From Empire to
Independence
Chapter 5
The Imperial Crisis
• Britain’s relationship with the colonists
changed.
George III
– Britain ended policy of salutary neglect.
• New Troubles on the Frontier
– Pontiac’s (chief of the Ottawa) Rebellion.
• Proclamation Line (1763)
– No westward colonization past line in an effort
not to secure peace on the frontier with the
Indians.
The Imperial Crisis
• George Grenville’s (First Minister and Lord of
the Treasury) New Measures
• New vice-admiralty court had jurisdiction over
all colonies.
• Sugar Act (1764) – taxed sugar/molasses
(actually cut it by half but actually enforced),
foreign wine, coffee, textiles, etc.
– Purpose to raise revenues for defense not just to
regulate trade as had been done in the past.
The Imperial Crisis
• Currency Act (1764) – colonies could no longer
issue their own paper currency; whatever was in
circulation was worthless
• Quartering Act (1765)—required colonists to
provide provisions and barracks or submit to the
use of inns and vacant buildings.
• Stamp Act (1765) – tax on all printed documents
(newspapers, deeds, licenses, college diplomas,
even playing cards).
The Beginning of Colonial
Resistance
• Grenville program appeared to herald tyranny
• Cry of “no taxation without (actual)
representation”
• British response of “virtual representation”
• Stamp Act Congress (1765)
– Decides that England has the right to regulate
colonies but could not have taxes for revenues.
– Form of legal opposition.
Sons of Liberty
• Form of extra-legal
opposition.
• Organized mobbing to
intimidate stamp agents and
encourage them to resign
• Adoption of nonimportation agreements of
English goods.
Patrick Henry
Repeal of the
Stamp Act
• Declaratory Act (1766)
– Grenville leaves office.
– Lord Rockingham repealed the Stamp Act.
– But reserved the right of Parliament to make
laws binding on the colonies.
– Also reduced the tax on sugar to less than the
cost of a bribe.
– This left open the debate between internal and
external taxes.
The Townshend Acts
• Felt that colonists were fine with
external (indirect) taxes
– Taxes various colonial imports
(eventually repeals taxes on
everything but tea – a token of
parliamentary authority)
• Quartering in New York
– Suspends the New York Assembly
until it agreed to provide quarters
for the British troops stationed in
the colony.
The Townshend Acts
• Shifting responsibilities in government
– Establishes a Board of Customs
Commissioners to prevent smuggling.
– Revenues were to pay the salaries of
governors and other officers and thereby
release them from financial dependence on
the assemblies.
Boston Massacre
(March 5, 1770)
• Grew out of crowd reaction and heckling of British
soldiers who were occupying Boston.
– Soldiers competed with lower class for jobs
– Soldiers kill 5 colonists out of a protest mob; injure 8.
• All but two soldiers were acquitted after being
defended by John Adams, the other two were
convicted of manslaughter and branded on the thumb.
• Parliament repealed all Townshend duties except on
tea in 1770.
• Two years of relative peace followed.
Republicanism
• Balance of Power and Liberty
– Conceived of politics as a struggle between the people
(homogeneous entity) and power-hungry rulers whose
aspirations could be contained only within “mixed”
governments like that of England.
– In England, corruption had sapped the willingness of the
commons to hold out against their rulers.
• Popular Sovereignty (deferential politics)
– Authority and liberty flowed from the structure of personal
relationships
• Independent Society (economic)
• Virtuous Society (moral)
– Private interests were suppressed for civic virtue.
– From subjects to citizens.
Tension
Resumes
• Tea Act (1773)—Lord North
• Duty free import of tea from East India Company
– 17 million pounds of unsold tea in warehouses in
England.
• “Parliament corrupted by favoritism”
• Colonists opposed the Tea Act of 1773 because it
gave agents of the East India Tea Company a virtual
monopoly on the tea trade.
Boston Tea
Party (1773)
• Bypassed colonial wholesalers (middlemen
merchants).
• “Government was trying to purchase their
loyalty and passivity with cheap tea.”
• A group of colonial Patriots disguised as
Mohawk Indians boarded three ships and
threw 342 chests overboard.
The Empire Strikes Back
• Coercive Acts (1774) “Intolerable Acts”
– Designed to discipline Boston
– Boston Port Act - closed to commerce until tea was
paid.
– New Quartering Act (private homes)
– Massachusetts Governing Act
• Town meetings only 1 per year.
• Mass.’s council and law-enforcement officers were
appointive rather then elective.
– Justice Act - officials and British soldiers could not be
tried in colonies only in England and Canada.
“Intolerable Acts”
• Designed to isolate Boston and make an example of
the colony.
• The moves backfired:
– Fear that these acts would soon be applied to other
colonies unless there was resistance.
• Quebec Act (1774)
– Canada would no longer have a representative assembly
but an appointed one.
– Privileged place for the Catholic Church (French).
– Sign that foretold of tyranny for the colonies.
Toward the Revolution
• The First Continental Congress met in
Philadelphia to address concerns (1774).
• Purpose:
– To adopt and issue a series of resolutions and
protests.
– NOT to govern nor to rebel
• Declared the Intolerable Acts null and void.
First Continental Congress
• Passed the Declaration of American Rights
– Denied Parliament’s authority concerning internal
colonial affairs.
• Urged each colony to mobilize its militia
(Minute Men)
• Petitioned the king for relief—(dominion
theory) colonies were subject to crown but
not Parliament (separate realm)
Lexington
and Concord (1775)
• General (Governor of Mass) Thomas Gage sent
patrols out from Boston to take the colonial supply
depot at Concord and arrest Sam Adams and John
Hancock in Lexington.
– Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott
spread the warning.
– Minute Men in Lexington formed a silent protest; the British
advanced; a shot was fired; British shot a volley and charge
with bayonets (8 dead, 10 wounded)
– Brits continued to Concord; most supplies had been
removed; Brits marched back to Boston; road back was a
“gauntlet of death” ; 250 killed or wounded / Americans
suffered 100 : The war had started.
Second Continental Congress
(1775)
• Assumed the role as Revolutionary
government.
• The Massachusetts militia that surrounded
British-held Boston was adopted as the
Continental Army.
• Washington tapped as commander-in-chief
because of experience in French & Indian
War.
Battle of Bunker Hill
• 1st major fight
• June 17, 1775
• Americans were laying
siege to Boston from
high ground of
Charleston; Breed’s Hill.
• Gage ordered 2,200
Brits to advance in tight
formation.
Battle of Bunker Hill
• Americans waited until they were close (whites of
their eyes)
• Brits won on third try after Americans ran out of
gunpowder
• The British lost about half their troops (1,054
casualties to 400 Am.)
• Results:
– English generals became more cautious
– Able-bodied men were ordered to enlist.
– Either Patriot or Loyalist; no more middle
ground.
Olive Branch Petition
• Second Continental Congress still hopes for
compromise.
• King George III declares them in rebellion
and sends more troops.
• British troops pull out of Boston and retreat
to Nova Scotia:
– British faced not the suppression of a rebellion
but the reconquest of a continent.
Common Sense
(1776)
• A pamphlet by Thomas Paine in which
he argues for independence.
– “Where liberty is, there is my country.”
• The king (George III) is involved in tyranny/calls for
independence.
• It was an attack on the king, rather than Parliament
(new)—the king was the last real connection to
Britain.
• 100,000 copies in circulation.
• Colonial governments authorized Continental
Congress to take final step.
The Decision for Independence
• Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson.
• Natural rights had been “endowed” to all
persons “by their Creator.”
– No need to claim “rights as Englishmen”
– Blamed King George III
– Americans no longer considered themselves
English
• Upheld the right of the people to
overthrow oppressive rule.
– Based its argument primarily on the contract
theory of government developed by John
Locke: power comes from the consent of the
people.
The Declaration of
Independence
• The Continental
Congress passed the
resolution on July 2,
1776
• On July 4, 1776, each
member of the
Second Continental
Congress signed the
document.