
wife foiled the plan by
alerting the Patriots.
Revere’s Ride
• Colonists had been on high
alert of a possible British
plot, alarm and messenger
systems were established
were designed to alert
leaders like Adams, and
Hancock of any changes.
The most famous was
Revere’s Ride.
The Casualties…
• Initially the British urged minutemen to
disperse. Then a shot was fired, eight
Patriots died in the ensuing battle. The
British proceeded on to Concord to find the
munitions. Finding nothing, they moved
back to Boston…guerilla fighting having
broken out along the entire route, killing 273
British.
Slavery and the Rebellion
• 1775 Lord Dunmore of
Virginia offered
amnesty to all slaves if
they assisted the
British in putting down
the local rebellion.
Bunker Hill
• Bunker Hill: costly British Victory. Colonist
gain confidence.
• “it was a dear bought victory another would
have ruined us.”
• Chose not to pursue the Americans
Dual Roles of the 2nd CC
• Pursue Peace: Olive
Branch Petition
• Pursue War:
Declaration of
Independence, Cont.
Army
• This contradiction
made this first
government of this
country most difficult.
Perspectives
• Most of the delegates who attended the Second
Continental Congress were not yet prepared for a
total break with England.
• Most eager for independence were the
Massachusetts men, whose colony had been
stripped of civil government by the Coercive Acts.
• Delegates from the middle and southern colonies
were more inclined toward reconciliation, fearing
that fighting for independence would disrupt
trade, create civil unrest, and leave the colonies
vulnerable to enemies like France and Spain.
Thomas Paine
• The most clear case for Independence came
from Paine. Many Americans “wavered”.
• Document sold 150,000 copies in a matter of
weeks.
Declaration of Independence
• By early July spurred
on by Paine’s appeal
for common sense,
calls were being made
for Independence. By
July only New York a
loyalist hotbed
remained outside the
other colonies.
Tale of the Tape: Americans
• The American forces had the advantage of
being highly motivated to fight and
theoretically could mobilize considerable
manpower. Cause, patriotism…
• However, Americans traditionally had relied
on militia, which were good for limited
engagements but not for long wars
requiring military campaigns far from home
Role of Women?
• Over the course of the war, some 231,000
men spent time in military service,
amounting to roughly one-quarter of the
white male population over age sixteen.
Close to 20,000 women served in the
Continental army as cooks, washerwomen,
and nurses.
Key Battles
• British retreated from Boston in 1776 taking
the fight to the Middle States.
• Defeat in New York: Washington suffers
defeat by the Howe brothers as he is
outnumbered and late arriving.
Victories come slowly
• On December 26th,
Washington's Army
crossed the Delaware and
surprised the British at
Trenton. The main attack
was made by 2,400 troops
under Washington on the
Hessian Garrison.
• Washington's troops
achieved total surprise and
defeated the British forces.
The American victory was
the first of the war, and
helped to restore
American morale.
Victory at Princeton
• Gen. Howe responded to the fall
of Trenton by sending 5,550
troops south from New York
through Princeton toward
Trenton.. Cornwalis found Gen.
Washington's troops along the
ridge of the Assunpink Creek, and
decided to wait until the next day
to attack. Overnight, Washington
moved his troops out of Trenton
and into Princeton to the north. A
desperate fight ensued in
Princeton, in which the Americans
almost lost.
• Washington's timely arrival on
horseback, however, served to
rally the Americans, and the
Colonial army defeated
Mawhood's troops, forcing them
to retreat to Trenton
Defeat in Philadelphia
• Washington suffers
staggering losses
(15,000 down to 6,000
through death and
dessertion).
• Brandywine Creek
• Huge loss for the
colonists.
• The Continental
Congress forced to flee
(first of several flees).
Victory at Saratoga
Turning Point
• The surrender at Saratoga dramatically
changed Britain's war strategy. From that
time on, the British generally kept their
troops along the coast, close to the big guns
and supply bases of the British fleet
• France enters war against Britain after this
huge victory.
Valley Forge
• During the winter after
Saratoga (1777-78), spirits ran
high, but finances and
supplies ran perilously low.
Washington's army at Valley
Forge witnessed some of the
worst privations of the entire
war due to corrupt suppliers
and greedy farmers, who
preferred to sell grain to the
British—who could pay in
hard currency—rather than to
their own army.
Foreigners lend a hand
• Friedrich von Steuben
• Marquis de Lafayette
A Revolution of equality?
• Women served in the army
• Blacks served to the tune of 5,000 in the
north.
• Commoners, merchants, and wealthy
participated.
• The American dream of equality had been
born.
Real American Strategy?
• Keep the British in long enough to promote
unrest and discontent with the economics at
home…they’ll eventually leave.
• Sound familiar?
The British Strategy
• Britain's objective was not so straightforward: to
restore loyalist regimes to power in the colonies
while not destroying the enemy completely.
• Counting on substantial pockets of loyalist support
in the Carolinas and the middle colonies, the British
assumed this goal would not be too difficult to
achieve. They initially focused their military
campaigns on New York, Pennsylvania, and New
Jersey.
• Strategically, the overall British plan was to divide
and conquer—to separate the rebellious colonies
from those believed to be still loyal.
The War at Home: Patriots and
Loyalists
• Between 20 and 30 percent of the American population
remained loyal to the British monarchy in 1776. Their
motivations varied. Some were royal officeholders;
others were merchants whose businesses were linked to
the imperial system; still others were cultural, ethnic
(most notably Native Americans and African slaves), and
religious groups that had no reason to believe they
would fare better under an independent American
government than they had under the British. Loyalist
strongholds thus could be found everywhere, although
the largest pockets were in the middle colonies and in
the South.
The Plight of Loyalists
• Who Is a Traitor?
In June 1775, the First Continental Congress passed
a resolution declaring loyalists to be traitors.
• Over the course of the war, hounded by patriots in
their communities and harassed by legislative and
judicial actions, many loyalists found their position
intolerable. Thousands of loyalists eventually fled
the country, seeking sanctuary in England or
Canada.
Paying for the war?
• One of the nation's biggest problems was finding ways to
finance the war.
• The Continental Congress printed money, but its value
fell rapidly.
• One way to pay for the war was through borrowing hard
money from wealthy men, who were given certificates of
debt in return.
• Congress also resorted to paying soldiers with promises
of land.
• In vain, the congress tried to stem the inflationary spiral
by instituting price controls.
Southern Strategy
• The British shifted their efforts to the south
for a number of reasons.
• Loyalist sentiment was considered to be
strongest in the southern colonies, and
planters' nervousness about the war's
impact on trade and their slave populations
meant that they might be more amenable to
coming over to the British side.
• British suffered key losses such as at
Cowpens.
Yorktown
• In 1781, the British general Cornwallis moved into North
Carolina, hoping to prevent the colony from providing
patriot guerrillas in South Carolina with arms and men.
Although he was not successful, he decided to move into
Virginia, capturing Williamsburg and Charlottesville and
ultimately making his way to Yorktown. The fortunes of war
turned in the rebels' favor with the arrival of the French
navy. While French ships sealed off any retreat by sea,
Washington surrounded Cornwallis on land. After a short
siege, Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.
Winners and Losers
• Although the surrender at Yorktown marked the
official end of the war, it would be two more years
before a peace treaty was signed. It took time for
both sides to acknowledge that the end finally had
arrived, and neither wanted to withdraw from the
field until the other side had as well.
Results
American Gains
Losers
• The American diplomats
Benjamin Franklin, John
Adams, and John Jay, who
negotiated the peace
treaty, secured favorable
terms: official recognition
of American independence
and of the United States
and transfer of all territory
east of the Mississippi
River, between Canada
and Florida, to the new
nation.
• Native Americans and
their effort goes
unrecognized. Their
lands are now up for
siege by the colonists.
• Britain lost their colonial
holdings in North America
(not Canada)
•With the treaty finally signed, the
British began their evacuation of New
York—in New York City, more than
27,000 soldiers and 30,000 loyalists
sailed on hundreds of ships for England
in late fall 1783.
Why England Lost?
• Many factors contributed to the British defeat. It
was hard for the British to supply their army,
especially since they did not want to ravage the
countryside.
• At the same time, the British failed to back the
loyalists and use their energies effectively.
• The French alliance and military support
throughout were crucial to the American victory.
Finally, after abdicating civil power in the colonies
in 1775 and 1776, the British were never able to
regain it.