The Road to revolution

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The Road to revolution The Cause  
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• Stamp Act
• Declaratory Act
• Townshend Acts
• Battle of Golden Hill
• Boston Massacre
• Gaspee Affair
• Tea Act
• Boston Tea Party
• Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)
• First Continental Congress
• Patrick Henrys liberty or death speech to
  Virginians
• New England Restraining Act

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John Dickinson
Sam Adams
John Hancock
James Otis
Thomas Hutchinson
John Adams
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Charles TownshendRevenue Act of 1767 Indemnity
Act Commissioners of Customs Act Vice Admiralty
Court Act New York Restraining Act
"The superiority of the mother country can at
no time be better exerted than now."
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(No Transcript)
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Letters from a Farmer sent to
Then Circular Letters
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Colored copy of 1768 engraving by Paul
RevereGovernor Francis Bernard instructed
General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief, North
America, to send "such Force as You shall think
necessary to Boston."
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The Liberty
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Battle of Golden HillJanuary 19, 1770

• 1884 print, commemorating the Battle of Golden
  Hill

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Christopher Seider (sometimes "Snider")
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BOSTON MASSACREMarch 5, 1770
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(No Transcript)
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Eyewitness Account 1

• Thirty or forty persons, mostly lads, being by
  this means gathered in King Street, Capt. Preston
  with a party of men with charged bayonets, came
  from the main guard to the commissioner's house,
  the soldiers pushing their bayonets, crying, make
  way! They took place by the custom house and,
  continuing to push to drive the people off
  pricked some in several places, on which they
  were clamorous and, it is said, threw snow balls.
  On this, the Captain . . . said, damn you, fire,
  be the consequence what it will! One soldier then
  fired, . . . the soldiers continued the fire
  successively till seven or eight or, as some say,
  eleven guns were discharged.

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Eyewitness Account 2

• The people continued to insult and defy this
  party of soldiers...pelting them with sticks and
  balls of ice, and
• calling out to them Dam you, you rascal, Fire!
  You dare not fire! Fire and be Damed. These
  expressions were frequently repeated during
  which time Captain Preston spoke often to the
  Mob, desiring them to be quiet and disperse for
  that, if they continued their attack upon him and
  his party, he should be obliged to fire upon
  them. But his humane endeavors were to no
  purpose. The people continued their attack upon
  the soldiers till they were provoked beyond all
  patience. A large stickor a piece of ice, that
  was thrown at a grenadier on the right of the
  party, struck him with violence and made him
  stagger, upon which both he and the soldier next
  to him fired their pieces.

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• A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre
• (Pro Patriot)
• A Fair Account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance in
  Boston
• (Pro Loyalist)

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• Henry Pelham Print

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• Jonathan Mulliken Print

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The Neck VersePsalm 51

• Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy
  loving kindness according unto the multitude of
  Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
• The trial-verse of those who claimed benefit of
  clergy and if they could read, it would save
  their neckthey would only be burnt in the hand
  and set at liberty.

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The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and
the Soldiers, procured me AnxietyIt was,
however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly
and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and
one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered
my Country. Judgment of Death against those
Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon
this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or
Witches, anciently. This however is no Reason
why the Town should not call the Action of that
Night a Massacre, nor is it any Argument in
favour of the Governor or Minister, who caused
them to be sent here. John Adams, on the third
anniversary of the massacre
John Adams would later write of the Boston
Massacre "On that night, the foundation of
American Independence was laid.
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Gaspée AffairJune 9 and 10, 1772
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AnORATIONupon theBEAUTIES of LIBERTYOr,
TheEssential RIGHTSof theAMERICANS_____Rev.
John Allen_____delivered in the Second Baptist
Church, Boston3 December 1772
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• Consider then, my Lord, how cruel, how UNJUST,
  how unanswerable before God and Man it must be,
  by any violence and power to destroy the rights
  of the Americans.
• the Americans will not submit to be SLAVES they
  know the use of the gun and the military art we
  well as any of his Majestys troops.
• Is not the day of
• the watchmen of America come,
• who watch for the rights of the people,
• as the sentinels of the land, to defend them from
  every invasion of power and destruction?
• See your danger?death is near?destruction is at
  the door?Need I speak? Are not your harbors
  blockaded from you? Your castle secured by
  captives?your lives destroyed?revenues imposed
  upon you?taxation laid?military power
  oppressing.
• Every Christian and Son of Liberty in America
  Loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy
  burdens, let the oppressed go free.

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BOSTON TEA PARTYDecember 16, 1773
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Philadelphia Tea Party October 16, 1773 and
December 25 1773
Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams I once
heard you say that the active business of the
American Revolution began in Philadelphia in the
act of her citizens in sending back the tea
ship, and that Massachusetts would have received
her portion of the tea had not our example
encouraged her to expect union and support in
destroying it... The flame kindled on that day
October 16, 1773 soon extended to Boston and
gradually spread throughout the whole continent.
It was the first throe of that convulsion which
delivered Great Britain of the United States
Thomas Hutchinson
The Beaver
Tea Act May 10, 1773
The Dartmouth (No Image Exists)
The Eleanor
Says using cheap tea to "overcome all the
patriotism of an American."
Sam Adams
This meeting can do nothing further to save
the country.
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"The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor" by
Nathaniel Currier, 1846
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LORD NORTH
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Lord North said to the House of Commons on April
22, 1774

• The Americans have tarred and feathered your
  subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your
  ships, denied all obedience to your laws and
  authority yet so clement and so long forbearing
  has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us
  now to take a different course. Whatever may be
  the consequences, we must risk something if we
  do not, all is over.

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INTOLERABLE ACTS(COERCIVE ACTS)
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• Boston Port Bill
• Massachusetts Regulating Act and Government Act
• Administration of Justice Act
• Quartering Act
• Quebec Act

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First Continental CongressSeptember 5 October
26 1774

• Two Successes
• Compact among the colonies to boycott British
  goods
• Provided for a Second Continental Congress to meet

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PATRICK HENRY SPEECHMarch 23, 1775
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Reactions to the speech

• Edmund Randolph said the convention sat in
  silence for several minutes.
• Thomas Marshall told his son John Marshall, who
  later became chief justice of the Supreme Court,
  that the speech was one of the most bold,
  vehement, and animated pieces of eloquence that
  had ever been delivered.
• Edward Carrington, who was listening outside a
  window of the church, asked to be buried at this
  spot. In 1810, he got his wish.
• George Mason, said Every word he says not only
  engages but commands the attention and your
  passions are no longer your own when he addresses
  them.

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• It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.
  Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no
  peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale
  that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears
  the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are
  already in the field! Why stand we here idle?
  What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they
  have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to
  be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
  Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
  others may take but as for me, give me liberty
  or give me death!

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"The Revolution was effected before the War
commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and
hearts of the peopleThis radical change in the
principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections
of the people, was the real American
Revolution.John Adams