Chapter 9: Resistance, Rebellion, and Revolution (1750–1775)

Important Keywords

French and Indian War (1756–1763): The Seven Years’ War.
- A conflict between the British and the French also involved Native Americans and colonial forces.
- French defeat in this war greatly decreased their influence in the colonies.
Stamp Act (1765)
- Imposed by the British, this act dictated that all legal documents in the colonies had to be issued on officially stamped paper.
- This act created strong resentment in the colonies and was later repealed.
Townshend Acts (1767)
- British legislation that forced colonies to pay duties on most goods coming from England.
- These duties were fiercely resisted and finally repealed in 1770.
Boston Massacre (1770)
- Conflict between British soldiers and Boston civilians on March 5, 1770.
- Five colonists were killed and six wounded.
Sons of Liberty
- Radical group that organized resistance against British policies in Boston.
- This was the group that organized the Boston Tea Party.
Committees of Correspondence
- Created first in Massachusetts.
- These groups circulated grievances against the British to towns within their colonies.
Boston Tea Party (1773)
- In response to British taxes on tea, Boston radicals disguised as Native Americans threw 350 chests of tea into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.
- The important symbolic act of resistance to British economic control of the colonies.
First Continental Congress (1774): A meeting in Philadelphia at which colonists vowed to resist further efforts to tax them without their consent.

Key Timeline

1754: Representatives of colonies meet at Albany Congress to coordinate further Western settlement
1756: Beginning of Seven Years’ War
1763: Signing of Treaty of Paris ending Seven Years’ War
1764: Parliament approves Sugar Act, Currency Act
1765: Stamp Act approved by Parliament;
- Stamp Act Congress occurs and Sons of Liberty is formed.
1766: Stamp Act repealed, but in Declaratory Act.
- Parliament affirms its right to tax the colonies
1767: Passage of the Townshend Acts
1770: Boston Massacre occurs
1773: Boston Tea Party takes place in December in opposition to the Tea Act
1774: Intolerable Acts adopted by Parliament First Continental Congress held in Philadelphia

War in the West

In 1750, Native American tribes west of the Appalachian Mountains were eager to trade with Europeans but determined to maintain their independence.
- Both the British and French wanted to lay claim to this expansive territory.
- Virginian speculators bought Ohio Valley land.
- The French built Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to defend their interests and maintain communication between Canada and Louisiana.
In 1754, Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie sent a small force to the Ohio Territory to defend British interests and force the French to leave.
- George Washington, a young militia officer, led this detachment.
- After an initial success, Washington and his men were defeated and captured.
In 1755, General Edward Braddock and a large British Regular force destroyed Fort Duquesne.
- The French and Native Americans ambushed and defeated Braddock's army near the fort.
In 1756, the French and Indian War and the Seven Years' War merged.
In 1754, the Albany Congress brought together seven northern colonies.
- Benjamin Franklin and others hoped the colonies and British government could cooperate on Native American and French issues.
- Franklin proposed forming a colonial council with a king-appointed president. The British and colonial assemblies rejected Franklin's plan.

Defeat of New France

The Native American allies of the French ravaged the western frontier.
In 1757, William Pitt took power in Britain, turning the war around.
- Pitt planned to seize French colonies worldwide.
- He sent fleets and 25,000 Redcoats to North America.
- Pitt spent everything to raise colonial troops.
- The French fled to Canada after 24,000 Americans fought with the British.
In 1759, the British defeated them at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and took Quebec.
In 1760, Montreal fell to the British, completing Canada's conquest.
The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the Britain-France war.
- Britain dominated North America after the war.
- Britain controlled the eastern seaboard after regaining Canada and conquering Florida from Spain.
- After being expelled from Canada, France gave Louisiana to Spain in exchange for Florida.

The British Need Money

In 1763, King George III supported George Grenville's prime ministership.
- As prime minister, Grenville knew that debt reduction would be a top priority.
- He thought the American colonies should pay more for empire maintenance.
- He was furious at American defiance of the Navigation Acts and wanted to end British colonial neglect.
The Currency Act of 1764 was Grenville's first move to subjugate the colonies.
- This act prohibited the colonies from issuing their own paper money.
- British merchants demanded hard currency from cash-strapped American colonists.
Grenville then passed the Sugar Act, which lowered molasses duties but tightened colonists' debt collection.
Both laws worsened the colonists' postwar business slump.

Stamp Act Crisis

Grenville overplayed the Stamp Act of 1765.
- Parliament first levied a colonial tax instead of a customs duty on imported goods.
Colonialists had to buy revenue-stamped paper for wills, newspapers, and playing cards.
- The colonists paid this tax with scarce hard currency.
Americans were taxed without representation, breaking a century-old tradition of self-government.
In July 1765, Samuel Adams organized the Sons of Liberty in Boston.
- Sons of Liberty riots forced the Massachusetts stamp agent to resign.
- Other stamp agents resigned after Sons of Liberty branches formed in other colonies.
In the Virginia House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry denounced George III's tyranny.
James Otis in Massachusetts and Benjamin Franklin in Pennsylvania wanted Americans elected to Parliament because the colonies were taxed without representation.
In October 1765, delegates from nine colonies met in New York City for the Stamp Act Congress.
- The Congress' Declaration of Rights and Grievances stated that as Englishmen, colonists could not be taxed by an unrepresentative body.
The Quartering Act, which required colonies to house and feed British troops in America, infuriated colonists.
In July 1765, Lord Rockingham succeeded Grenville.
- British business owners opposed the Stamp Act out of concern for colonial trade.
- Rockingham convinced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act early in 1766.
- American celebrations followed Stamp Act repeal.
However, Parliament's face-saving Declaratory Act asserted its right to legislate for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever," ending this self-congratulatory mood.

Townshend Acts

In 1766, an ailing William Pitt became prime minister.
Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, dominated colonial policy.
The Townshend Acts of 1767 imposed new duties on British merchants' lead, paper, glass, and tea.
Townshend used tax revenue to pay royal governors and other British officials, weakening colonial assemblies.
- Parliament could not tax Americans without their consent.
In his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767), John Dickinson argued that Parliament could regulate empire trade but not tax colonists.
Samuel Adams organized opposition to the Townshend Acts in Massachusetts.
- In early 1768, he wrote a letter encouraging other colonies to resist Parliament.
- In the letter, he declared that “taxation without representation is tyranny.”
- This Circular Letter was endorsed by the Massachusetts Assembly and sent to the other colonial assemblies.
In 1770, Lord North became prime minister.
- He led Parliament in repealing all Townshend duties except tea, which reminded the colonies that the British government could tax them.

Boston Massacre

In 1768, the British seized a smuggling ship belonging to John Hancock.
American mobs assaulted British officials, so the British stationed two regiments of soldiers in Boston.
The Redcoats became a symbol of British oppression.
Soldiers took part-time jobs from working-class Bostonians, which angered them.
On March 5, 1770, a mob pelted soldiers with snowballs laced with ice and rocks.
Infuriated soldiers fired a volley at their captors, killing five and wounding eight.
- Samuel Adams demonized the British by promoting the Boston Massacre.
John Adams defended the British soldiers at trial, and six were acquitted and two received a brand on their thumbs.
In Boston, Samuel Adams formed a Committee of Correspondence to share news and organize protests against the British.
- These quickly spread across Massachusetts and the colonies.
- These committees helped organize American opposition to British policy.

Boston Tea Party

The Tea Act of 1773 was passed by Lord North's government to aid the East India Company.
- This legislation allowed the East India Company to sell its tea to Americans without going through middlemen in England, lowering the price of high-quality British tea.
Lord North believed the Tea Act saved the East India Company and gave Americans cheaper tea, despite the tax.
- They saw the Tea Act as an insidious way to reaffirm Parliament's power to tax the colonies.
- They distrusted the well-connected East India Company's privilege.
On December 16, 1773, Mohawk Indians boarded East India Company ships and threw 350 chests of tea into the harbor.
The Boston Tea Party defied the British government and drew its wrath.

Intolerable Acts

In early 1774, Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts, also known as the Coercive Acts.
- They were designed to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party.
The British closed the port of Boston to all but military or officially approved traffic.
British rule in Massachusetts limited town meetings to once a year and gave the royal governor the power to appoint most officials.
- The Quartering Act was reimposed on all colonies.
The Intolerable Acts targeted Massachusetts, but Americans in other colonies realized that the British could just as easily impose coercive laws in their colonies.
The Quebec Act of 1774 reminded American colonists of the Intolerable Acts.
- The act angered Americans because it expanded Quebec to include the western territories and guaranteed French Catholics freedom of worship.

First Continental Congress

On September 5, 1774, Philadelphia hosted the First Continental Congress.
- Fifty-six delegates from every colony except Georgia were indecisive.
Samuel Adams advocated a complete boycott of British trade, while others advocated diplomacy with Parliament.
John Adams' Declaration of Rights and Grievances united Congress by stating that Parliament could regulate colonial trade but not tax it without representation.
Congress adopted Massachusetts' Suffolk Resolves.
- It rejected the British changes to the Massachusetts government, defying the Intolerable Acts.
- They boycotted British goods.
- It urged colonies to prepare their militias as the political situation deteriorated.
Before suspending on October 26, 1774, Congress petitioned George III to repeal the Intolerable Acts.
The Second Continental Congress was scheduled for May 10, 1775.