Welcome to a Revolution

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• The Road to the Revolution
• What led
• to the writing of the
• Declaration
• Of
• Independence
• and the
• Revolutionary
• War?

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Navigation Acts

• The Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1696 restricted
  American trade in the following ways
• Only British ships could transport imported and
  exported goods from the colonies.
• The only people who were allowed to trade with
  the colonies had to be British citizens.
• Commodities such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton
  wool which were produced in the colonies could be
  exported only to British ports.

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French and Indian War

• Britain helped colonists to defeat the French in
  war
• Britain needed money to pay for war expenses
• Taxed colonists, restricted settlements and
  limited self-govt.

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Writs of Assistance

• Legal documents allowing British officers to
  search for smuggled goods without warning
• Established in 1764
• Devised to monitor colonial trading to prevent
  evasion of the Navigation Acts
• England saw colonies as a source of Revenue
  (money)
• Colonists become outraged!!!

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Revenue

• Source of incoming money
• England saw the colonies as a source of incoming
  money

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Sugar Act and Stamp Act

• British taxed colonists on many of the goods
  coming into the colonies from other places
• British imposed taxes upon all paper products
  and stamped the item once the tax had been payed.

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Sugar Act of 1764

• Stop molasses smuggling between colonies and the
  French West Indies
• Lowered taxes on imported molasses
• Set-up courts where accused smugglers were tried
  by a British judge and NOT a jury

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Stamp Act 1765

• Placed a tax on almost all printed materials
  newspapers, pamphlets, wills, playing cards
• Taxed colonists directly
• Passed by Parliament without colonial vote or
  consent
• Rally Cry No taxation without Representation

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Colonists react Phrase coined by James Otis
believed that if you tax the colonists, they
should be allowed to vote for members of
Parliament
No Taxation Without Representation!
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Various protests
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Patrick Henry

• Vocal patriot advocating colonial rights
• Believed only the colonists had the right to tax
  the colonists

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Sons of Liberty

• Organized in Boston by Samuel Adams
• Protested by burning effigies
• Raided and destroyed homes of British officials
• Spread propaganda
• Organized boycotts

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Daughters of Liberty

• Colonial women organized groups to support the
  boycott of British goods
• Urged Americans to wear homemade clothing and to
  produce their own goods

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Protests

• Effigies - rag dolls representing unpopular tax
  collectors

• Boycotts refusal to buy goods

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RepealThe Funeral of the Stamp Act

• To get rid of
• British merchants rallied for the repeal of the
  Stamp Act in 1766
• Americans successfully Boycotted British goods

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Declaratory Act

• Replaced the repealed Stamp Act
• Allowed parliament the right to tax and to make
  decisions in all cases whatsoever.

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Townshend Acts

• Created in 1767
• Taxed imported goods at the port of entry glass,
  paper, tea, lead and other basic goods
• Enforced by Writs of
• Assistance upset colonists

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Boston Massacre
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Boston Massacre Facts

• King George III Sent 700 troops to Boston on
  October 1, 1768 set up camp on town green
• Harassed colonists and interfered with their
  daily lives
• March 5, 1770, colonists antagonized soldiers by
  throwing rocks and ice
• Soldiers fired 7 shots into the crowed 5
  colonists died including Crispus Attucks
• Depicted by Paul Revere as a massacre
• Effective propaganda, as colonist depicted as
  heroes, soldiers as evil villains
• John Adams successfully defended British soldiers
  saying acted in self defense

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Committee of Correspondence

• Revived by Samuel Adams in 1772
• Used to circulate colonists grievances against
  the Britain

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Tea Act of 1773

• Passed by Parliament to keep the British East
  India Tea Company in business
• Allowed the tea company to ship its surplus tea
  to the colonies without paying taxes
• Colonists boycotted the tea rather smuggle
  colonial tea, and refused to accept British tea
  at ports.

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Boston Tea Party

• Lower price on British tea
• Colonists still pay taxes
• Boycotted British tea
• Sons of Liberty dressed in disguise and dumped
  British tea overboard

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Boston Tea Party Facts

• December 16, 1773
• British governor in Boston ordered the tea from
  the ships to be unloaded
• Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians
  boarded the ships at midnight
• Threw 342 chests of tea into the harbor
• Tea valued at 70,000 today over 1,000,000

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King George III passes theIntolerable Acts

• Official name Coercive Acts
• Created to punish Massachusetts
• Closed the Boston Harbor until colonists paid for
  damaged tea
• Prohibited town meetings
• Forced colonists to quarter the British
  soldiers.
• The King assigned British General Gage to be
  Massachusetts governor.

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Intolerable Acts

• Purpose Punish colonists for Tea Party
• Result Helped to unify colonists

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First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia
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First Continental Congress

• Group of prominent colonial leaders
• Met September 1774
• Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Jay, George
  Washington, Patrick Henry more
• Drafted a statement of grievances
• Called for the repeal of the 13 Acts of
  Parliament
• Voted to boycott all British goods and trade
• Passed a resolution to form a militia
• Meet again in 7 months
• Key step in American history as delegates
  determined to uphold colonial rights

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First Continental Congress
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Conflict at Lexington and Concord
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Battles of Lexington and Concord

• First military engagements of the Revolution
• April 19, 1775
• Known as the shot heard round the world

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Second Continental Congress
Representatives brought money to help establish
the Continental Army (i.e. pay soldiers, buy
guns, bullets, food, and uniforms
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Second Continental Congress

• May 10, 1775
• Also present Ben Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas
  Jefferson
• Congress began to govern the colonies
• Authorized the printing of money
• Set up Post Office with Franklin in charge
• Created committees to communicate with Native
  Americans
• Created the Continental Army with Washington in
  charge
• Sent the Olive Branch Petition

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Second Continental Congress
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Olive Branch Petition

• One last chance to avoid war by protecting the
  colonists rights
• King refused to read it
• Sent 30,000 paid Hessian soldiers instead

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Common Sense

• Pamphlet written by Thomas Paine
• Using plain language, it urged for complete
  independence from Great Britain three points
• All men, not just land owners, have right to vote
• Kings ruling by will of God is ridiculous and all
  monarchies are corrupt
• The new nation can survive on its own and not be
  economically tied to England

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Common Sense
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independence (n)
declaration (n)
an official statement

• the freedom to govern on ones own.

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Who was involved?

• Benjamin Franklin
• John Adams
• Robert R. Livingston
• Roger Sherman
• Thomas Jefferson

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Where did it all take place?

• This is a replica of the Graff house where
  Jefferson wrote the majority of the 1st draft of
  the Declaration of Independence. The original
  building (at this location) was destroyed in
  1888.

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What did it look like?
Who wrote the first draft?
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Who signed it first?
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The Declaration of Independence

• July 4, 1776
• Written by Thomas Jefferson
• Signed 1st by John Hancock
• Two major ideas
• Every person has natural and unalienable rights
• the government cannot take away life liberty,
• and the pursuit of happiness
• If a government disregards these rights the
  people
• have the right to abolish that government by
  force if
• necessary and form a new government
• Contains 4 major sections
• Preamble or introduction
• Listed rights colonists should have
• Listed grievances against the British
• Proclaims the existence of a new country

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What happened after it was signed and where is it
now?
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What happened to the 56 signers?

• Have you ever wondered what happened to the fifty
  six men who signed the Declaration of
  Independence? Five signers were captured by the
  British as traitors, and tortured before they
  died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and
  burned. Two lost their sons serving in the
  Revolutionary Army another had two sons
  captured. Nine of the fifty six fought and died
  from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary
  War. They signed and they pledged their lives,
  their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
• What kind of men were they?
• Twenty four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were
  merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation
  owners men of means, well educated. But they
  signed the Declaration of Independence knowing
  full well death would be the cost if captured.
  Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
  trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the
  British Navy. He sold his home and properties to
  pay his debts, and died in rags.

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• Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that
  he was forced to move his family almost
  constantly. He served in the Congress without
  pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His
  possessions were taken from him, and poverty was
  his reward.
• Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of
  Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward,
  Ruttledge, and Middleton.
• At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr.
  noted that the British General Cornwallis had
  taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters.
  He quietly urged General George Washington to
  open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson
  died bankrupt.
• Francis Lewis had his home and properties
  destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she
  died within a few months.

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• John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as
  she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for
  their lives. His fields and his gristmill were
  laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in
  forests and caves, returning home to find his
  wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks
  later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
  
• Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
• Such were the stories and sacrifices of the
  American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed,
  rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken
  men of means and education.

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• They had security, but they valued liberty more.
  Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they
  pledged "For the support of this declaration,
  with firm reliance on the protection of divine
  providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our
  lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
• They gave you and me a free and independent
  America. The history books never told you a lot
  about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We
  didn't fight just the British. We were British
  subjects at that time and we fought our own
  government!