Struggle for Independence The Road to Independence During

Struggle for Independence

The Road to Independence • During the 1760 s and 1770 s, the British government passed laws to make Americans pay heavier taxes and live under tighter controls • American colonists wanted to be consulted before paying new taxes • Colonists in North Carolina joined the protests of “No taxation without representation”

Proclamation of 1763 • This ruling forbade settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains; it created the Proclamation Line • King George III wanted to stop fighting settlers and the Native Americans • The Proclamation Line hindered North Carolina’s ability to grow and develop • In the late 1760 s, hundreds of Regulator families move across the Proclamation Line into the Tennessee River valleys

Treaty of Paris • French loose almost all lands in North America • Spain looses Florida • Spain wins New Orleans and Louisiana Territory

Anti-British Sentiment • British Troops in colonies as a result of the war • British Troops quartered • British Troops to enforce order • British Taxes to pay for the war • British Laws to stop smuggling • Colonies seen and treated as an economic resource

Series of Taxes & Laws • • • • Navigation Acts Proclamation of 1763 Sugar Act Writs of Assistance (1764) Quartering Act Stamp Act Declaratory Act Townshend Act Boston Massacre Tea Act Boston Tea Party Intolerable Acts (1660 s) (1763) (1764) (1765) (1766) (1767) (1770) (1773)

Navigation Acts (1660 s) • Limited Colonial trade with nations other than Great Britain

Sugar Act (1764) • Lowered tax on imported molasses • Took away trial by jury • By lowering taxes Britain hoped to reduce smuggling

Writs of Assistance (1764) • Allowed customs officials to search homes and warehouses for smuggled goods with little to no provocation

Quartering Act (1765) • Forced colonists to provide food and board to British soldiers

Stamp Riot Acts • Stamp Act passed in 1765 • Designed to raise more money to pay for the French and Indian War • All kinds of documents required official stamps • Customs officials sold official stamps to all ships; officials seized ships that cheated • At Cape Fear open rebellion almost occurred after 500 men destroyed British stamp act documents

Declaratory Act (1766) • Allowed Parliament to tax and make decisions for the British colonies in “all cases” • Directly followed the repealment of the Stamp Act

Townshend Act (1767) • Taxed imported goods • Taxed items the colonists did not make themselves – they would have to pay the tax

Tea • Tea Act (1773) gave a monopoly to the East India Colony • Daughters of Liberty burned tea in protest • Colonists boycotted • Boston Tea Party December 16 1773 • Coercive Acts renamed Intolerable Acts passed in response

Intolerable Acts (1774) • Coercive Acts • Closed Boston Harbor until ruined tea was paid for • Banned town meetings • Enforced quartering in Boston

Steps Leading to Rebellion Legislation Date What it Did Proclamation of 1763 Set boundaries for western expansion Sugar Act 1764 Tightened customs reinforcement on sugar and molasses; lowered prices Stamp Act 1765 Taxed certain documents Declaratory Act 1766 Stated that Britain could tax the colonists Townshend Acts 1767 Taxed glass, lead, paint, paper, tea Tea Act 1773 East India Company given sole control of tea trade “Intolerable” Acts 1774 Closed port of Boston

Continental Congress • September 1774 • Statement of grievances • Repeal of 13 acts of Parliament • Boycott British • Resolved to form militias

First Battles • April 1775 • British General Gage sent to round up weapons and arrest militia • Paul Revere and William Daws ride ahead to warn Lexington & Concord • Militias successfully hid gunpowder • Ambushed British troops on return trip to Boston • Began the Revolutionary War

“Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes” – Colonel Prescott

Second Continental Congress • • Authorized printed money Established post office Established Continental Army Named George Washington commander • Sent Olive Branch petition

• French and Indian War leaves Britain in debt • Britain taxes colonies (Sugar Act & Stamp Act) • Colonists boycott British goods • British sends troops to Boston – Boston Massacre • British repeal import taxes • Colonists respond with the Boston Tea party • Britain passes the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts • First Continental Congress drafts a statement of grievances • British & Colonists fight at Lexington & Concord • Congress signs the Declaration of Independence The Road to Independence

Declaration of Independence Written by committee including: Thomas Jefferson (rough draft) Ben Franklin (1 st revisions) John Adams (1 st revisions) Committee (later revisions) Congress (signed)

Declaration of Independence • Four Main Parts: • Preamble • List of Rights • List of Grievances • Proclamation of New Nation

Preamble When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to their separation.

Declaration of Natural Rights We hold these truths to be self -evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable [non -transferable] Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,

laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;

and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, [tyranny] it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

List of Grievances List of complaints directly referencing taxes, laws, etc. of the British government

Resolution We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled…do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States…we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Colonists v. Britain • • Colonists 2. 5 million people No navy Untrained militias Not all agreed Fought for homes Fought for freedom • • • Britain 8 million people Best navy Great army Fought across the globe • Fought for money

Enemies & Friends Loyalists • Anglicans • Needed British jobs • Afraid • Trivial reasons for revolt Colonial Allies • France • Spain

The War by Region

Warfare in the North • British army defeated colonists in New York • British planned to separate New England from Middle Colonies at the Hudson River • British captured Philadelphia • British lost Battle of Saratoga • Americans spent the winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Warfare at Sea • Fought by Privateers • John Paul Jones lost his ship but won an important battle near the coast of Great Britain

Warfare in the South • British concentrated their efforts in the south where there were many loyalists • General Cornwallis, commander of British forces, remained in the south throughout the war • Took his forces to Virginia, nearly capturing Thomas Jefferson

Yorktown

Independence • Treaty of Paris • United States an independent nation • Bordered Canada, Mississippi River, Florida • British withdraw from American territory • America gains fishing rights • Americans to repay debts & return property