CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION George III was

CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

George III was the king of Britain from 1760 to 1820. Therefore, he was the king during the time leading up to and including the American Revolution. 1

After winning the French and Indian War, the British took over all of the French forts in the Ohio River Valley. They refused to give supplies to the Native Americans, as the French had. British settlers also moved across the mountains onto Native American land. Native Americans responded by attacking settlers and destroying forts. To gain control of the situation the British decided to call of the leaders of the local Native groups together to talk. At the meeting British officials gave the Natives small pox infected blankets as gifts. By the fall, the Native Americans had retreated. Even so, the uprising made the British government see that defending Western lands would be costly. Therefore, the British issued the Proclamation of 1763. 2

The Proclamation of 1763 was issued by King George III of Britain on October 7, 1763. It created a boundary line between the 13 British colonies on the Atlantic coast and Native American land west of the Appalachian Mountains. The proclamation line was not intended to be a permanent boundary between white and Native lands, but rather a temporary boundary which could be extended further west in an orderly, lawful manner. The proclamation made it illegal for colonists to purchase Native American land west of the Appalachian Mountains, which had often created problems in the past. Instead, all future land purchases were to be made by British officials "at some public Meeting or Assembly of the said Indians". Furthermore, British colonists were forbidden to move beyond the line and settle on native lands, and colonial officials were forbidden to grant grounds or lands without royal approval. The proclamation gave the Crown a monopoly on all future land purchases from American 3 Indians.

On April 5, 1764, Prime Minister George Grenville and the British Parliament passed the Sugar Act. This Act placed a tax on a variety of products such as sugar, specified wines and cloth, coffee, tropical foods and silk were now subject to a tax. American exports, notably iron and lumber, were subjected to close supervision. Ship captains were required to maintain detailed lists of their cargo and the papers were George Grenville subject to verification before anything could be unloaded from the ships. The money gained from the tax was to pay for the British troops that were sent to the colonies to stop the colonists from moving 5 west of the Appalachian Mountains.

New England ports especially suffered economic losses from the Sugar Act as the stricter enforcement made smuggling molasses more dangerous and risky. Forced to increase their prices, many colonists feared being priced out of the market. Most Americans of the day agreed that Parliament had James Otis the right to regulate trade for the empire. However, the Sugar Act was not trade regulation. Its specific aim was to raise revenue. Americans were accustomed to being taxed by their own local governments, but not by a faraway Parliament where they were not represented. It was during the protests of 1764 the cry of “no taxation without representation” was first widely heard. Two prime movers behind the protests 6 Samuel Adams against the Sugar Act were Samuel Adams and James Otis, both of Massachusetts.

On March 22, 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. All diplomas, contracts, and wills had to carry a stamp. Even published materials such as newspapers had to be written on special stamped paper. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains (10, 000 troops were to be stationed on the American frontier for this purpose). The Stamp Act was a new kind of tax for the colonies. The Sugar Act had been a tax on imported goods. It mainly affected merchants. In contrast, the Stamp Act was a tax applied within the colonies. It fell directly on all colonists. Even more, the colonists had to pay for stamps in silver coin—a scarce item in the colonies. 7

Colonial leaders vigorously protested. For them, the issue was clear. They were being taxed without their consent by a Parliament in which they had no voice. If Britain could pass the Stamp Act, what other taxes might it pass in the future? Samuel Adams, a leader in the Massachusetts legislature, asked, “Why not our lands? Why not the produce of our lands and, in short, everything we possess and make use of? ” Some colonists formed secret societies to oppose British policies. The most famous of these groups was the Sons of Liberty. Many Sons of Liberty were lawyers, merchants, and craftspeople—the colonists most affected by the Stamp Act. These groups staged protests against the act. Not all of their protests were peaceful. The Sons of Liberty burned the stamped paper whenever they could find it. They also attacked customs officials, whom they covered with hot tar and feathers and paraded in public. Fearing 8 for their safety, many customs officials quit their jobs.

On March 24, 1765, Parliament passed the Quartering Act. This was a cost-saving measure. Under the terms of this legislation, each colonial assembly was required to quarter, or house, British soldiers and provide them with supplies. Specified items included bedding, cooking utensils, firewood, beer or cider and candles. Colonial assemblies were required to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. If the barracks were too small to house all the soldiers, then they were to accommodate the soldiers in local inns, livery stables, ale houses, victual houses, and the houses of sellers of wine. Should there still be soldiers without accommodation after all such public houses were filled, the colonies were then required to take, hire and make fit for the reception of his Majesty's forces, in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings as shall be necessary. General Thomas Gage, commander of these forces, put most of the troops in New York. 9

The king’s finance minister, Charles Townshend, told Parliament that he had a way to raise revenue in the colonies. So on June 29, 1767, Parliament passed his plan, known as the Townshend Acts. The first of the Townshend Acts suspended New York’s assembly until New Yorkers agreed to provide housing for the troops. The other acts placed duties, or import taxes, on various goods brought into the colonies, such as glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea. Townshend thought that duties, which were collected before the goods entered the colonies, would anger the colonists less than the direct taxes of the Stamp Act. The Charles Townshend money raised would be used to pay the salaries of British governors and other officials in the colonies. To enforce the acts, British officers would use writs of assistance, or search warrants, to enter homes or businesses to search for smuggled goods. To enforce the Townshend Acts the British created writs of assistance (search warrants) which allowed British soldiers to 10 enter colonists’ homes to look for smuggled goods.

In the fall of 1768, 1, 000 British soldiers (known as redcoats for their bright red jackets) arrived in Boston under the command of General Thomas Gage. With their arrival, tension filled the streets of Boston. Since the soldiers were poorly paid, they hired themselves out as workers, usually at rates lower than those of American workers. Resentment against the redcoats grew. Soldiers and street youths often yelled insults at each other. “Lobsters for sale!” the youths would yell, referring to the soldiers’ red coats. “Yankees!” the soldiers jeered. Yankee was supposed to be an insult, but the colonists soon took pride in the name. On March 5, 1770, a group of about 50 colonists began throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks at a squad of British soldiers. A British officer, Captain Thomas Preston, called in additional soldiers, and these too were attacked, so the soldiers fired into the mob, killing 3 on the spot (a black sailor named Crispus Attucks, rope maker Samuel Gray, and a mariner named James Caldwell), and wounding 8 others, two of whom died later (Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr). 11

On May 10, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act. Tea was very popular in the colonies, but much of it was smuggled in from Holland. The Tea Act gave the British East India Company control over the American tea trade. The tea would arrive in the colonies only in the trading company’s ships and be sold there by its merchants. Colonists who had not been paying any tax on smuggled tea would now have to pay a tax on this regulated tea. 12

The Tea Act enraged colonial shippers and merchants. The colonists wondered what Parliament would do next. Protests against the Tea Act took place all over the colonies. In Charleston, South Carolina, colonists’ unloaded tea and let it rot on the docks. In New York City and Philadelphia, colonists blocked tea ships from landing. In Boston, the Sons of Liberty organized what came to be known as the Boston Tea Party. On the evening of December 16, 1773, a group of men disguised as Native Americans boarded three tea ships docked in Boston Harbor. They proceeded in destroying 342 chests of tea, equivalent to one million dollars in today’s money. This event became known as the Boston Tea Party. 13

The Boston Tea Party had aroused fury in Britain. On March 28, 1774, Parliament passed a series of laws to punish the Massachusetts colony for dumping the tea and to serve as a warning to other colonies. The British called these laws the Coercive Acts, but they were so harsh that the colonists called them the Intolerable Acts. One of the acts would close the port of Boston until colonists paid for the destroyed tea. Others banned committees of correspondence, allowed Britain to house troops wherever necessary, and let British officials accused of crimes in the colonies stand trial in Britain. To enforce the acts, Parliament appointed General Thomas Gage governor of Massachusetts. 14

In response to the passing of the Coercive Acts, on September 5, 1774, each colony, except Georgia, sent representatives (delegates) to Philadelphia to discuss how to deal the British actions. At this meeting, called the First Continental Congress, delegates took several actions, including voting to ban all trade with Britain until the Intolerable Acts (aka Coercive Act) were repealed. They also called on each colony to begin training troops. Georgia agreed to be a part of the actions of the Congress even though it had voted not to send delegates. 15

British General Thomas Gage learned that the Massachusetts militia was storing arms and ammunition in Concord, about 20 miles northwest of Boston. He also heard that Sam Adams and John Hancock were in Lexington. On the night of April 18, 1775, Gage ordered 700 of his troops to arrest Adams and Hancock in Lexington and to destroy the supplies in Concord. At dawn on April 19, the British troops reached Lexington. They found Captain John Parker and about 70 militiamen waiting. The British commander ordered the Americans to drop their muskets. They refused. No one knows who fired first, but within a few minutes eight militiamen lay dead. The British then marched to Concord, where they destroyed military supplies. A battle broke out at a bridge north of town, forcing the British to retreat. Nearly 4, 000 Minutemen and militiamen arrived in the area. They lined the road from Concord to Lexington and peppered the retreating redcoats with musket fire. “It seemed as if men came down from the clouds, ” one soldier said. Only the arrival of 1, 000 more troops saved the British from destruction as they scrambled back to Boston. 16