Turning Point:

• 1763 End of 7 Years War, England in debt, salutary neglect comes to an end, Pontiacs Rebellion contributes to Proclamation Act of 1763, etc.

• King George III & Prime Minister George Grenville advocated for acts to increase revenue.

Consolidating Imperial Control:

• Sugar Act (1764) passed on sugar to raise revenue

  • Also stricter enforcement of Navigation Acts & crackdown on smuggling (Violators be tried in Vice-admiralty courts)

• Quartering Act (1765) colonists required to provide food & housing for British soldiers

Stamp Act (1765) placed a tax on a variety of legal documents & items

• Passed without consent of the colonial legislatures

Colonial Responses

• Virginia Resolves by Patrick Henry in House of Burgesses

• Stamp Act Congress- reps from 9 colonies met to oppose British policies. move towards inter-colonial unity

• Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty: Secret organization that at times used violence to disrupt enforcement of the act Theater

  • More radical group because they were more violent, tarring and attacking officials.

Tensions Continue:

• Boycotts (Nonimportation agreements) against British imports were the most effective form of resistance!

  • Parliament voted to repeal Stamp Act

• After the Stamp Act was repealed: Declaratory Act (1766): England says they still have power over the colonies

• Charles Townshend becomes new chancellor of the exchequer & proposed his own revenue plan

• Townshend Act (1767): tax on imports such as paper, tea, glass, etc.

  • $ would be used to pay royal officials in the colonies (previously paid by colonial assemblies)

  • Could search private homes for goods by getting a writ of assistance (rather than a warrant)

Resistance to Townshend Acts:

• John Dickinson "Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania" argued "no taxation without representation"

  • England argues "virtual representation"

• Colonists created nonimportation & non- consumption agreements

  • Boycott British goods

  • Daughters of Liberty organized "spinning bees"

• England was losing more money than it was generating...

• Townshend duties repealed in 1770

Bloodshed and Relative Calm: (1770-1773)

• Boston “Massacre” (1770): British troops open fire near the customer house killing 5 colonists

  • Paul Revere’s engraving used as pro-colonial propaganda

  • John Adams defends the British soldiers against murder charges

• Committees of Correspondence (1772) led by Samuel Adams were used to keep up communication & Resistance to British policies

Tea Time:

• Tea Act (1773): gave a monopoly to the British East India Company

  • British tea was still cheaper than smuggled tea

  • Colonists still opposed the Tea Act- opposed the idea that Parliament could tax the colonies

• Boston Tea Party (1773): Members of the Sons of Liberty dumped tea into Boston harbor

  • Some colonists resisted the action: destruction -of private property

  • As a result, the British Passes the Coercive Acts(1774):

    • Boston port was closed until property was paid for

    • Drastically reduced power of Mass. legislature & banned town hall meetings

    • Quartering Act expanded

    • Royal officials accused of a crime would be put on trial in England

  • The colonists were outraged and called the Coercive Acts the Intolerable Acts

  • Suffolk Resolves: boycott British goods until the intolerable Acts were repealed

Quebec Act (1774):

• Extended the boundary of Quebec into the Ohio Valley

• Roman Catholicism established as official religion

• Government allowed to operate without representative assembly or trial by jury

• Colonists claimed the land in the Ohio Valley was for them

• Protestant colonists not happy about Catholicism

• Will England try to take away representative government in the colonies?

1st Continental Congress (1774):

• In response to the Intolerable Acts

• All colonies (except Georgia) send representatives to meet in Philly in September 1774

• Wanted to repair their relationship with England

  • Not Calling for Independence

• Adopted the Declaration of Rights & Grievances

• Endorsed the Suffolk Resolves

• Created the Association to coordinate economic boycott

• Started making military preparations

• Planned to meet again in May 1775

The Opening Shots: Lexington & Concord:

• British troops led by Gen. Gage left Boston to seize colonial weapons & arrest Sam Adams & John Hancock

• Minutemen warned by Paul Revere & William Dawes

• "Shot heard round the world" as 8 colonists killed at Lexington (April 1775)

• Another battle took place at Concord

• Start of fighting of the American Revolution!