The Road to Revolution

The Road to Revolution Chapter 7

Mercantilism • Economic theory and policy which presumed that wealth and trade were limited • There’s only so much to go around • Nations gained wealth and power only by having more gold and silver than other nations • Depended on maintaining a “Favorable Balance of Trade” • Exporting more than importing • Encouraged nations who accepted the theory to become self-sufficient • Colonies helped secure that

Role of the Colonies • Colonies provided: • Powerful merchant fleet • Goods, materials, and people needed to be transported from the colonies to the mother country • Source of raw materials for the manufacturers in the mother country • Market for the manufactured goods to be sold

Navigation Acts • Britain responded to illegal colonial trade by passing “Acts of Trade and Navigation” • Beginning in 1651, these acts restricted colonial trade in various ways, including: • All goods traded to and from the colonies had to be shipped in either colonial or British ships • All crews of these ships had to be at least 75% British or colonial • Certain products (tobacco, sugar, rice, molasses, and furs) could only be sold from the colonies to Britain • Goods traded from colonies and Europe had to be unloaded at a British port

Enforcing the Acts • Colonial merchants, particularly in Massachusetts, frequently tried to bypass the Navigation Acts • Claimed that since the colony was chartered by a joint-stock company, they were not required to obey Parliamentary Acts • King Charles II, tired of constant insubordination against his authority in Massachusetts, removed the corporate charter of the colony and it was made a royal colony, under his strict control

More Rebellion from Colonial Merchants • Colonists, as required, sent large amounts of raw materials to Britain and purchased a substantial amount of manufactured British goods • Discovered that other countries were willing to pay more for the same products. • Many colonial merchants frequently sold goods to Spain, France, and Holland, even though it was illegal

Salutary Neglect

Reasons it Worked • Loyalty to the British Crown • People considered themselves “British Subjects” • Lack of communication especially over great distances • Societal and cultural differences

The Sugar Act 1764 • Revenue raising from colonists • Required transshipping through UK ports • Nit-picking paperwork/requirements • Guilty until proven innocent • venue to Nova Scotia • no Jury • Judges compensated by monies seized • Vigorous enforcement ordered by Grenville • Real effects (revenues, etc)

Colonial Response to the Sugar Act • Rejected virtual representation • Protests • legislature pass anti Stamp Act resolutions • Loyal Nine • Boston leads • Hit hard by Sugar act • Distillers • wine importers • generally depressed economy • forced resignation of Boston stamp distributor • threats of death • property damage by mobs • Sons of Liberty • similar to Loyal nine • formed in several colonies

Definitions • Virtual Representation - concept employed by Prime Minister George Grenville to explain why Parliament could legally tax colonists even though colonists could not elect any members of Parliament. The theory held that the members of Parliament did not only represent their specific geographical constituencies, but rather that they took into consideration the well being of all British subjects when considering legislation • Loyal Nine - A group of Boston merchants and artisans that formed during the Stamp Act crisis to lead the public in attempts to drive the stamp distributors from the city. This was one of the first steps toward political organization in the colonies. • Sons of Liberty: A secret organizations formed in the American colonies in protest against the Stamp Act (1765). They were organized by merchants, businessmen, lawyers, journalists, and others who would be most affected by the Stamp Act. The leaders included John Lamb and Alexander McDougall in New York, and Samuel Adams and James Otis in New England. The societies kept in touch with each other through committees of correspondence, supported the nonimportation agreement, forced the resignation of stamp distributors, and incited destruction of stamped paper and violence against British officials

The Stamp Act • Stamp Act Congress • NYC 1765 - statement of united opposition to Stamp Act • Boycott of English products • 40% of English revenue from sales in NA • Merchants push for repeal • Grenville dismissed • Stamp Act repealed, March 1766

Declaratory Act • Declaratory Act of 1766 • passes same time as Stamp Act repealed (almost unnoticed by most colonials, who saw repeal as a victory) • stated absolute British power to legislate for Colonies in “All cases whatsoever” • fundamental disagreement between England and Colonies

Enlightenment Influences • General change in political thought in England and colonies • Locke- natural rights, obligations of government to governed • British oppositionists - claimed parliament served self first, people second • General shift by many in view of Crown/Parliament motives • American Protestant clergy influence • Quartering Act - 1766 • Indirect tax, resented, especially in New York (many troops there)

The Tea Act • Removed all import tariffs on tea imported by the Govt. Chartered British East India Company • Britain in dire financial straits • Needed to be able to control colonial market • Tea can be directly shipped from India to N. America (no longer has to go through England) • Reduced cost of tea below all competitors, but..... • colonists saw it as means to raise money to pay colonial governors • would make colonists accept principle of Parliamentary right to tax to accept cheap tea (In other words accept the spirit of the Declaratory Act of 1766) • Committees warned that tea cargoes should not be landed

Boston Tea Party • Hutchinson (Mass Governor) ordered tea landed in Boston • 50 or so men disguised as Indians dump tea into harbor November 1773 (45 tons, 1 million pounds)

British Response to the Boston Tea Party • Outraged, Parliament responds with the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts. • Boston Port Bill - closed port of Boston until tea paid for (still waiting) • Mass . Government Act - revoked Mass charter, removed elected upper house, governor to name all sheriffs, judges, only one town meeting per year • Administration of Justice Act - persons enforcing British justice in colony could be tried only in England • Quartering Act - any empty building could be taken to house British troops • Replaced Mass governor with British military commander for North America, General Thomas Gage • Quebec Act - also passed at same time as Coercive Acts, perceived by colonists as part of them. • Established Catholicism as official religion of Quebec • Extended Quebec’s territory South to the Ohio and West to the Mississippi (several colonies claimed lands in this region which had now become part of Canada

Colonial Reaction to the Intolerable Acts • Although aimed at Mass as punishment, the acts inflamed all colonies • Many of the provisions of the Acts are listed as grievances by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence • Virginian upper class and lower class join in opposition to crown and in support of Mass

Boston Massacre • 1700 troops into Boston 1768, resented by Bostonians • “Occupied city” • 1770 - troops fire into angry, threatening crowd surrounding customs office • Crispus Attucks • A leader of crowd, free man of color (African/native American descent) • usually conceded to be first casualty of the Revolution • Soldiers tried (defended by John Adams) • All but two acquitted

Townshend Acts • Intended to raise revenue, tighten customs enforcement, and assert imperial authority in America • Sponsored by Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend and enacted on June 29, 1767 • Key statute levied import duties on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea • Purpose was to provide salaries for some colonial officials (such as Judges and Governors) so provincial assemblies could not coerce them by withholding wages

First Continental Congress • Philadelphia, 1774 • All but Georgia attend (remember that Georgia had only been a colony 35 years, many still felt English, compared to Carolinas, New Englanders) • Endorsed Suffolk Resolves (Mass statement that no colony owed obedience to any of the Coercive Acts) • Voted to boycott all British imports after Dec. 1, 1774 and even harsher, stop all exports to British Caribbean islands after Sept 1775 unless reconciled • Appealed direct to George III to dismiss ministers responsible for the Coercive acts • Many colonies began forming volunteer militias

First Continental Congress (continued) • Agreement not unanimous • Some upper class still sided with British, feared irreparable damage • Feared mob rule • Called Tories (after the majority party in Parliament, whom they supported) or Loyalists , because the did not favor confrontation • Frequently harassed by patriots • During the entire course of the Revolutionary war, the new nation was split about evenly three ways. About a third favored independence, a third opposed and a third cared little as long as they did well financially

Lexington and Concord • April 1775 - Mass militia rumored to be stockpiling military supplies at Concord Ma. • Gage sends 700 British regulars to seize supplies, arrest Hancock and Adams if able • Dawes and Revere ride, warn “minutemen” the redcoats are coming • At Lexington 70 militia skirmish with 700 Brits (first firefight of Revolutionary War • Brits win, 8 militia dead, one Brit wounded, press on to Concord • Battle begins continues all the way back to Boston, 273 redcoats killed, British understand that the game has changed • By April, 20,000 New Englanders surround Boston • Green Mountain Boys under Ethan Allen seize Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, take cannon for siege of Boston

Common Sense • Tract by Thomas Paine, immigrated in 1770s • Radical revolutionary, wrote “Common Sense”, promoting cause and reasons for American Independence • Spoke of new kind of nation, government, model for the world • Sold 100,000 copies in three months, convinced many who had hoped for reconciliation with England

Independence • July 2, Continental congress announces the United States of America • July 4th approved draft of Declaration of Independence (written by Jefferson) • Like Paine, aimed at King George III never mentions Parliament • Jefferson acknowledged debt to John Locke for ideas, spirit of a man created Govt and natural rights of citizens • Stressed that England had violated the “social contract” with its citizens in the colonies • Typical enlightenment philosophy • Aim - to convince the Americans to be willing to die for liberty, masterful political propaganda

The Road to Revolution