French and Indian War After winning Britain leaves
French and Indian War • After winning, Britain leaves soliders (a standing army) in the colonies to protect them from any remaining French or Spanish colonists as well as Native Americans. • Britain in debt due to the war and it is costly to keep the Redcoats in the colonies…why not tax the colonists for their use of the British army?
The Stamp Act • 1765 Internal Tax on any paper goods colonists purchase in the colonies. • Prime Minister George Grenville supports the imposition of the tax – The colonists are receiving the benefit of our protection…they should help pay for a portion of it. • Overall, not a significant tax on the colonists, but colonists begin to protest the idea of Parliament taxing them without representation – It’s a violation of our rights as Englishmen.
The Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770)
• Prior to this incident, many confrontations had occurred between the soldiers and the colonists in Boston. • March 5, 1770: A small boy walks out in the street and begins taunting a soldier, and the soldier responds by knocking him down…he goes out and finds other colonists and tells them THAT SOLDIER JUST KNOCKED ME DOWN!!
Boston Meeting House bell rings (this usually signals fire!!!) “Many people came out of their houses supposing a fire in the town, and several officers on the same supposition were repairing to their posts; but meeting with mobs were reviled, attacked, and those who could not escape knocked down and treated with great inhumanity…Different mobs paraded through the streets, passing the several barracks and provoking the soldiers to come out. One body went to the main guard where every provocation was given, without effect, for the guard remained quiet. From thence the mob proceeded to a sentinel posted upon the customhouse, as a small distance from the guard, and attacked him. He defended himself as well as he could, calling out for help…Captain Preston, hearing the sentinel was in danger of being murdered he detached a sergeant and 12 men to relieve him and soon after followed himself to prevent any rash act on the part of the troops. This party as well as the sentinel was immediately attacked, some colonists throwing bricks, stones, pieces of ice, and snowballs at them whilst others advanced up to their bayonets and endeavored to close with them to use their bludgeons and clubs, calling out to them to fire if they dared and provoking them in a most opprobrious language. ” The crowd was yelling “Come on, you rascals, bloody backs, lobster scoundrels…fire if you dare. You dare not fire…. The soldiers at length perceiving their lives in danger, and hearing the word ‘fire’ all round them, three or four of them fired one after another, and again three more in the same hurry and confusion. Four or five persons were unfortunately killed and more wounded. ”
Boston Meeting House bell rings (this usually signals fire!!!) “The ringing of the bells alarmed the town, it being supposed by the people in general there was a fire. As the people came in to the street, the boy who had been knocked down told them that the sentry had knocked him down…‘There’s the son of a b*^ch that knocked me down. ’…[The crowd shouts] ‘Kill him. ’…The sentry ran to the customhouse steps, knocked at the door, but could not get in. ”… The sentry primed and loaded his gun and leveled it and told the people to stand off, and called to the main guard. The soldiers moved to help the sentry standing alone before the mob and they moved with “an haughty air – they push’d their bayonets and damn’d the people as they went along – and when they arriv’d at their post, one witness who is a young gentleman of a liberal education and an unspotted character, declared that one of the [soldiers] whom he particularly named, loaded his gun, pushed him with his bayonet and damn’d him. “Yes, the crowd was yelling at the troops but they had insulted the crowd and loaded their guns. Yes, they had sticks but everybody was carrying sticks these days because everyone was scared of the soliders, so everyone naturally walked around in the streets with sticks…” One soldier was hit with a stick, staggered, fired his gun at the crowd upon which several soldiers fired and “they reloaded their guns. They were going to fire again. ”
The Gaspee Incident (1772) Providence, RI coast
Committees of Correspondence Purpose warn neighboring colonies about incidents with Br. broaden the resistance movement.
Tea Act (1773) 8 British East India Co. : § Monopoly on Br. tea imports. § Many members of Parl. held shares. § Permitted the Co. to sell tea directly to cols. without col. middlemen (cheaper tea!) 8 North expected the cols. to eagerly choose the cheaper tea.
Boston Tea Party (1773)
Tar and Feathering
Prime Ministers in Britain • • • George Grenville 1763 -65 (Stamp Act) Charles Watson-Wentworth 1765 -66 (Declaratory Act) William Pitt 1766 -68 (British Imperialist) Augustus Fitz. Roy 1768 -70 Nothing Relevant Frederick North 1770 -1782 American Revolution Charles Watson-Wentworth 1782 -82 Acknowledged the independent United States
The Coercive or Intolerable Acts (1774) 1. Port Bill 2. Government Act 3. New Quartering Act Lord North 4. Administration of Justice Act
The Quebec Act (1774)
First Continental Congress (1774) 55 delegates from 12 colonies Agenda How to respond to the Coercive Acts & the Quebec Act? 1 vote per colony represented.
The British Are Coming. . . Paul Revere & William Dawes make their midnight ride to warn the Minutemen of approaching British soldiers.
The Shot Heard ’Round the World! Lexington & Concord – April 18, 1775
The Second Continental Congress (1775) Olive Branch Petition
Thomas Paine: Common Sense
Declaration of Independence (1776)
Declaration of Independence
Independence Hall It’s too late to apologize…
New National Symbols
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