Causes of the
American
Revolution
1750-1776
Navigation Acts & Mercantilism
 Mercantilism- each nation’s power is measured by its
wealth- to secure wealth, a country needed to maximize
its sale of goods abroad.
 Colonies supply the raw materials and serve as markets for
finished products
 Navigation Acts
 Start in 1651- governed the commerce of the colonies
 Required the trade be carried out only in English boats
 Enumerated list- tobacco, rice, indigo, had to be exported
only to England
 Imports to the colonies had to go through England first
Salutary Neglect
 As long as the colonies continued to send raw materials and
buy the finished products, England would not enforce the
Navigation Acts
 Allowed colonists to develop self government and prosper
economically
 Causes tension when the British start enforcing the Acts after the
French and Indian war in order to make money
 Americans begin smuggling in products to avoid the taxes imposed
by the Navigation Acts
 Writs of Assistance- passed in order to get the colonists to
stop smuggling- they were a search warrant that allowed
British officers to seize illegally imported goods. Allowed them
to enter any ship or building where smuggled goods might be
hidden.
Sugar Act-1764
 Meant to help offset England’s military expenses
 Changed the Molasses Act of 1733
 Taxed foreign molasses and rum
 Said that anyone smuggling rum/molasses would not be
tried by a colonial court, but by a British judge
 American continued smuggling, England lowered the tax to
a penny
 Angered merchants in MA, NY, & PA
Stamp Act Crisis 1765-1766
 England’s national debt continued to rise- Englishmen had
the second-highest tax rates in Europe
 By 1765 English tax rates were 26 shillings per person, but about
0.5 -1.5 shillings per colonist
 Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765- which
forced colonists to buy stamps for newspapers, customs
documents, licenses, college diplomas, playing cards,
legal forms for property/wills
 Was an internal tax, not external, which meant it was levied
directly on property within the colonies so it affected all
colonists, not just merchants/ship captains
 Designed to raise revenue for the King
Stamp Act Crisis 1765-1766
 May 1765- Patrick Henry urged the VA House of Burgesses
to adopt 7 strongly worded resolutions denying
Parliament’s power to tax the colonies
 VA Resolutions
 Only 4 are passed
 Protests erupt throughout the colonies
 Colonists pressured/threatened British tax collectors- forcing
many to resign
 Stamp Act Congress- October 1765
 Nine colonies met in New York City
 Decided that Parliament did not have the authority to tax the
colonies and made an agreement to boycott all British goods
Stamp Act Crisis 1765-1766
 Since the colonists purchased about 40% of England’s
manufactured products, this scared English businessmen,
who convinced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act
 Parliament revokes the Stamp Act in March 1766, but
passes the Declaratory Act, which declared the Parliament
did have the right to tax the colonists
 First time that many colonists began to question their
relationship with England
 Sons of Liberty form in the colonies
Quartering Act 1765
 Ordered colonial legislatures to pay for certain goods
needed by soldiers stationed in their borders
 Angered colonists because it obligated colonial assemblies
to raise money- colonial assemblies thought they were the
only ones who could raise money
Townshend Duties 1767-1770
 Taxed glass, paint, lead, paper and tea
 Colonists responded with a nonimportation agreement
 Limited British imports and mobilized colonists
 Parliament agreed in April 1770 to repeal most of the duties
 Repealed all of the taxes, except the tax on tea
 Colonists were unsure of whether or not to see this as a victory-
continued to voluntarily stop drinking British tea
 Limited revenue of tea to about 1/6th of what was expected
Townshend Duties 1767-1770
 Taxed glass, paint, lead, paper and tea
 Colonists responded with a nonimportation agreement
 Limited British imports and mobilized colonists
 Parliament agreed in April 1770 to repeal most of the duties
 Repealed all of the taxes, except the tax on tea
 Colonists were unsure of whether or not to see this as a victory-
continued to voluntarily stop drinking British tea
 Limited revenue of tea to about 1/6th of what was expected
 Led to more smuggling in the colonies and British tried to
enforce laws
 John Hancock
“Wilkes and Liberty”- 1768-1770
 John Wilkes- member of Parliament who denounced George
III’s policies
 Arrested for libel
 House of Commons denied Wilkes his seat
 Wilkes fled to Paris
 When Wilkes returned in 1768 and ran for Parliament, and was
elected
 He was arrested by the British government
 20,000-40.000 “Wilkesites” gathered outside his prison to protest
 Colonists send him tobacco and money to support him
 Embolden people to speak out against the government and
provided the colonists support for challenging the Parliament
and British government
Boston Massacre 1770
 British sent 4,000 troops to Boston in 1768
 Bostonians saw this as a standing army that threatened their
liberty and was a financial burden
 Boston took on the atmosphere of an occupied city
 Lots of tension
 Soldiers and colonists traded insults
 Many soldiers were Irish Catholic- colonists were protestant
 Soldiers could get jobs while off duty- were willing to work for
less money than colonists
 Tensions flared and ignited on the night of March 5th
Boston Massacre 1770
 What actually happened?
 Read the primary source accounts and decide which view
you agree with and why.
 Summarize what each side says happened.
Story Of Us
 20:00
Committees of Correspondence
1772-1773
 Started in Massachusetts by Sam Adams
 First attempt to maintain close and continuing political
cooperation
 Allowed colonists to consider evidence that their rights were
in danger
 Linked colonial leaders across the colonies by 1773
 First time since stamp act congress
Conflicts in the Backcountry
 Paxton Boys in PA- occurred because Indians were
attacking in the Backcountry of PA and these residents
weren’t receiving equal representation- Franklin reaches a
compromise with them
 Green Mountain Boys- established Vermont after four years
of guerrilla warfare with settlers/government from NY
 Regulator Movement in NC- westerners were trying to get
representation in their colonial assembly; they are
defeated, but the uprising weakened the state, making it
harder for them to resist the British authority
 Regulator Movement in SC- Vigilantes provided justice in
the backcountry because they were not getting help from
the colony’s militia- led to judicial circuits in the
backcountry
 Important because it showed the colonists’ willingness to
resort to violence & desire for land
Tea Act 1773
 Smuggling and nonconsumption hurt the British East India
Company’s profits- the company was close to bankruptcy
 May 1773- Parliament passed the Tea Act
 Actually lowered the price of the tea below the price of all
competition
 Angered many Americans because it would raise revenue,
which would go towards royal governors and colonists were
angry it put a monopoly on the British tea
 Colonists decided not to allow any boats carrying tea into
their harbors
 Boat arrived in Boston
 December 16- 5,000 Bostonians gathered, with 50 dressed as
Indians (showed American identity)- dumped the tea into the
harbor and did not damage anything else
John Adams
 44:57- Mercantilism & Tea Act
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-
d6eNRownI
Intolerable Acts/Coercive Acts- 1774-1765
 Boston Port Bill- Boston Harbor was closed unless the town
paid for the ruined tea within 2 months (April-June)
 Impossible deadline- led to economic trouble
 Massachusetts Government Act- revoked the charter and
took over the government= no longer elected by the
colonists, but the governor and representatives would be
appointed by the crown
 Administration of Justice Act (Murder Act)- any person
charged with murder while enforcing royal authority in MA
would be tried in England or another colony (ex. Boston
Massacre)
 Quartering Act- governor could take over empty private
buildings for housing troops
 Pushed colonists to rebellion- were concerned their liberties
would all be taken away
John Adams
 54:00- Intolerable Acts
 http://www.history.com/topics/stamp-
act/videos#colonists-protest-british-policies
First Continental Congress
 Every colony except Georgia sent delegates to
Philadelphia
 Trying to find a way to defend the colonists’ rights
 Supported the Suffolk Resolves- declared that the colonies
didn’t have to listen to the Coercive Acts, colonial
government should collect taxes, and defensive measures
should be taken if royal troops attack
 Agreed to boycott all British imports and halt almost all
exports to England until they reached an agreement
 Sent a petition to the King- wanted the king to dismiss those
responsible for the Coercive Acts and recognize that
Parliament could not tax the colonies
Lexington & Concord
 April 19, 1775 MA Governor sent 700 British soldiers to take
the military supplies the colonists had stored in Concord
 Paul Revere and William Dawes warned the colonists
 At Lexington about 70 minutemen confronted the soldiers
 Someone fired- but who was it?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ikO6LMxF4
Lexington & Concord
 8 minutemen died
 British went on to Concord, but the minutemen were
waiting to ambush them
 Americans attacked the British all 16 miles back to Boston
 British suffered 273 casualties while the colonists had 92
John Adams
 First continental Congress- explains what the
Congress decided
 Nonimportation agreements
 6:50 Lexington and Concord
Second Continental Congress
 Most still opposed independence
 John Dickinson of PA wrote the Olive Branch Petition with 3
demands
 Cease-fire at Boston
 Repeal the Coercive Acts
 Negotiations to establish American rights
 May 1775 voted to create an American continental army
with George Washington as the commander
 George III received the petition, news of the continental
army, and Bunker Hill (where 1,154 British died)
 George III rejected the petition and in October 1775 declared
that all colonies were in rebellion
3 Groups
 Moderates
 Conservatives
 Radicals
John Adams
 13:00 Second Continental Congress
Declaration of Independence
 Written during the 2nd Continental Congress after
Lexington & Concord
 Thomas Jefferson was chosen as the author
 Declared America independent from England
 Representatives from each colony were in Philadelphia
 Everyone in attendance and everyone who signed the
declaration were considered traitors who committed
treason. They could have been killed if America had lost.
Declaration of Independence
 Influenced by: The ideas of John Locke
 “Enlightenment” thinker- development of new ideas about the
rights of people and their relationship to their rulers.
 John Locke’s ideas, more than any other’s, influenced the
American belief in self-government. Locke wrote the following:
 All people are free, equal, and have “natural rights” of life,
liberty, and property
 All power resides in the people, and they consent to a “social
contract” to form a government to protect their rights. In return,
the people promise to obey the laws established by the
government,
 Government’s powers are limited to those the people have
consented to give to it. Whenever government becomes a threat
to the people’s natural rights, it breaks the contract, and the
people have the right to alter or overthrow it.
Declaration of Independence
 Influenced by: Thomas Paine
 an English immigrant to America
 Wrote Common Sense, which challenged the rule of the
American colonies by the King of England.
 Common Sense was read by many American colonists during
the mid-1700s and led to more people wanting
independence from Great Britain.
Declaration of Independence
 Draft of the Declaration by Thomas Jefferson, reflected the
ideas of Locke and Paine. Jefferson wrote:
 “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness.
 “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed.
 “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it,
and to institute new Government….”
 Jefferson then went on to detail many of the grievances
against the King of England that Paine had earlier described
in Common Sense.
Declaration of Independence
 Key principles of the Declaration of Independence increased
political, social, and economic participation in the American
experience over a period of time.
 Political participation (equality)
 Extending the franchise
 Upholding due process of law
 Providing free public education
 Social participation (liberty)
 Abolishing slavery
 Extending civil rights to women and other groups
 Economic participation (pursuit of happiness)
 Regulating the free enterprise system
 Promoting economic opportunity
 Protecting property rights