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  • This act created strong resentment in the colonies and was later repealed.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  • These duties were fiercely resisted and finally repealed in 1770.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• 1766: Stamp Act repealed, but in Declaratory Act.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.

Chapter 10: American Revolution and the New Nation (1775–1787)