An Empire Transformed 

The Costs of War 

• The great war for empire = lot of debt for the british 

  • national debt soared from £75 million to £133 million

  • Debt was made 60% of the nations budget go bye bye → so ministry had to increase the taxes on everything

    • taxes were everywhere

      • Land (owned by the rich people)

      • Consumables (things that can be consumed) 

    • Sales taxes were placed on all kinds of ordinary goods like SALT, ALCHOHOL, BRICKS, CANDLES, PAPER

      • Stuff that the poor people used

  • 1760s, the per capita tax burden was 20 percent of income

    • → per capita tax burden: a FLAT tax that everyone has to pay (thats an adult)

• To collect the taxes, the govt increased the size of the tax bureaucracy

  • Customs agents started patrolling agents around borders of england and started seizing goods from different countries. 

    • omg maybe this is where like airport customs and stuff came from…

  • If people were caught smuggling they could be shipped to america as indentured servants. This happened to 50,000 people. 

    • Weirdly enough the colonists didnt like this and protested this. 

  • The radical whigs and the country party where to different political partys who complained about the war debt that turned into taxes for them

    • Felt that the government was turning and they would not get any personal liberties. THEY WERE ALSO TRYING TO REVERSE THE GROWTH OF THE GOVT

      • To reverse the growth british reformers decided that they wanted parliament to have more representation among all groups of citizens.  

      • John Wilkes (radical whig) wanted more repesentation for commercial and manufacturing cities. 

      • This war transformed british politics

• The war made britain realize they were pretty useless to the colonies

  • Held the same amount of power as the town committees in massachusetts

  • Since the british are petty, they decided that they would enforce trade duties

    • Trade duties are basically just taxes that are made by the govt on different imported goods. 

  • REVENUE ACT - the royal navy seized american crops that were going on vessels to/from the west indies. 

  • The british now started to worry about …

    • Rebellion from the 60k french residents in canada

      • They were newly conquered colony for the british from the french

    • Rebellion from the natives (they already did it before with pontiac's rebellion)

      • a substantial military force would deter land-hungry whites from defying the Proclamation of 1763 and settling west of the Appalachian Mountains

    • Colonist loyalty

      • They no longer faced a threat from french canada so politicians though they would no longer care

    • British were scared to see the ending, so they thought why are we pretending this is nothing

      • They basically ended up deploying 15 royal bataloons (7500 troops) to north america

    • This ended up being a bad idea and put the british boys into more debt → greatest new post- war expenses were being incurred in North America 

George Grenville and The Reform Impulse

• George grenville was the dude that had to raise revenue from the colonies

  • People thought that he was able for the job → he understood the importance for imperial revenue

    • THE CURRENCY ACT 

      • Made sure that all of the colonists would only use british bills istead of bills the colonists made themselves

      • This boosted their profits and british wealth

    • THE SUGAR ACT

      • Replaced the molasses act

      • Taxed 3 pence per gallon which meant that the people could still make a good profit

      • Tightened customs so that they would definitely get taxes

        • People still vowed to smuggle the molasses or just bribe officials

        • Publicly, the merchants claimed that the Sugar Act would ruin the distilling industry

      • américa no le gustó

• Ending salutary neglect

  • Colonists said that the acts were not allowed and they raised constitutional objections against the sugar acts. 

    • Now if any mechants were prosecuted under the sugar act they went to vice-admiralty courts, tribunals governing the high seas and run by British-appointed judges.

      • Now if you wnet against any customs act you had to face mean courts with mean people

    • Before they used to go to nice juries for breaking the Navigation acts

  • The sugar act = old american fears

    • Colonists argued that colonists should be treated equally to citizens in england

      • Though this was degrading to americans

  • BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE

    • Smuggler in britain were also tried under vice-adnirality courts. 

      • No discrimination

    • Issue = british power

      • Since they were under salutary neglect for so long, once the british paid attention to them, they felt attacked. 

    • This was kind of continued by actual brits

      • imperial reformers though that Americans were second-class subjects of the king, with rights limited by the Navigation Acts, parliamentary laws, and British interests.

An Open Challenge: The Stamp Act

• STAMP ACT = FIRST IMPERIAL CRISIS

  • Made to cover the cost of keeping the british troops in america

  • act would require a tax stamp on all printed items, from college diplomas, court documents, land titles, and contracts to news- papers, almanacs, and playing cards. It was ingeniously designed.

    • The act HURT THE RICH MORE THAN THE POOR

  • Benjamin franklin had a solution

    • He wanted one of the americans to be a member of the legislature

    • He was refused

      • They thought that he was too radical or sth

      • Brits said they already had virtual representation

        • Some members were sugra planters so technically they actually had no representation and the british = liars

    • Colonial leaders also doubted poor old franklin 

      • They though that because of how far away they were from each other (the country and colonies) it would be hard

• Brits ignored american opposition and decided to tax like their life depended on it

  • QUARTERING ACT 

    • Requested by general thomas gage

    • Required colonists/colonial govt to give housing and food and that sorta stuff to the british troops

• Parliament approved Grenville’s proposal that violations of the Stamp Act be tried in vice-admiralty courts.

  • HE STARTED TO MAKE AN IMPERIAL SYST IN AMERICA LIKE IRELAND!!!!!

  • British officials would govern the colonies with little regard for the local assemblies

    • This plan brough questions. 

      • Taxation?

      • Jury trials?

      • Military housing?

      • Representation in self govt?

The Dynamics of Rebellion 

Formal Protests and the Politics of the Crowd 

• The house of burgesses was the first formal group to start complaining about this

  • Patrick henry denounced grenville’s legislation and said some things that border on treason. Quickly started to scare the house of burgesses; they condemned the stamp act too

  • James otis had the house of reps call a meeting to find relief from the act

• The Stamp Act Congress

  • Nine different assemblies sent delegates to the congress

    • Protested the loss of american glory aka rights and liberty

      • Especially focused on trial by jury

    • challenged the constitutionality of both the Stamp and Sugar Acts by declaring that only the elected representatives could tax them.

  • Some people were peaceful for some reason, so they decided on compromise not confrontation

    • They ‘humbly’ asked for a repeal

    • And would boycott british products

• Crowd Acts

  • Since people were mad, they obvi had ‘disiblined mobs’ who demanded the resignation of stamp collector people

    • Considered violent action?

  • The sons of liberty were quite serious

    • They burned a statue of collector, Andrew OLiver

    • Then they destroyed his house :( 

    • They even broke into his brother in laws house (but it ws fine bc he was a defender of the imperial authority)

  • John hancock and john adams encouraged the mobs

    • Mostly artisans and poor people in mobs

    • 3,000 people came to the streets and screamed ‘liberty’ for a while 

  • Resistance of the stamp act really started catching fire and spreading all around to other colonies. 

• The motives of the crowd 

  • The great awakening made evalengelical proetstants hate on arrogant British military officers and corrupt royal bureaucrats.

  • In new england, rioters had anti-monarchy ideas from their ancestors

  • In new york radical whigs feared imperial reform and thought it would undermine political liberty

    • Mob = apprentices+day laborers+unemplyoed sailors+drunk peeps

    • They were the most patriotic (and thought they were right) when they drunk

  • The popular resistance was the stamp act

    • Collectors were constantly scared and some of theme even asked for military protection

    • Collectors would resign out of fear

      • Political insurrection gave a democratic cast to the emerging Patriot movement. → i honestly have no idea what it means but it could me important

The Idealogical Roots of Resistance

• Some people tried to resist sophisticatedly (ew)

  • They would write pamphlets and other smart people documents

  • They drew on three intellectual traditions

    • English common law

      • Rules that protected the lives of the monarchs subjects

      • People would basically just write stuff arguing that they weren’t being treated according to the rules

    • Enlightenment rationalism

      • Used ideas of john locke and the natural rights - life, liberty, property

        • Governments must protect it

      • Also used the ideas of montesqui and separation of powers - legislative, executive, judicial branch

    • republican and Whig strands of the English political tradition

      • colonists praised the English Whigs for creating a constitutional monarchy that prevented the king from imposing taxes and other measures.

        • Some people though that the stamp act was made to make the colonists protests

      • These letters were circulated far and wide and they became an early call for the restsantce

Another Kind of Freedom

• Patriots = no taxation; other colonists = bye bye slavery

  • Patriot writers felt like they were slaves bc they were taxed without reps

  • Ben franklin and james otis were one of many that though actual chattel slavery was wrong

    • Violated natural rights

    • African americans were making these connections as well and were wanting freedom

  • No slaves was not received well in the south

    • Slavery = economy in sout

    • Slaves wanted to win their freedom

      • They did this by supporting british troops

      • James madison stopped this from occurring

      • He understood how important it was to defend the colonists’ liberties without allowing the idea of natural rights to undermine the institution of slavery.

Parliament and Patriots Square Off

• Parliament was feeling pressure

  • They were in turmoil by the time the news of riots and mobs were brought to britain. 

  • They decided it was time for the stamp acts to rip

    • Declaratory acts of 17something → 1766

      • This reaffirmed parliament powers to make laws that affected the colonists

  • Their true goal was to just get rid of all the turmoil that was being caused

• Charles Townshend Steps In

  • When governor, william pitt, was ill and unable to go to parliament debates, charles townshend stepped in

    • Townshend was not nice to america

    • He sought restrictions on colonial assemblies

    • Supported the stamp act

    • Wanted to find new source of revenue for america

  • The Townshend Act of Legislation

    • Imposed duties on colonial imports

      • Paper

      • Paint

      • Glass

      • Tea

      • Raised to £40,000 a year.

        • Most of this went to the salaries of royal governors, judges, and imperial officials. Only a little bit went to the military

      • He did this so that officials would make parliament laws and carry out what the king said

    • devised the Revenue Act of 1767

      • a board of customs commissioners in Boston and vice admiralty courts in Halifax, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston.

      • He used parliamentary taxes to finance imperial administration

      • Townshend intended to undermine American political institutions.

    • Townshend duties revived the constitutional debate over taxation

      • Made the difference between external taxes(trade, mandated by navigation acts) and internal taxes(direct) even though he did NOT LIKE DISTINCTION

      • He indulged this and laid dute only on trade

• A Second Boycott and the Daughters of Liberty

  • Colonial leaders did not lkie townshends actions

    • The massachusetts got together and condemned toenshend acts

    • Boston and new york merchants boycotted british goods

      • Started promotic domestic meatrials that they made in america

  • Women became very involved because nonimportation movement

    • They were reducing materials that their families were using 

      • Mostly cutting back on imported goods consumption

    • They also helped en with boycotting

      • They spun wool and flaw for the needy

    • Newspapers celebrated the women

      • One town in massachusetts had 30,000 yards of cloth in one year from the women

      • The best things was it bringing more women out into the public eye

    • This surge in all of the domestic products did not entirely offset the loss of british products

    • The boycott mobilized american men

      • Sons of liberty did a lot from harassing people who bought the wrong things to publishing their merchants names so they would be publicly humiliated

  • The virginia house of burgesses vowed not to buy dutied articles, luxury goods, or imported slaves.

    • This showed the strength of bigger companies to all of the colonists

    • Even though this all seemed good, there were problems

      • There was pressure on anyone who resisted this

      • Caused a break in society

      • Merchants were now forced into buying and selling products a certain way

    • This became more profound as the imperial crisis continued

• Troops to Boston

  • The americans trying to resist the british only made them try harder

    • American resistance to the Stamp Act had sparked a parliamentary debate

    • in 1768, it provoked a plan for military coercion.

    • To strengthen the hand in government that massachusetts had, they sent 2,000 troops

The Problem of the West

• Ministries have been fighting

  • They did not know how to manage the lot of territory that they got form the treaty of paris

    • There was the line between colonists and the indians but now it was going to be broken

      • But the proclamation made THREE NEW CITIES

        • Quebec

        • East florida

        • West florda

      • Sadly, the colonists wanted to move west

    • Officers who fought in the war also got land grants that made them want to move over 

  • Multiple groups wanted to got west

    • People who invested in numerous land speculation com- panies were petitioning the crown for large land grants in the Ohio country

    • Officers who had fought in the 7 years war and gotten land grants

    • Indian traders who had land grants from ohio indians who wanted to sell land titles

    • SQUATTERS who wanted to get a land title later

  • All of this activity antagonized the ohio indians

    • Helping them, shawnees got together with them and decided that they were not going to support westward expansion

    • They formed the Scioto Confederacy

  • In england, they thought that the proclamation line should have been permanent

    • A colonial secretary, greensborough, did not want any westward expanision bc he thought that it antagonized the indians and it would not benefit the english

      • BUT IN REALITY

      • He just had land in ireland and was scared by the number of people who were leaving for the new world and wanted to keep his tenants

    • But colonists were already moving west in large numbers so eventually, they took matters into their own hands

      • Idk what happens to them after this they ended that section on a cliffhanger

Parliament Waivers

• Something good finally came out of the colonies agreeing!

  • Since the colonists agreed on nonimported goods for consumption there was a lot of back up in british trade

    • Basically, merchants → not selling, so, merchants = mad. 

    • Merchants = mad → show their anger on parliaments

    • Merchants say REPEAL TOWNSHEND ACTS

    • Since the parliament was a baby who made no choices for themselves, they said OK

      • But they still did tax the North with tea bc they wanted to show they still had some control

• The boston massacre

  • There was an evergrowing rift between patriots and parliament

    • There were SO MANY troops in boston for over a year and half (and in ny and nj and pa)

      • Pls figure out what these stand for on ur own, u made it this far

      • There was not a lot of violence with the troops btw

    • In a small part of boston 10% of population = soldiers

      • This did cause a dsipute where a group of nine British redcoats fired into a crowd and killed five townspeople.

      • It happened on March 5, 1770

        • A day before my sisters birthday!

        • She was born in 2005 tho 

    • The soldiers were let free after a trial

      • Colonists viewed this as an abuse of imperial power

• Sovereignty Debated

  • After the boston massacre and the colonies recieved the news, they had emotions. 🥹

    • They were getting fed up after many years of conflict

      • Ben franklin 

      • Patrick henry 

      • Sam adams

    • They all refused parliament supremacy and DEMANDED equality for american assemblies

      • Franklin even had an idea!

        • He suggested that the colonies were now different states joined by a king… thats it

        • BUT it still made people mad he acatually said, “no line that can be drawn between the supreme author- ity of Parliament and the total independence of the colonies.”

          •  I have no idea what this means

  • Moral of the story, the british were bad to america. America said ‘not today’ and they fought. 

    • There was violence bc americans are violent

    • And they were ready to be violent again

      • Honestly, i feel so patriotic rn. 

      • Like people around me legit just stood up and said the pledge of allegiance. (granted the morning announcements are playing rn but whatever)

The Road to Independence (1771-1776)

A Compromise Repudiated

• The towns talked to each other!

  • Samuel Adams established a committee of correspondence and formed a communication network between Massachusetts towns for colonial rights. 

    • The burning of the Gaspée roused other states to have their own committees!

      • Virginia

      • Connecticut

      • South Carolin

      • New Hampshire 

    • Used correspondence that would communicate with other colonies. 📱

  • The committees sprang into action after the passage of the Tea Act, which relieved the British East India Company of paying taxes on tea it imported to Britain or exported to the colonies.

    • The Tea Act made the East India Company’s tea less expensive than Dutch tea, which encouraged Americans to pay the Townshend duty.

      • The Patriots made the Tea Act basically nothing by forcing the East India Company’s ships to return tea to Britain or to store it in public warehouses.

    • Radical Patriots accused the ministry of bribing Americans to give up their opposition to British tax.

      • A scheme to land a shipment of tea and collect the tax led to a group of Patriots throwing the tea into Boston Harbor.

  • 1774 → Parliament rejected a proposal to repeal the Tea Act and instead enacted four Coercive Acts to force Massachusetts into submission.

    • Port bill

    • Govt act

    • New quartering act (housing for soldiers)

    • Justice act

    • THEY ARE CALLED ‘INTOLERABLE ACTS’

      • The activities of the committees of correspondence created a sense of unity among Patriots.

  • leaders saw the Quebec Act (1774) as another demonstration of Parliament’s power to intervene in American domestic affairs

    • Bc it extended Quebec into territory claimed by American colonies and recognized Roman Catholicism

The Continental Congress Responds

• Delegates of the Continental Congress

  • a new colonial assembly

    • met in Philadelphia in September 1774 to address a set of controversial and divisive issues

  • Pennsylvania, Joseph Galloway’s proposal, America would have a president-general appointed by the king and a legislative council selected by the colonial assemblies.

    • Even though the council would have veto power over parliamentary legislation that affected America, the plan was rejected and seen as being too conciliatory.

      • Conciliary → intended or likely to placate or pacify.

      • Instead, the First Continental Congress passed a Declaration of Rights and Grievances that condemned and demanded the repeal of the Coercive Acts and repudiated the Declaratory Act.

      • The Congress began a program of economic retaliation, beginning with a non-importation agreement that went into effect in December 1774 (jesus’ bday!)🎄

  • The British ministry branded the Continental Congress an illegal assembly

    • refused to send commissioners to America to negotiate.

  • The ministry declared that Americans had to pay for their own defense and administration acknowledge Parliament’s authority to tax them

    • imposed a blockade on American trade with foreign nations

    • ordered General Gage to suppress dissent in Massachusetts.

The Rising of the Countryside

• the success of the urban-led Patriot movement would depend on the actions of the large rural population.

  • The revolution was on the backs on farmers

  • Sadly most farmers had little interest in imperial issues

    • the French and Indian War, which had taken their sons for military duty and pre- and post-war taxes, changed their attitudes.

    • The urban-led boycotts of 1765 and 1769 had also raised the political consciousness of many rural Americans.

  • Patriots appealed to the yeomen tradition of agricultural independence

    • many northern yeomen felt personally threatened by British imperial policy

    • Despite their higher standard of living, southern slave owners had fears similar to those of the yeomen.

Loyalist Americans

• prominent Americans worried that resistance to Britain would destroy respect for all political institutions, ending in mob rule.

  • tenant farmers, the Regulators, and some enslaved blacks → refused to support the resistance movement.

  • Some prominent Americans of “loyal principles” denounced the Patriot movement and formed a small, ineffective pro-British party. 

    • but Americans who favored resistance to British rule commanded the allegiance—or at least the acquiescence—of the majority of white Americans.

Armed Resistance Begins

• Continental congress meets

  • New England was already in open defiance of British authority.

    • General Gage ordered British troops to seize Patriot armories and storehouses at Charleston and Cambridge.

    • 20k colonial militiamen mobilized to safeguard supply depots(Minutemen of Concord)

      • Gage dispatched soldiers to capture colonial leaders and supplies at Concord.

    • Forewarned by Paul Revere and others, the local militiamen met the British first at Lexington and then at Concord.

      • tHE BRITISH ARE COMINGGGGGG

      • militiamen ambushed de brits from neighboring towns with both sides suffering losses.

  • Twelve years of economic conflict and constitutional debate ended in civil war.

The Second Continental Congress Organizes for War

• Lets try to be better

  • After losing battles at Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill, in 1775 the Continental Congress created a Continental army headed by best buddy George Washington.

    • He was still pretty young then so i guess they just said, youre on your own now kid, and just let him go rogue

    • Moderates led by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania passed a petition that expressed loyalty to the king and requested the repeal of oppressive parliamentary legislation.

  • Zealous Patriots such as John Adams and Patrick Henry won passage of a dec of the causes and necessities of taking ap arms.

• Moderates petition

  • The king refused the moderates’ petition and issued a Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition in August 1775.

    • Hoping to add a fourteenth colony to the rebellion, the Patriot forces invaded Canada and took Montreal in September but later failed to capture Quebec.a

  • American merchants cut off all exports to Britain and its West Indian sugar islands, and Parliament retaliated with a Prohibitory Act, banning trade with the rebellious colonies.

    • Lord Dunmore of Virginia organized two military forces and offered freedom to slaves and indentured servants who joined the Loyalist cause.

    • One was entirely white and the other was fully black

    • Faced with black unrest and pressed by yeomen and tenant farmers demanding independence, Patriot planters called for a break with Britain.

  • By April of 1776, Radical Patriots had, through military conflict, transformed the North Carolina assembly into an independent Provincial Congress, which instructed its representatives to support independence.

    •  By May 1776, Virginia Patriots had followed suit bc theyre copycats😺

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

• Loyal to the crown? I think not…

  • Lots of colonists still claimed that they were loyal to the crown

    • This prob had to do with their parents and not wanting to shift the social hierarchy

    • By 1775, more patriots were joining the cause

      • Many artisans and laborers were joining the patriots

      • Held similar values

    • Many Scots-Irish in Philadelphia became Patriots for religious reasons

      • some well-educated persons questioned the idea of monarchy altogether.

• Thomas paine wrote something

  • He wrote common sense

    • Something that seeme to be lacking in the 1770s

    • The book was not true to its name and instead was about independence and republicanism

      • However, it still managed to sell a lot of copies and made a lot of americans into patriots

    • People liked the book bc his message was clear

      • To reject the arbitrary powers of the king and Parliament and create independent republican states.

🎉INDEPENDECE DECLARED🎉 

• Congress approves dec of independence

  • On july 4, 1776

  • Thomas jefferson was the main author

    • justified the revolt by blaming the rupture on George III rather than on Parliament.

    • Jeffie also said that every man was equal he had many slaves and that they posses life, liberty, AND EQUALITY?!?!?!

      • Like what? Did he have short term memory loss and just forget about his hundreds of slaves?? 

      • We found ourselves a hypocrite

    • Governments also needed consent of the governened for power

• Individual liberty

  • popular sovereignty, and republican government with independence, Jefferson established them as defining values of the new nation.

    • Ok but i dont like him

    • We all read travels with george and i formed some opinions about this ‘mastermind’

  • Colonists celebrated the Declaration by burning George III in effigy and toppling statues of the king; these acts helped to break the ties to the monarch and to establish the legitimacy of republican state governments.

    • Effigy- sculpture or model of a person

    • This was the beginning of a beautiful democracy