Chapter 7
The Road to Revolution,
1763–1775
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Consequences of the French and
Indian War
•
•
•
•
Colonial self-esteem raised
Colonists received military experience
British no longer seemed invincible
Tensions developed between British officers
and colonists. Colonists were looked upon
with contempt
• British officials were upset that colonists did
not fully support the common cause
• War did encourage some colonial unity
• French and Spanish threat to the colonies
was eliminated/reduced
• Native Americans lost the ability to play off
the European powers against each other
• Colonists had a new sense of destiny as a
growing people with a continent open
before them
Ways to Think about the “Revolution”
• The War for Independence (1775-1783)
• The period from 1763 to 1783
• The period from 1763 to the writing of the
Constitution
• What about the period 1754-1800?
Some Themes
• Home rule and who would rule at home
• The Revolution as a conservative movement
(protecting existing liberties and rights and
maintaining the existing social structure/way of
life)
• The Revolution as a radical democratic movement
from below (colonial elites sought to harness a
movement that potentially threatened their rule
as well as that of England)
More Themes
• Tensions between western settlers and
established east coast elite
– Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)- Virginia
– Paxton Boys (1763-1764)- Pennsylvania
– Regulator Movement (1765-1771)- N. Carolina
• Taxation
– Regulation of trade v. raising revenue
– Direct v. virtual representation
Historiography
•
•
•
•
Progressive
Consensus
Neo-progressive
Gordon Wood
Progressive
• Charles Beard An Economic Interpretation of
the Constitution of the United States,
published in 1913
– economic interests were at the heart of the
revolution
Conservative
• consensus around shared values (such as
republicanism); emphasizes the conservative
nature of the Revolution
Ideological basis for revolution
•
Bernard Bailyn The Ideological Origins of
the American Revolution (1967)
Neo-progressive
• Gary Nash The Urban Crucible
– socio-economic conditions resulted in the political
radicalization of the urban lower working classes
• Gordon Wood The Creation of the American
Republic, 1776-1787
– -Americans developed an entirely new conception
of politics that was the product of a democratic
society. This was an evolving concept that could
be continuously refined and improved. (It was a
genuinely radical event, which led to the
breakdown of such long-standing patterns of
society as deference, patriarchy, and traditional
gender relations. Class conflict and radical goals
may not have caused the Revolution; but the
Revolution had a profound, even radical,
ideological impact on society nevertheless.)
Proclamation of 1763
• Passed after Pontiac’s Rebellion
• Attempt to stabilize frontier and prevent
further hostilities between Indians and
colonists
• Prevented colonial expansion west of the
Appalachians
• Colonists were angered and basically ignored
it
Mercantilism
• 17th and 18th centuries
• Trade, colonies and the accumulation of
wealth as the basis for a country’s power
• During 17th century, Navigation Acts were only
loosely enforces (period of salutary neglect)
• This changes after the French and Indian War
Action and Reaction
• Britain wanted colonies to contribute to costs
of protecting the empire
• 1764 Sugar Act
• Quartering Act (1765)
– (more British soldiers are stationed in the colonies
after the French and Indian War)
Stamp Act
• 1765
• Revenue stamps required to be place on most printed
paper
• To be paid directly by the people who used the goods
• Colonists believed their rights (including the right not
to be taxed without representation) were being
threatened
• Nine colonies sent delegates to Stamp Act Congress
• Sons and Daughters of Liberty formed
• Boycotts were used effectively
p118
• 1766 Stamp Act repealed but Parliament
passed the Declaratory Act which asserted its
right to tax and make laws for the colonies “in
all cases whatsoever.”
• 1767 Townshend Acts
– Duties on tea, glass, and paper
– Paid to crown officials (so they would no longer be
dependent upon colonial assemblies)
– NY’s assembly suspended for defiance of the
Quartering Act
• Repealed 1770
Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania
John Dickinson
• But whoever seriously considers the matter, must
perceive that a dreadful stroke is aimed at the
liberty of these colonies. I say, of these colonies;
for the cause of one is the cause of all. If the
parliament may lawfully deprive New York of any
of her rights, it may deprive any, or all the other
colonies of their rights; and nothing can possibly
so much encourage such attempts, as a mutual
inattention to the interests of each other. To
divide, and thus to destroy, is the first political
maxim in attacking those, who are powerful by
their union.
Boston Massacre
• March 1770
• British soldiers in Boston to protect customs
officials
• 5 killed
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p119
Boston Tea Party
• England maintained a small tax on tea
• 1773 British East India Company given a
monopoly (tea was still cheaper)
• December- dumped tea into the Boston
harbor
p121
Intolerable Acts
• 1774
• Response to the Boston Tea Party
• Coercive Acts
– Port of Boston closed
– Massachusetts legislature limited
– Royal officials accuse of crimes could be tried in Great
Britain
– Quartering Act expanded to all colonies
• Quebec Act (made Catholicism the official
religion in Canada and extended its borders to
the Ohio River)
Map 7-1 p123
Rights and Liberties
What are the rights and liberties that the
colonists feel are being infringed upon?
Declaration and Resolves
• Issued by the First Continental Congress
• October 14, 1774
• July 1775, Congress adopted Olive Branch
Petition:
– professed loyalty to crown and begged king to
prevent further hostilities
• King George III slammed door on all hope of
reconciliation:
– August 1775 he proclaimed colonies in rebellion
– skirmishes were now treason, a hanging crime
• Loyalty to the empire was deeply ingrained:
– Americans continued to believe they were part of
a transatlantic community
– Colonial unity was weak
– Open rebellion was dangerous
– As late as January 1776, the king’s health was
being toasted—“God save the king”
• Gradually colonists were shocked into
recognizing necessity to separate.