Why did Colonists Separate from Great Britain?

1. Why did Colonists Separate from Great Britain?

2. Under the British Crown Colonists Enjoyed These Rights: • Elected local representatives • Freedom of Speech • Right to own land • Due Process • Vote • Jury Trials What went wrong?

3. The French and Indian War 1754 – 1763Cost a huge amount of moneyto protect the British Colonies

4. Economic Action by the Crown: The Stamp Act of 1765. Imposed a tax on all paper including land deeds, playing cards, wedding licenses. The reaction that followed set off a series of political, social and economic actions and reactions cause and effect events leading to the DOI

5. The reaction to the Stamp Act (1765) was not based on economics!!! • The tax was meager. • It was used to pay for the French Indian War • But…….

6. Colonial reaction to the stamp act was fierce. Boycotts, reduced revenues. Protests and pouring scalding tea down the throat of a tax collector or tar and feathering did happen. (Notice the noose!!)

7. New York Stamp Act riot 'The Folly of England and the Ruin of America'. 

9. The tax was very intrusive. Colonists did not have a say. The Colonists have never been directly taxed before. (except sugar/Malaises import tax) The reaction was political, based on Natural Law. From this philosophy came social based on cultural identity. The act stirred up resentment and created interest in the common man about Natural Law. The rights of men and the role of government.

11. “We have an old Mother who peevish is grown.She snubs us like children that scarce walk alone.She forgets that we’re grown with sense of our own. If we don’t obey orders, whatever the case.She frowns and she chides and loses all patience.And sometimes she hits us a slap in the face. Her orders are so, we often suspect,That age has impaired her of sound intellect:But still, an old Mother should have due respect...” Untitled poem by Benjamin Franklin

12. This letter sent from London, Franklin thanks his old friend and Philadelphia neighbor for endorsing his conduct in regard to the repeal of the Stamp Act. Franklin, was Pennsylvania's agent in London, he had supported the new tax on America, he quickly switched to opposition after hearing of the angry response in Pennsylvania. Franklin attributed America's success in obtaining the repeal "to what the Profane would call Luck & the Pious Providence."

13. Franklin’s good name was restored

15. King George 3rd declares the March 16, 1766 Declaratory Act The Crown can impose (declare) any act on the colonies. Leading to the Townsend Act

16. Soldiers coming from England…. Tensions Rising 1770 Boston Massacre…. Not really Is this picture fact or fiction? Yankee propaganda. Created by Paul Revere to stir up anti British sentiment and also created to sell news papers making him a nice profit.

17. Boston Tea Party 1773 Action (Cause) Reaction from the Tea Act which required Colonists to get tea from the East India Co. exclusively. Result (Effect) The Intolerable Acts, Closing the Port of Boston Suspending state legislators etc. Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty: Importance of the Tea Party:Symbolic for breaking cultural ties with England (tea) ( a new identity forming) and moral symbolism of the “noble savage” the Mohawk Indian.

18. The Intolerable Acts Boston Port Bill: (March 18, 1774) The port of Boston was ordered closed until restitution for the tea was made and until royal officials were compensated for personal damages; the Massachusetts capital was moved to Salem; and Marblehead was made the customs port of entry. Impartial Administration of Justice Act (April 15, 1774) Permitted the governor to move trials to other colonies or to England and to call for aid from the British Army to put down civil disturbances Massachusetts Bay Regulating Act (May 20th 1774) Made the Council royally appointed rather than elected and made all law officers subject to the governor's appointment. The Act increased the governor's patronage powers, provided that juries be summoned by sheriffs rather than elected, and banned all town meetings not authorized by law or gubernatorial approval.

19. The Quartering Act (June 2, 1774) authorized civil officers to requisition houses for British soldiers. Required, home owners to provide blankets, candles, food and board. The Quebec Act (June 22, 1774) granted civil government and religious liberty to the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the former French colony and extended the Canadian boundary to the Ohio River….Reaction British opponents had predicted that the Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts) would defeat their purpose by alienating colonists who had previously been unsympathetic with Bostonian rashness. They were proved right. Americans of all classes, political persuasions, and interests, whatever their misgivings about the Boston Tea Party, saw a general threat to their liberty in these four acts. The colonies united and responded quickly to a call from Virginia for a Continental Congress that was to meet in Philadelphia in September 1774 to seek a redress of the colonists grievances. Coercion provoked rebellion.

20. Lexington/Concord Mass. April 19, 1775British Soldiers march to find stolen cannons and Minuet Men munitions. Fighting breaks out. “Shot Heard Round the World.”

21. Thomas Paine's Common Sense Paine's pamphlet brought the rising revolutionary sentiment into sharp focus by placing blame for the suffering of the colonies directly on the reigning British monarch, George III. Common Sense advocated an immediate declaration of independence. A special moral obligation of America and to the rest of the world. Not long after publication, the spirit of Paine's argument found resonance in the American Declaration of Independence.

22. Defining Map: Thomas Jefferson Founder of the University of Virginia French Ambassador Secretary of State Anti Federalist Author of the Virginia Statute of Religious Rights 3rd President Louisiana Purchase Drafter of the DOI Planter Inventor Slave Owner Sally Hemings 1743 – 1826Died July 4th 50 years after the DOI Same day of death as John Adams bitter rivals and best friends

23. What Are The Components of Natural Law? Jefferson built on Enlightenment ideas of John Lock and others. (See additional notes on the Enlightenment.) • All men created equal • (Endowed) Born with rights from a creator • Unalienable – Rights are not given • The job of government is to protect individual rights: Liberty (Property Locke) Pursuit of Happiness (Jefferson) • Government is instituted by men with the consent of governed • People have duty to abolish government. When government has usurped power, not protected rights over period of time, not addressing the grievances of the governed.

24. Not Divinely Inspired Work!!!!

26. The draft of the Declaration was revised first by Adams and Franklin, and then by the full committee. A total of 47 alterations, including the insertion of three complete paragraphs, were made to the text before it was presented to Congress on June 28. After voting for independence on July 2, Congress continued to refine the document, making 39 additional revisions to the committee draft before its final adoption on the morning of July 4. Most famous edit “sacred” to “self evident”

29. The Revolutionary War would last 8 Years from 1776 until 1783 Then what…..