Road to Revolution
1763-1775
“Insurrection of thought usually precedes insurrection of deed”
Deep Roots of the Revolution
• Leaving the Old World
was in a sense
rebellion
• Surviving the
traumatic trip across
the ocean increased
the feelings of
separateness from the
Old World
Separation breeds contempt
• Colonists realized that England
was a weak authority at best
with 3,000 miles between the
two
• Overtime, a common belief
emerged among the colonists:
Th New World had changed
them fundamentally …NO
Britain could understand
what they needed and
certainly could not tell them
what to do… eventually, they
stopped being British and
became Americans
Mercantile Theory
• Idea that wealth was
power and that a country’s
economic wealth, military
and political power could
be determined by the
amount of gold or silver in
it treasury
• This idea shaped the
policies of all the major
nations of Europe from the
16th to the 18th centuries
Colonial Merchant Ship
Justification
• Theory justified for
Britain why they
controlled the colonies
• In order to amass more
gold and silver, a country
needed to export more
than it imported
• Colonies provided the
perfect means for
countries to import less
raw materials and
provided a ready made
market for British exports
Motherland
• Colonies provide the
motherland with more
wealth and raw materials
• Britain looked upon
American colonists as
tenants who were to be:
– consumers and providers of
raw materials
– loyal to the monarchy and
parliament
– certainly not thinking about
rebelling against the
motherland
Colonial Responsibilities to England
British Naval
Officer
British Tea
Tobacco
• 1. Americans were expected
to keep the British naval
supreme by supplying ships,
ship stores, sailors, and trade
• 2. They were discouraged
from buying anything but
British goods
• 3. They were to continue
growing money crops like
tobacco and sugar so that
England would not have to
import these products from
foreigners
Britain keeps the colonies in line
• Parliament passes a lot of
laws to make sure colonies
lived by the mercantilist
system
• 1. Navigation Lawsrestricted commerce to and
from the colonies to
English vessels
ONLY…this way no
Colonial Port of Charles Town
foreign countries would get
a piece of the money pie
More laws for the colonies
Popular Beaver Fur Hats
• Tobacco had to be sold in
England even though
colonists could find
foreign countries willing
to pay more
• Colonists were restricted
by what they could
produce so they would not
be in direct competition
with England who was
already producing that
product ( I.e. beaver hats,
woolen cloth)
More laws…
• No banks in the colonies
so hard currency (gold,
silver) was rare
• Currency often ran out and
colonists were forced to
barter for day to day items
• Butter, nails, pitch and
feathers were often used
as barter (exchanges)
when currency was gone
• When colonies printed
paper money, British
merchants often refused it
and so the money became
worthless
Paper Money Woes
• Parliament enacted laws
that prevented the colonies
from printing more money
and hindering their ability
to declare bankruptcy to
protect British merchants
• Colonist again felt they
were sacrificed by a
Parliament who knew
nothing about what they
needed
“Royal Veto”
• If the colonies tried to
pass something that
interfered with the great
British money machine,
royal advisors in the
colonies would declare
the same “null and void”
• Colonists resented the
intrusions, and felt
misrepresented
Benning Wentworth, the first Royal
Governor of New Hampshire, and he was
Governor for 26 years (1741-1767).
Curbing Slavery
• When colonies wanted to
curb (slow) the growth of
slavery, Britain forbid
their actions because it
went against the best
(money) interests of
England
• Merchants in England did
not want to compete with
American merchants
making the same products
so colonists were
forbidden from making
that product
Reality of Mercantilism
• A bunch of laws that colonists
IGNORED
• Yeah, you heard me..Ignored!
• Called “salutary neglect” or lax
enforcement
• Colonists learned early to
ignore, disregard, or evade
these British laws and
restrictions
• Smuggling was so prevalent
that one famous signer of the
Declaration, John Hancock,
made his fortune from
smuggling
Colonists made a lot of money
• Yeah, they did!
• Mercantilist policies
protected and promised
huge monetary rewards
for colonists who would
support the British navy
with supplies while
denying foreign
competition any piece of
the pie
• A case of, “there is a job
waiting for you whether
you want it or not”
Tobacco is still a money crop
• Though denied the selling
the plant to foreign
countries, tobacco planters
were guaranteed a
monopoly on the British
market
• No other tobacco would
be sold in England…it
was outlawed in England
and Ireland
Privileges of being “British Babies”
Shoemaker
Paul Revere,
silversmith
• Colonies did not have to provide
or pay for a standing army from
protection…colonial militias
were to be a backup for the REAL
army, the REDCOATS
• They were allowed a fair amount
of self government…within
reason
• Though denied certain
manufacture of products, there
were plenty of others that would
ensure a nice colonial profit
• “prosperity trickles down” as
long as Britain was making
money so were the colonists!
So What Was the Big Deal Then?
OR
How Mercantilists Policies Hurt
the Colonies
Stifling Economic Initiative
• Americans were not at
liberty to buy, sell, ship, or
manufacture under
conditions that were most
profitable to them
• After 1763 mercantilist
laws were strictly
enforced, prompting many
colonials who were just
annoyed to become
downright belligerent
towards the motherland!
Virginia
• Price of tobacco
plummets in England,
forcing many planters
to mortgage future
crops just to buy
necessities..remember
they were forbidden
from selling to other
countries
New England
• Proud, industrious
people felt that Britain
had out stayed their
welcome
• They wanted to end
the “economic
bondage” to England
We’re just cows
• Mercantilism treated the
colonies like a commodity
rather than recognizing
that people lived there
• Many felt they were being
“used, or milked, as cows
are milked” by England
• Humiliation was felt by
more and more colonists
“Revolution broke out because
England failed to recognize an
emerging nation when it saw
one”
Theodore Roosevelt
Someone has to pay!
• After the costly Seven
Year’s War, Britain had to
redefine it’s relationship
with the colonies
• Britain asked the colonies
to pay for 1/3 of the cost
for maintaining British
troops of 10,000 redcoats
in America
• Significance? …It was a
revolution in colonial
policy that came before
the revolution for
independence
Prime Minister George Grenville
• Ordered the British navy
to strictly enforce the
Navigation Laws that for
so long had just been
words on paper
• Sugar Act of 1764 –
increased the amount of
tax colonists had to pay
for sugar…it was later
reduced b/c of intense
colonial protest
• Quartering Act of 1765required certain colonies
to provide food and shelter
for British troops
Stamp Tax
• Grenville ordered this tax
in 1765
• A stamp became necessary
on all documents
• This certified that the
possessor of the document
had paid the tax
• Examples: bill of sales
(receipts), newspapers,
pamphlets, marriage
licenses, playing cards,
etc.
Stamp, 1765
Grenville, the Just
• Grenville felt that it was
only the colonists duty to
help defray the cost of
maintaining the colonies
• These taxes were only
doing that and nothing
else
• In fact, the average
Englishmen was paying
three times that amount in
taxes so what were the
colonists so mad about?
Home Grown Liberties Challenged
• The new taxes placed a
heavier economic burden
on the colonies than they
had ever endured
• More importantly, it
challenged the long held
liberties that the colonists
had “grown” while
Britain looked the other
way
Defiant Colonists
• Colonists who refused to
comply with the Sugar or Stamp
Act were tried in a court
– without a jury
– Responsible for defending
themselves
– Guilty then had to prove
themselves innocent
This was especially trying to the
colonists b/c it went against every
thing held dear by BOTH colonists
and Englishmen who held with
honor the concept of “innocent
until proven guilty”
Colonial Response to Grenville,
the Taxer
Open Defiance
• Some colonies
defiantly refused to
comply with the
Quartering Act
• Others would vote for
only a portion of the
supplies necessary to
purposely jeopardize
the troops
Why do we need the Redcoats?
• Colonists began to
question the necessity of a
standing army in
America…the war with
France was done so why?
• Some colonists began to
believe that the Redcoats
remained behind b/c
England was getting ready
to use force on the
increasingly belligerent
colonies
• This belief fed the already
paranoid colonial
population
“NO Taxation Without
Representation”
• The obvious scapegoat for
colonial tensions was the
hated Stamp Act
• England was stunned
when colonists reminded
them that a 100 years
earlier England had waged
a Puritan revolution on the
theories of popular
government so why
couldn’t they?
Parliamentary Rights
• Colonists agreed that
Parliament could legislate
matters for the WHOLE
British empire but when it
came to singling out the
Americans then there
better be representation in
parliament by those same
Americans …at the time
there was no American
representation in
Parliament
• Colonists likened the
British to pirates
Britain laughed
• Grenville, shook his head
at those naïve colonists
• He insisted that the
colonists were represented
under “virtual
representation”… every
member of Parliament
represented all of Britain’s
subjects even if they had
never voted for that
Parliament
Truth Be Told
• Even if Britain had offered the
colonies direct representation
in Parliament they would of
turned it down
• They would never have enough
representation in Parliament to
do well by the colonies
• They needed taxation without
representation because it
helped the colonies deny the
authority of Parliament
altogether…leading to their
own revolution for political
independence
Stamp Act Congress
• 1765
• Members drew up a
statement of their rights and
grievances and sent to the
King
• England laughed and ignored
the document
• Significance: it brought
together colonists who
otherwise would have
remained sectionalized and
dispersed…it was “one more
step toward intercolonial
unity”
Nonimportation Agreements
• Colonists banded together
and refused to import
British products…in other
words a colonial boycott
• Women had spinning bees
and made homespun
clothing rather than buy
British products
• Significance: ordinary
men and women
participated in protests
spreading revolutionary
fervor
Sons of Liberty and Daughters of
Liberty
• Sometimes violent
• Took the law into their
own hands
• Rallying cry “Liberty,
Property, and No Stamps”
• Tar and feathered other
colonists who weren’t
patriotic
• Ransacked homes of
unpopular officials ,
hanged effigies of stamp
agents on liberty poles
Repeal of the Stamp Act
• The Stamp Act dies
• Stamp Agents had all been
forced to resign and no
one would sell the stamps
• Parliament repealed the
act 1766 when
nonimportation put British
laborers out of work
• Parliament does have the
last word though
Declaratory Act
• Proclaimed that
Parliament had the right to
“bind” the colonies in “all
cases whatsoever”
• In other words… “don’t
forget we are the ones in
charge”
• Significance: the repeal of
the Stamp Act and the
whiney Declaratory Act
illustrated that the
colonies could manipulate
England with protests and
mob action!
“Champagne Charley”
Townshend
• Promised he could squeeze
money from the unruly
colonists with minimal fuss
• He persuaded Parliament to
pass the Townshend Acts (1767)
• It tried to skirt the issue of
taxation by passing a small
import duty on British products
like glass, white lead, paper,
paint, and tea…payable at the
port and by the colonial
merchants who would then pass
on the increase in the price
Tea and more tea
• The impost on tea was the
most frustrating
• 1 million colonists drank
tea at least twice a day and
when alcohol could not be
found
• Also irritating was that the
Townshend revenues
would be used to pay for
the salaries of royal
governors and judges
Smuggled tea
• Non importation
agreements were not as
effective as many
colonials were still
purchasing tea though it
was smuggled tea
especially in
Massachusetts
• British officials humiliated
by the lack of law abiding
colonists brought in the
redcoats to Boston
Boston Massacre
• March 5, 1770
• 60 townspeople surrounded a
British quad of 10
• Words exchanged along with
hitting and shoving
• No order given but shots fired
into the crowd by the Redcoats
left 11 colonials dead or
wounded
• Crispus Attucks , a runaway
mulatto was the first to die
• Soldiers later represented by
John Adams where two were
found guilty of manslaughter
and branded on the hand
Samuel Adams
• cousin of John Adams
• Not a speaker, but a
skilled writer
• “Penman of the
Revolution”
• Founder of the
seditious committees
of correspondence
Committees of Correspondence
• Chief functions
– Spread propaganda
– Inform colonists through
letter writing
– Keep alive anti-British
feeling among the colonists
– Started at a local level, later
became intercolonial as
colonies exchanged
information with each other
– Significance-inspired united
action and evolved directly
into the first American
congresses!
Boston Tea Party
• British East India Company on
the verge of bankruptcy
promised a complete monopoly
of the colonies by Parliament
• Tea was cheaper than ever
before but still taxed
• Principle was far more
important than the beloved tea
so…
• Marylanders burned the cargo
• Bostonians threw it over board
• Not a single chest of tea reached
colonial teapots
Result of the Tea Party
• Extremists loved it
• Conservatives protested
• British outraged
– punishment and the use of
force were now the only
ways left to them
- 1774: “Repressive Acts” or
“Intolerable Acts”
- Colonists called them “the
massacre of American
Liberty”
Intolerable Acts
• Boston Port Act: closed
the harbor until damages
paid and order restored
• Chartered rights of
Massachusetts dissolved
• Restrictions placed on the
town meetings
• British officials who killed
colonists would be sent to
England for trial rather
than stay in the
colonies…leading to the
belief they would be let
free
Quebec Act
• Determined how England
would rule the 60,000
conquered French in
Canada
– Retained their Catholic
religion
– Retain old customs and
traditions
– No representative
government, or trial by
juries
– Boundary extended all the
way to the Ohio River
Frenchmen were thrilled with
the Act…duh, they got most
everything back
Colonial Response to Quebec Act
• Seemed a dangerous
precedent in America
against jury trials and
popular assemblies
• Alarmed land speculators
who now had no Ohio
Valley to make a profit off
of
• Aroused the anti-Catholics
in a region that had been
earmarked for the last 100
years as Protestant
Continental Congress 1774
• Meet for the first time to
consider ways of redressing
colonial grievances
• 12 of the 13 colonies
participated (Georgia absent)
• 55 men showed up
• Debated for 7 weeks
• Not a legislative body but a
consulting body
• John Adams, eloquent leader
• Drew up the Declaration of
Rights
The Association
• Invention of the
Continental Congress
• Called for the complete
boycott of British goods:
no importing, no
exporting, and no buying
of British goods
• This document called the
The Association was the
closest thing to a
constitution that the
colonies had ever in unity
produced
• Colonists were still
seeking a redress of
wrongs rather than a war
British Response
• Petitions of the
Continental Congress
were rejected by
Parliament
• Meanwhile, patriots were
tarring and feathering
those who didn’t follow
the Association and
openly gathering arms and
drilling in the militias
Lexington and Concord
• British commander in Boston
sent to seize the stores of
colonial gunpowder and rebel
leaders, Samuel Adams and
John Hancock met resistance
• Firing upon Minute Men who
would not leave fast enough,
they killed 8
• Word reached Concord before
the Redcoats showed up, a
prepared militia wounded
hundreds and killed 70 British
• A war had begun!
British Weakness
• George III and Lord North,
inept leaders
• Busy in Ireland
• Many Britons had no desire to
kill their American cousins
• Generals second rate
• Brutal treatment of soldiers
• Supplies iffy- on one occasion a
supply of biscuits from 15 years
earlier was “softened” by
dropping a cannonball
• America is too vast even for the
world’s most powerful army
American Strengths
Marquis de Lafayette
• Outstanding leadership:
George Washington, Ben
Franklin
• Foreign Aid from France
• “Swords for hire”Marquis de Lafayette
• Agriculturally, colonies
self-sustaining
• Frontiersman proved to be
excellent marksmen
• Moral advantage: they
believed that what they
were doing was just and
right!
American Weaknesses
• Badly organized
• Continental Congress was more a
debate team than a governing
force
• Individual states refused the right
of the Continental Congress to tell
them what to do
• Sectional jealousy over who
received the military
appointments
• Currency is nowhere to be found
in large amounts
• “Continental” paper money too
much printed so it became
worthless, leading to inflation and
prices rose dramatically
Weaknesses continued
• Basic military supplies
scarce
• Franklin even proposed
using bow and arrows
• Even with plenty of food,
there were not enough
wagons to haul it hence
the disaster of Valley
Forge where 2,800 patriots
nearly starved and froze to
death because supplies
could not reach them
Weaknesses (more)
• Militiamen numerous, but
unreliable…not unusual for men
to leave to go back to families
or crops
• Poor military training
• British promised freedom to
black slaves willing to serve in
the British Army and many did
• American profiteers: sold to
British for the gold currency
– hid their activities well but
destroyed American morale as
American troops went without
shoes and they made a profit
selling shoes to British soldiers