The Road to

Revolution

1763-1775

Chapter 7

Roots of Revolution

• Costs of Seven Years War put major strain on

English economy

• January 1763, British debt was

£122,603,336

• Interest payment was £4,409,797 by

1766 it had increased by £14,000,000.

• British people were maxed out on taxes.

English taxes fell heavily on gentry and

middle class, not so much on poor

• Britain needed to increase revenue from

America

• Few people benefitted from industrialization

Political Trends in Colonial America

• English Attitudes

• English culture was reserved and resistant to change

• Belief that purpose of government was to preserve “king’s peace” not

welfare of the people

• Service in Parliament was for power and special interest not ideology or

policy therefore no initiative or change

• Republicanism in America

• Citizens subordinate their selfish interests for the public good

• Society and government dependent on virtue of citizenry

• Required selflessness and civic involvement

• Opposed hierarchy and autocracy

• Whig Ideology

• Whig Theory: described two sorts of threats to political freedom:

• a general moral decay of the people which would invite intrusion of

evil and despotic rulers

• the encroachment of executive authority upon the legislature, the

attempt that power always made to subdue the liberty protected by

mixed government

• Whig ideology had a stronger influence in America than England.

• Whigs opposed patronage

• Encouraged people to vigorously protect attacks on rights

Privy Council and Board of Trade

• Privy Council was responsible for governing

colonies.

• more interested in Europe, not America

• Actual decision making power about America to the

Board of Trade,

• only concerned about economic issues

• Gave an opportunity for colonial governments to

raise in influence.

• Wanted to stop whites from unfairly trade and

land grabs from Indians as a way to minimize

conflicts with the Indians

• favored using military as a way to more

efficiently collect taxes

• army in America made sense – too many threats

to colonies – French, Spanish, Indians and there

was lots of space to be defended

• Military in America also protected jobs in

London

Mercantilism

• “bullionism” defined power largely in terms of gold,

• mercantilism adds a sophisticated set of propositions about exchange, balance of

trade, manufacturing and raw materials

• Colonies needed not only for raw materials, but markets as well

• Looked at Americans as culturally inferior and as tenants

• Americans expected not to manufacture competing products or achieve

economic or political self-sufficiency

• Navigation Acts

• Required trade only on British ships

• Tariffs collected in Britain

• Limited what products could be shipped, and where they could be delivered

Currency Issues

• Coins were real gold or silver because it

represented “real” wealth

• Colonies had negative balance of trade resulting in

currency leaving colonies

• Lack of bullion led to colonies issuing paper

currency

• Led to rapid devaluation and inflation

• Currency Act 1751 prohibited New England

colonies from issuing paper money

• Angered Americans that believed act protected

British merchants at the expense of Americans

• 1764 Currency Act extends to all colonies

Navigation Acts

• Prime Minister and Chancellor of Exchequer (Treasury)

George Grenville needed to raise money for wars Britain

had fought against France

• Colonists had benefitted from wars

• Wars eliminated French, Spanish, Dutch and Indian

threats on land and sea

• needed to find out a way to increase revenue and pay

British debt

• plan was to lower the taxes, but actually collect

them

• wanted to regulate trade in expanded empire

• Decided to enforce Navigation Acts which had been

ignored as part of salutary neglect

• Would punish smugglers and strengthen royal

Admiralty Courts

Revenue Act of 1764 (Sugar Act)

• British West Indies colonies were represented in

Parliament (“Sugar Lobby”)

• Wanted protectionist policies and taxes to protect

West Indian interests

• Sugar Act reduced duty put in place in Molasses Act of

1733

• Grenville planned to enforce it unlike Molasses which

was ignored

• First tax passed by Parliament to bring revenue

directly to Crown

• Designed to raise revenue, not regulate trade

• Higher taxes put on coffee and wine

• Admiralty Courts established in Revenue Act

• established a presumption of guilt.

• Tried before a judge, not a jury

• judge was a royal appointee Lord George Grenville

Protests Against Sugar Act

• Americans argued Sugar Act favored British West

Indies at expense of America and Britain

• Many Royal Navy officers seized any ships, even if

were not breaking the law.

• St. John incident – Americans fire batteries at

British Royal Navy ship that attempted to stop

smuggling

• Polly incident –customs collector John Robinson

attempted to seize Polly because it was smuggling

molasses

• mob arrived took goods, destroyed ship, then

local sheriff arrested Robinson

• Opposition to Sugar Act concentrated more on harm

done to trade, not issue of taxation

• Began process where Americans explored the

nature of their rights vis a vis Britain

British Response to Sugar Act Protests

• Sugar Act was repealed

• Grenville would not listen to arguments that

Britain lacked the right to tax America

• He needed Americans to acknowledge that

right

• Quartering Act 1765

• required housing of soldiers in vacant

houses or taverns also provisions for housing

• Americans argued that military wasn’t

needed now that France and Indians were

defeated

• Whigs believed purpose was for Britain to

take American liberty

Stamp Act (March 22, 1765)

• Grenville passed tax to fund military presence in North America

•

• Required a tax be paid on all pieces of paper

• Included playing cards, legal documents, marriage licenses –

impacted all social groups

• Needed to be stamped to prove tax was paid

• Could be fined or jailed for refusing or evading tax

• Was lower than similar tax in Britain

• Grenville believe Americans were only being asked to pay fair

share

American Protests against Stamp Act

• Virginia Resolves (May 31, 1765)

• House of Burgesses was first to argue

Parliament had no right to tax colonies under

British Constitution

• Was sent to other colonies – “peer pressure”

on other colonies to respond in kind

• Stamp Act Congress (October 1765)

• 9 of 13 colonies sent representatives to New

York (MA, CT, RI, NJ, NY, PA, DE, MD, SC)

• Demand repeal of Sugar and Stamp Acts

• Protested increased power of Admiralty

Courts

• Significant step towards unifying colonies

• Nonimportation Agreements

• Colonists boycotted British goods

• Allowed all citizens to participate in protest

• Increased public awareness and anger

Stamp Act Congress – National Archives

American Reaction

• Sons of Liberty formed (originally called “Loyal Nine”)

• Were shopkeepers and merchants who wanted to

protest Stamp Act

• Sam Adams was a leader

• Partially motivated to strenghten Massachusetts

response following Virginia Resolves

• Secret organization to terrorize tax collectors

• Would tar and feather tax collectors and

opponents such as governor Hutchinson and

stamp collector Andre Oliver

• Burned down homes and businesses of

opponents

• Burned and hung effigies

• In Connecticut a tax collector was put in

coffin and buried until he resigned

• All Stamp tax collectors resigned before the law

took effect

• Anti-Stamp Act riots happened in many colonies

• Much violence stemmed from pre-Stamp Act political,

economic and Great Awakening religious rivalries

Debate over Stamp Act

• Americans did not want to lose their rights as Englishmen

• Until the Stamp Act, colonies accepted their subordinate position and

never explored the constitutional implications of such a relationship

• Made distinction between Parliament’s right to legislate versus tax

• Argued since America was not represented in Parliament, it could not tax

but colonial legislatures could

• Since tax paid in pound sterling, it would make currency disappear from the

colonies. Poor would be disproportionately affected

• Political impact was important Stamp Act was seen in context of Sugar Act,

not only was for revenue but replaced trial by jury with admiralty courts –

dangerous precedent of usurpation of rights. Stamp Act was seen as a

continuation of the assault on liberty

• Blame put on Grenville with Earl of Bute inspired by the devil. Many saw plot

to destroy all liberty in America and England

• American position supported by William Pitt and Rockingham Whigs in

Parliament

Debate over Stamp Act

• John Locke argued people must consent PRIOR to giving up rights, including

those of property. Property is what distinguishes a free man from a slave.

• Slaves are those “who are obliged to labor and toil only for the benefit of

others; or what comes to the same thing, the fruit of whose labor and

industry may be lawfully taken from them without their consent, and they

justly punished if they refuse to surrender it on demand, or apply it to

other purposes than those, which their masters, of their mere grace and

pleasure, see fit to allow.”

• Grenville argued not all British were represented, but were taxed

• Such as manufacturing cities

• Said by challenging authority to tax, colonies challenged Parliaments

ability to rule

• Price of protection from the empire was obedience

• “virtual representation” – every member of Parliament represents all

British citizens

• By linking legislative and taxing authority, Grenville forces colonists to

dispute authority of Parliament

Effects of American protests

• British merchants wanted law repealed

• British merchants supported repeal to alleviate economic damage

• 13% reduction in trade between Britain and America

• Grenville loses position as Prime Minister and was replaced by Marquess of

Rockingham (Charles Watson-Wentworth)

• Benjamin Franklin warned House of Commons that laws could lead to

rebellion

• Franklin argued colonists didn’t mind external taxes, but resented

internal taxes

• An internal (direct) tax is paid directly by colonists

Franklin’s testimony to House of Commons

Declaratory Act (March 1766)

• Act proclaimed Parliament’s right to make

laws binding in “all cases whatsoever” for

colonies

• Members of Parliament feared if backed down

from Stamp Act without Declaratory Act,

Parliament would lose ability to tax colonies

• Act was needed as a precursor to give

Parliament political ability to repeal the Stamp

Act.

• Act denied the constitutional argument, but

conceded the financial argument

• May 2, 1766 colonists receive word Stamp Act

was repealed

• Every colony except Virginia passed

resolutions thanking the King

• Most British did not believe in the ideological

arguments of Americans, assumed they just

didn’t want to pay tax

Townshend Acts (1767)

• July 1766 William Pitt (Earl of Chatham) replaces Rockingham as Prime

Minister and made Charles Townshend Chancellor of Exchequer

• Townshend wanted to make royal officials independent of popular control

and increase British control of East India Company

• Townshend wins power struggle and takes control of

government in March 1767

• Revenue Act (1767)

• Proposed taxes on imported items lead, glass, paint,

tea

• Were external taxes, so Americans should agree

• Money would pay governors salary which would end

colonial “power of purse”

• Commissioners of Customs Act (1767)

• established the American Board of Customs Commissioner

• Reorganized customs service for collecting taxes

• Suspending Act (1767)

• Ordered New York governor to veto New York Assembly laws until NY

started giving supplies to British troops and obeyed Quartering Act

• British tax collectors were corrupt

Americans Response

• Americans attempted responses to Stamp Act

• American merchants opposed boycotts because it hurt American business

• Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania by John Dickinson was a series of

editorials that argued Townshend Acts violated American constitutional rights

• Argued Britain could regulate but not tax colonies

• Smuggling became widespread

• Circular Letter

• Samuel Adams and James Otis get a Circular Letter authorized from

Massachusetts legislature.

• Was designed to spread ideological argument against Townshend Act and

insure coordinated response.

Boston Massacre (March 1770)

• Britain sent troops to America in response to

protests

• Americans resented military presence

• British soldiers made it worse by taking jobs

from American workers

• Colonists harass British soldiers

• British shoot into crowd killing 5

• Crispus Attucks was first killed

• Sam Adams described event as a massacre by

bloodthirsty soldiers

• John Adams defended soldiers at trial and they were

acquitted of murder

Britain Backs Down

• Lord North became Prime Minister in

1770 and orders all Townshend Acts

repealed except a three pence Tea Tax

• Was left to prove Britain had right

to tax colonists

• Committees of Correspondence

• Organized by Sam Adams in

Massachusetts

• Were created to keep

communication within and between

colonies about British actions

• Increased cooperation between

colonies

• Mobilized “common” people

• Virginia created first intercolonial

committee of correspondence

Lord North

Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773)

• Tea Act

• British East India Company was going bankrupt, so British government gave it

a monopoly on tea trade in America

• Made tea cheaper than ever, even with the tax

• Believed was a plot to drive companies out of business and to trick Americans

into agreeing to pay tax

• Tea symbolized British tyranny

• Americans stopped Tea shipments in many colonies

• Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts refused to be intimidated

• Believed in rule of law, even though disagreed with tax

• Would tolerate violation of colonial liberties in favor of law

• Colonists disguised as Indians boarded ships in Boston and threw tea into harbor

• Actions hardened British resolve to establish legislative dominance over colonies

Intolerable (Coercive) Acts (1774)

• Designed to punish Boston

• Boston Port Act

• Closed port of Boston until British East India Company was repaid for

tea

• Massachusetts Government Act

• Reduced power of colonial assembly

• Banned town meetings

• Most government positions were to be

appointed by King or royal governor

• Administration of Justice Act

• Royal officials and soldiers would be tried in

England for their crimes

• Quartering Act

• Expanded powers of government to house soldiers in private or public

buildings

Quebec Act (1774)

• Extended Quebec’s border to Ohio River

• Interfered with claims of

Massachusetts, Connecticut,

Virginia and New York

• No representative assembly and special

rights to Catholic Church

• Was intended by British to pacify French

Canadians and integrate them into

British empire

• Americans saw it as part of

punishment of Intolerable Acts

• Americans feared spreading of

Catholic religion into territories

• Americans saw it as a limit on liberty

in North America

First Continental Congress

(September 5 - October 26, 1774)

• 12 colonies sent 56 delegates to discuss response to Britain’s actions

• Canadian and Caribbean colonies were invited but did not show

• Radicals led by Patrick Henry and Sam Adams

• John Adams played major role in guiding Congress towards independence

• Created “The Association” to begin a complete boycott against Britain

• Declaration of Rights and Grievances

• Argued colonies could only be taxed by their own assemblies

• Britain ignored or rejected all American petitions

• Pushed Americans from reconciliation to rebellion

Patrick Henry Sam Adams

Paul Revere’s Ride

• Massachusetts began collecting military

supplies at Concord

• Britain decided to destroy supply

base

• And capture Sam Adams and John

Hancock

• Paul Revere’s Ride (April 18, 1775)

• Revere and William Dawes went to

country side to warn of British

movement

Battles of Lexington and Concord

• Lexington

• On way to Concord

• 70 American “Minutemen” militia tried to stop 700 British

• 8 Americans killed

• Concord

• British continued to Concord but were met by larger force that made

British retreat

• Colonial militia used guerilla tactics to attack British army from woods as

they retreated

• 300 British casualties