Long Term Cause!Conflict between Great Britain & the Colonies grew over issues of taxation, representation, & liberty!

Action Taken by Great Britain

Re-Action Taken by the American

Colonies

STAMP ACT, Passed in 1765. required colonists to purchase special stamped paper for documents, licenses, newspaper, etc. Violators would be tried in Vice-Admiralty (royal) courts.

STAMP ACT, Passed in 1765. 1. Organized Sons’ of Liberty. Harassed customs workers, stamp agents 2.Colonial assemblies made collective protest. Stated Parliament lacked authority to impose taxes on colonies.3. Boycotted British manufactured goods.

OUTCOME: March 1766, Parliament repealed Stamp Act

Unit 1#4

Action Taken by Great Britain

Re-Action Taken by the American Colonies

TOWNSHEND ACTS: Passed in 1767. In-direct taxes (duties) on imported materials, glass, lead, paint, etc. PLUS, 3-penny tax on tea.

TOWNSHEND ACTS: more organized resistance, more boycotts.

SEIZED SHIP: Brits claimed J. Hancock ship did not pay taxes. Stationed 2,000 troops in Boston

BOSTON MASSACRE: mob gathered in front of customs house, armed clash w/ soldiers, left 5 colonists dead.*The assemblies of Massachusetts set

up committees of correspondence*

TEA ACT: Great Britain grants British East India Tea Co. right to sell tea untaxed to colonists. Colonial merchants have to pay tax, so this cut out the colonial merchants.

BOSTON TEA PARTY: Colonists protested, Dec 1773, group of Bostonians disguised as natives, boarded 3 tea ships in the harbor & dumped 18,000 pounds of tea.

The Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre (March 5,1770)(March 5,1770)

INTOLERABLE ACTS: 1.Shut down Boston Harbor2. Quartering Act-forced homes to house soldiers3.Martial law-Gage is appointed governor of Mass., imposes military rule

1ST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS: Met in Philadelphia, 1774. If Brits used force, colonies could fight back. Colonies had right to run their own affairs.

Action Taken by Great Britain

Re-Action Taken by the American Colonies

TROOPS TO CONCORD. Gage received reports of munitions kept outside Boston. Sent troops to seize & destroy munitions.

SONS OF LIBERTY ACT: Paul Revere, Wm. Dawes & Sam Prescott ride through countryside to warn people. Battle of Lexington started next morning.

Listen, my children, and you shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and

year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry archOf the North Church tower as a signal

light,One, if by land, and two, if by sea;And I on the opposite shore will be,Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm.

“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”

 by Henry Wadsworth

Longfellow1807-1882

Written April 19, 1860

The Road to Revolution ContinuesJune 1775: Misnamed, actually happened at Breed’s Hill. British troops are surrounded in Boston. Took 3 tries, but they finally broke out of Boston.

Summer 1776: Continental Congress decides to issue a formal declaration. Thomas Jefferson is chosen to write it. [“their just powers from the consent of the governed”] July 2, 1776, voted unanimously, and adopted on July 4th.

Colonists extend the Olive Branch Petition to King George III, in a hope for peace. The King rejected this petition.

The Declaration of Independence was read to a crowd on July 4 th, 1776. The closing vow was “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”

POST DECLARATION: Colonists now had to pick sides. Many choose, for various reasons, to stay loyal to the crown. Others supported the patriot cause, mostly for economic opportunity. Half the population stayed neutral.

Ideas for Revolution

Ideas are very powerful. Words can provoke actions.

Words for Revolution

Common SenseThomas Paine wrote…

time to declare independence, trade

freely. A chance for a better society

Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson wrote…greatly influenced

by John Locke, natural rights= unalienable rights.