Toward Independence

1
Toward Independence

• Standard US8.1 Students understand the major
  events preceding the founding of the nation and
  relate their significance to the development of
  the American constitutional democracy.
• The events leading to the signing of the
  DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE

2
French and Indian War 1756 to 1763

• The dates of this war reflect the dates that the
  English and the French officially declared war on
  each other in Europe.
• George Washington at age of 22 in 1754 actually
  led the first battle of the war for the British.
• On May 28, 1754, he ambushed a small French
  detachment, the commander of which, Joseph Coulon
  de Villiers, sieur de Jumonville, was killed,
  along with nine of his men. The others were
  captured. This incident started the French and
  Indian War.

3
More French and Indian War

• Causes
• By using trading posts and forts, both the
  British and the French claimed the vast territory
  between the Appalachians and the Mississippi
  river, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of
  Mexico, known as the Ohio Country.
• Both European countries ignored Native American
  claims to the land in order to pursue their
  beaver pelt economies.
• The British colonists feared papal influence in
  North America (New France was administered by
  French governors and Roman Catholic hierarchy and
  missionaries such as Armand de La Richardie were
  active). For the predominantly Protestant British
  settlers, French control over North America could
  have represented a threat to their religious and
  other freedoms that were provided by English law.

4
French and Indian War cont

• Outcome Though most of the North American
  fighting ended on Sept. 8, 1760, when the Marquis
  de Vaudreuil surrendered Montreal and
  effectively all of Canada to Britain (one
  notable late battle allowed the capture of
  Spanish Havana by British and colonial forces in
  1762), the war officially ended with the signing
  of the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763. The
  treaty resulted in France's loss of all its North
  American possessions east of the Mississippi (all
  of Canada was ceded to Britain) except Saint
  Pierre and Miquelon, two small islands off
  Newfoundland. France regained the Caribbean
  islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, which had
  been occupied by the British. The economic value
  of these islands were greater than that of Canada
  at the time, because of their rich sugar crops,
  and the islands were easier to defend. Spain
  gained Louisiana, including New Orleans, in
  compensation for its loss of Florida to the
  British.
• The war changed economic, political, and social
  relations between Britain and its colonies.

5
Leading to War

• Remember the Stamp Act of 1765? It was
  established to help offset the cost of the French
  and Indian War.
• The Stamp Act of 1765 (short title Duties in
  American Colonies Act 1765 5 George III, c. 12)
  was the fourth Stamp Act to be passed by the
  Parliament of Great Britain and required all
  legal documents, permits, commercial contracts,
  newspapers, wills, pamphlets, and playing cards
  in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp.
• The Act was repealed on March 18, 1766. But

6
More problems

• Quartering Act 1765 This first Act (citation 5
  Geo. III c. 33) occurred on 24 March 1765, and
  provided that Great Britain would house its
  soldiers in America first in barracks and public
  houses, as by the Mutiny Act of 1765, but if its
  soldiers outnumbered the housing available, would
  quarter them "in inns, livery stables, ale
  houses, victuallinghouses, and the houses of
  sellers of wine and houses of persons selling of
  rum, brandy, strong water, cyder or metheglin",
  and if numbers required in "uninhabited houses,
  outhouses, barns, or other buildings", requiring
  any inhabitants (or in their absence, public
  officials) to provide them with food and alcohol,
  and providing for fire, candles, vinegar, salt,
  bedding, and utensils for the soldiers "without
  paying any thing for the same".

7
How I love the British

• Townshend Acts Passed in 1767 having been
  proposed by Charles Townsend, Chancellor of the
  Exchequer, just before his death. These laws
  placed a tax on common products imported into the
  American Colonies, such as lead, paper, paint,
  glass, and tea (though they did not place a tax
  on silk).
• All taxes were repealed in 1770 except one the
  tax on tea.

8
Boston Massacre

• The Boston Massacre was the killing of five
  civilians by British troops on March 5, 1770 and
  its legal aftermath, which helped spark the
  American Revolutionary War. Colonists were
  already resenting the Townsend Acts. Tensions
  caused by the heavy military presence in Boston
  led to brawls between soldiers and civilians, and
  eventually to troops shooting their muskets into
  a riotous crowd

9
Boston Massacre

• The first to die was Crispus Attucks, who was
  black. He is listed as the first American
  casualty of the Revolutionary War.
• This deeply divided the
• Loyalists and the Patriots
• The Boston Massacre is one of
• several events that turned colonial sentiment
  against British rule.

10
Welcome to the party!

• In 1770 there was still a small duty on tea from
  the Townsend Act
• Patriots could drink Dutch tea that was smuggled
  into the colonies.
• In 1773 came the Tea Act.
• The Act allowed the East India Company to
  undercut the prices of the smuggled tea.
• Oh this backfired because many Americans made
  their living off of smuggling tea.

11
Ok now what?!

• The act led to widespread boycotts of tea
  throughout the colonies.
• The Sons of Liberty, dressed up like Native
  Americans and threw 342 crates of tea from the
  East India Company ships Dartmouth, the Eleanor,
  and the Beaver into Boston Harbor. On December
  16, 1773.
• About 90,000 pounds of tea was dumped into the
  sea.

12
The Intolerable Acts

• The Intolerable Acts, called by the British the
  Coercive Acts or Punitive Acts, were a series of
  laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 in
  response to the growing unrest in thirteen
  American colonies, particularly in Boston,
  Massachusetts after incidents such as the Boston
  Tea Party.

13
What were they

• Did away with elective government making almost
  all positions in the government appointed, and
  under the Seal of Great Britain.
• Transfer any trial to Great Britain, and
  authorized coercive action to provide witnessess
  at those trials.
• Closed the Port of Boston until damages for the
  Boston Tea Party were paid (however, they never
  were).

14
More

• Required that troops be housed not only in
  commercial and empty buildings but in occupied
  dwellings as well.
• Allow English troops to poop where ever they
  pleased.
• Im sorry, I could talk about poop and mens
  fashion all day.. But enough is enough..lets
  have a Revolution.

15
A bit more from Chapter 5

• From 1650 to 1750 the population in the colonies
  grew from 50,000 to 1,000,000
• Part of the problem until 1750 was that the
  English government left the colonies alone.
• In 1754 the French built a fort in the Ohio
  Valley called Fort Duquesne.
• It is now called Pittsburgh

16
More still

• News of this fort upset the governor of Virginia
• He chose 22 year old George Washington to lead
  the army.
• In 1755 the British sent 1,400 troops to England
• The British changed to redcoats on their troops
• French sharp shooters and their Indian allies
  picked off 920 of them because they stood out
• In 1759 the British captured Canada

17
Even more

• Proclamation Of 1763
• To keep the Indians and the Settlers from killing
  each other because the Colonists wanted to move
  west of the the king drew a line down the
  Appalachian Mountains and to the Indians to stay
  on the west and the Colonists to stay on the
  east.
• The Colonists thought that this was an unjust use
  of governmental power, or tyranny.

18
Just a bit more

• The Colonists argued
• 1. The Appalachians were already settled
• 2. The farmers needed new land that land was to
  the west.
• 3. The settlers were already crossing to the west
• To keep the peace, the British army sent 7,500
  troops

19
More things that upset the colonists

• In 1767 to protest the Quartering Act the New
  York assembly refused to vote any funds for salt,
  vinegar and liquor.
• The British government refused to allow the New
  York assembly to meet again until the funds were
  restored.
• Tempers were rising.

20
Boycotts

• Samuel Adams organized a boycott of British goods
  because of the Townsend Acts.
• He one of the leaders of the Sons of Liberty.
• Women played a very important role in this
  boycott since they did most of the shopping.
• Women made their own clothes, brewed tea from
  pine needles and bought only American made goods.

21
Facts from the Boston Massacre

• Captain Thomas Preston was the commander of the
  British soldiers
• John Adams, Sam Adams cousin, was a patriot but
  he defended the British Troops who were put on
  trial for murder.
• Six were found not guilty and two were found
  guilty of manslaughter

22
Facts from the Intolerable Acts

• Boston Patriots declared that they would
• abandon their cities to flames before paying
  for the lost tea of the Boston Tea Party
• Virginia drafted a resolution that an attack on
  one of our sister colonies is an attack on all
  British America.