Introducing My Unit: The American Revolution (1763-1783)

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Introducing My UnitThe American
Revolution(1763-1783)

• By Loren Lacks

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Learning Objectives

• Accurately identify sources of friction between
  Britain and the colonies that led the colonists
  to declare their independence.
• Explain how the Americans, despite enormous
  disadvantages, managed to defeat the British and
  win their independence.
• Describe political, social, and economic
  developments after the American Revolution.

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Moving Toward Revolution Writs of Assistance

• After fighting ended between the French and the
  British, the British were left with enormous
  debts.
• To help relieve the war debts, British officials
  set out to force the colonists role of enriching
  Britain and obeying its laws by the use of writs
  of assistance (blank search warrants).

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Moving Toward Revolution Stamp Act Turmoil

• To help pay for the protection of the colonists
  by British soldiers, the Stamp Act was passed by
  Parliament in 1765.
• Required that each sheet of every legal document
  had to carry a stamp showing that a tax had been
  paid.
• In reaction to the Act, the colonists burned
  every stamped document and even tarred and
  feathered customs officials.
• The roar of protest led Parliament to cancel the
  Stamp Act in 1766.

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Declaratory Act

• Passed the same time as the Stamp Act was
  repealed.
• Declared Parliament had the power to tax the
  colonies internally and externally and they had
  absolute power over colonial legislatures.
• This bold declaration asserted full power and
  authority of Parliament to make laws . . . To
  bind the colonies and people of America.

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Townshend Acts

• A series of revenue measures
• Taxed paper, lead, tea, paint . . . .
• Colonial reaction instituted another movement
  to stop importing British goods

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Boston Massacre

• 1770
• The colonists hated the British soldiers in the
  colonies because they worked for low wages and
  took jobs away from the colonists.
• March 4, 1770 a group of colonists started
  throwing rocks and snowballs at the soldiers.
• The soldiers panicked and fired their muskets.

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Committees of Correspondence

• Started as private citizens in Massachusetts,
  Rhode Island and New York.
• 1763 began circulating information about
  opposition to Great Britain
• Other colonies began organizing such committees.

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Tea Act

• 1773
• Gave the East India Company a monopoly on the
  trade in tea.
• Made it illegal for the colonies to buy
  non-British tea, and forced the colonists to pay
  the tea tax of 3 cent a pound.
• Bostonians staged the infamous Boston Tea Party
  to protest the Tea Act.

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Intolerable Acts

• 1774
• Also known as the Coercive Acts and Repressive
  Acts.
• British passed the Intolerable Acts to punish
  Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party and to
  regain control over the colonies.
• Closed the port of Boston until the colonists
  paid for the destroyed tea.
• Disbanded the Boston Assembly
• Required the colony to provide provisions for
  British soldiers.

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Quebec Act

• Recognized the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec
• Colonists took it as a sign Britain was planning
  to impose Catholicism in the colonies.

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First Continental Congress

• 1774
• Delegates to the First Continental Congress
  demanded that the Crown restore colonial rights
  and called on the colonists not to buy British
  goods.

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Second Continental Congress

• 1776
• Established the Continental Army in June 1775.
  But the delegates held out the hope of peace with
  the Olive Branch Petition.
• Drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence

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Olive Branch Petition

• 1775
• Final offer of peace to Britain agreeing to be
  loyal if Britain addressed their grievances.
• It was rejected by Parliament.

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Battle of Bunker Hill

• At the beginning of the War, British troops were
  stationed in Boston.
• The Continental Army fortified Breeds Hill to
  counter the British plan.
• Gage led two unsuccessful attempts to take the
  hill the third time he was successful, but lost
  many men.
• This battle proved it was not going to be a short
  war.
• Breeds hill was mistakenly named for a nearby
  Bunker Hill.

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Declaration of Independence

• Asserted the right of people to overthrow an
  unjust government.
• Committee composed of Benjamin Franklin, John
  Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

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Looking Ahead

• The War heats up!
• The fight for independence.
• Movement from Confederation to Federal Union.