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1760s approx. one-quarter of all British exports were being sent to the colonies March 1766, Parliament repealed the St

1760s approx. one-quarter of all British exports were being sent to the colonies March 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act. Non-importation appeared to have worked But boycotts, formal protest, and crowd actions were less important than it appeared. 1765 George III

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1760s approx. one-quarter of all British exports were being sent to the colonies March 1766, Parliament repealed the St

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  1. 1760s approx. one-quarter of all British exports were being sent to the colonies • March 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act. • Non-importation appeared to have worked • But boycotts, formal protest, and crowd actions were less important than it appeared

  2. 1765 George III • for reasons unrelated to colonial politics • replaced Greenville • Marquis Rockingham • new PM • had opposed the Stamp Act • Not because he believed Parliament lacked power to tax the colonies but because he thought the law unwise and divisive.

  3. Rockingham proposed repeal • Linked to passage of the Declaratory Act • Asserted Parliament’s ability to tax and legislate for Britain’s American possessions “in all cases whatsoever.” • Colonists had accomplished their immediate aim, repeal of the Acts • But long-term prospects were unclear

  4. Summer of 1766, another change in the ministry in London brought Townsend to power • His actions revealed how fragile the colonists victory had been. • Townsend proposed new taxes in 1767 • Tax was now to be levied on goods like • Paper • Glass • Tea

  5. Townsend Acts drew a quick response in America • One series of essays in particular • Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania • expressed a broad consensus • prominent lawyer John Dickinson

  6. Eventually all but four colonial newspapers printed Dickinson’s essays • In pamphlet form they went through seven American editions.

  7. Dickinson contended that • Parliament could regulate colonial trade • But not exercise that power to raise revenue • Drew a distinction between trade regulation and unacceptable commercial taxation • Dickinson avoided the sticky issue of consent and how it affected colonial subordination to Parliament

  8. After introduction of Townsend Act • Sons of Liberty and others once again made a deliberate effort to involve ordinary folk in the resistance movement • They urged colonists of all ranks and both sexes to sign agreements not to purchase or consume British products 

  9. New consumerism that previously linked colonists economically • Now linked them politically as well  • “A Tradesman” wrote in a Philadelphia paper in 1770, it was essential • “for the Good of the Whole, to strengthen the Hands of the Patriotic Majority, by agreeing not to purchase British Goods.”

  10. As primary purchasers • women played a central role in non-consumption • Boston – 300 women publicly promised not to buy or drink tea • “Sickness excepted.” • Wilmington, NC – Women burned their tea after walking through town in a solemn procession. • Women throughout the colonies exchanged recipes for tea substitutes or drank coffee instead. • Which leads us to the question • An American Revolution (for women?)

  11. for European women in the colonies there was an ideal that they were supposed to fit into • private submissive good-wife • Era of the American Revolution provided a turning point in women’s history • Revolution did not destroy women’s separate realm of life • rather, threw it into convulsions

  12. War years, pushed women into the turmoil and conflict of public events • women began to express themselves politically • Both individually and in groups

  13. Expressions of patriotism were novel and varied • For example: • Deborah Sampson Gannett • Enlisted in the fourth MA regiment and eventually received a pension for her service • After death • pension was passed on to her husband • Gannett’s role as a soldier • more an indication of the primitive nature of the rebel army then of any new option open to women

  14. Women played a traditional role as camp followers • Washington saw the presence of female camp followers as a liability • “The multitudes of women, especially those who are pregnant or have children, are a clog upon every movement.” • Yet army had almost none of the support staff that accompanies a modern military force • women were an essential auxiliary

  15. Congratulating the Ladies Association of Philadelphia – an elite group led by Esther De Berdt Reed - on their fund gathering, he awarded its members • “an equal place with any who have proceeded them in the walk of female patriotism.” • What Washington did appreciate however, was a modern role women adopted during the war • Raising money for the cause

  16. Besides affecting women’s household roles, the rebel cause sanctioned group activities for women • For over a decade, the gatherings of rebel women received publicity in the patriot press • Sometimes, women in groups created mobs scenes, as 500 women who, Abigail Adams reported, harassed and hounded a MA merchant for hounding coffee

  17. More commonly, “association” took the form of sewing circles • Groups as large as 60 or 70 women or more convened to spin, weave, and sew – a political act • The most famous to sew is Betsy Ross, who it is thought may have sewed the first American flag

  18. Many women took great satisfaction in their new-found role. • When a New England satirist hinted that women discussed only “such trifling subject as Dress, Scandal and Detraction” during their spinning bees, • Three Boston women replied angrily: “Inferior in abusive sarcasm, in personal invective, in low wit, we glory to be, but inferior in veracity, sincerity, love of virtue, of liberty and of our country, we would not willingly be to any.”

  19. Women’s associations also • passed resolutions to patronize merchants who supported the rebel cause • and took oaths renounce marriage with men who did not support the patriot cause • The best known protest was the so-called Edenton Ladies Tea Party (it actually had little to do with tea.)

  20. A group of prominent North Carolina women met • pledged to work for the public good and to support resistance to British measures • “A Society of Patriotic Ladies, at Edenton in North Carolina” • a 1775 British mezzotint that shows contempt and scorn for the colonial tactic of involving commoners and women in politics. • How?

  21. It represents the signing of a non-importation (boycott) agreement by a meeting of well-to-do colonial women. The women are ugly, cavort freely with low men and drink from bowls. • Beneath the table a young child, untended by the women who are neglecting their duties, is licked by a dog that is simultaneously urinating on a tea caddy

  22. At left, a women is pouring tea into a hat. • Document reads • "We the Ladys of Edenton do hereby solemnly engage not to conform to that Pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea, or that we the aforesaid Ladys will not promote ye wear of any manufacture from England, until such time as all Acts which tend to enslave our Native Country, shall be repealed."

  23. War also disrupted families. • mixed effects. • Women were sometimes able to assume new authority and larger roles • for example, by taking over and managing farms and businesses • Women’s competent management of the home front, made some men pay more attention to their wives’ roles • a new view, since household work was customarily regarded as trivial and inconsequential

  24. For enslaved women • war against England initially allowed an avenue to freedom • In November 1775 Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of VA, offered liberation to any slaves who fled to join the British army

  25. Some slave women • persuaded that the presence of British redcoats made it possible to run away without abandoning their families eagerly seized the opportunity • 23 slaves departed from Thomas Jefferson’s VA lands • over half were women and girls • all but 2 leaving in family groups • Many former slaves found freedom in Britain, Canada, and Africa

  26. Indian women in coastal nations found no real sources of hope or transformation in the Revolution • Warfare touched them when both sides competed for Indian loyalties • For women, it meant increased mobility, traditional war preparations, and the loss of husbands and son

  27. Boston complaints continue… • Origins of the event the patriots called the Boston Massacre • Repeated clashes between customs officers and the people of Massachusetts

  28. At the same time • Sam Adams • Mass Legislature • Circular letter • Gov Bernard told • Dissolve legislature • Refusal • Closed down

  29. June 1768 • Customs officer seize the Liberty on suspicion of smuggling • Ship was owned by patriot leader John Hancock • Caused a riot in which prominent customs officers’ property was destroyed

  30. The riot helped convince the ministry • troops were needed to maintain order • The assignment of two regiments of regulars to their city confirmed Bostonians’ worse fears • 14 & 29 regiments • September 1768 • Redcoats constant reminder of oppressive potential of British power

  31. Bostonians found themselves hemmed in: • Boston Neck • entrance to the city • all travelers and goods checked. • Patrols roamed the city day and night • questioning and harassing people • Military concerts held on Boston Common • on Sunday

  32. Greatest potential for violence lay in • uneasy relationship between the soldiers and Boston laborers. • Many redcoats sought employment in their off-duty hours • competing for unskilled jobs with the city’s ordinary workingmen. • Soldiers ordered to show restraint • Feb 1770 Child killed

  33. Early on the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd of laborers began throwing hard-packed snowball at a soldier guarding the Commons House • Hearing the noise a few reinforcements arrived • Goaded beyond endurance, the sentries acted against express orders to the contrary and fired on the crowd • Four killed and eight wounded, one of whom died a few days later.

  34. Resistance leaders idealized the dead rioters as martyrs for the cause of liberty • A funeral was held • March 5th observed annually with patriotic orations. • Paul Revere’s engraving of the massacre was part of a propaganda campaign. • Revere wasted no time in capitalizing on the Massacre • Issued print three weeks after the incident

  35. Despite political benefits patriots derived from the massacre • unlikely that they approved of the crowd action that provoked it • Ever since destruction of Hutchinson’s house in August 1765 • Men allied with the Sons of Liberty had supported orderly demonstrations • and expressed distaste for uncontrolled riots 

  36. Soldiers were defended by Josiah Quincy, Jr., & John Adams • both unwavering patriots. • Adams both condemned the action and criticized the presence of the soldiers • All but two of the accused men were acquitted, and those convicted were released after being branded on the thumb

  37. The dog in the engraving is a symbol, meaning  • that the soldiers’ actions were “going to the dogs.” 

  38. favorable outcome prevented London officials from taking further steps against Boston • No one yet advocated complete independence from the mother country • continued to acknowledge British identity and allegiance to George III • Patriots increasingly convinced they should seek freedom from parliamentary authority

  39. Fall 1772 North ministry began to implement the Townsend Act • provided for governors and judges to be paid from customs revenues •  Early November • voters at a Boston town meeting established a Committee of Correspondence • to publicize decisions by exchanging letters with other Massachusetts towns

  40. Such committees • eventually established throughout colonies • Next logical step in the organization of American resistance • Until 1772 protests largely confined to • Seacoast, primarily to major cities and towns • Samuel Adams realized time to widen geographic scope • involve the residents of the interior in the struggle

  41. The statement of colonial rights prepared by the Bostonians declared that American had absolute rights to • life • Liberty • property.

  42.  and that • “a British house of commons, should have a right, at pleasure, to give and grant the property of the colonists’ was “irreconcilable” with “the first principles of natural law and Justice . . . and of the British Constitution in particular.” • List of grievances • taxation without representation • presence of unnecessary troops and customs officers • use of imperial revenues to pay colonial officials • expanded jurisdiction of vice-admiralty courts • nature of the instructions given to American governors by their superiors in London  

  43. Document • printed as a pamphlet for distribution to the towns • exhibited none of the hesitation in colonial claims against Parliament in 1760s •  No longer were patriots • at least in Boston • preoccupied with defining the precise limits of parliamentary authority • Committed to a course that placed American rights first • loyalty to parliament a distant second.

  44. June 9, 1772, sloop Hannah left Newport for Providence • British Customs ship Gaspee gave chase • Hannah's Captain Lindsey deliberately lured her across the shallows off Namquid Point • Gaspee Point • left the British ship hard aground on a sandbar • unable to move until flood tide following day.

  45. Upon arrival in Providence • Captain Lindsey reported the event to John Brown • prominent and respected merchant in Rhode Island • sent out town crier inviting all interested parties to meet at Sabin's Tavern • to plan the Gaspee's destruction • Under the leadership of Abraham Whipple • small band of patriots rowed eight longboats with muffled oars to the stranded ship • Lt. Dudingston and his crew were taken prisoner and removed to Pawtuxet Village.

  46. Near daylight June 10th • Rhode Islanders set fire to the Gaspee • burning her to the waterline • powder magazine exploded. • Efforts of the Crown to learn the names of the culprits were unsuccessful, although a sizable reward had been offered.

  47. Only one Townsend duties in effect by 1773 tax on tea • Consumption in the colonies had fallen from 900,000 lbs. in 1769 to 237,000 lbs. just 3 years later • Problems for East India Company

  48. TEA ACT 1773 • Net result • cheaper tea for American consumers. • Resistance leaders interpreted the new measure as a • device to make them admit Parliament’s right to tax them • less expensive tea would still be taxed under the Townsend law.  

  49. Residents of four cities designated to receive the first shipments of tea • prepared to respond to what they perceived as a new threat to freedom •  New York City • ships failed to arrive on schedule • Philadelphia • governor of Pennsylvania persuaded the captain to turn around and sail back to Britain • Charleston • tea was unloaded, stored under the direction of local tradesmen and later destroyed.

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