American Yawp Chapter 5

Patriot Whigs

Based their imperial vision on trade and manufacturing instead of land and resources. They said that the colonies should have equal status to Britain. Thought economic growth would solve the national debt.

James Otis

He wrote that colonists should have the same rights as those in Britain, and sometimes even more.

Colonial assemblies

After each colony was settled, assemblies were created and acted like the House of Commons in Britain. They taxed residents, managed the spending of the colony's revenue, and granted salaries to royal officers. Colonists liked the assemblies and wanted Britain to recognize them. Britain did not like them.

John Locke

He had a great influence on colonial thinking, saying that people were influenced by their environments. He also said that the aristocracy were wealthy or successful because they had greater access to wealth, education, and patronage and not because they were innately superior. Because of this he pressed the importance of education.

First Great Awakening

A revitalization of religious piety that swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s. This, combined with the enlightenment and deist theory placed a focus on the importance of the individual.

George Whitefield

Traveling Calvinist preacher. Gave emotional sermons and said that salvation came from taking responsibility of your relationship with God,. Advocated a "conversion" experience. Also argued that too many ministers had never had this "conversion," and that this stood between the individual and God.

Sugar Act

Sought to stop widespread smuggling of molasses in New England by cutting the duty in half but increasing enforcement. Smugglers would be tried in vice-admiralty courts.

Currency Act

Parliament restricted colonies from producing paper money, which made it hard as they didn't have many gold or silver coins there, and they were going through a postwar recession.

Stamp Act

Parliament required that documents be printed on paper to show that duty had been paid. This was the first direct tax by parliament. Because this affected many people it lead to more colonial resistance.

Internal vs external taxes

Internal taxes are directly placed by Parliament, while an external tax is the colonies contributing to the empire with something like customs duties.

Virginia Resolves

An anti-Stamp Act resolution passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses that said the colonies were entitled to all the rights of those in Britain. When these resolves were passed around changes were made to them, like only the colonial assemblies have a right to tax the colonies, and this made people more radical.

Patrick Henry

There was Patrick Henry.

Stamp Act Congress

A meeting where nine colonies sent delegates, and it said that allegiance was declared to the king, but also said that Americans have the same rights as those in Britain, and the only ones with the right to tax America, are those in their own elected assemblies.

Virtual representation

Parliament and Ministry said that the colonies were virtually represented, just like those in Britain, which the colonists did not believe in.

Non-importation agreements

In response to the Stamp Act, merchants in colonial ports refused to import British goods, hoping that it would make British merchants lobby for the repeal of the Stamp Act, which they eventually did.

Sons of Liberty

Groups that directed and organized popular resistance in the colonies against the Stamp Act.

Declaratory Act

After repealing the Stamp Act, Britain said they had the full authority to make laws that bind people in the Americas.

Townshend Acts

This created customs duties on lead, glass, paint, and tea. It also created formal mechanisms to enforce compliance. Revenues from customs seizures would go to customs officers and other royal officers, so that they would want to enforce it.

Vice Admirality Courts

The Townshend Acts created them to try smugglers.

Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer

John Dickinson wrote in this that it was ok to pay duties for the regulation of trade, but when America only is asked to pay duties for revenue to Britain, that is not right.

Homespun Protest

There were imports on British clothes, so colonists decided to wear clothing made at home.

Committees of Correspondence

Colonies created these to keep each other informed of the resistance efforts throughout the colonies.

Boston Massacre

Britain sent soldiers to Boston to enforce the new acts and quell the resistance, and a group of Bostonians gathered outside a Customs House, and started throwing things at a young sentry. A group of soldiers came to the sentry's side, and then people got hostile, and violence broke out, five civilians were killed.

Paul Revere

He created a piece of propaganda about the Boston Massacre, that sparked anger from both Americans and the British. He wanted authoritarian rule to stop.

John Adams

The soldiers of the Boston Massacre won acquittal, in part because of their defense attorney.

Crispus Attucks

A former slave, and free dockworker who was killed in the Boston Massacre.

Tea Act

It was passed to help the failing East India Company, colonists resisted paying for the duty even though it was cheaper and paid when the ship unloaded, because they would be admitting that Britain had a right to tax them.

Samuel Adams

Led by him, the Boston Sons of Liberty agreed to prevent the landing of any tea ships on a port, so the duty wouldn't have to be paid.

John Hancock

Also led the Bostons Sons of Liberty in agreeing to prevent the landing of any teas ships on a port, so the duty wouldn't have to be paid.

Boston Tea Party

Men disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians, and dumped all the tea of ships in Boston.

Edenton Tea Party

Tea was dumped or seized in Edenton.

Coercive Acts

Four Acts passed by Parliament. Boston harbor was shut down, and all the trade around it stopped, Massachusetts government was put under British control, royal officials in Massachusetts tried of a crime would be tried in Britain, and Britain could quarter newly arrived soldiers in colonists' homes. Britain was trying to end Boston's rebellion.

Continental Congress

The Committees of Correspondence sent over delegates from each colony to coordinate and inter-colonial response. They said that they had all the rights of British people, like trial by jury, and the right to be only taxed by their own elected representatives.

Continental Association

Continental Congress issued this saying that they were unhappy with how the British were treating them, and that it should be inspected who touches this document. This was a radical document at the time, that united the colonies and established economic and moral grounds.

Battle of Lexington and Concord

British regiments set out to take away the local militias' arms and powder stores in Lexington and Concord. The town militia met them at the Lexington Green, and Britain told them to disperse. Someone fired, and this battle went all the way to Concord. The British were trapped.

"Shot heard 'round the world'"

"Shot heard 'round the world.'"

Thomas Jefferson

A delegate of the Continental Congress from Virginia, considered a radical.

Olive Branch petition

The moderates created this, stating that the colonies wanted harmony with Britain.

Thomas Paine

Wrote pamphlet, Common Sense, which denounced the monarchy and challenged the logic of the British Empire. This spread quickly, with easy language, biblical references, and fiery rhetoric.

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation

Martial law saying that all indentured servants and slaves who joined the British army would be given freedom. This drove many white Southerners to rebellion.

Richard Henry Lee

He basically said that all connection between Britain and the US were completely gone.

Declaration of Independence

Richard Henry Lee's statement was the actual Declaration of Independence, but Thomas Jefferson wrote a public one, just in case it would be passed, saying that people got natural rights. It outlined a list of grievances to the British.

Hessians

An expeditionary force on the British side, of tens of thousands of German mercenaries.

Battle of Trenton

Washington needed something to encourage morale and reinforce enlistment, so he launched a surprise attack against the Hessians at Trenton, and it was successful.

Battle of Saratoga

The British came down from Canada to upstate New York, and were supposed to meet more marching northward from Manhattan, but the latter never came, so the Continental Army defeated the British in Saratoga, New York. This was a turning point, and lead to the French siding with the Americans.

Battle of Yorktown

The Continental and French Armies went to Virginia, and then met with the British army waiting for supplies. They surrounded them, with a French navy contingent coming too, and forced them to surrender. Britain had no new strategy, and this ended the war.

Treaty of Paris 1783

This ended the war, and had a clause that was supposed to compensate for the Loyalists' lost property and protect them, but property was still seized from them anyway after this. The treaty also said that British troops must leave runaway slaves behind, but British military commanders took them away to different places anyways.

Revolutionaries justified their new nation with

radical new ideals that changed the course of history and sparked a global "age of revolution"