THE CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
THE CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
For much of the 18th century, the western
frontier of British No. America was the
flashpoint of imperial rivalries.
The Ohio Valley was caught in a complex
struggle for power involving the French,
British, and rival Indian communities, and
settlers and land companies pursuing their
own interests.
THE CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
 Here by mid-century
resided numerous Indians
– Shawnee and Delaware
who had been pushed out
of PA., by white
settlement; Cherokee and
Chickasaw from the
southern colonies who
looked to the region for
new hunting grounds;
Iroquois seeking to exert
control over the region’s
fur trade.
THE CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
 The Iroquois were
masters of balanceof-power diplomacy.
 Their sovereignty in
the Ohio Valley was
accepted by the
British, but it was
challenged by the
French and their
Indian allies.
THE CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
 On this “middle ground”
between European empires
and Indian sovereignty,
villages sprang up where
members of numerous tribes
lived together side by side,
along with European traders
and the occasional missionary.
 The Indians recognized that
the imperial rivalry of Britain
and France posed both threat
and opportunity.
 They sought (with some
success) to play the European
powers off one another and to
control the lucrative commerce
with whites.
THE CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
1750: Few white settlers inhabited the
Ohio Valley.
But settlers were moving into the region.
1749: The govt., of VA., awarded an
immense land grant – half a million acres
– to the Ohio Company whose members
included the colony’s royal governor Roger
Dinwiddie, and the cream of VA., society –
including George Washington.
THE CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
The land grant threatened the region’s
Indians as well as PA’s, land speculators,
who had claims in the area.
It sparked the French to bolster their
presence in the region.
It was the Ohio Company’s demand for
recognition of its land claims that
inaugurated the French and Indian War
(Seven Years War),
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
 The French and
Indian War was the
first of a century’s
wars to begin in the
colonies and the first
to result in a decisive
victory for one
combatant.
 It permanently altered
the balance of power.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
 What became a
worldwide struggle for
imperial domination,
which eventually spread
to Europe, West Africa
and Asia, began in 1754
with British efforts to
dislodge the French from
forts they had constructed
in western PA.
THE CAUSES OF THE FRENCH AND
INDIAN WAR
 1753: VA., Gov. Roger Dinwiddie dispatched 21 year old
George Washington on an unsuccessful mission to
persuade the French to abandon a fort they were
building on lands claimed by the Ohio Company.
 1754: GW returned to the area with 2 companies of
soldiers. He hastily constructed Fort Necessity.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
 After an ill-considered attempt
to defend the fort against a
larger French and Indian force,
resulting in the loss of 1/3 of
his men. GW was forced to
surrender.
 Soon afterwards, an expedition
led by Gen. Edward Braddock
against Fort Duquesne was
ambushed leaving Braddock
and 2/3 of his 3,000 soldiers
dead or wounded.
 For two years, the war went
badly for the British.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
 1757: The turning point
for the British when
William Pitt was
appointed Prime Minister.
He took over the
management of the war
effort.
 He raised large sums of
money and poured men
and naval forces into the
war.
 He instituted a colonial
requisition system.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
 1759: Britain, with colonial and Indian forces,
captured pivotal French outposts – Fort
Duquesne, Ticonderoga, and Louisbourg.
 1760: Montreal, the last outpost of New France,
surrendered – Game, set, and match.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
 1763: The Treaty of Paris
was signed.
 FR., ceded Canada to
GB., receiving in return
the sugar islands of
Guadeloupe and
Martinique.
 Spain ceded FL. To GB.,
in exchange for Cuba,
and acquired from FR.,
the vast Louisiana colony.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
 France’s 200-year old No.
American empire had
come to an end.
 With the exception of two
tiny islands retained by
FR., off the coast of
Newfoundland, the entire
continent, east of the
Mississippi River, was
now in British hands.
PONTIAC’S REBELLION
PONTIAC’S REBELLION
The departure of the French in the
aftermath of the French and Indian War
eliminated the balance-of-power
diplomacy that had enabled nations like
the Iroquois to maintain a significant
degree of autonomy.
The Treaty of Paris (1763) left the Indians
more dependent than ever on the British.
PONTIAC’S REBELLION
 The end of the French and Indian War ushered
in a period of confusion over land claims, control
of the fur trade, and tribal relations in general.
 To Indians, it was clear that continued expansion
of the British colonies posed a dire threat.
 1763: In wake of the French defeat, Indians of
the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes launched a
revolt against the British.
 Although known as Pontiac’s Rebellion, an
Ottawa leader, the rebellion owes at least as
much to teachings of Neolin, a Delaware
religious prophet.
PONTIAC’S REBELLION
 During a religious vision, the
Master of Life, instructed
Neolin that his people must
reject European technology,
free themselves from
commercial ties with whites
and dependence on alcohol,
clothe themselves in the garb
of their ancestors, and drive
the British from the territory.
 All Indians, he preached, were
a single people and only
through cooperation could they
regain their independence.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
1763: Ottawas,
Hurons, and
other Indians
besieged Detroit,
then a major
British military
outpost.
PONTIAC’S REBELLION
 They seized nine other
forts, and killed hundreds
of white settlers who had
intruded onto Indian
lands.
 British forces soon
launched a counterattack
and over the next few
years the Indian nations
one by one made peace.
PONTIAC’S REBELLION
 The uprising inspired
the British govt., to
issue the
Proclamation of 1763.
 This prohibited further
colonial settlement
west of the
Appalachian Mts.
 These lands were
reserved exclusively
for Indians.
PONTIAC’S REBELLION
 The British aim was less
to protect the Indians
than to stabilize the
situation on the colonial
frontier.
 But the Proclamation
enraged both settlers and
speculators hoping to
take advantage of the
French to consolidate
their own claims to
western lands.
THE COLONIES AND THE FRENCH
AND INDIAN WAR
THE COLONIES AND THE FRENCH
AND INDIAN WAR
The colonies emerged from the war with a
heightened sense of collective identity.
Before the war, the colonies had been
largely isolated from each other.
Outside of N.E., more Americans probably
traveled to England than from one colony
to another.
While possessing a collective identity, the
colonies were by no means united.
THE COLONIES AND THE FRENCH
AND INDIAN WAR
 1751: Gov. George
Clinton of NY called
for a general
conference on Indian
relations.
 Only three colonies
bothered to send
delegates.
 1754: The Albany
Congress convened.
THE COLONIES AND THE FRENCH
AND INDIAN WAR
 The Albany Congress
adopted the Albany Plan
of Union written by
Benjamin Franklin.
 The Plan envisioned the
creation of a Grand
Council composed of
delegates from each
colony, with the power to
levy taxes and deal with
Indian relations and the
common defense.
THE COLONIES AND THE FRENCH
AND INDIAN WAR
 Rejected by the
colonial assemblies,
whose powers under
the Plan would be
curtailed.
 The Plan was never
sent to London for
approval.
THE COLONIES AND THE FRENCH
AND INDIAN WAR
 The war created greater
bonds between the
colonies.
 But it also strengthened
colonists’ pride in being
members of the British
Empire.
 But soon, the colonists
would come to believe
that membership in the
empire jeopardized their
liberty.
 When they did, they set
out on a road that led to
independence.
THE MERCANTILIST SYSTEM
THE MERCANTILIST SYSTEM
1. An economic system whose central
tenant is that the colonies existed for the
benefit of the Mother Country.
2. Colonies should add to the Empire’s
wealth, prosperity, and self-sufficiency.
3. Colonies ensure British naval
supremacy by providing ships, ships’
stores, sailors and trade.
THE MERCANTILIST SYSTEM
4. Colonies provide raw materials –
tobacco, indigo, lumber, fish, etc.
5. Colonies provide a large consumer
market for British goods.
To enforce this system, Parliament passed
a series of NAVIGATION ACTS.
THE NAVIGATION LAWS
 Basic provisions: Restricted commerce to and from the
colonies to English or American ships.
 Certain “enumerated articles” like tobacco could not be
shipped to any other foreign market except England,
despite higher prices in other markets.
 All European goods going to America had to go through
England first.
 The Molasses Act of 1733: most important Act – sought
to curtail trade between N.E., and the French Caribbean
by imposing a tax on French produced molasses used to
make rum in colonial distilleries.
THE MERCANTILIST SYSTEM
 POSITIVE RESULTS OF SYSTEM:
 1. Navigation Laws did not adversely impact the colonial
economy.
 2. Colonials had rights of Englishmen and opportunities
for self-government (salutary neglect).
 3. Colonies had British military protection free of charge.
 4. Colonies greatly profited from mfg. and trading.
 5. The Colonies enjoyed the highest standard of living in
the world.
THE MERCANTILIST SYSTEM
NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SYSTEM:
1. Colonial mfg. hindered by British
policies.
2. Southern colonies suffered as export
prices dropped due to “enumeration.”
3. New England resented favorable British
policies toward Southern colonies.
4. Writs of Assistance crisis
WRITS OF ASSISTANCE CRISIS
 First sign of trouble
between England and
the colonies.
 Writs were search
warrants by British
customs officers.
 Aim was to reduce
colonial smuggling.
WRITS OF ASSISTANCE CRISIS
 1761: James Otis, Jr., of
MA., representing
shippers, demanded
Parliament repeal the
writs.
 Parliament refused but
Otis’ efforts gained press
in the colonies.
 Later, Otis would write
the words “no taxation
without representation.”
THE IMPERIAL REORGANIZATION OF
1763-1764
THE IMPERIAL REORGANIZATION OF
1763-1764
 Having treated the colonies as allies during the
French and Indian War, GB reverted in the mid1760s to seeing them as subordinates whose
main role was to enrich the mother country.
 During this period the govt., in London
concerned itself with the colonies in
unprecedented ways, hoping to make British
rule more efficient and systematic and to raise
funds to help pay for the war and to finance the
empire.
THE IMPERIAL REORGANIZATION OF
1763-1764
 The British felt that the
colonies should be
grateful to the empire.
 To fight the French and
Indian War, GB., had
borrowed from banks and
individual investors over
150 million pounds – the
equivalent of tens of
trillions of dollars in
today’s money.
 The tax burden in GB had
reached unprecedented
heights.
THE IMPERIAL REORGANIZATION OF
1763-1764
 The govt., in London was virtually banckrupt
after the French and Indian War.
 It only seemed reasonable that the colonies
should help pay down the national debt, foot the
bill for continued British protection, and stop
cheating the Treasury by violating the
Navigation Acts.
 This thinking led to Parliament levying taxes on
the colonies and the end of salutary neglect.
VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION v.
DIRECT REPRESENTATION
 Nearly all Britons
believed that
Parliament
represented the entire
empire and had a
right to legislate it.
 Millions of Britons had
no representation in
Parliament.
VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION v.
DIRECT REPRESENTATION
But according to the theory of virtual
representation each member of Parliament
represented the entire empire not just his
district.
The interests of all who lived under the
British Crown were supposedly taken into
account.
VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION v.
DIRECT REPRESENTATION
 When the colonies began to insist that because
they were unrepresented in Parliament, the
British govt., could not tax them, they won very
little support from the mother country.
 The colonies insisted on direct representation –
representatives from the colonies holding seats
in Parliament.
 But the colonies would never have enough
representatives in Parliament to stop the new
direction in British policy.
THE IMPERIAL REORGANIZATION OF
1763-1764
 1763: King George III
ascended to the
throne.
 He would be no friend
to the colonies.
 It took the colonies a
very long time to
realize this.
 1763: Proclamation of
1763.
THE IMPERIAL REORGANIZATION OF
1763-1764
 The first attempt by
Parliament to get the
colonies to pay their
fair share for the
rights and privileges
that came with being
a member of the
British Empire was
the SUGAR ACT OF
1764
THE SUGAR ACT OF 1764
 The Act was introduced
by Prime Minister George
Grenville and passed by
Parliament.
 It reduced the existing tax
on molasses from 6
pence to 3 pence per
gallon.
 It established a new
machinery to end colonial
smuggling.
 It strengthened the admiralty
courts where accused
smugglers could be judged
with a the benefit of a jury trial.
 The colonists saw the measure
not as a welcome reduction in
taxes but as an attempt to get
them to pay a tax they would
have otherwise evaded.
 The colonies also saw the
strengthening of the admiralty
courts as an attempt by
Parliament to restrict the rights
they deserved as Englishmen.
THE REVENUE ACT AND CURRENCY
ACT OF 1764
 Parliament passed two more measures in an
attempt to raise revenue from the colonies:
THE REVENUE ACT: Placed goods such as wool and
hides, which had previously been traded freely with
Holland and England, on the enumerated list, meaning
they had to be shipped to England first.
THE CURRENCY ACT: Reaffirmed the earlier ban on
colonial assemblies issuing paper as “legal tender” that
is money that individuals are required to accept in
payment of debts,
COLONIAL REACTION
 While the Sugar Act was an effort to
strengthened the long-evaded Navigation Acts,
and the Revenue Act and Currency Act were
efforts to have the colonies accept their
responsibilities as members of the British
Empire, the colonies viewed all these acts as
attempts to restrict their rights as Englishmen.
 They were upset but Parliament would misread
the resentment that the colonies had over the
end of salutary neglect.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 The Stamp Act of
1765 represented a
new departure in
imperial policy.
 For the first time,
Parliament attempted
to raise money from
the colonies through
direct taxes rather
than through the
regulation of trade.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 The Act required that all
sorts of printed materials
produced in the colonies
carry a stamp purchased
from authorities (stamp
act commissioners).
 Its purpose was to help
finance the operations of
the empire, including the
cost of stationing British
troops in No. America,
without seeking revenue
from colonial assemblies.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 The ACT managed to
offend virtually every
colonists.
 It was especially
resented by members
of the public sphere
who wrote, published,
and read books and
newspapers and
followed political
affairs.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 The prospect of having a
British army permanently in the
colonies also alarmed many
colonists.
 By imposing the tax without
colonial consent, Parliament
directly challenged the
authority of local elites who
through the assemblies they
controlled had established
their power over the raising
and spending of money.
 They were ready to defend this
authority in the name of liberty.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 Opposition to the Stamp Act
was the first drama of the
revolutionary era and the first
major split between colonists
and GB over the meaning of
freedom.
 Nearly all colonial political
leaders opposed the Stamp
Act.
 In voicing their grievances,
they invoked the rights of
freeborn Englishmen, which,
they insisted, colonists should
enjoy.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
Opponents of the Stamp Act, referred to
the natural rights of all mankind.
They drew on time-honored British
principles such as a community’s right not
to be taxed except by its elected officials –
hence “no taxation without representation.”
Liberty, they insisted, could not be secure
where property was “taken away without
consent.”
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 At stake were
clashing ideas of the
British Empire itself.
 Colonial leaders
viewed the empire as
an association of
equals in which free
settlers overseas
enjoyed the same
rights as Britons at
home.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 The British govt., saw the
empire as a system of
unequal parts in which
different principles
governed different areas,
and all were subject to
the authority of
Parliament.
 To surrender the right to
tax the colonies would set
a dangerous precedent
for the empire as a whole.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 In their view, an empire
extended and diversified
like GB had to have a
supreme legislature to
which all other powers
must be subordinate.
 Gov. Francis Bernard
(MA) declared that
Parliament was the
“sanctuary of liberty,” a
description with which
many colonists were
beginning to disagree.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 Some opponents of the Stamp Act distinguished
between “internal taxes” (direct taxes), such
as the stamp tax, which they claimed Parliament
had no right to impose, and revenue legitimately
raised through the regulation of trade =
“external taxes” (indirect taxes) such as the
sugar tax.
 But more and more colonists insisted that Great
Britain had no right to tax them at all, since the
colonies were unrepresented in the House of
Commons.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 VA’s House of Burgesses
approved 4 resolutions
written by Patrick Henry.
 The resolutions insisted
that the colonies enjoyed
the same rights and
privileges as the citizens
of Great Britain.
 The resolutions argued
that the right to consent
to taxation was a
cornerstone of British
freedom.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 Oct. 1765: Delegates from nine colonies met in
the Stamp Act Congress in NY.
 At the SAC, the delegates endorsed VA’s
position.
 They also produced the Stamp Act Resolves:
-affirmed colonial allegiance to King George III and their
due “subordination” to Parliament.
-they insisted that the right to consent to taxation was
“essential to the freedom of a people.”
THE STAMP ACT CONGRESS OF 17651767
 Merchants throughout
the colonies agreed to
boycott British goods
until the Parliament
repealed the Stamp
Act.
 This was the first
major cooperative
action by the
colonies.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 In a sense, by
seeking to impose
uniformity on the
colonies rather than
dealing with them
individually as in the
past, Parliament had
inadvertently united
them.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 The word liberty was used repeatedly by colonial
leaders.
 The words slave and slavery were used to
describe the relationship between the colonies
and British Empire.
 Stamp tax commissioners were attacked and
tarred and feathered.
 Colonies began to hold mock funerals of the
death of the commissioners and the stamp tax.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 Colonial leaders resolved to
prevent the new law’s
implementation and by and
large they succeeded.
 A Committee of
Correspondence in Boston
communicated with other
colonies to encourage
opposition to the Stamp Act.
 Now such committees sprang
up in other colonies,
exchanging ideas and
information about resistance.
 The movement against the
Stamp Act quickly drew in a far
broader range of colonists.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 John Adams wrote that
the Act had inspired “the
people, even the to the
lowest ranks” to become
“more attentive to their
liberties, more inquisitive
about them, and more
determined to defend
them, than they were
ever before known.”
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 Adams, also said,
political debate
pervaded the
colonies:
“our presses have
groaned, our pulpits
have thundered, our
legislatures have
resolved, our towns
have voted.”
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 But opponents to the Act did
not solely rely on words.
 Late 1765: The Sons of Liberty
were organized in NYC.
 These were self-made men
who had no standing among
the colonial elite but enjoyed a
broad following among
craftsmen, laborers and
sailors.
 They took the lead in enforcing
the boycott of British goods.
 Their actions were viewed with
increasing alarm by the elites.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 The Boston Sons of Liberty assaulted the home
of Thomas Hutchinson, Lt. Gov. of MA.
 They took his home apart brick by brick.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
Stunned by the ferocity of American
resistance and pressured by London
merchants and manufacturers who did not
wish to lose their American markets, the
British government retreated.
1766: Parliament repealed the Stamp Act
before it was even implemented.
THE STAMP ACT CRISIS OF 1765-1767
 At the same time, Parliament
passed the Declaratory Act –
which rejected colonial claims
that only their elected
assemblies could levy taxes.
 The Act declared Parliament
the supreme legislative body in
the empire.
 Since the debt-ridden British
govt., continued to need
money raised in the colonies,
passage of the Declaratory Act
promised further conflict.
THE TOWNSHEND CRISIS 1767
THE TOWNSHEND CRISIS OF 1767
 1767: Parliament
decided to impose a
new set of taxes on
the colonies.
 These new measures
were devised by
Charles Townshend ,
Chancellor of the
Exchequer (Prime
Minister).
TOWNSHEND CRISIS 1767
 In opposing the Stamp Act, some colonists,
including Ben Franklin, had seemed to suggest
that the colonies would not object if GB raised
revenue by regulating trade (internal taxes v.
external taxes)
 So Townshend persuaded Parliament to impose
new taxes on goods imported into the colonies
and to create a new board of commissioners to
collect them and suppress smuggling.
TOWNSHEND CRISIS 1767
 Townshend intended to use the new revenues to pay the
salaries of colonial governors and judges, thus freeing
them from dependence on colonial assemblies.
 Opposition to the Townshend duties developed more
slowly than in the case of the Stamp Act.
 Yet leaders in several colonies in 1768 decided to reimpose the ban of importing goods.
 This would be a non-importation and non-consumption
boycott.
 The boycott began in Boston but soon spread to the
Southern colonies,.
THE TOWNSHEND CRISIS OF 1767
 Reliance on colonial
rather than British goods,
on homespun clothing
rather than imported
finery, became a symbol
of colonial resistance.
 It also reflected, as the
colonists saw it, a
virtuous spirit of selfsacrifice as compared to
the self-indulgence and
luxury many colonists
were coming to associate
with Britain.
THE TOWNSHEND CRISIS OF 1767
 Women who spun and
wove at home as to not
purchase British goods
were hailed as Daughters
of Liberty.
 The idea of using
homespun rather than
imported goods appealed
to Chesapeake planters,
who found themselves
owing increasing
amounts of money to
British merchants.
THE TOWNSHEND CRISIS OF 1767
 As had happened during the Stamp Act Crisis,
the streets of colonial cities were filled with
popular protests against the new taxes.
 Boston once again would become the focal point
of resistance.
THE BOSTON MASSACRE
THE BOSTON MASSACRE
British troops had been stationed in
Boston since 1768 after rioting that
followed the British seizure of the ship
Liberty, a ship owned by John Hancock,
for violating trade regulations.
The soldiers became more and more
unpopular among the citizens of Boston.
Boston was a powder keg ready to
exploded.
THE BOSTON MASSACRE
March 5, 1770: A fight between snowball
throwing colonists and British troops
escalated into an armed conflict that left 5
Bostonians killed:
Crispus Attucks (first martyr of Am. Rev.)
Samuel Maverick
Patrick Carr
James Caldwell
Samuel Grey
THE BOSTON MASSACRE
The commanding officer (Capt. Thomas
Preston) and 8 soldiers were put on trial in
MA.
John Adams defended Preston and the
soldiers.
7 were found not guilty while 2 were
convicted of manslaughter.
THE BOSTON MASSACRE
 Sam Adams, a
Boston radical,
labeled the event the
Boston Massacre.
 Paul Revere, a radical
and engraver,
designed an
engraving of the
Boston Massacre – a
first-class example of
propaganda.
THE BOSTON MASSACRE
THE BOSTON MASSACRE
THE TOWNSHEND CRISIS OF 1767
1770: As merchants’ profits shriveled and
many members of the colonial elite found
they could not do without British goods,
the boycott movement began to collapse.
The value of British goods to the colonies
decline by about a third during 1769, but
then rebounded to its former level.
British merchants, again, pressed for
repeal of the Townshend duties.
THE TOWNSHEND DUTIES
 When the British ministry agreed, leaving in
place only the tax on tea, and agreed to remove
troops from Boston, colonial merchants quickly
abandoned the boycott.
 Once again, an immediate crisis had been
resolved.
 But many colonists concluded that Britain was to
the same pattern of political corruption and
decline of liberty that had afflicted other
countries.
THE TEA CRISIS 1773
THE TEA CRISIS OF 1773
 1773: Parliament passed
the Tea Act.
 It was an effort to resolve
the financial problems of
the British East India
Company.
 Tea had become a drink
consumed by all social
classes in England and
the colonies.
THE TEA CRISIS 1773
The money raised through the tax would
be used to help defray the costs of colonial
govt., thus threatening, once again, the
colonial assemblies control over colonial
finances.
The tax on tea was not new. But many
colonists insisted that to pay it would
acknowledge GB’s right to tax the
colonies.
THE TEA CRISIS 1773
 Gov. Thomas Hutchinson of MA vowed to
enforce and collect the tea tax.
 Dec. 16, 1773: a group of colonists disguised as
Native Americans boarded 3 British tea ships at
anchor in Boston Harbor.
 They threw more than 300 chests of tea into the
water.
 The loss to the British East India Company was
around 10,000 pounds, equivalent to over $4
million today.
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
THE COERCIVE OR INTOLERABLE
ACTS
The response from Parliament was swift
and decisive.
They passed a series of Coercive Acts –
designed to punish Boston.
Bostonians, and later the other colonies,
called these acts the Intolerable Acts.
THE COERCIVE OR INTOLERABLE
ACTS
Boston Port Act: Closed the port of
Boston to all trade until the tea was paid
for.
Mass. Government Act: Revoked the
Charter of 1691 by curtailing town
meetings and authorizing the governor to
appoint previously elected members of the
council.
THE COERCIVE ACTS OR
INTOLERABLE ACTS
The Administration of Justice Act:
Allowed royal officials accused of crimes in
the colonies to be tried in England instead
of the colonies.
Quartering Act: Empowered military
commanders to lodge soldiers in private
homes. This Act applied to all colonies.
THE QUEBEC ACT
 At the same time, Parliament passed the
Quebec Act which extended the southern
boundary of Quebec to the Ohio River and
granted legal toleration to the Roman Catholic
Church in Canada.
 The Act not only threw into question land claims
in the Ohio country but persuaded many
colonists that Parliament was conspiring to
strengthen Catholicism – dreaded by most
Protestants – in its colonial empire.
THE QUEBEC ACT
 Fears of religious and
political tyranny
mingled in the minds
of many colonists.
 In N.E., the cause of
liberty became the
cause of God.
THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE
THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE
The British actions had destroyed the
legitimacy of the imperial government in
the eyes of many colonists.
Opposition to the Intolerable Acts now
spread to small towns and rural areas that
had not participated actively in previous
resistance.
THE SUFFOLK RESOLVES
Sept. 1774:
A convention of delegates from MA towns met
in Suffolk, MA.
The delegates approved a series of resolutions
entitled The Suffolk Resolves.
These resolutions urged the colonists to refuse
obedience to the new laws, withhold taxes and
prepare for war.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
Delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies met
in Philadelphia from Sept. 5-Oct. 26, 1774.
The delegates included most of the
prominent political leaders in the colonies
such as Sam and John Adams, George
Washington, Richard Henry Lee, and
Patrick Henry.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
The first step the FCC took was to
endorse the Suffolk Resolves.
The delegates then did the following:
Denounced the Intolerable Acts.
Urged colonies to organize militias for defensive
purposes.
Called on the colonies to suspend trade with
the rest of the British empire.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
Urged citizens not to pay taxes.
There was no talk of independence.
MAIN PURPOSE: To petition Parliament for
redress of their grievances.
The FCC produced the : Declaration and
Resolves:
Gave colonists the legal right to assemble in order to
seek redress.
Included a “Bill of Rights”: which established the
structure for the Declaration of Independence.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
 Most significant action taken by the FCC:
The establishment of the Continental Association
which called for non-importation, non-consumption and
non-exportation of British goods. It encouraged
domestic mfg and denounced “every species of
extravagance and dissipation.”
It authorized Committees of Safety to oversee its
mandates and to take action against “enemies of
American liberty,” including businessmen who tried to
profit from the sudden scarcity of goods.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
The Committees of Safety began the
process of transferring effective political
power from established governments
whose authority derived from GB to
extralegal grassroots bodies reflecting the
will of the people.
1775: 7,000 men were serving on local
committees throughout the colonies.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
 1775: Talk of liberty
pervaded the colonies.
 Colonists did not want to
be slaves of GB.
 As the crisis deepened,
the colonists increasingly
based their claims not
simply on the historical
rights of Englishmen but
more on the abstract
language of natural rights
and universal freedom.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
 The FCC justified its
actions by appealing
to the “principles of
the English
constitution,” the
“liberties of free and
natural-born subjects
within the realm of
England,” and the
“immutable law of
nature.”
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
 Delegates were
influenced by the
ideas of John Locke.
 His theory of natural
rights that existed
prior to the
establishment of
government offered a
powerful justification
of colonial resistance.
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
 Thomas Jefferson in A Summary View of the
Rights of British America declared that the
colonists were “a free people claiming their
rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and
not as the gift of their chief magistrate.”
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
Jefferson claimed that the colonies still
revered the King.
But he demanded that the empire
henceforth be as a collection of equal
parts held together by loyalty to a
constitutional monarch, not a system in
which one part ruled over the others.
THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL
REVERE
THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL
REVERE
 By the time the SCC met in May 1775, war had
already broken out between British soldiers and
armed citizens of MA.
 4/19/1775: British forces began a march from
Boston toward Lexington and Concord seeking
to seize arms being stockpiled there and looking
for Sam Adams and John Hancock.
 Riders from Boston, including Paul Revere,
warned local leaders of the British advance.
“THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE
WORLD”
‘THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE
WORLD”
Colonial militiamen took up arms and tried
to resist the British advance.
Skirmishes took place at Lexington and
Concord.
By the time the British retreated back to
the safety of Boston, some 49 colonists
and 73 members of the Royal Army were
dead.
“THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE
WORLD”
 What poet Henry
Wadsworth
Longfellow would
later call “the shot
heard round the
world,” began the War
for Independence.
 It reverberated
throughout the
colonies.
THE SECOND CONTINENTAL
CONGRESS
THE SECOND CONTINENTAL
CONGRESS
May 10, 1775: The SCC convened in
Philadelphia. All 13 colonies sent
delegates.
However the delegates were still not
interested in independence.
They were seeking a redress of
grievances – a very conservative position.
The conservative delegates were in
charge.
THE SECOND CONTINENTAL
CONGRESS
Most significant actions taken by the SCC:
Authorized the raising of an army.
Appointed Washington to command the army.
Issued the Declaration of the Causes and
Necessity of Taking up Arms.
Issued the Olive Branch Petition: a last ditch
effort by the moderates in the SCC to avoid
war. It pledged loyalty to the king and sought to
restore peace. Asked King George III to
intercede to repeal the Intolerable Acts.
THE SECOND CONTINENTAL
CONGRESS
 Parliament and King
George III refused to
recognize the Second
Continental
Congress.
 King George III never
read the Olive Branch
Petition.
 King George III was
not a friend of the
colonies.
BATTLE OF BREED’S HILL
THE BATTLE OF BREED’S HILL
 June 17, 1775: Two months after Lexington and
Concord, the British dislodged colonial
militiamen from Breed’s Hill (although the battle
came to be known as the Battle of Bunker Hill).
 But the arrival of American cannon and their
entrenchment above the Boston the British
position was untenable.
 3/1776: The British Army abandoned Boston –
but they would return in a few months with a
much larger army.
THE BATTLE OF BREED’S HILL
 George III declared the
colonies in a state of
rebellion.
 Parliament dispatched
thousands of troops and
ordered the closing of all
colonial ports.
 The war raged on.
 There were still no calls
for independence.
THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE
By the end of 1775: The breach with GB
seemed irreparable.
Yet many colonists shied away from the
idea of independence.
Some still had pride in being part of the
British empire.
Many political leaders feared that a
complete break might unleash further
conflict – where?
THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE
They feared anarchy from below.
In their view, anarchy from below was as
much a danger as tyranny from above.
Such ideas affected how colonial leaders
responded to the idea of independence.
Elites of MA., and VA., who felt confident
in their ability to retain authority at home,
tended to support a break with GB.
THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE
 Southern leaders were
outraged by Lord
Dunmore’s Proclamation.
 Dunmore was the gov., of
VA.
 The Proclamation offered
freedom to any slave who
escaped to British lines
and bore arms for George
III.
 Some slaves took up the
offer.
THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE
In NY., and PA., the diversity of population
made it difficult to work out a consensus
on how far to go in resisting British
measures.
NY., had a huge population of loyalists.
As a result, many established leaders
drew back from further resistance.
THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE
 Joseph Galloway, a PA.,
leader and moderate delegate
to the SCC, warned that
independence would be
accompanied by constant
disputes within America.
 He even predicted a war
between northern and
southern colonies.
 He argued that the colonies
could only enjoy true freedom
by remaining in the British
Empire.
COMMON SENSE
COMMON SENSE
 1776: Colonial
America presented
the unusual spectacle
of colonists at war
against the British
Empire but still
pleading for rights
within it.
 Enter Thomas Paine.
COMMON SENSE
 Paine was a recent
emigrate from
England.
 He grasped the inner
logic of the situation
and offered a vision of
broad significance of
American
independence.
COMMON SENSE
 Jan. 1776: Common Sense was published. Its
author listed only as “an Englishman.”
 It began with an attack on the “so much boasted
Constitution of England,” and the principles of
hereditary rule and monarchial government.
 Paine argued that the English monarchy was
headed by “the royal brute of England.”
 Far preferable than a monarchy would be a
democratic system based on frequent elections
with citizens’ rights protected by a written
constitution.
COMMON SENSE
 Paine, “There is
something absurd in
supposing a
Continent to be
perpetually governed
by an island.”
 He argued that within
the Empire, America’s
prospects were
limited.
COMMON SENSE
With independence the colonies could for
the first time insulate themselves from
involvement in the endless imperial wars
of Europe.
Liberated from the Navigation Acts and
trading freely with the world, the colonies
“material eminence” was certain.
Membership in the Empire was a burden
not a benefit.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMON
SENSE
 Most of Paine’s ideas were not original.
 What made Common Sense unique was his
mode of expressing them and the audience he
addressed – all colonists.
 Paine pioneered a new style of political writing,
one designed to expand dramatically the public
sphere where political discussions took place.
 Common Sense became one of the most
successful and influential pamphlets in the
history of political writing.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMON
SENSE
 It sold some 150,000
copies.
 Paine directed that
his share of the profits
be used to buy
supplies for the
Continental Army.
 Common Sense hit a
receptive audience.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMON
SENSE
 Spring 1776: Scores of
American communities
adopted resolutions
calling for separation form
GB.
 Only 6 months elapsed
between the appearance
of Common Sense and
the decision by the SCC
to sever the colonies ties
with GB.
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
 June 7, 1776: Richard
Henry Lee, a delegate
to the SCC from VA.,
introduced the
following resolution.
RICHARD HENRY LEE
“Resolved That These United Colonies
are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent states, that they are absolved
from all allegiance to the British Crown,
and that all political connection between
them and the State of Great Britain is, and
ought to be, totally dissolved.”
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
 Lee went on to say it was
expedient to form foreign
alliances and that a
confederation be formed
among the colonies.
 The SCC appointed a
Committee of Five to draft
the Declaration of
Independence.
 The work of writing fell to
Thomas Jefferson.
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
 July 2, 1776: The SCC
formally declared the
colonies an independent
nation.
 July 4, 1776: The SCC
approved of the D of I
written by TJ and revised
by the SCC.
 Most of the D of I consists
of a lengthy list of
grievances directed at
George III.
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
The D of I’s most enduring impact lies in
the Preamble – especially the second
paragraph.
By “unalienable rights,” TJ meant rights so
basic, so rooted in human nature itself that
no govt., could take them away.
TJ went on to justify the breach with GB.
Key principle: Govt., derives its powers
from the “consent of the governed.”
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
TJ asserted that whenever a govt.,
threatens its citizens’ natural rights, the
people have the authority “to alter or
abolish it.”
The D of I is ultimately an assertion of the
right of revolution.
Its purpose is not simply to put forward a
theory of govt., but to justify revolution.
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
 The D of I changed
forever the meaning
of American freedom.
 To TJ the laws of
nature and of nature’s
God, not the English
Constitution, justified
independence.
 Liberty had become a
universal entitlement.
THE DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE
 When TJ substituted the “pursuit of happiness”
for property in the familiar Lockean triad, he tied
the new nation’s star to an open-ended,
democratic process whereby individuals develop
their own potential and seek to realize their own
goals.
 Individual self-fulfillment, unimpeded by govt.,
would become a central element of American
freedom.
 Americans could shape their society as they saw
fit.
THE RADICALISM OF THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
DREAM OF EQUALITY
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
DREAM OF EQULAITY
 Colonial America was a society with deep
democratic potential.
 But it took a revolution to transform it into a
nation that celebrated equality and opportunity.
 The Revolution unleashed public debates and
social struggles that enlarged the scope of
freedom and challenged inherited structures of
power within America.
 This was not what the Founding Fathers
envisioned would be the outcome of the
Revolution.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
DREAM OF EQUALITY
 In rejecting the British
Crown and the
principle of hereditary
aristocracy, many
Americans also
rejected the society of
privilege, patronage,
and fixed status that
these institutions
embodied.
 This is the real
revolution.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
DREAM OF EQUALITY
 The men who led the Revolution were by and
large members of the elite class.
 The lower classes did not rise to power as a
result of independence.
 But the idea of liberty became a revolutionary
rallying cry for all – even slaves and free blacks.
 TJ’s assertion in the D of I that all “men are
created equal” announced a radical principle
whose full implications no one could anticipate.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
DREAM OF EQUALITY
In both Britain and the colonies, a wellordered society was widely thought to
depend on obedience to authority.
Inequality had been fundamental to the
colonial social order.
The Revolution challenged this in many
ways.
Henceforth, American freedom would be
forever linked with the idea of equality.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
POLITICAL EQUALITY
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
POLITICAL EQUALITY
 With liberty and equality as their rallying cries,
marginalized groups advanced their demands.
 In political, social, and religious life, American
challenged the previous domination by a
privileged few.
 The Revolution did not undo the obedience to
which male heads of household were entitled
from their wives and children, and, at least in
southern states, their slaves.
 For free men, however, the democratization of
freedom was dramatic.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
POLITICAL EQUALITY
 Nowhere was this more
evident than in
challenges to the
traditional limitation of
political participation to
property owners.
 Throughout the colonies,
election campaigns
became freewheeling
debates on the
fundamentals of
government.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
POLITICAL EQUALITY
Universal suffrage, religious toleration, and
even the abolition of slavery were
discussed not only by the educated elite
but by artisans, small farmers, and
laborers, now emerging as a selfconscious element in politics.
The radicalism of the Revolution was more
evident in PA., than in any other state.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
POLITICAL EQUALITY
 In PA., nearly the entire
prewar elite opposed
independence.
 The vacuum of leadership
opened the door for the
rise of a new proindependence grouping,
based on artisan and
lower-class communities,
and organized in
extralegal committees
and local militia.
 Equality became the
radicals rallying cry.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
POLITICAL EQUALITY
They quickly attacked property
qualifications for voting.
3 months after independence, PA.,
adopted a new state constitution that
sought to institutionalize democracy by
concentrating power in a one-house
legislature (unicameral) elected annually
by all men over 21 who paid taxes.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
POLITICAL EQUALITY
PA’s, new constitution also:
Abolished the office of governor
Dispensed with the property qualification for
office holding.
Provided that schools with low fees be
established in every county.
Included clauses guaranteeing “freedom of
speech, and of writing,” and religious liberty.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: NEW
STATE CONSTITUTIONS
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: NEW
STATE CONSTITUTIONS
 Every state adopted a new constitution in the
aftermath of independence.
 Nearly all Americans now agreed that their
govts., must be republics – meaning that their
authority rested on the consent of the governed,
and that there would be no king or hereditary
aristocracy.
 Paine – The essence of a republic was not the
“particular form” of govt., but its object – the
“public good.”
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: NEW
STATE CONSTITUTIONS
 However there was
much debate about
the structure of this
new republic.
 John Adams, in 1776,
published Thoughts
on Government, in
response to what he
saw as PA,s
excessive radicalism.
DEMOCRATIZINBG FREEDOM: NEW
STATE CONSTITUTIONS
 Adams insisted that new state constitutions
should create “balanced governments,” whose
structure would reflect the division of society
between the wealth (represented in the upper
house) and ordinary men (who would control the
lower house).
 A powerful governor and judiciary would ensure
that neither class infringed on the liberty of the
other.
 Every state but PA., GA., and VT., followed his
call for a two-house legislature (bicameral).
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
RIGHT TO VOTE
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
RIGHT TO VOTE
 The issues of voting
rights and office
holding were far more
contentious.
 Conservative patriots
struggled to restore
the rationale for the
old voting restrictions.
 To JA, freedom and
equality were
opposites.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
RIGHT TO VOTE
 JA: Men without property had no “judgment of their own,”
and the removal of property qualifications, therefore,
would “confound and destroy all distinctions, and
prostrate all ranks to one common level.”
 But eliminating traditional ranks was precisely the aim of
the era’s radical democrats, including Thomas Paine.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
RIGHT TO VOTE
 The provisions of the new
state constitutions
reflected the balance of
power between
advocates of internal
change and those who
feared excessive
democracy.
 The least democratization
occurred in the South.
 VA., and SC.,retained
property qualifications for
voting and authorized the
gentry dominated
legislature to choose the
governor.
 MD., combined a low
property qualification for
voting with high
requirements for officeholding.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM: THE
RIGHT TO VOTE
 The most democratic
constitutions moved
much of the way toward
the idea of voting as an
entitlement rather than a
privilege, but they
generally stopped short of
universal suffrage, even
for men.
 VT., was the only state
not to sever voting from
financial considerations,
eliminating not only
property qualifications but
also the requirement that
voters pay taxes.
 Overall the Revolution led
to a great expansion of
the right to vote.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
 As revolutionary as the
expansion of political
freedom was the
Revolution’s impact on
religion.
 Religious toleration,
declared one VA., patriot,
was part of “the common
cause of freedom.”
 The end of British rule
immediately threw into
question the privileged
position enjoyed by the
Anglican Church in many
colonies.
 In VA., backcountry
Scotch-Irish Presbyterian
farmers demanded relief
from taxes supporting the
official Anglican Church.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
 The drive to separate
church and state united
Deist, like TJ, who hoped
to erect a “wall of
separation,” that would
free politics and the
exercise of the intellect
from religious control,
with members of
evangelical sects, who
sought to protect religion
from the corrupting
embrace of govt.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
 Religious leaders
continued to adhere to
the traditional definition of
Christian liberty –
submitting to God’s will
and leading a moral life –
but increasingly felt this
could be achieved without
the support of the govt.
 Throughout the new
nation, states
disestablished churches.
 The seven new state
constitutions that began
with a declaration of
rights all declared a
commitment to the free
exercise of religion.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
 Yet every state but
NY kept intact
colonial provisions
barring Jews from
voting and holding
office.
 7 states limited officeholding to
Protestants.
 MA., retained its
Congregationalist
establishment well
into the 19th century.
 MA’s new constitution
declared church
attendance
compulsory while
guaranteeing freedom
of individual worship.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
 Throughout the colonies,
Catholics gained the right to
worship without persecution.
 MD’s constitution restored the
large Catholic population the
civil and political rights that
had been denied them for
nearly a century.
 VA., TJ drew up a Bill for
Establishing Religious
Freedom in 1779 and adopted
in 1786.
 TJ viewed established
churches as a major example
of “tyranny over the mind of
man.”
 In his bill, he declared that God
“hath created the mind free.”
 The Bill eliminated religious
requirements for voting and
office-holding, govt., financial
support for churches and
barred the govt., from “forcing”
individuals to adopt one or
another religious outlook.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Religious liberty became the model for the
revolutionary generation’s definition of
“rights” as private matters that must be
protected form govt., interference.
It also offered a new justification for the
idea of the US as a beacon of liberty.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
 James Madison
declared that the new
nation offered
“asylum to the
persecuted and
oppressed of every
nation and religion.”
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
A VIRTUOUS CITIZENRY
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
A VIRTUOUS CITIZENRY
 Patriot leaders worried about the character of future
citizens, especially how to encourage the quality of
“virtue,” the ability to sacrifice self-interest for the public
good.
 TJ and JA put forward plans for the establishment of
free, state-supported schools.
DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM:
A VIRTUOUS CITIZENRY
 These schools would
instruct future citizens
in what JA called “the
principles of
freedom,” equipping
them for participation
in the now expanded
public sphere and for
the wise election of
representatives.
 A broad diffusion of
knowledge was
essential for a govt.,
based on the will of
the people to survive
and for America to
avoid the fixed class
structure of Europe.
 TJ: No nation could
“expect to be ignorant
and free.”
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM
Not all groups in Revolutionary America
enjoyed the benefits and privileges that
came with the new definition of freedom.
Native-Americans, women and AfricanAmericas were left out.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
NATIVE AMERICANS
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
NATIVE AMERICANS
 Despite the Proclamation of
1763, colonists continued to
move westward in the 1760s
and 1770sleading Indian tribes
to complain of intrusions on
their land.
 KY: The principal hunting
ground of southern Cherokees
and other tribes became the
flash point of conflict between
land speculators, settlers, and
Indians with the British govt.,
trying to restore order.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
NATIVE AMERICANS
 Some fought for the
British, some against the
British.
 TJ listed, as one of the
grievances in the D of I,
Britain’s enlisting
“savages” to fight on their
side.
 To many patriots access
to Indian land was one of
the fruits of American
victory.,
 Many Patriot leaders
were deeply involved in
western land speculation.
 British efforts to restrain
land speculation west of
the line of 1763 had been
one of the many
grievances of VA’s
revolutionary generation.
 Indians divided allegiance
during the War for
Independence.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
NATIVE AMERICANS
 TJ declared that
driving the Indians
from the Ohio Valley
would “add to the
Empire of Liberty an
extensive and fertile
country.”
 Liberty for white
meant loss of liberty
for Indians.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
NATIVE AMERICANS
 William Apess, a Pequot,
wrote “The whites no
sooner free themselves
than they turn on the poor
Indians.”
 Independence offered the
opportunity to complete
the process of
dispossessing Indians of
their rich lands in upstate
NY, the Ohio Valley, and
the southern backcountry.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
NATIVE AMERICANS
TJ declared that the only hope for Indians
lay in their “removal beyond the
Mississippi River.”
Even as the war raged Americans forced
defeated tribes to cede most of their land.
By the time peace arrived, the Shawnee
had been driven from Ohio to Missouri,
and many N.E., Indians had been forced
to take refuge in NY.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: NATIVE
AMERICANS
 The Treaty of Paris of
1783 marked the end of a
century in which the
balance of power in
eastern No. America
shifted away from the
Indians and toward white
Americans.
 The removal of the British
left the Indians without
white support.
 The British abandoned
their Indian allies.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: NATIVE
AMERICANS
 To Indians, freedom
meant defending their
own independence and
retaining possession of
their land.
 The Iroquois declared
themselves “a free
people subject to no
power on earth.
 They appropriated the
language of the
Revolution and
interpreted it according to
their own experiences
and purposes.
 The Creeks and
Choctaws denied
having done anything
to forfeit their
“independence and
natural rights.”
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: NATIVE
AMERICANS
 When MA., established a
system of state
“guardianship” over
previously self-governing
tribes, a group of
Mashpees petitioned the
legislature claiming for
themselves “the rights of
man” and complaining of
this “infringement of
freedom.”
 Freedom had not played
a major part in the Indian
vocabulary before the
Revolution.
 By the end of the 19th
century, dictionaries of
Indian languages for the
first time began to include
the word.
 But there was no room for
Indians in the new nation.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: WOMEN
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: WOMEN
 The Revolutionary
generation included
numerous women who
contributed to the
struggle for freedom.
 Deborah Sampson
disguised herself as a
soldier and served in the
Continental Army.
 She participated in
several battles.
 Years later, she was
awarded a soldier’s
pension by Congress.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: WOMEN
 Mary Hays McCauley
accompanied her
husband to the Battle of
Monmouth in 1778.
 She carried water to the
troops earning her the
nickname Molly Pitcher.
 When her husband was
wounded she took his
place loading ammunition
into a common.
THE LIMITS OF POWER: WOMEN
 Patriotic women participated in crowd actions, contributed
homespun goods to the army, and passed along information about
British troop movements.
 Ester Reed and Sarah Franklin Bache organized a Ladies’
Association to raise funds to assist American troops.
 This association illustrated how the revolution was propelling women
into new forms of public activism.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: WOMEN
 Women participated in
the political discussions
unleashed by
independence.
 Mercy Otis warren
promoted the
revolutionary cause in
poems and dramas.
 Later she published a
history of the struggle for
independence.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: GENDER
AND POLITICS
 Gender, nonetheless,
formed a boundary
limiting those entitled to
the full blessing of
American freedom.
 Lucy Knox, wife of Gen.
Henry Knox, wrote her
husband during the war
that when he returned
home he should not
consider himself
“commander in chief of
your house, but be
convinced that there is
such a thing as equal
command.”
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: GENDER
AND POLITICS
 But winning
independence did not
alter the family law
inherited from GB.
 The principle of
“coverture” – the
husband held legal
authority over the
person, property , and
choices of his wife –
remained intact.
 Despite the
expansion of
democracy, politics
remained a male
realm.
 A woman’s
relationship to the
larger society was
mediated through her
relationship with her
husband.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: GENDER
AND POLITICS
 In both law and social  Since common law
included women within
reality, women lacked
the legal status of their
the essential
husbands, women could
qualification of
not be said to have
political participation –
property in themselves in
the opportunity for
the same sense as men.
autonomy based on
 Men considered women
to be naturally submissive
ownership of property
and irrational therefore
or control of one’s
unfit for citizenship.
person.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: WOMEN
While the public debate in the Revolution
viewed men’s rights as natural
entitlements, discussions of women’s
rights emphasized duty and obligations,
not individual liberty.
Their rights were nonpolitical, deriving
from their roles as wives and mothers.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM: GENDER
AND POLITICS
 Of the era’s new state constitutions, only NJ’s of
1776, which granted suffrage to all “inhabitants”
who met a property qualification, made no
distinction as to gender.
 Until NY., added the words “white male” in 1807,
some of the state’s women did cast ballots.
 Overall, the republican citizen, was by definition
male.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
REPUBLICAN MOTHERHOOD
 The American Revolution,
nonetheless, did produce
an improvement in status
for many women.
 According to the ideology
of “republican
motherhood” women
played an indispensable
role by training future
citizens.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
REPUBLICAN MOTHERHOOD
 Even though republican
motherhood ruled out direct
female involvement in politics,
it encouraged the expansion of
educational opportunities for
women, so they could impart
political wisdom to their
children.
 Benjamin Rush: Women need
to have a “suitable education”
to enable them to “instruct their
sons in the principles of liberty
and government.
THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM:
REPUBLICAN MOTHERHOOD
 Women were responsible
to educate their children,
especially their sons, to
be republican virtuous
citizens.
 Women were
subordinate. This did not
become a major source
of debate until long after
American independence.
FOUNDING A NATION
1783-1789
AMERICA UNDER THE ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION
 The A of C were the
first written
constitution of the
United States.
 It was drafted by the
SCC and ratified by
the states in 1781.
AMERICA UNDER THE ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION
The Articles sought to balance the need
for national coordination of the War for
Independence with widespread fear that
centralized political power posed a danger
to liberty.
It resembled less a blueprint for a common
govt., than a treaty for mutual defense.
In its own words, it established a “firm
league of friendship” among the states.
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
Structure of the government:
“a firm league of friendship”
13 states retained their sovereignty
Unicameral Legislature
Each state had one vote.
No President or Judiciary
9 votes needed for major decisions
13 votes needed for changes
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
Powers of the National Government:
Powers granted were those essential to
the struggle for independence:
Declaring war
Conducting foreign affairs
Making treaties
Could coin money but could not levy taxes or
regulate commerce
AMERICA UNDER THE ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION
 The Articles made
energetic national govt.,
impossible.
 But Congress in the
1780s did not lack for
accomplishments.
 The most important was
establishing national
control over land to the
west of the 13 states and
devising rules for its
settlement.
 These disputes nearly
derailed the A of C.
THE LAND ORDINANCES
 Congress addressed the western land disputes
with 3 land ordinances.
 The Land Ordinance of 1784: Drafted by TJ. It
established stages of self-govt., of the West.
 The region was divided into districts initially
governed by Congress, and eventually admitted
to the Union as member states.
 By a single vote, Congress rejected a clause
that would have prohibited slavery throughout
the West.
LAND ORDINANCE OF 1785
 Regulated land sales
in the region north of
the Ohio River, which
came to be known as
the Old Northwest.
 Land would be
surveyed by the govt.,
and then sold in
“sections” of a square
mile at $1 an acre.
LAND ORDINANCE OF 1785
 In each township, one
section would be set
aside to provide funds
for public education.
 The system promised
to control and
concentrate
settlement and raise
money for Congress.
LAND ORDINANCE OF 1785
 But settlers violated the rules by pressing
westward before the surveys were completed.
 American officials found it difficult to regulate the
thirst for land.
 The minimum price of $640 put public land out
of reach of most settlers.
 They generally ended up buying smaller parcels
from speculators and land companies.
NORTHWEST ORDINANCE
 Called for the eventual
establishment of from 3-5
states north of the Ohio
River and east of the
Mississippi River.
 The US govt., would
admit the area’s
population as equal
members of the political
system.
THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE
 The Ordinance pledged
that “the utmost good
faith” would be observed
toward local Indians and
that their land would not
be taken without consent.
 Yet national land policy
assumed that whether
through purchase,
treaties, or voluntary
removal, the Indian
presence would soon
disappear.
THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE
 The Ordinance prohibited
slavery in the Old NW, a
provision that would have
far-reaching
consequences when the
sectional conflict between
North and South
developed.
 But for years, owners
brought slaves in the Old
NW, claiming that they
had voluntarily signed
long-term labor contracts.
THE WEAKNESSES OF THE ARTICLES
OF CONFEDERATION
 Whatever the
achievements of the
Articles, its shortcomings
far outweighed them.
 To finance the W of I,
Congress had borrowed
large sums of money
 Lacking a secure source
of revenue, Congress
found itself unable to pay
either interest or the
debts themselves.
 With the US now outside
of the British Empire,
American ships were
barred from trading with
the West Indies.
THE WEAKNESSES OF THE ARTICLES
OF CONFEDERATION
 Imported goods, however,
flooded the market,
undercutting the business of
many craftsmen, driving
prices down, and draining
money out of the country.
 With Congress unable to
act, states adopted their
own economic policies.
 Several imposed tariff
duties on goods imported
from abroad.
 Indebted farmers,
threatened with the loss of
land because of failure to
meet tax or mortgage
payments, pressed state
govts., for relief, as did
urban craftsmen who owed
money to local merchants.
 To ease the worsening
crisis, some states began to
print large sums of money
while others enacted laws
postponing debt collection.
 Creditors considered such
measures attacks on their
property rights.
SHAYS’S REBELLION
SHAYS’S REBELLION
 The final nail in the
coffin for A of C.
 Late 1786-early 1787:
Crowds of debt-ridden
farmers led by Daniel
Shays closed the
courts in western
MA., to prevent
seizure of their land
for failure to pay
debts and taxes.
SHAYS’S REBELLION
 MA., had firmly resisted
pressure to issue paper
money or in other ways
assist the needy debtors.
 The participants in
Shays’s Rebellion
believed they were acting
in the spirit of the
Revolution.
 They modeled their
tactics on the crowd
activities of the 1760s
and 1770s.
SHAYS’S REBELLION
 They received no
sympathy from Gov.
James Bowdoin, who
dispatched an army to
quash the rebellion.
 The rebels were
dispersed in Jan. 1787,
and over 1,000 were
arrested.
 Without adherence to the
law, Bowdoin declared,
Americans were descend
into “a state of anarchy,
confusion, and slavery.”
SHAYS’S REBELLION
 Observing the
rebellion from Paris,
TJ refused to be
alarmed.
 “A little rebellion now
and then is a good
thing. The tree of
liberty must be
refreshed from time to
time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants.”
SHAYS’S REBELLION
 But the uprising was the culmination of a series
of events in the 1780s that persuaded an
influential group of Americans that the national
government must be strengthened so that it
could develop uniform economic policies and
protect property owners from infringements on
their rights by local majorities.
 Many feared that the American Revolution’s
democratic impulse had gotten out of hand.
THE NATIONALISTS OF THE 1780s
 1785: Sam Adams
wrote: “Our
Government at
present had liberty for
its object.”
 But among the
proponents of
stronger national
authority, liberty had
lost some of its luster.
THE NATIONALISTS OF THE 1780s
 The danger to individual
rights, they came to
believe, now arose not
from tyrannical govt., but
from the people
themselves.
 James Madison declared
“Liberty may be
endangered by the
abuses of liberty as well
as the abuses of power.”
THE NATIONALISTS OF THE 1780S
 To put it another way,
private liberty, especially
the secure enjoyment of
property rights, could be
endangered by public
liberty – unchecked
power in the hands of the
people.
 James Madison thought
deeply and creatively
about the nature of
political freedom.
 He was among a group of
talented and wellorganized men who
spearheaded the
movement for a stronger
national government.
THE NATIONALISTS OF THE 1780s
 Alexander Hamilton was
part of this group.
 He was perhaps the most
vigorous proponent of an
“energetic” govt., that
would enable the new
nation to become a
powerful commercial and
diplomatic presence in
world affairs.
 He and Madison were
nation-builders.
THE END OF THE ARTICLES OF
CONVENTION
 Concern over the A of C
led to the Annapolis
Convention.
 9/1786: Delegates from 6
states met in Annapolis,
MD., to consider ways for
better regulating
interstate and
international commerce.
 The delegates agreed to
hold another gathering, in
PA., to amend the A of C.
THE END OF THE ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION
 Shays’s Rebellion strengthened the nationalist
cause.
 James Madison: “The late turbulent scenes in
Massachusetts”, underscored the need for a
new constitution. “No respect is paid to the
federal authority.”
 The belief was that without a change in the
structure of govt., either anarchy or monarchy
was the likely outcome, bringing an end to the
experiment in republican govt.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
 5/1787: Convention
convened in PA.
 Every state, but RI.,
which had gone the
furthest in developing its
own debtor and trade
policies, decided to send
delegates.
 55 delegates in all –
some of the most
prominent Americans.
 TJ and JA did not attend:
TJ was ambassador to
France and JA
ambassador to England.
 GW was the presiding
officer.
 Delegates were very
wealthy.
 More than half had a
college education – at a
time when fewer than
one-tenth of 1 percent of
Americans went to
college.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
 A majority had
participated in
interstate meetings of
the 1760s and 1770s.
 22 served in the
Continental Army.
 No radicals were
among the delegates
– Sam Adams,
Patrick Henry were
not delegates.
 The delegates shared
social status and
political experiences
bolstered their
common belief in the
need to strengthen
national authority and
curbed what one
delegate called “the
excesses of
democracy.”
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
 When they gathered
in PA., they quickly
decided to scrap the
A of C and create a
whole new govt.
 This was in violation
of the instructions
they received from
Congress to solely
“amend and revise”
the A of C.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
 Madison, who believed
that the outcome would
have great consequences
for “the cause of liberty
throughout the world,”
took careful notes.
 They were not published,
until 1840, 4 years after
he became the last
delegate to die.
 All sessions were held
behind closed doors with
complete secrecy.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
It quickly became apparent that the
delegates agreed on many points:
The new constitution would create a legislature,
executive and judiciary.
Congress would have the power to raise money
without relying on the states.
States would be prohibited from infringing on
the rights of property.
The new govt., would be a republican form.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
 Hamilton’s proposal for a
president and a senate
serving life terms, like the
king and House of Lords,
received virtually no
support.
 AH; “The rich and wellborn,” must rule, for the
masses, “seldom judge or
determine rights.”
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
Most delegates hoped to find a middle
ground between the despotism of
monarchy, and aristocracy and what they
considered the excesses of popular selfgovernment.
Differences quickly emerged over the
proper balance between federal and state
govts., and between large and small
states.
REPRESENTATION
 THE VIRGINIA PLAN
 James Madison (VA)
 Bicameral legislature
 State’s population
determining its
representation in each
House.
 Advantage to large states
like VA and MA.
 THE NEW JERSEY
PLAN
 William Patterson
(NJ)
 Unicameral legislature
 Each state cast one vote
as under the Articles of
Confederation.
 Advantage to small states
like RI.
THE CONNECTICUT COMPROMISE
The debate over representation was
settled in the Connecticut Compromise.
THE GREAT COMPROMISE:
- Bi-cameral legislature: House of
Representatives and Senate.
- Senate: each state had two members appt.,
by state legislatures.
- H of R: apportioned according to
population. Members elected by popular
vote.
CREATION OF THE EXECUTIVE
 4 year term.
 Power to appoint
ambassadors,
Cabinet, Supreme
Court and judges of
the lower federal
courts.
 May recommend
legislation.
 Sets the budget
 Veto power
 Commander-in-Chief
 Calls Congress into
special session.
 Treaty-making power
 Issue pardons.
STRUCTURE OF THE NEW
GOVERNMENT
 3 Branches of government:
• Legislature (Article I)
• Executive (Article II)
• Judiciary (Article III)
-System of federalism – separation of powers
and checks and balances.
-Much stronger government than under the
Articles of Confederation.
-Delegates expected the Congress would be the
most dominant branch.
THE RATIFICATION BATTLE
THE RATIFICATION BATTLE
 The last session of the Constitutional
Convention was held on September 17, 1787.
 39 delegates signed the document.
 It was sent to the states for ratification.
 The approval of 9 states was needed for the
Constitution to go into effect.
 Ratification was by no means certain.
 A fierce public debate ensued.
THE RATIFICATION BATTLE
 The ratification battle
set off the most
intellectual and
significant political
debate in American
history.
 It had it all – two
groups going after
each other, books
and compromise.
THE FEDERALISTS
 Nationalists in favor of  To generate support,
a strong central
they composed a
government.
series of 85 essays
that appeared in
 They were supporters
newspapers and were
of the Constitution as
gathered in a book
written at the
The Federalist in
convention.
1788.
 Key individuals: AH,
 AH wrote 50, Madison
Madison, JJ.
30 and JJ 5.
THE FEDERALISTS
 These essays are
regarded as among the
most important American
contribution to political
thought.
 AH and Madison
repeatedly argued that
rather than imposing a
danger to American
liberties, the Constitution
in fact protected them.
THE FEDERALISTS
 AH’s essays sought to
disabuse Americans fear of
political power.
 Govt., he insisted, was an
expression of freedom, not its
enemy.
 Any govt., could be
oppressive, but with its checks
and balances and division of
power, the Const., made
political tyranny impossible.
 The Const., in his view, had
created the “perfect balance
between liberty and power.”
THE FEDERALISTS
 Madison also
emphasized how the
Const., was structured to
prevent the abuses of
authority.
 But in several essays,
especially in Federalist 10
and 51, he moved
beyond such assurances
to develop a new vision of
the relationship between
the govt., and society in
the US.
THE FEDERALISTS
 Madison identified the
essential dilemma, as he
saw it, the new republic –
govt., must be based on
the will of the people, yet
the people had shown
themselves susceptible to
dangerous enthusiasms.
 Most worrisome, to
Madison, was that the
people had threatened
property rights whose
protection was the “first
object of government.”
 The problem of balancing
democracy and respect for
property would only grow in
the years ahead since, he
warned, economic
development would inevitably
increase the numbers of poor.
What was to prevent them
from using their political power
to secure “a more equal
distribution” of wealth.
 For Madison, the answer lie in
the size and diversity of
America.
THE FEDERALISTS
Madison argued that a nation as large as
the USA, with many distinct interests –
economic, regional and political – that no
single one would ever be able to take over
the govt., and oppress the rest.
Every majority would be a coalition of
minorities, and thus “the rights of
individuals” would be secure.
THE ANTI-FEDERLISTS
 Opponents of
ratification.
 They insisted that the
Const., shifted the
balance between
liberty and power too
far in the direction of
the latter.
 They lacked the
coherent leadership
of the Federalists.
THE ANTI-FEDERALISTS
 Some denounced the
Const’s protections for
slavery.
 Others warned that the
powers of Congress were
broad that it might enact
a law for abolition.
 They predicted that the
new govt., would fall
under the influence of
merchants, creditors, and
others hostile to the
interests of ordinary Ams.
 They insisted that “a very
extensive territory cannot
be governed on the
principles of freedom.”
 They believed that
popular govt., flourished
best in small communities
where rulers and ruled
interacted daily.
 Liberty was their
watchword.
ANTI-FEDERALISTS
 Anti-Federalists also
pointed to the
Constitution’s lack of a
Bill of Rights.
 Patrick Henry: The
absence of a B of R was
“the most absurd thing to
mankind that ever the
world saw.
 State Constitutions had
bills of rights, why not the
federal Constitution?
THE RATIFICATION BATTLE
 In the end, the Federalists’ energy and
organization, coupled with their domination of
colonial newspapers, carried the day.
 92 newspapers and magazines existed in the
US in 1787. Of these, only 12 published a
significant number of Anti-Federalists pieces.
 JM also won support for the Const., by
promising that the first Congress would enact a
Bill of Rights.
 By mid-1788, the required 9 states (NH was the
ninth) had ratified.
THE RATIFICATION BATTLE
Although there was strong dissent in MA,
NY, and VA, only RI and NC voted against
ratification, but they had little choice but to
join the new government.
The anti-federalism cause died.
THE BILL OF RIGHTS
THE BILL OF RIGHTS
The most enduring legacy of the AntiFederalist cause.
First 10 amendments to the Constitution.
Ratified by the states in 1791.
JM believed that the balances of the
Const., would protect liberty that he was
convinced the BofR was redundant and
pointless.
THE BILL OF RIGHTS
 JM: The amendments restraining federal power
would have no effect on the danger to liberty
posed by unchecked majorities in the states, and
that no list of rights could ever anticipate the
numerous ways that Congress might operate in
the future.
 WAS MADISON CORRECT? – “Parchment
barriers” to the abuse of authority, he observed,
would prove least effective when most needed.
A NATION IS BORN