Warm up: Set up your notes for today.

The American Colonies Declare Independence

• Take Cornell Notes from the slides.

• Copy the notes in red.

• Write the notes in blue in your own words.

• The words in black are for your information.

• At the end we will create questions in the left column.

The French and Indian War

• 1754 to 1763 war fought over the land in America between the English and French.

• What was that land called? __________________• It was called the Seven Years War in Europe.• Called the French and Indian War because the

Indians helped the French in the war against the British. The Indians had nothing to lose. The British were taking their land, the French were not.

• The British won, but at a cost a lot of money- British Debt

Join, or Die Political Cartoon by Benjamin FranklinA political cartoon calling for American colonies to band together for

protection against Indians and the French. First published in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754.

• What was the name of the plan?______________

Proclamation of 1763

• Forbid colonists to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.

• Created to protect colonists from the Indians

• Many colonists reacted with anger toward the Proclamation. They did not like being told what to do or where they could live.

Taxes

• French and Indian War cost a lot of money.• Parliament (the British government) decided to tax

the colonies to help pay for it. • The first tax was the Sugar Act of 1764. It placed a

tax on molasses and sugar imported by the colonies.

• Stamp Act of 1765 placed a tax on all printed material, such as newspapers and playing cards.

• This tax upset the colonists even more.

No Taxation without Representation

• The colonists claimed “no taxation without representation” because they were being taxed but they had no vote in Parliament and had no say in how the colonies were being governed.

• The colonists started a boycott, or a refusal to buy certain goods, from the British.

Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty

• Samuel Adams led the protests in Boston against the taxes.

• He began a secret society called the Sons of Liberty.

Tar and Feather

• The Sons of Liberty used violence to scare off the tax collectors.

• The Stamp Act was repealed (to do away with) because of all the protests.

The Boston Massacre

• Colonial men were shouting insults at the British soldiers. • They started throwing things, probably snow balls and

rocks. • Someone yelled “fire” and the Red Coats (what the British

soldiers were called) shot. • Five colonists were killed. • These were the first Americans

killed in the War for Independence.

Crispus Attucks

Sam Adams started calling the incident the Boston Massacre. He used the incident to get more people angry at the British- propaganda (communication used to persuade people or send a message)

A Tax on Tea

• Parliament began taxing tea. Tea was the most important beverage in the colonies.

• The colonists decided to boycott all British tea.

The Boston Tea Party

• Colonists dressed up like Mohawk Indians and boarded three British ships full of tea.

• The colonists dumped all the tea into the harbor, about 90,000 pounds.

• King George III was furious!

The Intolerable Acts

• Laws passed to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party.

• The port of Boston was closed until the tea was paid for.

• The Quartering Act was put into place which forced colonists to quarter, or house and supply British soldiers.

More Tea Parties

• Boston was not the only city to have a “tea party.”

• They took place in Charleston, New York, Annapolis, and others.

The burning of the Peggy Stewart in Annapolis.

Political cartoon showing the reaction to the Boston Tea Party

First Continental Congress

• A group of important men met to discuss the crisis in the colonies.

• Militias were set up. (citizen soldiers)

The “Shot Heard Round the World”

• British soldiers in Boston were sent to capture the militias weapons.

• Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Israel Bissell warned the colonists that, “The Red Coats are coming.”

• British troops marched to Concord to capture colonial leaders and the ammunition and weapons that were stored there.

• The first two battles of the American Revolution were fought at Lexington and Concord, when the American militia met up with British forces.

The Second Continental Congress

• The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to discuss the next move of the colonists.

• Appointed George Washington as commander of the colonial army.

• War with Great Britain was imminent.

Common Sense

• Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine was a pamphlet that encouraged colonists to declare independence from Great Britain.

• Common Sense was very influential because it was read by many people.

The Declaration of Independence

• The United States first needed to declare independence from Great Britain.

• Thomas Jefferson, at the young age of 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.

• The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.

• That is why we celebrate Independence Day on July 4th.

• This is the day that the United States of America declared their independence from King George and Great Britain.

Benjamin Franklin

• Benjamin Franklin, one of the most famous men in the world, was sent to France to ask for military aid as well as a loan.

• And the war was on!

Declaration of IndependenceBreakdown

Part I Preamble

•1. According to this paragraph what is the goal of the writers?

•2. What is the purpose or why are they writing this document?

•3. Make a prediction of what will come next in the document based on what you have read in the “Preamble.”

• 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.

Part I Preamble

Part II Declaration of Natural Rights

•1. What rights are the writers claiming that they have?

•2. According to this paragraph, what is the purpose of the government?

Declaration of Natural Rights

• 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.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

Part III Grievances

•Summarize the grievances listed by the groups

Directions for Group Work

•1. Read the complaints assigned to your group.2. Discuss each complaint with your group, and then answer the questions below.3. Select recorder, readers (2-3), and a presenter.A recorder writes up the notes from the group discussion and hands them to the presenter. (Group should discuss notes before being presented.)The readers read the original complaints aloud to the class.The presenter will read the groups responses to the class.All members of the group will participate and give their ideas as the group discusses the complaints.

Part IV Attempts to Address Grievances

1. How did the colonists try to address these grievances earlier? 2. Why did they feel it was necessary to state this in the Declaration?

Attempts to Address Grievances

•In every stage of these Oppressions, We have petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

•Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.

•We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

Part V Declaring Independence

1. What words from this paragraph actually declare the colonists’ independence?

2. What rights and powers do they state that they now have?

Declaration of Independence•We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Part VI The Signers

Which names on the list of signatures do you recognize?

1. What names do you recognize?

2. Would you have signed the document? Why or why not?

3. What might have happened if the Americans had lost the war against Britain?

4. What were the risks associated with writing and signing the document?