Chapter 7: Prelude to War

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Chapter 7 Prelude to War

• Writs of assistance-1760
• Division
• Debt
• Sugar Act, 1764
• Admiralty courts
• Quartering Act, 1765
• Stamp Act, 1765
• Representation
• Stamp Act Congress
• Sons of Liberty
• British affected
• Declaratory Act, 1766
• Alienating elite
• Townshend (Revenue) Acts, 1767
• John Dickinson, Letters From a Farmer in
  Pennsylvania

• Massachusetts Circular Letter
• Boston Massacre March 5, 1770
• Committees of Correspondence
• Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts), 1774 (leave
  extra room)
• First Continental Congress, 1774
• Suffolk Resolves
• Declaration of Rights and Grievances
• The Association
• Lexington-Concord, April 1775
• Role of Black Americans
• Britain (make table)
• Americans (make table)

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Economy

• Based on mercantilism
• Still some restrictions on production, trade,
  exports, etc.
• Why?
• England didnt want competition from a colony
• Americans were still better off than the average
  Englishman

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Writs of Assistance

• As the English began to enforce mercantilism, the
  colonies protested
• Smuggling increased
• Writs of Assistance (1760) issued by the Mass.
  Governor allowed search and seizure of illegally
  imported goods no evidence needed
• Even many Brits thought this wasnt right
• Powerful tool to fight the smuggling

4th Amendment
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Division

• Favoritism by Brits toward South
• North seemingly couldnt trade freely and were
  controlled by the Navigation Acts
• South was the pet because they grew non-English
  products
• Revolution begins in New England.why?
• South also suffered had to sell only to Brits
  (price control)
• Forced into debt by falling prices.agitation by
  the south
• The people of Massachusetts said the Virginians
  liberty cry was Give me liberty or give me
  debt.
• Many felt mercantilism was milking the colonies
  and returning little

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Debt

• The British were in debt from war
• 140 million pounds
• Half of this debt came from the colonies
• Brits asked the colonies to pay 1\3 of the cost
  of maintaining troops in America
• 10,000 troops

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Sugar Act-1764

• Prime minister George Greenville called for
  stricter enforcement of the Navigation Acts and
• Sugar Act
• To raise revenue by increasing the duty on
  imported sugar
• Tax on sugar
• Stricter enforcement of the Navigation acts
  through.
• Admiralty courts
• Smugglers now tried in British courts
• No jury
• Burden of proof on the defendant
• Judge gets the goods (stopped in 1768)

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Quartering Act-1765

• Required some colonies to provide food and
  quarters for British troops and pay for goods
  needed by them
• It didnt force colonists to allow soldiers into
  their homes
• Not widespread

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Stamp Act-1765

• Direct tax Internal tax
• Raise revenue for military in colonies
• Stamps had to be purchased for paper goods
• documents
• newspapers
• dice
• almanacs
• playing cards
• It was the most resented tax by the colonist
• English citizens had paid a heavier stamp tax for
  years
• Most upset were coastal towns
• Not one stamp was issued
• Tax collectors were threatened
• Boycotts of British goods

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Representation

• Colonists conceded the right of Parliament to
  legislate matters that affected the empire
• No right to impose taxes when they had no
  representation
• Virtual representation all English subjects
  were represented in Parliament
• Colonists didnt want direct representation
• Why?
• Outnumbered

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Stamp Act Congress, 1765

• Meeting of 9 colonies to repeal the Stamp Act
• Important because it was an attempt to unify the
  colonies (only 9 of the 13 met)
• Colonies blamed the British govt. not local
  officials or the King
• Non-importation agreement boycott
• They asserted that their rights were being
  violated as British citizens and wanted
  representation in Parliament
• No taxation without representation
• Why would colonist accept taxes from colonial
  legislatures?
• You will read this in the documents

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Sons and Daughters of Liberty

• Secret organization to plot against the British
• Led by Samuel Adams in Massachusetts
• Urged boycotts of British good and use of
  colonial goods
• Sometimes used violence

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• The Sons of Liberty were so effective that no
  agents would take taxes for the Stamp Act..many
  had resigned
• British effects
• Manufactures, shippers, laborers all hurt by
  boycotts
• Why did 7.5 million Brits have to pay taxes for 2
  million colonists who wouldnt pay 1\3 of their
  own defense?
• 1766 Stamp Act repealed and to save face
• Declaratory Acts, 1766 Parliament has a right
  to pass laws for the colonies
• It was basically ignored by the colonists
• Seen they could hurt Britain
• George III still a hero

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Resistance fighters

• When the boycott was over, the upper class now
  had leadership of the resistance movement
• Middle class businessmen had formed the Loyal
  Nine to fight the Stamp Act precursor to Sons of
  Liberty

• The S of L didnt want to alienate the elite and
  forbade its followers from carrying weapons to
  avoid violence and keep the elite on their side

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The King is still ok...

• No one blamed the King
• Who was blamed?
• KG3- viva la vida parody

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Townshend Acts, 1767also called Revenue Acts

• New colonial minister Charles Townshend created
  these taxes on manufactured goods
• Hurts theory of mercantilism
• Used to pay British officials royal governors,
  judges, etc. to remove power from local
  legislatures
• Tax on glass, tea, paint, lead
• Hurt merchants the most
• Also allowed for a search of homes for smuggled
  goods writs of assistance
• More resistance to the tax and it was repealed,
  except for the Tea tax

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More Protests

• Massachusetts Circular Letter-1768
• Written by James Otis and Samuel Adams
• Urged Parliament to repeal the acts
• British officials overreacted to the letter (few
  paid attention in the colonies to it)
• Threats to dissolve colonial legislatures and
  more British troops
• Colonies became more united

• John Dickinson
• Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania
• Parliament could regulate commerce but duties
  were a form of taxation and couldnt be levied on
  the colonies without consent of the assemblies
• No taxation without representation

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Boston Massacre, 1770

• There were lots of British troops in Boston
• Boston resented them
• Occupied, Catholic, Jobs
• Some began to harass them
• Colonist threw snowballs, etc. at soldiers (60
  townspeople v. 10 redcoats)
• Someone opened fire
• 5 colonists killed (6 wounded) including Crispus
  Attucks first man killed for independence
  (mulatto)
• The officers were taken to court, but acquitted
  defended by John Adams

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Propaganda
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Gaspee Affair

• British ships were ravaging the coast
• 1772 The Gaspee ran aground off the coast of
  Rhode Island
• Colonists disguised as Indians came onto the
  ship, removed the British and set it on fire
• No one was brought to trial despite British
  attempts

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Committees of Correspondence

• Organized by Sam Adams in 1772 Mass.
• To spread propaganda and share info about the
  British
• Political education
• Virginia created a standing committee in the
  House of Burgesses for this
• By 1774, all the colonies had them
• Ben Franklin
• BR

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East India Tea Company

• By 1773, revolution didnt seem inevitable or
  possible
• Boycotts were weakening
• East India Tea Company had a monopoly on tea for
  Britain
• Applied this to the colonies
• They could sell tea at lower prices even with the
  tax
• Still upset at a tax

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Boston Tea Party, 1773

• Smugglers upset (John Hancock)
• The Boston Tea Party was organized (there were
  other tea parties)
• They dressed like Indians and dumped 15,000
  pounds of tea into Boston Harbor
• Not everyone supported this
• Washington feared retaliation
• Franklin wanted to repay the Brits
• The British responded

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Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts), 1774

• Justice Act (Murder Act)
• Anyone charged with murder enforcing royal
  authority would be tried elsewhere for their
  protection
• Quartering provision
• Quebec Act (added later)
• Guaranteed French their Catholic religion,
  customs, etc.
• To upset the colonists
• Boston was placed under martial law by the new
  Governor General Thomas Gage

• In response to the Boston Tea Party
• Four Parts
• Boston Port Act
• Closed Boston Harbor until damages were paid
• Massachusetts Government Act
• Reduced power of the Mass. Legislature and gave
  more power to the royal governor.restricted
  town meetings

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First Continental Congress, 1774

• As a result of the Intolerable Acts, the colonies
  met to discuss how to protect America
• They agreed to meet again in 1775 if things
  didnt improve
• Independence was not a topic
• Georgia didnt send reps
• Some colonies began to create militias
• Massachusetts Minutemen
• The Suffolk Resolves were adopted which rejected
  the Coercive Acts, called for repeal, urged
  colonists to resist them
• A Declaration of Rights and Grievances was sent
  to the king to petition him to remove the acts

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The third part was the creation of the Association

• This document called for a complete boycott
  non-importation and exportation, non consumption,
  etc.
• Closest so far in the colonies having a unified
  written constitution

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Lexington-Concord, April 1775

• Immediate cause of the Revolutionary War
• King George said Mass was in a state of rebellion
• General Gage sent troops to get weapons from the
  rebels
• Paul Revere, William Dawes, Samuel Prescott
• One if by land, two if by sea
• First attack was at Lexington
• Then to Concord
• Brits marched back to Boston
• 4000 minutemen assembled in 12 hours

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The Midnight Ride of Paul Revereby Henry
Wadsworth LongfellowListen my children and you
shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul
Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in
Seventy-fiveHardly a man is now aliveWho
remembers that famous day and year, etc.

• Written by Longfellow during the Civil War to
  inspire patriotism for the North
• School House Rock- Shot heard around the World

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Black Americans

• Many blacks fought on both sides
• 5000 enlisted in the colonies mainly from the
  north who escorted their masters
• Some British offered freedom for slaves that
  fought for England (yeah, right)

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Britain

• Advantages
• Larger population
• 7.5 to 2.5 million
• Professional army
• 50,000
• 30,000 Hessians
• 50,000 Loyalists
• Indians
• Experienced leaders and soldiers

• Disadvantages
• Troops stationed in Ireland
• France waiting
• No desire in Britain to fight
• Poor leaders in America
• Far Away
• No urban centers in America (capital)
• Military budget cuts
• Fear of countryside

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Americans\Colonists\Rebels

• Advantages
• Good leadership
• Diplomats (Franklin, GW)
• Foreign aid
• Volunteer European officers
• Defensive fight
• Home court
• Self sustaining in agriculture
• Better marksmen

• Disadvantages
• Badly organized Army
• Jealousy among colonies
• Worthless money
• Inflation
• Limited supplies of
• Weapons
• Manufactured Goods
• Unreliable militia
• Trading with Brits
• 1\5 of pop. Loyalists

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• Too Late to Apologize A Declaration YouTube
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