The Road to Revolution 1754-1776

By Rebecca Camarillo 10/02/08

THE FRENCH & INDIAN WAR

• 1754-1763 over disputed claims by England and France to the Ohio River Valley

• France built forts in valley to protect fur trade• England wanted the land for settlement• Most Indians Tribes (except Iroquois) sided with French

• 1754: 22 year-old George Washington led Virginia militia against French at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). Were defeated by French. 1st Battle of War.

• 1755: British General Edward Braddock led troops against French at Fort Duquesne. Lost ½ troops and life when insisted on fighting in column formation.

• 1763: British Victory after the fall of Quebec.

KEY BATTLES

TREATY OF PARIS 1763

1) France gives England: Canada and all land east of Mississippi River, Except New Orleans

2) France gives Spain: (Ally) French land west of Mississippi plus New Orleans

3) Spain gives England: Florida

WHY WAS IT IMPORTANT?

1. Britain now wanted to tighten control of their very large North American Empire.

2. Britain was heavily in debt due to the war

3. Britain had to find a way to defend its new western frontier from Native American attacks (Pontiac’s Rebellion) and those pesky Spanish

PROCLAMATION of 1763

• Britain passes Proclamation of 1763, forbidding colonists from settling west of Appalachians

• AS A RESULT, more conflict…– American settlers wanted this land and were

ANGERED by the law– Their westward expansion over the

Appalachian Mountains created more conflicts with Native Americans.

WHY IMPORTANT?

• England’s debt now doubled because fighting wars all over the world.

• Englishmen already paying 20% in taxes. They now wanted the colonists to pay their fair share of taxes.

• Colonists were angered that they had to pay taxes on land that they could not settle.

Sugar Act of 1764

• Parliament passed a law that taxed sugar and molasses in the colonies in order to produce revenue for the king.

• If caught smuggling, the person would be tried by a military court and not according to the English law of trial by jury. (Took away rights to trial by jury!)

Quartering Act of 1765

• With so many British soldiers now stationed in North America, the King and Parliament needed help housing and feeding them. So…

• Colonists were required to house, feed, and provide supplies to the British soldiers in the colonies.

WHY IMPORTANT?

• Taxation without Representation!

• Trial by jury is guaranteed in the English Bill of Rights –that right was taken away from the colonists.

• Families now had to spend lots of money to house and feed troops that they did not want in the colonies.

• “No Taxation Without Representation!”• Stamp Act Congress Oct 1765

-1st time colonies met to consider acting together in protest

• Boycotts of British Goods• Sons of Liberty Formed as secret

society whose mission was to oppose British policies –riots and customs officials tarred and feathered.

The Colonies Protest the Stamp Act

Declaratory Act

• Colonists efforts pay off and stamp act is repealed in 1766

• But, parliament passes Declaratory Act-Parliament has supreme authority to govern colonies

Townshend Acts

• 1767: Revenue duties on tea, glass, lead, paper, and paints passed by Parliament at the insistence of Charles Townshend, chancellor of the treasury, and King George III

• Writs of Assistance: non-specific search warrants allowed government officials to search homes without having reasonable cause to do so.

• Townshend believed that Americans would accept external taxes to regulate trade as legal.

WHY IMPORTANT?• Writs of assistance violated

English Bill of Rights regarding sanctity of the home and the right to warrant. Colonists resent hard British rule.

• Sam Adams and other colonists began to circulate letters to all the colonies, asking them to boycott British goods

?Why did the British think that these taxes would be more acceptable to the colonists?

BOSTON MASSACRE

• 1768: 1,000 British soldiers arrived in Boston. Colonists and soldiers did not like each other.

•

• March 5, 1770: Boston youth and dockworkers started trading insults with the soldiers. A fight broke out and the soldiers fired on the crowd.

• 5 colonists died. The first to die was an African American freeman named Cripsus Attucks. He was called a hero.

John Adams Successfully Defends the Soldiers

John Adams Clip

COMMITTEES of CORRESPONDENCE

• 1770-1773: A quiet period when King George avoided further angering the colonists

• 1772: Sam Adams and Richard Henry Lee helped Boston and 80 other Massachusetts towns organize Committees of Correspondence to spread word of any new British Aggression.

?Why were these committees of correspondence important? What effect could they have on bringingthe colonists together?

TEA ACT

• 1773: Parliament passed a law that gave the British East India Company control over the American Tea Trade

• Only tea brought into the colonies on British East India ships would be sold by approved merchants and it would have a tax on it!

• Colonists were used to buying smuggled tea from Holland and not paying taxes on it.

WHY IMPORTANT?

• Colonist Angry!• Shippers Angry!• Merchants Angry!• Protests against the Tea Act occurred in

all of the colonies. The citizens let it rot on the docks or blocked ships from landing

?Why weren’t the colonists satisfied with this new, smaller tax to regulate trade?

BOSTON TEA PARTY

• A group of men disguised as Native Americans boarded three ships docked in Boston Harbor

• They unloaded the tea and dumped it into the harbor. 342 chests of tea destroyed!

• Believed to be the Sons of Liberty led by Samuel Adams

Boston Tea Party

WHY IMPORTANT?• One group of colonists felt that Britain would

finally understand how much they opposed taxation without representation

• Other colonists said that destroying the tea was not the way to settle disputes over taxes. They offered to pay the British for the tea that was destroyed if Britain would repeal the Tea Act

• Britain wanted repayment for the tea AND the men responsible to stand trial

• Led to further thoughts of rebellion by the colonists!

INTOLERABLE/COERCIVE ACTS

• Laws passed to punish the Massachusetts colony and serve as a warning to other colonies:– Closed to Port of Boston

until destroyed tea was paid for

– Banned Committees of Correspondence

– British officials charged with crimes would stand trial in Britain

– Appointed a new governor

WHY IMPORTANT?

• Other colonies supported Massachusetts with food and money

• Committees of Correspondence called for a colonial meeting to discuss next steps

FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

• 1774: 56 delegates from every colony except Georgia met in Philadelphia to respond to the Intolerable acts

• Voted to ban all trade with Britain until Intolerable Acts repealed

• Each colony was to begin training troops

WHY IMPORTANT?• Colonists were determined to uphold colonial

rights• Planted seeds for future independence• Parliament responded by increasing the

number of troops in the colonies and the number of restrictions on the colonists

Patrick Henry& The Virginia House of Burgesses

“Give me Liberty or Give me Death!”Audio 2