3.3

Essential Questions:

  • What is civil society and how does it help build democratic institutions?

  • What changes in Britain's imperial policy were triggered by its victory in the Great War for Empire?

  • How did the reactions of the colonists to British policies after the French and Indian War illustrate relationships to ideas about the rights of British subjects, rights of individuals, and tradition of self-rule?

  • Why did the Stamp Act arouse so much more resistance than the Sugar Act?

  • How did the British Government and colonists view westward expansion differently?

Great War

  1. Debts of Britain

  2. Transformed british polotics

  3. Revealed how little pwr Britain held in American colonies

  4. Advanced military

George Grenville

  • fasioned centralized imperial syst in America like Ireland

    • provoced constitutional foncfrontation on taxation, jury trials, & military quartering

    • Created questiions of representative self-government

Identifications/Key terms:

An Empire Transformed 146

  • Great war of Empire → colonial affairs moved further into interior → harder to cntrl than being Near atlantic

  • America - so diverse (French, Dutch, Indians, Africans = undesireables)

    • Ppl of Engl called American ”foreginers”

      • Americans states they were British subjects born to liberty

  • The costs of Empire . . . 147

    • G.W.f.E → great debts on Great Britain

      • 60% nations budget → ministry raised taxes

      • Taxes shifted from land to consumables (salt, beer, bricks, candles, paper - stamp tax)

      • Custom agents seized contrabands & shipped convicts to America as indentured servants

    • British politics - (Radical whigs & Country Party) British reformers demanted Parliament represent a broader spectrum of property owning class

      • John wilked condemned rotten boroughs

        • demanded greater representation for growing commercial & manufacuring cities

    • Royal govs shared pwr w/ colonial assemblies → outraged British officials

      • Executive & legislative pwr ordered & directed by votes of general court

      • Revenue act of 1762

        • enforced collection of trade duties previously evaded through bribes

      • Royal Navy could seize American vessels carrying crops from mainland to French West Indies

    • Great War victory → 15 royal battalions (troops) employed in North America

      • feared french rebellion in canada & natives

      • Would make americans abide proclamation of 1763

        • British scared colonies would deter loyalty

      • british financial Crisis shared w/ American colonies

  • George Grenville and the Reform Impulse . . . 148

    • Grenville (British Whig statesman, later prime minister of G.B.) - acknowledged the need for increased imperial reform

      • Currency of of 1754 - banned American colonies from using local currency (worth less than brisih pounds sterling)

        • Ensured merchants no longer paid w/ money printed in colonies → boosted profits & British wealth

    • The Sugar Act - 149

      • Grenvil initiated Sugar act of 1764 - 3 pence per gallon tax on French Molasses

        • replaced the Molasses act of 1733

          • 6 pence per gallon, too high, made trade unprofitable

        • Now merchants can pay & still make profit

        • tightened enforcement

      • Gained little support, merchants earned living smuggling French molasses

        • Merchants claimed act would ruin distilling industry → smuggled/bribed officials to evade

    • The End of Salutary neglect - 150

      • Colonists argued sugar act as unconstitutional

        • taxes should originate w/ ppl

        • taxes removed property & freedom

      • Those prosecuted wld be tried in vice-admiralty courts

        • run by British appointed judged rather than local common-law courts

        • seen as degrading Americans under British

      • American decades under salutary neglect → imperial regime deprived rights, compared to rights of G.B residents → made Americans 2nd-class subjects of king

        • limited by Navig Acts, parliamentary laws, & British interests

An Open Challenge: The Stamp Act . . . 150

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  • Stamp Act 1765 → 1st great imperial crisis

    • covered costs of keeping british troops in America

    • tax stamp on all printed items

    • affected rich more heavily

    • didnt need administration, taxt existed in form of stamps

    • Benjamin Franklin - American representation in Parliament

      • British politicians rejected

        • stated that colonists had virtual representation bc some members were transatlantic merchants & West indian sugar planters

      • Colonial leaders rejected

        • Americans too far from G.B → cannot participate in general legislature

      • Parliament had right to lay internal tax on colonies

      • General Thomas Gage - Quartering Act of 1765

        • colonial govs must provide mats & food for Brit troops

      • Grenville - Stamp Act violations tried in vice-admiralty courts

The Dynamics of Rebellion, 1765-1770 . . . 151

  • Greenville reforms - sparked American resistance

    • Patriots entered, met challenges of Grenville & successor Charles Townshend

      • heald violent & peaceful protests

  • Formal Protests and the Politics of the Crowd 152’

    • Virginia House of Burgesses - 1st formal body complaint

      • 1765 - Patrick Henry denounced Grenville legistlation, attacked George II support

        • compared king to Charles I (glorious revolution)

      • condemned stamp acts

    • MA - James Otis (republican) → persuaded House of Representatives to call meeting of all American colonies for releif from stamp act

    • The Stamp Act Congress - 152

      • 1765 Stamp act congress - NYC

        • protested loss of American rights & liberties, like right to trial by jury

        • Challenged constitutionality of Stamp & Sugar act

          • stated only colonists elected representatives could tax them

      • Some delegates wanted compromise, not confrontation

        • petitioned for repeal of Stamp Act

      • Othr favored peaceful resistance → boycott Brit goods

    • Crowd Action - 152

      • Pop opposition took violent form

        • Sons of liberty - burned collector Andrew Oliver stature after Stamp Act imposed

          • othr attacked his brother in law’s prop (thoman hitchinson)

      • John Hancock & Jonh Adams (wealthy merchants, patriot lawyers) - encouraged mods

      • “The rabbe” - intimitaed royal officials

    • The motives of the Crowd - 152

      • Protests occured in britain & America

      • evangelical Protestants - resented corrupt & arrogant british military officers & royal beurocrats

      • Sons of liberty leaders Isaac Sears & Alexander McDougall - feared imperial reform wld undermine polit liberty

      • Pop resistance nullified Stamp Act → Frightened collecters resigned offices

  • Ideological Roots of Resistance . . . 152

    • Well educated couched resistance in constitutional terms

      • pamphelts of polit sophistication → gave movement rationale & leaders

      • Patriot movement driven by 3 intellectual traditions

        1. English common law

          • centuries old, protected lived & prop of monarch’s subjects

          • ppl argued new enforcements violated piberties & priledges granted in colonial charters/ britains “ancient constitution”

        2. Natural rights

          • John Locke’s writing

            • life, liberty, & property

          • Montesquieu

            • seperation of pwrs among gov depertments prevented arbitrary rule

        3. Republican and Whig strands of Engl polit tradition

          • English Whigs were praised for creating constitutional monarchy after glorious revolution (1688-1689)

            • prevented king from imposing taxes

          • John Dickinson - urged colonists to remember ancestors & posterity (futur gens) & oppose parliamentary taxes

  • Another Kind of Freedom . . . 153

    • Benjamin Franklin (Philly) & James otis (MA) → condemned institution of chattel slavery as violation of slave’s natural rights

      • slaves submitted petitioons to legislature asking for abolishment of slavery

    • James Madison - importance of defending colonist’s liberties without idea of natural rights undermining slavery institution

  • Parliament & Patriots Square Off Again . 154

    • Disputes ovr domestic policy → George II dismissed grenville as prime minister

      • Grenville followers avid for imperial reform continuation

    • Majority Parliament persuaded Stamp act does more harm than good

      • Grenville’s sucessor - Earl of Rockingham anulled Stamp Act & reduces molasses taxations to one penny a gallon

        • Declatory Act of 1766 - reaffirmed Parliaments authority to make laws to bind colonies & ppl of America

    • Charles Townshend Steps in

      • 1767 - George II names William pitt head to a new gov

        • left Charles Townshend in command

          • Charles Townshend - sought restrictions on colonial assemblies & supported stamp act

      • Townshend act of 1767 - taxes on goods imported to Americas (paper, paint, tea, etc)

        • financial & political goals

          • expected to raise 40,000 a yr

          • money used to pay salaries of royal govs, judges, & othr imperial official

            • ppl previously paid by colonial assemblies

      • Revenue Act of 1767 - created board of customs commissioners in Boston

        • vice-adminalty courts in Halifax, Boston, Philly, & Charleston

      • Parliamentary taxes to finance imperial administration → undermine Americal polit institutions

        • Townshend duties → constitutional debate ovr taxation

          • Some Americans suggested external duties on trade (Navig Acts) were acceptable, internal taxes werent

    • A Second Boycott and the Daughters of Liberty - 154

      • colonial leaders rejected legitemacy of Townshend’s measures

        • 1768 - MA assembly condemned Townshend Act

        • N.E. ministers & public officials promoted domestic manufacture of cloth & othr necessities

      • Women crucial to nonimportation movement

        • produced large quantities of homespun cloth

        • “true daughers of Liberty” - drank rye coffee, ate bearn venison

          • praised in newspapers

          • domestic production brought women into publican arena

        • Merchants who imported Brit goods employees & customers harassed

          • fissures in colonial society, merhcants subjected to surveillnce & coercion

    • Troops to Boston - 156

      • American resistance → Brit determination

        • Lord Hillsborough read MA letter opposing Townshend duties

          • sent gen Thomas Gage & Brit troops to Boston for cntrl

  • The Problem of the West . . . 156

    • Ministries argued ovr how to maintain new territory won from Treaty of Paris 1763

      • created Quebec, E Florida, & W Florida

      • Western expansion

        • ppl asked fr land grants in Ohio country

        • officers served in 7 yrs war exploring sites beyond Appalachians (George washington)

        • Indian traders received land grants from Ohio indians → hoped to sell land titles

        • Land squatters hoping to recieve titles to Ohio land

          • antagonized Ohio Indians

            • 1770 Shawnees invited indian leaders to form Scioto confederacy

              • p[[psed further expansion into Ohio country

      • Hillborough (colonial secretary 1768) - opposed west expansion

        • antagonized indians w/o benefit empire

        • Wanted to make proclamation line permanent → confusion & frustration

  • Parliament Wavers . . . 160

    • nonimportation movement took toll in Britain

      • 1768 - imports cut in half

      • Brit merchants & manufactururs asked parliement to repeal Townshend duties

        • 1770 Lord North became prime minister

          • argued taxing brit exports to America was foolish (decr consumption)

          • repealed must Townshend duties

          • retained tax on tea (symbolized parliament supramacy)

    • The Boston Massacre - 160

      • Troops stationed in Boston for 1 ½ yr

        • also stationed NJ, NY, Philly, & frontier outposts

      • Boston - troops 10% local pop

        • March 5, 1770 - 9 Brit recoats fired into crowd → killed 5 townsppl

          • Boston radical whigs - labeled as massacre & used to rally sentiment against imperial pwr

    • Sovereignty Debated

      • North’s compromise & Boston Masacre brought mixed feelings

        • 1765 - American leaders accepted Parliament authority

        • 1770 - patriots Benjamin Franklin & Patrick Henry repudiated parliamentary supramacy

          • wnted equality for American semmebled within emp

          • Franklin - colonies distinct w/ same sovereing king head