XI. Parliament Passes “Intolerable Acts”• “Repressive Acts/Coercive Acts” 1774

ag. Boston and Massachusetts = “Intolerable Acts”– Boston Port Act closed harbor until

damages repaired– Chartered rights taken away– Town meetings restricted– Accused British now sent to England

for trial• Quebec Act

– Guaranteed Catholicism to 6,000 French in Canada

– Retained customs and institutions– Boundaries increased

XII. The Continental Congress & Bloodshed• Many colonists sympathetic• (1st)Continental Congress 1774

– Philadelphia– Colonial grievances– All colonies but Georgia

• Created The Association– Complete boycott of Bri.

goods, in or out– Will meet again if necessary– Closest to a union

• Battle of Lexington and Concord*– Paul Revere’s ride?*– “Shot heard round the world”*

Battle of Lexington

and Concord

Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul RevereOn the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year.He said to his friend, “If the British march By land or sea from the town tonightHang 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 alarmThrough every Middlesex village and town,For the country folk to be up and to arm…So through the night rode Paul Revere,And so through the night went his cry of alarmTo every Middlesex village and farm…

Who fired first?!Last Wednesday, the Troops of His Majesty commenced hostilities upon the people of this Province, with great cruelty, not less brutal than what our ancestors received from the vilest savages of the wilderness. The British troops came in sight of (the militia), and the Commanding Officer (said) “Disperse, you rebels—throw down your arms and disperse.” Upon this, one of the British officers discharged his pistol, which was instantaneously followed by the firing by 4 or 5 of the British soldiers…. OR…

Upon their arrival at Lexington, the British troops found a group of the country people armed on a green…Upon the King’s troops marching up to them in order to inquire the reason of their being so assembled, they went off in great confusion. Several guns fired upon the King’s troops from behind a stone wall and also from the meetinghouse and other houses. As a result of the attack by the rebels, the troops returned the fire and killed several of them…

Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo EmersonBy the rude bridge that arched the flood,

their flag to April’s breeze unfurled.

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

and fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,

we set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

when, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit that made these heroes dare

to die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

the shaft we raise to them and thee.

XIII. Imperial Strength and Weakness• Strengths

– More people– Professional army and

navy– Hessians– American Loyalists– Indians

• Weaknesses

– Ireland - troubles

– France – retaliate

– British gov’t confused

– Britons didn’t want to kill American cousins

– English Whig factions

– Second rate generals

– Soldiers mistreated

– Scarce provisions

– Too far from home

– Geographical expanse

– No real Amer. nerve center

XIV. American Pluses and Minuses• Strengths

– Leadership• Washington,

Franklin

– French aid– Volunteer officers

• Marquis de Lafayette

– Defensive war– Self sustaining

agriculture/self reliant– Better marksmen – Moral strength of a

just cause

• Weaknesses– feebly organized– Continental Congress

disjointed– No Articles of

Confed. until 1781– Sectional jealousy– Loyalists*– Economic difficulties

• Money gone so print “Continentals”

– Inflation/debtors

             

XV. A Thin Line of Heroes• Military supplies scarce in colonies• Valley Forge – 1777-78

– Bitter conditions• Goods in short supply• Militiamen unreliable

– Baron Von Steuben• Blacks fought• Lord Dunmore: Freedom

to blacks if fight for British• Only minority of colonials worked for cause of independence

– Much profiteering– Never more than 20,000 in army at one time

Who said this?• Remember the ladies, and be more

generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion…

• Abigail Adams

– Letter to John Adams at the Second Continental Congress, 1776

Who said this?

• Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum.

• Samuel Adams

– 1776

Who said this?

• The moment I heard of America, I loved her. The moment I knew she was fighting for freedom, I burned with a desire of bleeding for her…

• Marquis de Lafayette

– 1757-1834

Who said this?• (To a British officer)

–You’re too late. I’ve alarmed the country all the way up. We should have 500 men at Lexington soon.

• Paul Revere

– April 18, 1775

AP Question #1The Intolerable Acts contained measures providing for

all of the following EXCEPT

a. The naval blockade of Boston Harbor

b. The revocation of the Massachusetts Charter

c. The application of an import tax to all British goods sold in the American colonies

d. The authorization of British troops to requisition empty private buildings for military use

e. Closure of the Boston Harbor until damages were repaired

AP Question #2The 1773 act that led to the passage of the so-called

“Intolerable Acts” was

a. The Quartering Act

b. The Boston Tea Party

c. The Importation Act

d. The Quebec Act

e. The Stamp Act

AP Question #3Who held the Boston town meeting that led to the

Boston Tea Party?

a. Samuel Adams

b. John Adams

c. Paul Revere

d. Patrick Henry

e. John Dickinson

AP Question #4How did the colonists respond to the Intolerable Acts?

a. They convened the First Continental Congress

b. They convened the Second Continental Congress

c. They initiated the Battle of Lexington and Concord

d. They wrote the Newburgh Address

e. They reopened the Boston Harbor

AP Question #5All of the following colonies sent delegates to the First

Continental Congress EXCEPT

a. Rhode Island

b. Georgia

c. South Carolina

d. New Hampshire

e. Massachusetts