The Road To Revolution

1. The Road To Revolution Chapter 7

2. The Road To Revolution • Britain wants colonists to help carry financial burden of empire • Seven years war costly • Americans begin to assert their identity • Did not want to separate at first • Reluctant Revolutionaries • Want “Rights as Englishmen” • Economic policy squabble explodes into irreconcilable differences

3. The Deep Roots of Revolution

4. New Ideas took hold in America from the first settlements • Change came easier in America • Less acceptant of old ways • Able to make the world over

5. Two Ideas That Take Hold in America 1. Republicanism • People subordinate their private, selfish interests to good of community 2. Feared arbitrary rule by “radical whigs” • Attacked patronage and bribes by government • Citizens be on guard for their liberties

6. Circumstances of Colonial life did much to bolster these attitudes • No princes or dukes • Used to running their own affairs • Distance weakens authority of British

7. Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances

8. Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances • 13 colonies founded haphazardly • Only Georgia founded by British government

9. Mercantilism justifies British control over colonies 1. Wealth was power and could be measured by amount of gold and silver 2. Export more than import (balance of trade) 3. Colonies gave a distinct advantage for raw materials and a market

10. London saw colonies as tenants • Expected to furnish needed products • Not to compete with British companies (hats, wool) • Not to worry about self-sufficiency

11. Navigation Law of 1650 • Regulate mercantilism in colonies • Aimed at Dutch shippers trying to gain American trade • All Commerce had to be carried on British and American ships only • All products bound for America had to stop in Britain first, for taxes • Some products (tobacco) could only be sold to Britain

12. Currency problems for Americans • Americans bought more from Britain than it sold • Cash shortage • Began to barter products

13. Colonies begin to print money which quickly depreciated • British merchants get Parliament to stop colonists from printing their own money • American interests being sacrificed for British merchants • Britain could also nullify any colonial legislation and colonists resent it in principle

14. The Merits and Menace of Mercantilism

15. In theory the British policy was harsh and selfish • In reality it wasn’t that burdensome • Americans disreguarded policy and it was loosely enforced • Americans amass fortunes by smuggling

16. American benefit from mercantilism • Liberal bounties for colonial producers of ship parts • Virginia tobacco growers have monopoly of British market • Protection from a mighty navy

17. Mercantilism burdened colonists • Stifled economic initiative • Dependency on British creditors and agents • Americans felt used and humiliated • Was America an emerging nation?

18. The Stamp Tax Uproar

19. The Stamp Tax Uproar • Britain won Seven Years War • Held huge debt of 140 million pounds • Move to change relationship with colonies

20. Prime Minister George Grenville • Begins to strictly enforce the Navigation Acts • Sugar Act of 1764 • To raise taxes for the crown • Increased duty for sugar from West Indies • Agitation lowered taxes

21. Quartering Act of 1765 • Required colonists to provide food and quarters for British troops

22. Stamp-Act 1765 • To raise money to support military • Tax on any paper product using stamps and required many to use stamps

23. Grenville wants Americans to pay their fair share for their own defense • British people already had stamp tax

24. American aroused by Grenville’s policies • Not as much from the pocketbook • Struck at liberties they always assumed • Refused to comply fully with Quartering Act

25. Seemed to jeopardize their basic rights as Englishmen • Offenders could be tried in hated admiralty courts • Juries not allowed • Burden of proof on defendant • Americans felt dear right was being take away

26. Why have an army anyway? • To whip colonists in shape? • Americans felt a conspiracy • Began to attack the Stamp Act

27. “No taxation without representation” • Those most against Stamp Act were the ones who denied the right to vote for frontiersmen

28. Difference between “legislation and taxation” • Parliament had the right to regulate trade for the whole Empire • Only their own seated legislatures could tax them • Robbery and assault on property

29. Grenville dismissed American protests • Virtual Representation • All colonists represented in Parliament who represent all of the Empire

30. Representation would have been a good compromise • Any colonial representative could not defeat the majority of Parliament • Would have satisfied colonists?

31. Britain would not separate legislation and taxation • Americans begin to consider their own political independence

32. Parliament Forced to Repeal the Stamp Act

33. Parliament Forced to Repeal the Stamp Act • Stamp Act Congress in 1765 • New York City, 27 delegates from 9 colonies • Statement of rights and grievances and ask for repeal of Stamp Act • Ignored in England • Began to erode sectional suspicions • Step toward colonial unity

34. Non importation agreements • Stop importing British goods • Americans use homespun clothes and sacrifice other goods • Spontaneously united the American people for the first time

35. Mobilization gives citizens chance to participate in protests • People getting off of the sidelines • Groups assemble and meet • Helps spread revolutionary fervor

36. Violent and Radical groups • Sons and Daughters of Liberty • Helped to enforce non importation agreements in their own colonies • Ransacked houses of unpopular officials

37. Tax collecting broke down • Tax collectors forced to resign • No one to sell the stamps • Law defied or nullified

38. England hit hard by non importation • 1/4 of British exports go to America • 1/2 of British shipping devoted to America • People thrown out of work • British call Parliament to repeal Stamp Act • Parliament could not understand why Americans would not pay their share

39. 1766 Parliament repeals Stamp Act • Colonists rejoice • Britain passes Declaratory acts • Reaffirms Parliament’s right to bind colonies “in all cases whatsoever” • England draws line in the sand • Colonists want measure of self rule

40. The Townshend Tea Tax and the Boston Massacre

41. The Townshend Tea Tax and the Boston Massacre • Charles Townshend takes over British ministry • Champagne Charley • Promises to deliver taxes with minimum colonial argument

42. Townshend Acts • Tax on tea, glass, lead, paper, paint • Tax paid at America ports, makes it an internal tax • Some colonists didn’t care to make the distinction

43. Tax on Tea is what bothered most Americans • 1 million tea drinkers

44. Salaries of govenors now paid with the taxes collected • Americans see this as another attempt by Parliament to control them • Also the New York legislature suspended for not complying with the Quartering Act

45. Non importation agreements revived but less effective than before • Tax not liked but not taken seriously because it was light and indirect • Too many were smuggling anyway

46. British land 2 regiments of troops in Boston in 1768 to keep order in the colonies • Soldiers were drunken and profane • Colonists mocked them whenever they could

47. March 5, 1770 • Boston Massacre • Crispus Attucks first killed - mulatto • Paul Revere’s painting shows the British as evil enemy • John Adams defends the British troops • two convicted, branded on thumb • Both sides to blame

48. The Seditious Committees of Correspondence

49. King George III • 32 years old • Wants to exert the power of British monarchy • Bad ruler • Yes men

50. Lord North gets repeal of Townshend Acts • Left tax on tea • Wasn’t producing revenue • Only producing rebellion • Non importation was also a minor problem for British manufacturing • British insist on enforcing the Navigation Acts