THE REVOLUTION BEGINS

Guided Reading Activity Answers

The Gaspee Affair

The Customs Agents V. Smugglers standoff continued. Americans burned the hated customs ship Gaspee after it ran aground in 1768.

Committees of Correspondence were created to allow Americans to better communicate with their neighbors.

The Tea Act actually reduced the cost of tea – supplying American markets with tea directly from the East Indies. Americans were nevertheless outraged by the tax added to the product by the Parliament.

The Tea Act of 1773

The Sons of Liberty and all patriotic Bostonians dressed themselves as Mohawk Indians and pitched the tea – 340 chests worth – into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.

The Boston Tea Party

The Intolerable Acts

The British called them the Coercive Acts:

1. The Boston Port Act closed Boston’s Harbor. 2. A military governor was appointed to Boston to

rule over Massachusetts – Gen. Thomas Gage. Martial law would ban town hall meetings…

3. Trials would now be conducted in England – for soldiers and citizens.

4. Thousands of soldiers would have to be quartered by Bostonians.

The quartering of British soldiers had been resented since the year 1766, when the first Quartering Act was passed. Now, the British soldiers were viewed as the direct representatives of a tyrannical government.

Over 2,000 troops were moved to Boston to enforce the laws.

The Quebec Act

The Quebec Act gave self government – granted, self government appointed by the Crown – to Quebec.

The territory of Quebec was also expanded to include the Great Lakes region and parts of the Ohio River Valley.

To the colonists, this made Westward migration even less attractive – they would have to share a government with the French.

The Intolerable Acts

Patrick Henry of Virginia

“I know not what course others may take, but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

- Patrick Henry,

- May, 1774

The First Continental Congress

The Suffolk Resolves were a series of pronouncements which (a) demanded the Americans resist the Coercive Acts and (b) told colonists to arm themselves against the British to keep their rights.

The Declaration of Rights and Grievances was a statement written by John Adams which expressed loyalty to the Crown, but also demanded resistance through the use of non-importation and boycotts.

The Suffolk Resolves The Declaration of Rights and Grievances

Militiamen who trained and drilled on the outskirts of Boston in preparation for an attack by the British military were called minutemen. They pledged to be ready for battle at a moment’s notice.

Minutemen

About one third of Americans supported the crown. Those who remained loyal to England were called loyalists.

Loyalists

The supporters of American independence were called Patriots.

Patriots

About one third of Americans were Patriots and one third were Loyalists; the third in the middle, though, may have been a little larger: the indifferent. Convincing the indifferent to support the war effort took a lot of time and energy: Franklin, Revere, and Thomas Paine all did their part!

The Indifferent…

“The Redcoats are a-coming! The Redcoats are a-coming!”

Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott

Lexington was the first skirmish of the war, when the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” was fired.

The Battle of Lexington

The Battle of Concord took place at the Old North Bridge, and American forces were able to force the British to retreat all the way to Boston.

The Battle of Concord

The leader of the Continental Army was none to impressed when he met the undisciplined, “lower sort” of soldiers which would become the Continental Army.

General George Washington of the Continental Army

The Battle of Bunker Hill was not a victory militarily, but it was in terms of morale. The American soldiers acquitted themselves quite well in battle. They were only forced to retreat due to a lack of ammunition.

Bunker Hill

Written by John Dickenson, the Olive Branch Petition was a last gasp effort to achieve reconciliation with the English. It failed, and war became inevitable.

The Olive Branch Petition

Thomas Paine was the author of Common Sense. The pamphlet was meant to inspire Americans to join the war effort. The follow up work which Paine composed, The American Crisis, was used to motivate the soldiers at Valley Forge, and elsewhere. Washington ordered the pamphlet read to all of his troops.

Common Sense, by Thomas Paine