Tightening the Reins s2

ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION Key People, Events, Terms and Ideas Proclamation of 1763 – Pontiac’s Rebellion –Sugar Act – revenue –James Otis - taxation without representation – Parliament – Stamp Act – Patrick Henry – George III - Samuel Adams – Sons of Liberty – Stamp Act Congress – boycott – repeal – Declaratory Act – Townshend Acts – Daughters of Liberty – Quartering Acts – writs of assistance – John Hancock – Boston Massacre – Crispus Attucks – Paul Revere – propaganda - John Adams – Tea Act – committees of correspondence – Boston Tea Party – Coercive/Intolerable Acts – First Continental Congress

Big Picture Question How did British attempts to control the colonies lead to organized resistance between the years 1763 - 1774?

“The American Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people long before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington and Concord.” – John Adams

1 ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION Britain’s decisive victory in the French and Indian War in Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa tribe. Chief Pontiac1 had 1763 removed the French threat to its American been an ally of the French. The removal of the French, empire. The war was expensive, costing Britain £150 whose empire was based primarily on fur trading, million (equal to tens of trillions of dollars today). alarmed the Indians. Farms and villages along the Interest on the money borrowed from banks and colonial frontier were laid to waste and hundreds of investors cost half the government’s annual revenue. white settlers were killed. The uprising was put down The tax burden in Britain had reached unprecedented largely by British troops. Putting down Pontiac’s heights. It seemed only reasonable that the colonists Rebellion had been a bloody and expensive affair. As a should help foot the bill for their protection. To pay result, the English government decided to quarter, or these costs, Britain adopted a new set of policies for house, ten thousand British regulars in the American America, including new taxes, more aggressive ways of colonies. collecting them, and more severe methods of enforcing these measures. The colonists viewed these policies as a first step in a plot to deprive them of their liberties. PROBLEMS OF DEFENSE AND WESTERN LANDS Britain’s victory in the French and Indian War forced the British government to chart a new direction for dealing with America. A cornerstone of the new policy was the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited settlement in lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. This policy of delay was twofold. First, if colonies in the immediate proximity to the western lands, like Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and the Carolinas, were permitted to extend their boundaries westward, colonies without access, like Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Maryland would be placed at a disadvantage. Should new colonies, therefore, be formed in the territory beyond the Appalachians? The colonials were impatient to take advantage of the new territory. They did not take too seriously the Royal TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTAION Proclamation. Frontiersman Daniel Boone was one who In 1763 George Grenville, the new prime minister, was undeterred. He led parties of settlers into ordered a detailed investigation of colonial revenues Kentucky’s “dark and bloody” ground. These were years and was unhappy to discover that American customs’ of rapid population growth in the colonies and there duties produced less than £2,000 a year. It should have were pressures to open western land to settlement. been producing around £200,000 a year. To make the And hadn’t George Washington and other Virginians colonies pay their share of taxes, Grenville was fought in the French and Indian War specifically to open determined to enforce existing laws and enact new this area to settlement? The Proclamation Line was an taxes to bring in additional revenue. unexpected barrier to this opportunity. Secondly, this issue was complicated by the revolt in 1763 of the western Indians under the leadership of 1 Pontiac’s name lives on as an American car. The Pontiac logo is a stylized arrowhead. 2 ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION The first step in Grenville’s new program was to start from North America and administrating the colonies. enforcing the Navigation Acts that had lain dormant for The issue of taxation, raised by the Sugar Act, was more than a century. These would have an impact brought to a crisis in the Stamp Act of 1765, which especially on New England merchants. provoked spontaneous opposition throughout the colonies. The conflict was contested on two levels, that In 1764, Parliament passed the Sugar Act; to raise of action and that of constitutional debate. Not only revenue2 the act taxed sugar, wine, coffee, silk and was the question of who had the right to tax brought other goods brought into the colonies. To try and forth but also the question of Parliament’s authority. counteract the tendency of colonial juries to acquit Was it without limit or were there boundaries based merchants charged with smuggling, it forced those upon rights due all Englishmen? accused to stand trial before an Admiralty court rather than a jury trial. THE STAMP ACT CRISIS An outspoken critic of the new policy was the Boston The cost of maintaining military defense and lawyer James Otis, who attacked the Sugar Act as a administering the colonies had jumped from £70,000 a violation of the rights of Englishmen. Otis denied that year in 1748 to £350,000 a year in 1764. The Stamp Act, the British had the authority to tax the colonists without passed by Parliament in February 1765, was intended to their consent, saying, “the very act of taxing those who raise revenue in the colonies to cover this imbalance are not represented appear to me to be depriving them and to reduce the huge debt Britain had incurred during of one of their most essential rights as Englishmen.”3 the French and Indian War. Under the Stamp Act, He stopped short of recommending active resistance to colonists would pay a tax on almost everything written the Sugar Act. Rather he counseled patience, reminding or printed, all of which required a government stamp as his readers that we “must and ought to yield obedience proof the tax had been paid. This would include to an act of Parliament, though erroneous, till licenses, contracts, wills, land deeds, newspapers, repealed.” advertisements, calendars and almanacs-even dice and playing cards. A similar tax existed in Britain, and Parliament believed that requiring colonists to pay such a tax at a lower rate than their brethren in Britain was entirely reasonable.

While Americans viewed the new tax on sugar and other imports as a burden and a violation of their rights, the British saw the taxes as a modest imposition The Stamp Act was different than any previous tax on necessary to pay for the cost of eliminating the French the colonists because it was a direct tax, which the 2 money colonials claimed Parliament had no right to impose, as 3 James Otis, The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and opposed to an indirect such as an import tax which was Proved (1764) 3 ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION designed to regulate trade. This affected almost Act. In every colony they intimidated stamp agents or everyone, rich and poor alike. Moreover, by imposing “stampmen” -those responsible for selling the stamps the stamp tax without colonial consent, Parliament and enforcing their use- into resigning. They posted directly challenged the authority of colonial assemblies notices reading “The first man that either distributes or and the power they had in raising and spending money. makes use of Stamp paper, let him take care of his house, person and effects – Vox Populi”4 Among those most burdened by the tax were lawyers and printers, two of the most vocal and influential Resistance flared up throughout the colonies. In groups in the colonies. Details of the act began to Charleston, South Carolina, a mob tore up the homes of appear in colonial newspapers in May. Those accused of two “stampmen.” Annapolis, Maryland, was a scene of violating the act would not be tried in their own destruction as a crowd pulled down a warehouse communities by juries of their peers, but taken to far- owned by a tax collector. In New York City, processions off Halifax, Nova Scotia, and tried before special involving hundreds of residents shouting “liberty” Admiralty courts. The colonial reaction was immediate paraded through the streets nearly every night in late and hostile. 1765. In Rhode Island stamp protesters hanged tax collectors in effigy. In Massachusetts an angry mob Each colonial legislature met to decide on a course of attacked the home of the lieutenant governor Thomas action, the most famous incident occurring in the Hutchinson. Virginia House of Burgesses. A young member Patrick Henry took his seat for the first time on 20 May 1765. As the crisis continued, symbols of liberty began to Everyone listened intently as the new member rose to appear. The large elm tree in Boston on which speak. Henry’s words stunned the crowded and hushed protesters had hanged an effigy of the stamp distributor legislative hall. Andrew Oliver to persuade him to resign his post came to be known as the Liberty Tree. Open air meetings “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell,” he said, were held beneath the tree. citing the two most famous cases of rulers whose actions had led to their own deaths, “and George III…” Members were shocked that a British colonist would name the ruling king in such company. “Treason!” roared Henry. “Treason!” echoed some of the members. But the famous courtroom lawyer neatly avoided their charge by concluding cleverly, “…and George III may profit from their example.” He then added: “If this be treason, make the most of it!” The Burgesses quickly adopted the Virginia Resolves denouncing the Stamp Act as unconstitutional. They knew their rights as Englishmen. They had studied the Magna Carta. In New York City, a pine mast was erected as a meeting place for opponents of the Stamp Act was called the Protest against the Stamp Act was not limited to Liberty Pole. newspapers and legislative chambers. Samuel Adams took the lead in organizing resistance. A failure at various businesses, this brewery owner showed a real knack for political organization. He helped organize the Sons of Liberty whose purpose was to resist the Stamp 4 Latin phrase meaning voice of the people 4 ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION Colonials argued that they could not be free without being secure in their property and that they could not be secure in their property if, without their consent, others could take it away by taxes. In other words, Parliament’s power was not unlimited. It could impose taxes to regulate trade, but it could not levy a tax for revenue. This argument revealed the close tie between property and liberty in the minds of the 18th century Undeterred by the hostility of the American colonists, Anglo-Americans. Prime Minister Grenville answered the growing number of pamphlets from colonists that argued for the right of The colonists were still loyal to the king, however. Thus, Englishmen not to be taxed except by their own the colonists showed their continued allegiance to the representatives. His response was that the colonists crown. Sons of Liberty were not willing to break with all were represented in the British Parliament. Just as most royal authority. By adopting the name, colonists Englishmen could not vote in parliamentary elections, showed themselves aware of having been “born free” they and their colonial countrymen were virtually and willing to stand up for their rights as Americans and represented in Parliament by members who considered as Englishmen. the needs of the entire empire rather than their Although written in respectful terms, the Declaration of individual district whenever they debated and voted. To Rights and Grievances of the Colonies was an important colonists accustomed to choosing their own legislators, step toward articulating a common response to British such ideas were nonsense. policy, forcing representatives from different colonies In October 1765, the Stamp Act Congress with twenty- to work together for a common goal. seven delegates from nine colonies issued a Declaration Stunned by the ferocity of American resistance and of Rights and Grievances of the Colonies. The delegates pressured by London merchants who did not wish to expressed their loyalty to the king but denied the lose their American markets, Parliament repealed the authority of Parliament to tax the colonials. Stamp Act in 1766. The colonies exploded with joy. Soon merchants throughout the colonies agreed to There were bonfires and fireworks. In New York City, boycott5 British goods until Parliament repealed6 the the people put up a statue of King George III mounted Stamp Act. The boycott was based on the theory that on a horse. They did not protest, either, when the colonial market was so necessary to Britain that it Parliament passed the Declaratory Act which affirmed would abandon the act to regain the market. Parliament’s authority to “make laws” binding on the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” Britain believed it In the face of such united opposition, the Stamp Tax had effectively reasserted its authority over the could not be collected. By autumn of 1765, no colonies, while removing the main cause of colonial Americans could be found to serve as “Stampmen.” protest. The Americans mistakenly believed their They all had been scared away. The crisis had made arguments were persuasive. thousands of Americans acutely aware of their rights. As John Adams, a Boston lawyer wrote,” the people, even Years later, John Adams would write, it was during the of the lowest ranks” were “more attentive to their Stamp Act crisis that “the child Independence” was born liberties…and more determined to defend them.” in the minds of Americans. ------

5 refusal to buy something to achieve a political end 6 Repeal – to do away with 5 ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION The resolution of the Stamp Act crisis did not eliminate offered American women a chance to actively Britain’s pressing financial need for colonial revenue nor contribute to the defense of American rights. It also did it reduce colonial determination to resist further raised women’s political consciousness. As thirteen year efforts to tax Americans. The good will that Britain old Anna Green Winslow wrote in her journal regarding earned by repealing the Stamp Act was quickly the decision to abandon imported fabrics, “I am, as we squandered as it renewed its efforts to impose a new say, a daughter of liberty, I chuse to wear as much of set of taxes on the colonies. Again, the question of what our manufactory as possible.” were the limits to the power of Parliament arose. Parliament passed a series of Quartering Acts beginning AN ASSAULT ON LIBERTY in 1765 that required colonists to provide British soldiers with beds, fuel, candles and even beer, cider The next major crisis arose in 1767 when the and rum. Americans saw that the great increase in the Townshend Acts, named after the financial minister number of British troops in the colonies – greater than Charles Townshend, was passed. Misinformed by they had seen in wartime – was not being directed to Benjamin Franklin, Townshend understood that the frontier, where they might have been expected to Americans objected only to “internal taxes” like the defend against such dangers as Pontiac had posed. Stamp Act. Internal taxes were levied on items Instead, the redcoats were seen in growing numbers in produced and sold within the colonies. So he decided to major colonial cities – especially Boston. lay “external” taxes on items imported to America such as glass, paint, paper and tea. The Townshend Acts Americans began to suspect that the redcoats were went into effect January 1, 1767. They were supposed being sent to control them. This suspicion grew when to raise as much as £400,000 a year to contribute to the the royal authority began to issue writs of assistance to cost of administering the colonies. customs officials. These writs were search warrants. They allowed the customs officers to break into ships, The Townshend Acts prompted Americans to clarify warehouses, even private homes. The heavy import their views on the issue of taxation. An important taxes had encouraged smuggling by colonial merchants; statement of American views came in Pennsylvania the writs were an attempt to stop this tax evasion. lawyer John Dickinson’s pamphlet Letters from a Anytime a customs official merely suspected smuggled Farmer in Pennsylvania. Dickinson disputed goods, he had the power to search and confiscate the Parliament’s right to tax the colonists at all. He ship and its cargo if it was determined to have run afoul acknowledged Parliament’s right to regulate trade but of the new tax law. Like the modern war on drugs, it only the people’s representatives could enact taxes relied heavily on paid informants. Informers were given designed to raise revenue. Since Americans had no one-third of the confiscated goods. What’s more, representation in Parliament, that institution could not Admiralty courts had the power to try those who sought tax them. He urged his fellow colonists to resist the to evade the king’s duties. Americans soon saw that “excesses and outrages” of the British government. their cherished right to trial by jury was in jeopardy.

In response to the Townshend Acts, Americans again In June 1768 British custom officials in Boston seized began a boycott against the purchase of any imported the popular merchant John Hancock’s Liberty. Custom British goods. The boycott began in Boston and soon officials had long suspected Hancock of smuggling and spread to the other colonies. Women took an active thought that seizing the Liberty would give them the role in the boycott movement, urging that instead of proof they needed to prosecute him. The decision imported fabrics, women wear only clothes made from proved to be a serious blunder. The symbolic domestic fabric. This nonimportation movement significance of the British assault on a ship named 6 ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION Liberty was not lost on Bostonians, who saw it as an assault on the idea of liberty itself. A mob soon trashed the custom official’s homes. To quell unrest in Boston, the British dispatched additional troops and warships to the area to the area. By 1769 the British had stationed almost four thousand armed soldiers, dubbed redcoats because of their red uniforms, in a city with a population of roughly fifteen thousand.

The Townshend Acts did not produce the revenue expected. British imports to the colonies declined by about one-third. In 1770, British merchants persuaded Parliament to repeal the Townshend taxes except the tax on tea which remained as a symbol of Parliament’s right to tax. Americas ended the boycott.

In a letter to James Otis and Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin wrote from London, “I think one may clearly Determined to prove that British soldiers could be fairly see, in the system of customs to be exacted in America, tried in an American courtroom, a young John Adams, by act of Parliament, the seeds sown of a total disunion volunteered to defend the accused soldiers. A gifted of the two countries.” This is significant because lawyer, Adams secured acquittals for all those accused Franklin was already referring to America as a different except for two soldiers, who were convicted of the country. lesser crime of manslaughter. The evidence presented at the trial revealed that Revere’s version of the event, The Bloody Massacre while excellent propaganda7, was not an accurate rendering of the circumstance. For the next five years, Boston once again became the focal point of conflict. Sam Adams, John’s cousin, and the Sons of Liberty British soldiers had been stationed in the city in 1768 organized mass demonstrations on the anniversary of after the rioting that followed the British seizure of John the Boson Massacre. Hancock’s ship Liberty for smuggling. Relations between residents of Boston and the occupying forces were The Boston Tea Party tense. On March 5, 1770, a group of boys and young men began taunting a group of soldiers calling them The time period between 1771 and 1773 saw a ‘lobsters’ and pelted them with trash, oyster shells, and lessening of tensions between the colonies and the snowballs filled with glass and rocks. In the melee that mother country. Then Parliament made a fatal blunder followed, some soldiers opened fire on the crowd killing in 1773 by passing the Tea Act. It allowed the nearly Crispus Attucks, a free black man who worked as a bankrupt East India Company, which had an excess of whaler, and four other civilians. 17 million pounds of tea in London warehouses, to have exclusive control of the tea market in the colonies. Tea Quickly, the colonists had taken up the cry of murder. had become a drink consumed by all classes in England Realizing the explosive situation he had on hand, and the colonies. Many members of Parliament had Governor Thomas Hutchinson had the soldiers arrested sizable investments in the company. The Tea Act was on the charge of murder. The Boston silversmith and designed to bail out the East India Company by enabling engraver Paul Revere published a powerful, but exaggerated, engraving of the confrontation. 7 Information designed to persuade ones opinion 7 ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION it to sell low price tea on the American market, The Intolerable Acts undercutting the established merchants and smugglers. Some 750,000 pounds of tea were being smuggled To punish the colonists responsible for the Boston Tea annually into the colonies from Holland. Once again Party, as the event was called, Parliament passed the British authorities miscalculated American reactions to Coercive Acts, known to colonists as the Intolerable their policies. Colonists resented the new policy, even Acts. This legislation closed the Port of Boston to all though it made tea cheaper. Americans instantly trade until the cost of the tea was paid. It did away with recognized that if Britain could monopolize the town meetings, forced colonists to quarter soldiers at importation of this important staple, there was no place their expense, and soldiers charged with murder while they might stop. They could strangle American suppressing riots would stand trial in London, not in the commerce. colony were the offense occurred.

At the urging of Sam Adams, committees of Americans were divided over how to respond to the correspondence were established in Massachusetts. Intolerable Acts. Some saw the Bostonians who dumped Many other colonies followed the Massachusetts the tea into the harbor as radicals whose actions pattern and formed such committees in order to keep besmirched America’s reputation as law-biding subjects one another informed of British action. of the king. Others expressed outrage at the British policy that had forced Bostonians to resort to such a As tea shipments arrived, resistance flared up in the dramatic protest major ports from Maine to Georgia. In Charlestown, the tea was not allowed to leave the warehouses. Tea ships were turned back to London from New York and Philadelphia. In Boston, when three tea ships landed at Boston Harbor, the Sons of Liberty prevented their being unloaded.

On December 16, 1773, under cover of darkness, some two thousand Boston men went down to Griffin’s Wharf. There a smaller party of thirty men disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three vessels and dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into the harbor. Samuel Adams had planned the whole raid with great care. The loss to the East India Company was around £10,000, the equivalent of more than $4 million today; however, Unwilling to take the Intolerable Acts lying down, individuals could not be held accountable for their Patriot leaders in the colonies elected delegates to actions. attend the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia Outraged by this act of defiance, King George III during the fall of 1774. All the colonies except Georgia appeared before Parliament demanding harsh reprisals. sent representatives. Among the colonial leaders who “We must master them or totally leave them alone,” he attended were Patrick Henry, John Adams and George said. He was determined to show the colonies who was Washington. Whereas the concept of taxation without boss. representation had been the focus of most colonial protest, the delegates now held that Parliament had no rights to make any laws for the colonies. They adopted a resolution to boycott British goods. The Continental 8 ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION Congress endorsed a call by Massachusetts for citizens to take up arms in defense of their liberties.

This last word from Congress was hardly necessary. Colonists in Massachusetts and every other colony had developed a militia system from their first days of settlement. Dangers of Spanish coastal raids, French and Indian attacks on the frontier, slave revolts – all these threats combined to make colonial Americans an armed people.

When Congress adjourned in October 1774, delegates pledged to reassemble the following May if Parliament failed to repeal the Intolerable Acts.

Although many Americans hoped that a peaceful solution to the deepening crisis was possible, on March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry addressed members of the House of Burgesses and urged them to stand with distressed Boston and to prepare for the inevitable conflict that loomed between the colonies and Britain – In the period between the passage of the Stamp Act in “I know not what course others may take,” Henry cried, 1764 and the meeting of the First Continental Congress “but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” His in 1774, relations between Britain and America had speech united South and North, providing enough steadily deteriorated. Britain had tried a variety of types momentum to ensure that an American revolution of revenue measures designed to raise money from the would begin to roll, and then rush forward. colonies. Americans, however, remained resolutely opposed to taxation without representation. Rather than subdue the colonies, British policy only served to strengthen the resolve of Americans to defend their rights.