The Road to RevolutionEvents That Led to American Independence

Objectives• Today we will be able to identify the events that contributed

to increased tensions among the American colonists and their parent country of England.

This section will include• Salutary Neglect• The Stamp Act of 1765• The Townshend Acts• The Boston Massacre• The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party• The Intolerable Acts

Salutary Neglect• English officials only

lightly enforced their supervisory role in return for economic loyalty by the colonies.• Salutary neglect

planted the seeds of self-government in the colonies.

Impacts of French and Indian War

• Colonists united around a common foe.• Colonists had to pay

back the British for the war.• Proclamation of 1763• A permanent British army

of 10,000 soldiers enforced the proclamation

• Paid for by the colonists• Sugar Act and Stamp Act

The Stamp Act of 1765• The first direct tax

placed on the American colonies.• Special paper had to be

purchased for all legal documents, licenses, newspapers, pamphlets, and almanacs.• Packages, dice and

playing cards had stamp duties attached.

Stamp Act Protests• The Sons of Liberty were

formed as a secret resistance group made up of Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers.

• Samuel Adams, a powerful activist, was a member from Boston.

• Patrick Henry, a lawyer from Virginia, believed that colonists could only be taxed by their respective legislatures. http://www.history.org/almanack/people/bios/biohen.cfm

The Townshend Acts (1767)• An indirect tax levied

on imports.• A three-penny tax on

tea.• Colonists resisted

and yelled, “No taxation without representation!”

Tension Mounts in Massachusetts

• The Boston Massacre (1770) – 5 people were shot and killed by British soldiers during a protest.• The Boston Tea Party –

Boston rebels dressed up like Indians and sabotaged three British tea ships to protest the Tea Act.

The Intolerable Acts• In 1774, Parliament

passed a series of measures to punish the Patriots.• The Closing of Boston

Harbor.• Quartering Act-allowed

British soldiers to take over peoples homes.

• Placed Boston under martial law – Military Rule.

Committees of Correspondence

• These committees were organized to communicate with other colonies about threats to American liberties.

• Write a letter of correspondence to another colonist about some of the atrocities happening in the colonies in the 1770s.• Use class notes and textbook

pages 86-97 for examples of British violations of colonial liberty.

Fighting Erupts at Lexington and Concord• Minutemen (colonist soldiers)

began stockpiling weapons.• The British went to seize the

illegal stockpiles.• The first fighting between the

British and Americans occurred at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. The colonists eventually killed dozens of British soldiers.

• Shortly thereafter, the Americans occupied Boston.