Road to Revolution

1
Road to Revolution

• The New Imperial Policy (1763-1770)
• Strict enforcement of Navigation Acts
• Peacetime army of 10,000 remains in America,
  indicating willingness to use force to retain
  authority

2

• Early measures (1763-1766)
• Prime Minister George Grenville taxation program
• Sugar Act threatened triangular trade by
  interfering with French molasses imports
• Some colonists argued that Sugar Act was illegal,
  that all taxes needed to arise from the people
• Violators would be tried by Admiralty Courts, not
  juries (which often resulted in acquittals)
• Bureaucracy doubled in size to collect taxes and
  arrest smugglers

3

• Stamp Act (1765)
• sought to raise funds for defense of America
• requiring all legal documents, as well as
  newspapers, playing cards, etc. to bear a
  government stamp.

Before the actual war of the Revolution could
begin, there had to be a revolution "in the minds
and hearts of the people," as John Adams put it.
One of the most important factors in this change
of heart was an innocent-looking document which
received the assent of George III "by commission"
on March 22, 1765. It was to be known as the
Stamp Act. That it was also to be a piece of
political dynamite was soon evident.             
                                                  
                  - The American Heritage History
of the American Revolution
4

• What would be the colonial reaction and what
  action would they take?
• Colonial opposition to new program
• Stamp Act affected lawyers, merchants, editors
  most heavily.
• Stamp Act Congress met to call for boycott of
  British goods and state that Parliament had no
  right to tax colonies without consent.
• Sons of Liberty used mob violence to force all
  stamp agents to resign.

5
Protest against the Stamp ActThe sign in the
background reads"The Folly of England and the
Ruin of America"
Designed by Franklin, and drawn and engraved by
an unknown artist, this cartoon was distributed
by Franklin among his London associates as part
of his campaign to have the Stamp Act repealed.
6

• Parliament repealed Stamp Act but asserted its
  rights (with Declaratory Act) to regulate
  colonies "in all ways whatsoever."

7
Townshend Acts (1767-1770)

• new duties placed on a number of goods (paper,
  paint, glass, and tea) led to protests against
  the collection of customs duties.
• Leading up to the Boston Massacre.
• Job competition (British soldiers vs. locals)
• Presents of British soldiers created hostilities
• Samuel Adams led radicals in urging a renewed
  boycott of British goods and provided an issue to
  unify American sentiment
• Boston Massacre resulted in deaths of four
  persons (1770) when soldiers sent to protect
  agents were attacked by a mob.
• By 1770 all duties except that on tea were
  repealed. Tea tax was seen as symbolic of
  Parliament's supremacy

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10

• Tea Act (1773)
• In an attempt to support the East India Tea
  Company, Parliament removed the tax on tea and
  allowed it to be sold in the colonies through its
  own agents, not American retailers. British tea
  was cheaper, but to buy it was to pay a Townshend
  duty.
• Mobs turned back tea ships in several ports and
  dumped shiploads into Boston Harbor.

11

• Parliament responded with Coercive (Intolerable)
  Acts which
• Closed Boston Harbor
• Removed trials involving royal officials out of
  New England
• Allowed for quartering of troops in colonists'
  homes
• Extended Quebec's boundaries south, convincing
  colonists that liberty was threatened.

12

• First Continental Congress (1774)
• Declaration of Rights and Grievances condemned
  Coercive Acts, denied Parliament's right to tax
  colonies, but promised obedience to the king  
• Organized economic resistance (boycotts)

13

• April 19, 1775. When British attempted to capture
  Concord, Minutemen responded with gunfire at
  Lexington and Concord
• 73 British soldiers killed, 176 wounded
• Armed conflict between England and the colonists
  had now begun

In an engraving by Amos Doolittle, British Major
John Pitcairn and Col. Francis Smith survey
Concord from a hill in the town cemetery.