Progression to the Revolution

Conditions in the Ohio Valley

• Claimed by French, Iroquois policies, French construct forts, Iroquois align with British

Fort Duquesne / Fort Necessity (1754 and 1755)

• Fort Duquesne, Washington constructs Fort Necessity, • Washington loses and surrenders, French/Indian tactics• British attempt again under Braddock and lose

The French & Indian War Begins

The Ohio River Valley

Washington as Colonel of the Virginia Regiment, by

Charles Willson Peale, 1772.

The War Intensifies

Braddock being shot, Washington is trying to help him.

• Outbreak of War (1756)– French land in Canada, colonists under attack,

Europeans realign

• Resulting British Policies– William Pitt leads, enlisting colonists, seizing

supplies, quartering

• Colonial Reactions to British Policies– Resentment, NYC riot (1757), British relax

policies (reimburse, colonial recruitment, more Br. troops)

North American conflicts

• British seize forts, Iroquois passive, Battle of Quebec (Sept 13, 1759) French surrender in 1760

Harsh Tactics• Dispersal of Acadians, “scalp bounties”,

killings on frontier

Worldwide

• French consistently lose (Caribbean, India, Africa)

Treaty of Paris (1763)

• British Gains in NA: – Canada and E of Mississippi River from France– Florida from Spain

• Spanish Gain in NA: French Louisiana W of Mississippi River from France

• British– Gains large territory, debt, shifting view of

colonies, – end of salutary neglect, resentment of colonial

leaders

• Colonists– Common efforts, authority of colonial assemblies, – resentment of British soldier, pride in colonial

soldiers

Native Americans

• Iroquois alliance fades, colonists encroach, loss of lands,

• Pontiac’s Rebellion, Proclamation of 1763

Ending of the French and Indian War• British gain land, Pontiac’s

Rebellion, Proclamation of 1763.

• British need to pay debt and for 10,000 soldiers

• King George III choses George Grenville (Prime Minister) to get Britain out of debt

• Grenville suspects colonists were smuggling in goods

• Crack down on mercantilism policies (Navigation Acts)

American Revenue Act (Sugar Act) (1764)

• INDIRECT TAX, Changed rates on foreign imported sugar, mainly hurt New England traders

• Eliminated due process and allowed seizure of goods

Currency Act (1764)

• Colonies must stop using paper money, harder to pay debts

Stamp Act (1765)• DIRECT TAX, tax placed on printed

(and gaming) goods– Requires colonists to purchase official

stamped stationary for all legal documents

– Tax affects items such as • newspapers • licenses • contracts• playing cards• dice• …and much more

Stamp Act (1765)

• Complaints regarding “No taxation without representation”

• Stamp Act congress and colonial boycotts

Sons of Liberty formed (1765)

• Started by Isaac Sears in CT to protest Stamp Act

• Spread and take hold in Boston

Raising Money, Clamping Down

FYI: Samuel Adams was a brewer, but is not related to the

beer of the same name.

• 1765: Sons of Liberty– secret resistance group,

partly under control of Sam Adams

– harassed the British officials with threats, mobs and demonstrations

– almost all of the Stamp Act officials resigned

Mutiny Act (Quartering Act) (1765)

• Colonists must pay for barracks for soldiers OR pay for them to stay in other buildings

Declaratory Act (1766)

• British had repealed Stamp Act

• Asserts Parliaments ability to make laws for colonies

Townshend Acts (1767)

• INDIRECT TAX, new customs on imported goods, allowed general writs for searches for smuggling, boycotts

Nonimportation agreements (1768-1769)• Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia agree to not

import British goods

Virginia Resolves (1769)

• States that only House of Burgesses have right to tax Virginia

• Statewide nonimportation law

The Colonists Push Back

Daughters of Liberty (1769)

• Helped lead boycotts, creation of homespun cloth industry

The Women

of Edenton

Boston Massacre (1770)• Britain sent 1000

troops (lobsterbacks) to Boston,

• Colonists throw snow and rocks at troops at customs house,

• British fire and kill 5 colonists

• Charged with manslaughter and only lightly punished

• British withdraw all Townshend taxes except on tea

Gaspee Incident (1772)

• customs ship Gaspee abuses powers to search for smugglers

• Rhode Islanders board Gaspee after it runs aground

• Suspects to be sent to Britain, RI asks for help

Committees of Correspondence (1773)

• Jefferson’s idea, to coordinate efforts against the British

Tea Act (1773)

• British East India company in trouble,

• Lowered tax to make cheaper than smuggled Dutch tea

• BEI could sell directly to shopkeepers, hurt merchants

• Committee on correspondence tries to prevent tea shipments

Boston Tea Party (1773)• NYC and Philly turn tea ships back,

Charleston confiscates,

• Boston – 150 men board ship dressed as Mohawks, dump 342 chests of tea into harbor

Coercive Acts and Quebec Act (Intolerable Acts) (1774)

• Meant to punish Massachusetts and end colonial challenges,

• Shut down Boston Harbor until tea is paid for,• All Massachusetts officials appointed, not

elected• British officials have trials moved to England• 2000 troops sent to New England to be

quartered in homes

• Quebec has officials appointed and given Ohio Valley lands

First Continental Congress (1774)

• House of Burgesses dissolved after supporting Boston

• Call made for a Congress of all colonies, 12 show (no GA)

• Condemned Coercive Acts and organize boycotts

• Pledge to meet again in one year

Lexington and Concord, (1775)

• Massachusetts organized Provincial Congress

• General Gage order to arrest Provincial Congress

• Wanted to take Concord supply depot

• Shots fired at Lexington, British turned back at Concord

Second Continental Congress (1775)

• Named militia army around Boston the Continental Army

• Named George Washington commander in chief

Bunker Hill and struggle over Boston (1775)

• Colonists stand up to British at Bunker Hill

• British trapped in Boston and evacuate

Prohibitory Act (1775)

• British shut down all colonial trade, naval blockade,

• Recruit mercenaries

Common Sense (1776)

• Published by Thomas Paine, 100,000 copies are sold,

• Shifts focus of colonial anger from Parliament to George III

Patriots vs. Loyalists

• Growing rift between colonists who want to break with England and those who want to remain loyal

• Patriots: colonists who feel the colonial life will improve by splitting with England and achieving independence

• Loyalists: colonists who feel either that the colonies are better off under the British crown or that the colonies can’t successfully split from the crown and therefore they don’t want to be tried for treason (or both)

Declaration of Independence (1776)

• Issued by Continental Congress, authored by Jefferson

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Declaration of Independence (1776)

Excerpted grievances from the Declaration of Independence which translate into the adoption of

the United States Constitution

• He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

• He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers

• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:• For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders

which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent• For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury