Towards Revolution

Colonial Crisis

Study Guide and Identifications

• What events led to crisis in the British North America?

• Orders of Council• Sugar Act• Coercive Acts• Townsend Act• Stamp Act• Boston Massacre

Study Guide Question & ID’s

• How did British Colonists respond to Imperial authority? What factors led to the question of independence?

• Son’s of Liberty

• Edenton Ladies Tea Party

• First and Second Continental Congress

• Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Aftermath of Colonial Wars

• Treaty of Paris – Britain had tremendous national debt

• Britain alienated colonies– Left army in America– Taxes Americans to pay its cost

• Americans insisted that taxation without representation in Parliament violated their rights as English men

George Greenville

• Kings Chief administrator in 1763– Began passing policies to impose greater

control over the colonies

• Extract greater wealth– Anti-American– Viewed colonists as spoiled children in need

of punishment

Orders of Council 1763

• Stationed British naval vessels in American waters

• Intended running down and seizing all colonial merchant ships suspected of smuggling– Goal to end American smuggling – Compel colonists to pay more in trade duties

Proclamation of 1763

• Goal to avoid costly Indian wars

• Goal to avoid westward settlement for fear of the establishment of inland markets and therefore eventual competition

• Garrisoned more British soldiers to keep control over settlers and Indians

Revenue or Sugar Act 1764

• Regulated loading & unloading of vessels for the purpose of identifying smugglers

• Placed duties on coffee, indigo, sugar and wine– Greenville hoped to gain an annual revenue

of 40,000 pounds – To pay for costs of colonial wars & stationing

of British troops– Context of a post war depression 1770s

Crisis One: Stamp Act 1766

• Directly taxed 50 items– Newspapers, pamphlets, almanacs, playing

cards, wills, land deeds, college diplomas• Expected to yield 100,000 pounds per year

• Britain refused to give representation– Greenville argued English citizens were

virtually represented in that because they resided in the Empire enjoyed representation by parliament

• Continued resistance led to its repeal

Royalist Faction

• Leadership in Massachusetts That enjoyed political patronage of the crown– Lt. Governor & Chief Justice, Thomas

Hutchinson– Governor, Francis Bernard– Secretary and Councilor, Andrew Oliver

Popular or Country Faction

• Samuel Adams

• Lawyer, James Otis Jr.– By 1760 Adam’s assumed leadership of the

popular rights faction in Mass. Politics– Guided the “Loyal Nine” in directing politics

of resistance– Communicated plans to artisans & Mechanics

who were leaders of the “Leather Apron” or working associations

Leather Apron “gangs”

• North End and South End gangs

• Fraternal organizations providing fellowship for artisans, apprentices & day laborers – Originally competed and fought amongst

themselves– Adams fostered unity to defend political

liberties

Secret Society: Son’s of Liberty

• Led by prominent citizens’ referred to as the Associator’s– Used violence to resist

taxation– Boycotts,

demonstrations– Intimidation– Effigy burning– Destroyed Andrew

Oliver’s Warehouse

Andrew Oliver

• Merchant• Loyalist• Tax Collector in Boston• Resigned his post due to intimidation and

destruction of his property– Rendered office of the stamp collector powerless– Set a precedent of further resistance

• Augustus Johnston, RI• Zacahriah Hood, MD• Jared Ingersoll, CT

Official Petitions to Parliament

• Patrick Henry, Virginian Lawyer

• Proposed 7 resolutions in the House of Burgess of which endorsed 4:

• No taxation without representation• Denied King and Parliament all legislative power

over the American provinces

Stamp Act Congress

• New York City, 1765

• James Otis led the movement for the Massachusetts General Court to call for an inter colonial congress to draft a joint statement of grievances– 9 colonies responded, 27 delegates appeared

in New York– Significance: demonstrated colonial unity

Economic Boycott

• New York Merchants– Pledged to stop importation unless the Stamp act was

repealed• Principal port cities followed

• November 1, 1765 – commerce in the colonies came to a Halt

• 1766 Stamp Act Repealed• Passed the Declaratory Act

– Ensuring parliaments full power and authority to tax colonists and make laws and statutes

Crisis Two: The Townsend Act, 1767

• Parliament imposed taxes on imports

– British manufactured glass, paper, lead products, painter’s colors, tea

– Projected revenue of 35 – 40,000 pounds/yr

• Colonists :non-importation & talk of producing cloth

• Britain responded with sending troops

• Modified act but duty on tea remained

Crisis Three:Boston Massacre

• 1769 Son’s of Liberty clashed with troops

• Troop Baiting• Resistance to military presence • 1770 5 civilians killed, 6 wounded

– Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, Crispus Attucks, dead

– 2 soldiers singled out for the murders, thumbs branded sent back for duty

– Failure of first attempt of military Coercion

» Military presence ended in Boston

Holiday, March 5,

1770• Samuel Adams

declared the date of Boston Massacre a holiday

• Commemorated fallen martyrs

• Keep the struggle for the defense of liberties alive

Tea Act• Fourth crisis: Tea

Act of 1773– Boston colonists

destroyed British tea– 45 tons Boston

Harbor• Increase of assaults

against tax collectors• Thomas Hutchinson

of Boston

“Edenton Ladies’ Tea Party”

• Images of Women’s Republican Virtue

• Edenton Proclamation• 52 women of N.C. Boycott

English tea & cloth

• Right & Duty to participate in political events of their time & Region

• English Satire of American Revolutionary Women’s Meetings

Samuel Adams

• Born Boston, MS• Prime instigator of protest against imperial

policies post 7 year war• Published pamphlets warning of power

hungry royal officials• Tax collector who did not collect 8000

pounds– Opposed local leader & merchant Thomas

Hutchinson• Represented elite privilege

Abuse of a tax collector, c. 1774

Coercive Acts, 1774• Series of legislation passed to address colonial

rebellion– Boston Port Bill: closed the port until colonists paid

for the tea– Massachusetts Government Act: expanded powers

of royal governor and abolished the elective council – General Thomas Cage replaced Governor Hutchinson – Administration of Justice Act: More protection for

collectors and imperial officers – Amendment to the Quartering Act of 1765: power to

house imperial troops anywhere

Unity among colonists

Resistance 1765-1775

• British fear– convinced of organized movement for

independence

• Colonists denied wish for independence– Feared deprivation of liberty & rights as

Englishmen

• Britain used military coercion• Americans resisted with violence

Colonial Loyalties until 1773

• Majority of colonists – Loyal British Subjects– Vague right to self-government

• 1774– Began to question relationship with Britain– Developed clear notion of self-government

• Parliament had little authority in daily lives of Americans

Escalation of new ideology & Violence

• Conflict over taxation transformed colonial relationship

• Language of resistance Groups centered around ideas of liberty

First Continental Congress

• 1774 – Philadelphia

• Began to function as

central government for colonies

• 55 delegates of 12 colonies– Lawyers, doctors, merchants & planters– John Adams of Massachusetts– Patrick Henry of Virginia

Role of First Congress

• 3 tasks– Define American Grievances– Define constitutional relationship with Britain– Develop plan to address grievances

– Agreed on laws they wanted appealed– Did not agree on relationship with Britain

• Some believed they owed allegiance only to King George III• Other believed Parliaments supremacy over the empire

John Adams compromise

• Parliament had no authority over the colonies except in the case of trade legislation

• Legislation was subject to colonial consent

• Legislation only used to regulate commerce

• Legislation could not be used to raise revenue for the Empire

Continental Association

• First Continental Congress formed an association– Called for a repeal of the Coercive Acts– Resistance efforts

• Non-importation of British goods• Total ban on all exports

Daughter’s of Liberty & Mercy Otis Warren

• Assumed Masculine Name to Publish political tracts John Singleton Copley– 1805 history of the Rise, Progress and Termination

of the American Revolution

• Corresponded with Washington, Adams & Jefferson

• Anti-federalist– Raised question of independence before the

congress did– Favored state rights over national government– The only way to protect against misuse of power

was to put tight restrictions on those who ruled

British Response

• General Cage surveyed level of resistance

• Parliament passed resolution declaring Massachusetts in a state of rebellion

• Cage arrested leaders of Massachusetts Provincial Congress– Led to battles at Concord and Lexington

Towards Independence

• Violence of 1775 led to improvised war

• Second Continental Congress– Organized forces around Boston– Formed the Continental Army

• Appointed George Washington of Virginia to command rebel forces

– Appealed to King George to Intercede to end crisis and negotiate peace

Congressional Factions

• New Englanders: • favored a formal declaration of Independence

• Reconciliationist’s or Moderates– Led by John Dickinson, Pennsylvania

Recruitment Poster for General Washington's Army

Continental Army Recruits

• Economically hard pressed– Early teens to mid twenties– Landless– Unskilled– Poverty stricken– Expendable

• Un-free– Indentured servants and slaves– Stood as substitutes for Masters in exchange for

personal freedom at war’s end

African American enlistment

• Massachusetts: first state to authorize enlistment of African Americans, enslaved and free

• Rhode Island: two black regiments

• Maryland & Virginia followed– Patriot general asked: why “so many sons

of freedom” seemed so anxious to “trust their all to be defended by slaves”

Enlistment of Women

• Margins of Society

• Given half-rations

• The British Army allowed 1 women in the ranks for every 10 men

• The Continental army allowed 1 for 15

Women’s Revolutionary Role•To endow domesticity with political meaning 

Women were politicized during war and so was the domestic arena.  Women fought as soldiers20,000 marched with soldiers

Cooks, nurses, doctors, laundresses, guised, portersConsumer boycotts infused daily activities and household

production with political meaning. Kept economy alive, planted and harvested Households provided goods and services to soldiers;

were places to which embattled came for supplies, housing, laundry, clothing, nursing. 

The expanded role of households during the war was given a new twist in early Republic.  The result was the idea and the image of Mothers of the

Republic, and Mothers of Republicans

Notable Women• Groton, Mass.

• Dressed in men’s clothing, armed themselves with muskets and pitchforks to defend the local bridge & captured British soldiers

• 20,000 women marched with American armies– Molly Hays or Molly Pitcher (Penn. Granted her

a Pension)– Deborah Sampson Gammett (Timothy Thayer &

Robert Shurtleff) joined the army twice– Federal and Mass. Pension

• British General, Burgoyne

• Even if the British were to defeat all the men in America, they would still have to contend with all the women– British occupation of Charleston

• Why women fat women were coming back thin– Smuggling food past the enemy occupation– 22yr Deborah Champion dispatched intelligence to

General Washington in Cambridge Mass. From Ct. (Spy)

Rebels & Loyalists

• Throughout 1775 – Congressmen and most Americans

advocated reconciliation • Defensive struggle until peace could be

negotiated • By 1776 patriots had gained control of all 13

colonies

– British displayed violence• Threatened turning of slaves & Indians against

settlers• Continued to alienate colonists

Lord Dunmore’s Declaration of Emancipation

• Royal Governor in Williamsburg, Virginia• 1775, Lord Dunmore in response to Rebel

patriots he fled to Chesapeake Bay• To raise loyalist soldiers he offered freedom

to slaves who would fight – First Mass Emancipation of slaves– Fear by Planters that Slaves would turn against

their masters– Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment– Lost at Battle of Great Bridge, December, 1775– Dunmore fled the colonies in 1776

Final Steps towards

independence

• 1776 Thomas Paine Common Sense– Considered

question of independence

Final Steps towards independence

• 1776 Thomas Pained Common Sense– Considered question of independence– Stressed Locke an theme of government

• Contractual relationship between the people and the government

• Give up a little property and natural rights for protection and civil rights

• Hereditary Kingships and aristocratic titles inherently unfair

• People should welcome opportunity to severe ties with oppressive and unequal system of government

• Basis of colonial loyalties– Loyalty to the king

• After demolishing this relationship• Argued independence

– Free American involvement in world wars– Free trade– Free economics– Prosperity & Liberty

English political cartoon showing

the mother Britannia

fighting with daughter America

Declaration of Independence July 2, 1776 Continental

Congress passed resolution favoring independence– July 4, 1776 Adopted

Committed new nation to Republicanism: government whose sovereignty was derived from consent of the government as expressed through the vote

• Limited to property owning white men

Language of Liberty

• Belief in rights of man• Human liberty derived from natural rights not

constitution (British in this case)• Contractual society• When government breaks its contracts to

protect rights of the people• Americans justified in resorting to armed

resistance when peaceful means of redress fail

Language of Sons of Liberty

• Language of liberty• Stressed rights

– To self government– To representation– To trial by jury– Decried tyranny & slavery when these rights

were violated• Minorities: African/Indian/Asian/Mexican/Women

bound to hear this

Who would be Included?

• Who would equality be applied to?

• Slaves?

• Women?

• Inequalities of slavery came under attack for the first time in the 18th Century

• Quakers first prohibited slavery

Abigail Adam’s letters to John • The Constitution… what About the Women?

• Abigail to John 1776– “I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be

more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

• John to Abigail, 14 April 1776– “We know better than to repeal our Masculine

systems…. which would completely subject Us to the Despotism of the Peti-coat…. A fine Story indeed.”

Focus Questions/Identification

• In what ways can the Revolutionary war be characterized?

• To whom did the question of increased liberty and freedoms apply, and to whom did they not apply?

• What was women’s role in the Revolution and how did their status change socially and politically following the war?

• Republican Motherhood

Most Americans

• Equality not the issue

• Ideas of liberty Restricted

• Liberty – meaning freedom from British control

The Unequal

• The Enslaved:• Boston slaves made it clear to British and patriots they would

serve which ever side supported freedom

• Women• Increased political awareness and empowerment as result of

participation and contributions to war efforts

• Working Men• Sailors, artisans, traders, farmers• Called on to support boycotts, demonstrations, riots etc• Concept of life and politics bound to change

Revolutionary War

• British • believed loss of colonies would fatal blow to empire• Raised more soldiers and larger fleets

• Spain• Colonized California in an effort to stabilize claim over territory

• French aided Patriots– Without it patriots would not have won– Treaties:

• generous trade terms with France • Alliance bound the two nations in perpetuity

– Committed France to fight until Britain conceded independence

• France disavowed all territorial ambitions in North America

Declaration of Independence

• 1776 Revolutionary leaders made 2 decisions of enduring importance

• 1. Declared Independence & adopted the Declaration of Independence

• 2. Committed new nation to Republicanism– A government whose sovereignty was derived from

the consent of the governed as expressed through the vote

– Input limited to landed white males

1770’s-1820’s Liberty Rhetoric Republican Womanhood

• Early republic view that women were at least partly (or even mostly) responsible for fostering republican virtues and ideals of democracy and liberty – Origins in Enlightenment ideas – Enlightenment debate over

women’s rights

• patriotic duty to educate her sons to be moral and virtuous citizens.

Jane Stuart, “An interior scene at Boston,” ca. 1835

3 wars

• Characterized in 3 ways

– 1. Civil war between patriots and loyalists– 2. War of Conquest of First Nations peoples– 3. Revolutionary in the ideas that would

challenge social arrangement– Initially only a political break

Civil War

• Large proportion of Americans did not support war or its aims

• Some supported rebels and continuation of British Rule

• Others sympathetic to pre-war movement against taxation did not support armed resistance

• Some neutral & wanted to avoid conflict

Revolutionary War

• Political break with Britain

• Led to creation of United States

• First colonial war of liberation of the 20th century– Combatants motivated by ideology and desire

for self-determination– A peoples war

War of Conquest

• Americans fighting to free themselves of British rule

• First nations fighting to free themselves of Colonial Rule– Siding with those perceived to be in their best

interests

Native Americans

• Outside body politic of white America– White racism and Prejudice = lack of political

access• Nations sovereign, independent nations, did not

want to operate with the American system or world – preserve territory, political, economic and social institutions of Nations

• Wars of resistance continued

Alliances

• Many nations allied with the British recognizing threat of rebel victory– Continued removal and genocide

• Once no longer useful British abandoned tribes to the mercy of the Rebels– Many attempted to form ill devised and

honored treaties with the United States