Escalation to Revolution: 1763-1775

1. Escalation to Revolution: 1763-1775

2. I. Early Clashes: Sugar and Stamps, 1764-1766 A. Revenue Act of 1764 (Sugar Act) • British government (Grenville) believed colonists should pay part of cost of empire (standing army, bureaucrats) • English in England: avg. 26 shillings/year • Colonists: ½ - 1 ½ shillings/year • Tightening trade regulations (Navigation Acts) seen as best way raise revenue

3. Sugar Act: 1) raise taxes on textiles, coffee, other enumerated goods, 2) lowers duty on molasses (so people would actually pay) • 3) expands customs service (increased enforcement) • 4) suspends trial by jury in customs cases (naval vice-admiralty courts)

4. Colonists protest with words: a tax, not a trade regulation B has right to regulate trade, not to tax • Passed during post-war economic depression in colonies • 8 separate colonial assemblies petition to Parliament, but no history of united action Parliament ignores

5. B. The Stamp Act Crisis • 1765: Stamp Act—no pretense of regulation • Taxed nearly all printed materials: newspapers, pamphlets, wills, contracts, playing cards, etc. • Violators tried in vice-admiralty courts • Affected ordinary colonists (not just merchants, although rich hit hardest)

6. Mobilized on 3 fronts: • 1) mob actions: Loyal Nine in Boston intimidate Stamp collectors; Sons of Liberty (Samuel Adams) link protest leaders throughout colonies • Leaders influenced but did not control actions: slaves in Charleston, S.C. fear of the crowd

7. 2. Economic action: non-importation / non-consumption agreements (boycott) • ¼ B exports to colonies boycott would push B merchants to lobby Parliament • 3. Organized political action: • James Otis, Rights of the British Colonies: colonists shouldn’t be taxed w/o consent, but after Glor. Rev. Parliament uncontrollable loyally, reluctantly, pay • Patrick Henry, Virginia Stamp Act Resolve: only local assemblies can tax, any who oppose that idea is “an Enemy to his Majesty’s Colony.” • These ideas not accepted by House of Burgesses too radical

8. Stamp Act Congress, NYC: 1st successful inter-colonial alliance: deny virtual representation Parliament can legislate/regulate, but cannot tax • Moderate and loyal, but important step in bringing Americans closer to each other than to England

9. 1766: Stamp Act repealed • Declaratory Act: Parliament asserts that they do have the right to tax

10. II. British Authority Disintegrates: 1765-1774 • 5 Major actions • 1) 1765: Quartering Act: assemblies have to provide food and shelter to army • NY refuses royal Gov. dissolves • 2) 1767: Townshend Acts: new tariffs a) on goods from Britain, not only foreign; b) designed to raise money to pay salaries of colonial officials undermined power of assemblies to influence through threat of withholding salary

11. Resistance • John Dickinson: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania: colonists don’t pay revenue duties have to know intent of Parliament (unworkable) • Mass. Assembly circular letter (circulated to other colonies) Gov. dissolves assembly • New boycott: merchants reluctant, artisans enthusiastic some question use of violence to enforce boycott, threat to elite control and private property

12. Customs officials appointed to enforce Townshend duties esp. greedy: system encouraged abuse officials get 1/3 seized goods open hatred of customs officials • 1768: John Hancock’s ship Liberty seized Boston rioting

13. 4,000 troops brought to control situation stay until March 5, 1770: riot shooting: Boston Massacre (5 dead) • Sam Adams and Paul Revere proclaim a conspiracy theory

15. 1770: repeal Townshend duties, except tea • 3) 1773 Tea Act: Parliament grants monopoly on tea imports to struggling East India Company lowered cost of tea • Colonists refused to allow ships to dock, except Boston where Lt. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson ordered ships to stay until unloaded Boston Tea Party

16. 4) 1774 Coercive Acts (Intolerable) • A) Close Boston port • B) King appoints Gov’s council, forbids town meetings • C) Imperial soldiers and officials must be tried in London • D) Reaffirm quartering + appoints General Gage as commander all B forces in NAm • Harsh measures make Boston a martyr

17. 5) 1774, Quebec Act • Enlarge French Quebec (into lands claimed by NY), no representative assembly, no trial by jury, special recognition of Catholics (in Q) • Seen as an attack on colonists: 1) we’re next, 2) fear of American Bishop

18.  1stContinental Congress (Phila.) Suffolk Resolves (Declaration of Rights and Grievances): • Constitutional issue: a) colonists accepted P regulations when good for colonies, b) would reject revenue acts, c) still loyal to King and country • (important shift: connected to Britain through King, not Parliament King accused of wrongdoing in Declaration of Independence) • How to proceed: a) raise colonial militias, b) Continental Association: enforce boycott through committees of observation (expanded power greatly into de fact gov’t and punished “disloyal”)

19. III. Patterns of Escalation and the “Plot Against Liberty” • Even all these acts would not bring Revolution w/o pattern of meaning • Edmund Burke (B politician): Americans have discovered P means to oppress them, B discovered A mean to rebel: we don’t know how to advance, they don’t know how to withdraw

20. Mutual misperceptions ratcheting of tensions • B overreacted to resistance: insecure about growing empire, increasing American confidence • Americans convinced B hatching sinister plot to literally enslave them (strip away liberty) • Jefferson: even w/changes in ministers, plot continues further proof of conspiracy

21. Real Whigs / Commonwealthmen: conflict between liberty (passive, feminine) vs. power (aggressive, male) • British empire falling way of Rome: republic overwhelmed by growing military and bureaucracy tyranny • Americans see selves as check on corruption and power: city on the hill ideal extended to all colonies