Liberty Brew Ladder

♦ British Actions lead to . . .

♦ Colonial Response!!!

Writs of Assistance

♦ Legal Document which allowed British naval officers to inspect colonial ship (to check for smuggled goods). The British did not need to have any reason at all to search.

♦ Response: They said Writs violated their rights as British citizens

Proclamation of 1763

♦ British barred the settlement of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains

Colonial Response:

♦ Prevented some from moving west, others moved West anyway

Sugar Act, 1764

♦ Tax on molasses and sugar♦ British actually lowered the tax, but it was

enforced for the first time.♦ Smugglers tried without juries♦ Colonial Reaction:

– Taxation without representation is wrong!– Trial without juries is wrong!

Stamp Act, 1765

♦ Required revenue stamps to be put on all publications and legal documents (newspapers, wills, marriage papers, etc

♦ Colonial Response♦ Organized Stamp Act Congress:fought the

tax, Sons of liberty: they boycotted British goods

Declaratory Act, 1766

♦ Claimed the British could make laws and raise taxes whenever they wanted

♦ Reaction: Not much. Stamp Act was repealed, so they overlooked this act

Quartering Act, 1765

♦ Required the colonist to quarter (only feed) British troops in America.

♦ Reaction: New Yorkers refused, Bostonians grew more upset

Townshend Act, 1767

♦ Tax on tea, glass, lead, paper, and silk

♦ Allowed writs of assistance

♦ Reaction: Colonists signed non-importation agreements-stop importing goods taxed by Townshend Acts.

Boston Massacre, 1770

♦ March 5, 1770♦ Snowballs and rocks thrown at British

soldiers♦ Unknown person shouted “Fire”♦ 5 colonists were killed♦ Crispus Attucks, former slave, first to die

for liberty

Boston Massacre cont’d

♦ Sam Adams publicizes it with propaganda (using the press to prove or exaggerate a point of view)-calls it a massacre of innocent victims

♦ Paul Revere prints an engraving showing unarmed men and women being fired upon

♦ John Adams, a lawyer, defends the British troops

Reaction to Boston Massacre

♦ Colonists Propaganda♦ British respond by repealing the most of the

Townshend Acts, but left the tax on tea.

Tea Act, 1773

♦ Removed taxes paid by the British East India Company (had 15 million pounds of extra tea)

♦ Let BEIC sell directly to colonist without paying taxes-cut out the colonial merchant middleman

Colonial Response: Boston Tea Party

♦ December 16, 1773: 60 members of the Sons of Liberty dressed up as Mohawk Native Americans and threw 342 chests of tea overboard on three different ships

Intolerable Acts, 1774

♦ Britain:

• Closes the port of Boston

• Town meetings could only be held once a year

• British officials committing crimes in the colonies would be tried in Great Britain

• Stronger Quartering Act

First Continental Congress

Continental Congress, 1774

♦ Responded to Intolerable Acts by:– Forming an association to boycott British trade– Declared Intolerable Acts unconstitutional– Claimed their liberties as Englishmen had been

violated– Urged each colony to form a militia (an army of

citizens)

First Continental Congress

♦ -September 1774♦ -56 delegates from 12 colonies (Georgia

didn’t show)♦ -divided opinion over what to do♦ -agreed to boycott British goods and

stop exports to England until Acts were repealed

♦ -urged Mass. to set up their own gov. and collect its own taxes

♦ ♦

1st Continental Congress cont’d

♦ -Declaration of Rights and Grivances-denying Britain because their rights as Englishmen had been violated

♦ -colonies set up militias (armies of citizens)

♦ -resolved to meet again if demands weren’t met

Massachusetts Prepares

♦ -Minutemen-colonist ready to fight at a moment’s notice-preparing for war

♦ -patriots (those loyal to the colonies)-start building up ammunition and guns

British Moves Toward Concord

♦ -General Thomas Gage sent 700 troops to Concord, Mass. where the minutemen had stockpiled their weapons

“The British Are Coming” (thanks Paul)

♦ -the midnight ride of Paul Revere

♦ -April 18, 1775

♦ -warned the militia that the British were coming by the Charles River

Lexington and Concord

♦ -70 minutemen meet the British at Lexington, a town near Concord

♦ -no one knows who fired “the shot heard round the world”

♦ -found no guns at Concord

♦ -British lose 73, 200 wounded