Colonial Resistance: From Rebellious Belligerence to Political Consciousness

1. Colonial Resistance: From Rebellious Belligerence to Political Consciousness

2. British Economic Policies • The British feel that the colonists are in some sense responsible for the French and Indian War in North America. • They seek to place the war debt onto the colonists because they are British subjects. • The colonists are used to self-governing themselves and electing their own representative governments due to salutary neglect from the British Parliament.

3. British Economic Policies • In actuality the colonist have grown quite wealthy because of the amenities being a British subject provides them. • The British attempt to reduce their war debt by passing the cost onto the colonists through a series of taxes. • Colonial resistance will vary from mob violence to tactfully designed propaganda to a statement based on poltical consciousness.

4. Stamp Act Congress, Oct. 1765 • Stamp Act Congress made up of colonial representatives. They protest the new taxes imposed on the colonies and win in 1765. • “Taxation without representation”, belief that colonists should vote on their own taxes.

5. Sons of Liberty, 1765 • Formed in Boston as a response to the Stamp Act. Supported by Samuel Adams • The Sons of Liberty use intimidation in the form of tarring and feathering tax collectors. • Andrew Oliver, a tax collector’s home is torn apart

7. The Boston Massacre, Dec. 1770 • Colonists are upset that British troops are in Boston and that they are competing for jobs with them. • Crispus Attucks an African American sailor is the first to die in the Revolution • The colonist will look to this incident as another example of King George’s tyranny in the colonies

9. The real story behind the drawing • The British soldiers are shown standing in a straight line shooting their rifles in a regular volley, actually both groups are cussing at one another. • The event occurred around nine o'clock on a cold winter night. • Notice too the absence of snow and ice on the street, Crispus Attucks, a black man is lying on the ground closest to the British soldiers but is shown to be white. • The print of the Boston Massacre was released three times by separate men. Paul Revere was one of those men. All the men benefited financially from the drawing.

10. Committees of Correspondence, 1772 • Groups appointed in the 13 colonies to provide leadership and to show that the colonies, they were experiencing the same thing under the British • Samuel Adams organized the first in 1772

11. Samuel Adams • Harvard educated politician from Massachusetts • Shrewd and politically savvy starts committees of correspondence, Sons of Liberty • Involved in Boston Tea Party

12. Boston Tea Party, 1774 • Sons of Liberty members quietly and orderly December 13, dump 342 tea crates into Boston Harbor • It is to protest the Tea Act, a British general will be sent to govern Massachusetts

14. Common Sense, 1776 • Author of Common Sense, his writing style is crude, simple and direct to the point • He argues that King George is a tyrant, that England is to far away to rule the colonies and it is time for the colonies to start off on their own

15. Declaration of Independence,1776 • Formal declaration of independence from England • It explains the reasons for the Revolution, lists the injustices made by King George III, and explains a the basic ideas of American government

16. Declaration of Independence,1776