Causes and events leading to the

American Revolution

1763-1775

• What is perspective? • If two people look at the same

thing but see it two different ways, how do we know which person is right and which one is wrong?

• When you first look at this, do you see an old man with ivy leaves around him, or do you see a couple kissing?

• A rabbit, looking right?

• Or a duck, looking left?

• Who is right and who is wrong?

• "The Colonies were acquired with no other view than to be a convenience to us, and therefore it can never be imagined that we are to consult their interest."

Editorial• The London Chronicle, 1764

• “If our trade be taxed, why not our lands, or produce... in short, everything we possess? They tax us without having legal representation."

• Samuel Adams, 1765Founder of the Sons of Liberty

• There wasn’t just one single event that caused the American Revolution. And there wasn’t just one opinion on what the colonists should do. If there had been, then all colonists would have joined in the fight against the British. They didn’t. Many remained loyal to the king (loyalists) and opposed a revolution.

• The following events are just some of the things that led many to believe that theirs was a cause worthy of risking their lives.

• After viewing, you decide. Would you have remained loyal to the King – or would you have chosen to break away?

• Would you have risked your life for something you believed in?

• Many people died during the revolution. Was it a worthy cause?

• Make a timeline that looks like this.

When you see a slide with the British Flag, record the date and event above the

line. 1763 Treaty of Paris

•When you see a slide with a minute man, record the date and event below the timeline.

1763 Treaty of Paris

1764 Beginning of Colonial Opposition

Try to look at each event from the perspective of both the British and the Colonists.

• By the way, you won’t need to record something from every slide. Just the slides with either a British flag or a Minute man.

The Events

February 10,1763 • British and French sign the

Treaty of Paris, ending The French and Indian War. The cost of the war left a huge national debt hanging over the government of Britain. 

Perspective• The King felt that

the colonists should bear the burden of the expense of maintaining the colonies.

• The Colonists felt they did enough already without adding additional taxes:– Colonies provided raw materials to

England. – They provided markets for goods

produced in Britain (in other words, it gave England customers to sell to).

All of this they did with little or no say in a government that passed laws without consulting them first.

1764 • Sugar Act. Parliament, desiring

revenue from its North American colonies, passed the first law specifically aimed at raising colonial money for the Crown. The act increased duties (tax) on non-British goods shipped to the colonies. In other words, anything that was sold by the British, cost the colonists more money.

• Why would the cost of sugar affect the colonists? What did they need sugar for?

• Hint: Middle Passage• Answer: To make and sell rum. • If sugar (a necessary ingredient in

making rum), cost them more it would cut into their profits. They would make less money on the rum.

1764 • Currency Act. This act prohibited American colonies from issuing their own currency, angering many American colonists.

• This meant that colonies must pay all taxes with gold or silver coins.

• The more taxes that were required, the more gold and silver went to England, making it more and more scarce in the colonies.

• Without currency of their own, forced to pay for everything with gold, silver, or bartering (trading one thing for another), it became increasingly difficult for colonists to buy the things they needed.

1764• Beginnings of Colonial Opposition.

American colonists responded to the Sugar Act and the Currency Act with protest. By the end of the year, many colonies were refusing to use imported English goods.

March 22,1765

• The Stamp Act was passed by Parliament

• The act levied a tax on all newspapers, legal documents, pamphlets, almanacs, playing cards and dice by requiring that they bear a stamp.  The money from the tax was to be used to pay for the defense of the colonies.

This ignited a major cause of the American Revolution . With no representatives in parliament to plead their cause, the colonists grew increasingly angry at having no say in laws being passed that affected their lives. They protested against “taxation without representation.”

1765 The Stamp Act Congress

Meeting in New York City, this group of colonists sent petitions to King George III and to Parliament, saying Parliament had no right to tax the colonies. Parliament and the king ignored the petitions.

• Becoming increasingly frustrated at not being heard, American opposition was intense. Merchants refused to buy British goods, stamp agents were threatened and official stamps were destroyed. 

Tarring and feathering

• After the enactment of the Stamp Act, it was common to threaten or attack British government employees in the colonies. One way was by tar and feathering.

• Applying the burning hot tar to bare skin usually caused painful blistering and efforts to remove it often made the condition worse. The adding of feathers which stuck to the tar added to the humiliation and made the victim a comical figure.

• Tar could easily be found in the shipyards and everyone had feathers in their pillows. With the materials at hand, tarring and feathering was a common threat and punishment. Though the tarring was not usually fatal, it was extremely unpleasant.

• By November 1, 1765, the day the Stamp Act tax went into effect, there were no stamp commissioners left in the colonies to collect it.

1765

• Quartering Act. The British further angered American colonists with the Quartering Act, which required the colonies to provide barracks and supplies to British troops.

1767• Townshend Acts. To help pay

the expenses involved in governing the American colonies, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.

October 1, 1768

• British troops arrived in Boston to quell the growing unrest in the American colonies

March 5 1770• Boston Massacre. The

arrival of troops in Boston provoked conflict between citizens and soldiers. A group of soldiers surrounded by an unfriendly crowd opened fire, killing five Americans.

May 10 1773 • The Tea Act. Passed in Parliament to save the

East Indian Company - a British company- from bankruptcy. No new tax was imposed but what this act did was take the tea from the East Indian Company and ship it directly to the colonies to be sold at a bargain price. Because the act did away with the tax on British tea but kept the tax on the colonist’s tea, the company was able to undersell the colonial merchant’s tea. The British company's unfair advantage led to the near destruction of the American tea merchants trade.

December 16 1773

• In protest over the Tea Act, members of the Sons of Liberty dressed as Indians boarded three British ships in Boston harbor and threw the valuable tea overboard.

Boston Tea party

May 13, 1774

• Thomas Gage (a British General)

replaced the colonial Governor of Boston.

September 5 - October 25 1774 • Twelve colonies, all but Georgia, sent 56

delegates to Philadelphia to participate in the First Continental Congress.  The purpose of the First Continental Congress was to debate and plan a unified response to British policy and actions.  It was the first time many of these influential men had met face to face. 

September 1774• General Gage, the Governor

of Boston, responded to increased threats of violence from the American colonists by fortifying Boston Neck, the thin spit of land connecting Boston to the mainland.  This move effectively cut the city of Boston off from the rest of Massachusetts, placing the city under siege.

October 1774• General Gage

dissolved the Massachusetts General Court in an attempt to lessen the power of the colonists and increase the power of the king in Massachusetts. 

• Members of the court reconvened as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and voted to recruit 12,000 men for a militia (composed of American minutemen -- colonists prepared to fight the British on a minute's notice) and purchase 5,000 muskets and bayonets.

March 25 1775 • Patrick Henry

delivered his "give me liberty or give me death" speech to the Virginia Assembly in Richmond. 

March 30 - April 5 1770• General Gage ordered his troops on a

practice march around Boston.  The Massachusetts Provincial Congress at Concord viewed the British march as an act of open hostility. They issued formal grievances against the British government and adopted fifty-three articles of war against the British army. 

April 18 1775• General Gage planned a secret night march

on Concord to seize the colonists' store of weapons.

• Paul Revere immediately rode out over Boston Neck towards Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams, fellow members of the Sons of Liberty.  After Revere reached Lexington, he went to Concord where he was caught and questioned by six British officers.  The officers left Revere horseless and stranded near Lexington. 

April 19 1775• In Lexington, 130

minuteman met the British troops in attempt to stop the army from reaching Concord.  The American patriots were outnumbered and began to disperse.  However, a shot was fired and the British troops killed eight colonists and wounded ten. 

• And so began the American Revolution.

After looking at some of the causes and events that led to the American Revolution, you must now decide if you would have joined the struggle for independence or if you would have remained loyal to the king.

• List reasons for independence against independence

• Your decision?• Are you a patriot? Or a loyalist?

Your Task• You are to convince fellow colonials to

either remain loyal to the king or to fight for independence. Here are the different methods you may consider using:

• A letter to the editor of your local colonial paper.

• Political cartoon

• Speech

• Commercial

• Broadside

• Song