Chapter 5

 

I.                   Relations with Britain

    

A.    A feeling of distrust between the colonists and Britain grew do to

1.      British soldiers stationed in the colonies and on the frontier

2.      The Proclamation of 1763

3.      The passing of trade laws and the Sugar Act

 

                     Colonists feared that British soldiers might interfere with    their liberties, and they saw the proclamation as limiting their freedom.

 

B.    George Greenville, the British finance minister, began to watch colonial trading more closely in order to catch colonists who were involved in smuggling. In 1764, customs officials were able to obtain writs of assistance to search homes and warehouses for smuggled goods. Colonists were outraged by this intrusion without warning.

C.    Parliament passed the Sugar Act in 1764 to stop the molasses smuggling between the colonies and the French West Indies.

 

1.      The act lowered the tax on imported molasses.

2.      The British hoped that by lowering the tax, the colonists would be encouraged to pay the duty on foreign molasses. When Britain collected the taxes, its revenues would increase.

3.      The Sugar Act also allowed special courts that had judges, not juries, to hear smuggling cases. The colonists were outraged again because this took away their basic right of trial by jury.

 

II.                The Stamp Act

 

A.    The Stamp Act taxed almost all printed material in the colonies such as newspapers, pamphlets, wills, and playing cards. British officials placed a stamp on all printed materials. Colonists were opposed because the British Parliament taxed the colonists directly, and it had passed the act without their consent.

B.    The colonists protested this act.

      

1.      In Virginia, Patrick Henry, although accused of treason by his opponents, persuaded the burgesses to take action against the Stamp Act. They passed a resolution saying that they had the “sole exclusive right” to tax their citizens.

2.      The Sons of Liberty, originally organized in Boston by Samuel Adams, protested by burning effigies, raiding and destroying houses of British officials, and matching along the streets to protests Britain’s taxing of Americans.

3.      Boycotts against importing British and European goods occurred. Nonimportation agreements signed by merchants, artisans, and farmers hurt British merchants.

 

C.    In October, Congress petitioned the king and Parliament saying that only their own assemblies could tax the colonies. In March 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.

D.    Parliament passed another act, the Declaratory Act of 1766, on the same day it repealed the Stamp Act. The act allowed Parliament the right to tax and to make decisions for the British colonies “in all cases.”

 

III.             New Taxes

 

A.    Parliament passed the Townshend Acts of 1767, which taxed imported goods at the port of entry. It taxed basic items such as glass, tea, paper, and lead-items that the colonists did not produce and therefore had to import.

B.    Another boycott occurred in hopes of showing Britain that only the colonies’ representatives had the right to tax them. The Daughters of Liberty, an active group in the protest, urged Americans to wear homemade fabrics and produce other goods so as not to buy British products.

 

 

IV.              Trouble in Boston

 

A.    Parliament sent two regiments of troops (often referred to as redcoats) to Boston. They set up camp in the heart of the city. These soldiers were in some cases rude, and violent toward the colonists. Because Boston resented the presence of the soldiers, fighting broke out between the redcoats and Bostonians and continued throughout the next year.

B.    The Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, was a result of the heated tension between the redcoats and the Bostonians. Townspeople wielding weapons marched through the streets toward the customhouse. The redcoats fired, killing five colonists. Among the dead was Crispus Attucks, an African American dockworker.

C.    The Boston Massacre led colonists to call for stronger boycotts of British goods. Colonial leaders used the killings as propaganda against the British.

D.    Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts except for the tax on tea.

E.     Some colonial leaders still called for resistance to British rule. In 1772 Samuel Adams revived the committee of correspondence in Boston to circulate colonists’ grievances against Britain. Other colonies began committees of correspondence that brought together protesters opposed to British measures.

 

V.                 A Crisis over Tea

 

A.    Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773 to save the British East India Company from going under. This act gave the East India Company a favorable advantage over colonial merchants because it was able to ship its extra tea to the colonies without paying most of the tea taxes.

B.    Because its tea was sold directly to the shopkeepers at a low price and bypassed colonial merchants, the tea from the East India Company was cheaper than any other tea. The colonists again boycotted British goods to denounce the British monopoly.

C.    The Daughters of Liberty marched through town and burned the East India Company’s tea. Colonists in Boston and Philadelphia planned to stop the company’s ships from unloading. In all colonial ports except Boston, colonists forced the company’s ships to return to Britain.

D.    In Boston Harbor in December 1773, the royal governor ordered the tea unloaded. At midnight, the Sons of Liberty disguised as Indians boarded the ships and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. This became known as the Boston Tea Party.

E.     The king and Parliament vowed to punish Boston and the people of Massachusetts for using the Boston Tea Party to resist British rule. They passed the Coercive Acts.

F.     These acts closed Boston Harbor until the colonists paid for the ruined tea. Closing the harbor presented Bostonians from receiving food and other supplies.

G.    The laws also banned town meetings and forced Bostonians to house British soldiers in their homes.

H.    The colonists renamed these acts the Intolerable Acts.

 

VI.              The Continental Congress

 

A.    The Continental Congress was a group of prominent colonial leaders who met in September 1774 to establish a political group that would fight for American interests and challenge British rule. Among the delegates who attended were Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Jay, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, and George Washington.

B.    The delegates worked together worked together to draft a statement of grievances. They called for repeal of the 13 acts of Parliament. They voted to boycott all British goods and trade.

C.    They also passed a resolution to form militias, or groups of citizens, so that the colonies would have their own armed forces.

 

VII.           The First Battles

 

A.    The British also prepared themselves for battle; British General Sir Thomas Cage had 3,000 soldiers in and around Boston. In April 1775, his orders were to take away weapons and arrest the militia leaders.

B.    Paul Revere and William Daws rode to Lexington, a town near Concord, to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming.

C.    The redcoats approached Lexington and continued to Concord. They found that the gunpowder was removed, but they destroyed the remaining supplies.

D.    The minutemen were waiting all along the British return trail from Concord to Boston. They ambushed the British. More than 200 British were wounded, and 73 of them were dead. The Battles of Lexington and Concord began the struggle for independence from Britain.

 

VIII.        More Military Action

 

A.    Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain on May 10, 1775

B.    The colonial militia grew to about 20,000 after committees of correspondence enlisted more volunteers.

C.    The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 16, 1775. Although the British won the battle, they suffered heavy losses and learned that defeating the Americans would not be easy.

D.    Americans chose sides. Those who wanted to fight the British until they won their independence were called patriots. Loyalists wanted to remain with Britain.

 

IX.              Colonial Leaders Emerge

 

A.    The second Continental Congress met for the first time on May 10, 1775. In addition to the delegates from the first Continental Congress, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson were new delegates.

B.    The Congress governed the colonies. It

 

1.      Authorized the printing of money

2.      Set up a post office

3.      Established a Continental Army with George Washington as the commander

4.      Sent a formal request to King George III asking for peace and for the King to protect the colonists’ rights. King George III refused this Olive Branch Petition and prepared for war.

 

C.    Washington trained the army, and on March 17, 1776, led his troops into Boston after surrounding the city and forcing the redcoats to withdraw. The British sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

D.    After an attack on New York by the British in Canada, the American troops at Fort Ticonderoga struck and captured Montreal in November. American troops failed to capture Quebec but stayed outside the city through the winter and returned to Fort Ticonderoga in 1776.

 

X.                 The Colonies Declare Independence

 

A.    The Second Continental Congress debated a resolution to support independence. Some delegates thought the colonies were not ready to separate, and others felt that a large part of the population wanted to separate Britain.

B.    The Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence. Members included Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert Livingston of New York.

C.    On July 2, 1776, twelve colonies voted for the resolution for independence. On July 4, they approved the Declaration with some changes. John Hancock was the first to sign it. His signature was large so that the king would have no trouble seeing it.

D.    The Declaration has four main sections:

 

1.      The preamble, or introduction

2.      A list of the rights of the colonists

3.      A list of the grievances against Britain

4.      A proclamation claiming the emergence of a new nation