History of USA Pre Revolutionary America 1763-1776 Brief Overview Timeline People Events Qs
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Brief Overview
The French and Indian War changed the balance of power in North America in favor of the British. The French were driven out by a coalition of Britons, colonists, and Indians. However, once peace returned, these groups began to quarrel, and the situation in North America became more fragile every day. The colonists and the British held deep resentment toward each other following the war, stemming most particularly from the poor relations between British and colonial troops. Indian tribes feared that the British would allow the colonists to invade their tribal lands, and thus conducted attacks against the British in North America in attempt to stave off western settlement. Eventually, the British passed the Proclamation of 1763, limiting colonial expansion to appease the tribes, but this angered the colonists, who thought that Britain should stay out of North American affairs all together.
The next ten years consisted of a string of British impositions on the colonies, as if to test the limits of Parliament's power in North America. The first of these impositions was the use of writs of assistance, which allowed customs agents to search any building or ship without a specific warrant. The colonists saw this as a great infringement upon their natural rights. The effect of the writs was compounded by the advent of the Sugar Act, which put tight regulations on American trade, and provided for jury-less trials for accused smugglers. The colonists were greatly inconvenienced by this act, but full- fledged opposition to the British was hesitant in coming.
Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765, requiring all colonists to buy specific watermarked paper for all newspapers and legal documents. Due to the Stamp Act's wide effect throughout the colonies, and the fact that it placed an internal tax on the colonies, it roused significant opposition. As violence broke out all over the colonies, the groups such as the Loyal Nine and the Sons of Liberty took control of the resistance and mobilized the citizenry in efforts to pressure Parliament to repeal the act. The culmination of the Stamp Act crisis was the strategy of non-importation undertaken by colonial businessmen, severely damaging the British economy and forcing repeal.
However, it was not long before the British again offended the colonists. Tension rose up around the Quartering Act in New York in 1766, and Parliament threatened to remove the colony's power of self-government if it did not comply with British orders. In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend duties, a series of taxes on certain imported goods clearly designed to raise revenue for the British treasury and undertaken by Parliament in the hope of establishing a fund with which to pay the salaries of colonial governors.
The corruption with which the Townshend duties were enforced caused the tide of colonial opposition to rise to new heights. After the Boston Massacre the colonists became convinced that the British government planned to suppress them by force and deny them the right to self-government. Organized political resistance arose in the form of the Committees of correspondence, which linked the colonies in a network of political thought and action. The committees of correspondence would help lead the colonists into the Revolutionary War.
Timeline
February 10, 1763: Treaty of Paris The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War in North America, granting the Britain control of all land to the east of the Mississippi River.
Spring - Summer 1763: Pontiac's War Begins An Indian leader, Pontiac, led Ottawa Indians in attacks against British forts near the Great Lakes, eight of which they sacked successfully. However, the British ultimately prevailed, and the Indians were forced to make peace.
October 7, 1763: King George III signs the Proclamation of 1763 The Proclamation of 1763 declared that all land transactions made to the west of the Appalachian crest would be governed by the British government rather than by the colonies.
April 5, 1764: The Sugar Act is Passed The Sugar Act lowered the import tax on foreign molasses in an attempt to deter smuggling, and placed a heavy tax on Madeira wine, which had traditionally been duty-free. The act mandated that many commodities shipped from the colonies had to pass through Britain before going to other European countries.
March 1765: The Stamp Act is Passed To be enacted on November 1, 1765, the Stamp Act required all colonists to purchase watermarked, taxed paper for use in newspapers and legal documents. The Stamp Act was the first internal tax ever imposed on the colonies by Parliament and aroused great opposition.
March 24, 1765: The Quartering Act Takes Effect The Quartering Act required colonial legislatures to pay for certain supplies for British troops stationed in each colony. The Quartering Act became controversial during 1766, when New York refuses to comply with it.
May 30, 1765: The Virginia House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Resolves The Virginia Resolves denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies under the Stamp Act, igniting opposition to the act in other colonial assemblies.
October 7, 1765: The Stamp Act Congress Meets in New York City The colonial legislatures sent representatives to New York, where they agreed broadly that Parliament had no right to tax the colonies or to deny colonists a fair trial.
March 4, 1766: The Stamp Act is Repealed In response to colonial resistance, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, and passed the Declaratory Act on March 18, which states that Parliament may legislate for the colonies in all cases.
July 2, 1767: The Townshend duties are Enacted The Townshend duties was the popular name for the collected import taxes imposed by the Revenue Act of 1767. The Revenue Act taxed glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea entering the colonies. The duties were clearly passed in an effort to raise revenue for the British treasury rather than to regulate trade.
December 1767 John Dickinson Publishes Letters From a Pennsylvania Farmer Dickinson's series of twelve letters are published in almost every colonial newspaper. The letters exhorted Americans to resist the Townshend duties, enumerating the political arguments against the constitutionality of the Revenue Act.
February 11, 1768: Circular Letter Adopted by the Massachusetts House of Representatives The circular letter, drafted by Samuel Adams and sent to all of the other colonial legislatures, condemned taxation without representation and decried British efforts to make royal governors financially independent of the elected legislatures as a further deprivation of representative government. It spurred some other legislatures to draft similar letters, but most remain apathetic.
October 1, 1768: Troops Begin to Land in Boston In response to growing political unrest in Massachusetts, Britain sent troops to occupy the city in the final months of 1768. Tensions mounted between the troops and the civilians.
March 4, 1770: The Boston Massacre Troops in Boston squared off with a crowd of sailors led by Crispus Attucks. When the crowd knocked one soldier to the ground, the soldiers fired and killed 5 men.
April 12, 1770: The Townshend Duties are Repealed Under financial pressure from the colonists' non-importation policy, Parliament repealed all of the Townshend duties except for the tax on tea.
June 9, 1772: The Burning of the Gaspee In an act of open defiance against British rule, more than one hundred Rhode Island colonists burn the corrupt customs ship Gaspee to the waterline after it runs aground near Providence.
July 1773: Samuel Adams Publishes the Letters of Thomas Hutchinson Through the Committees of Correspondence Massachusetts' royal governor, Hutchinson, in his letters, advocates "an abridgement of what are called British liberties," and "a great restraint of natural liberty" in the colonies. The publication of these letters convinces Americans of a British plot to destroy their political freedom.
Key People
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams played a key role in the defense of Colonial rights. He had been a leader of the Sons of Liberty, and suggested the formation of the committees of correspondence. Adams played a crucial role in spreading the principle of colonial rights throughout New England.
John Dickinson
An influential political leader from Pennsylvania, Dickinson published Letters From a Pennsylvania Farmer in response to the Townshend duties, and provoked much colonial response thereby.
Thomas Hutchinson
Hutchinson was a British official who played many roles in the years leading up to the American Revolution. He served as chief justice of the Massachusetts supreme court that heard James Otis' case against the writs of assistance; as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts during the Stamp Act crisis; and finally, as the royal governor. In 1773, Samuel Adams published a number of Hutchinson's letters, in which Hutchinson advocated "an abridgement of what are called British liberties," and "a great restraint of natural liberty" in the colonies.
King George III
The king of England during this period, King George III exercised a greater hand in the government of the nation than many of his predecessors had. Colonists were torn between loyalty to the king and resistance to acts carried out in his name.
Ebenezer Mackintosh
Mackintosh, a shoemaker from the South End of Boston, was chosen by the Loyal Nine to lead the coalition of the North End and South End factions in Boston against the stamp distributor, Andrew Oliver. He oversaw the mob that drove Oliver out of town before he could collect stamp taxes.
James Otis
James Otis was an influential Bostonian heavily involved in the fight for colonial rights. Most notably, he argued the case against the writs of assistance in front of the Massachusetts supreme court. Though unsuccessful in his case, Otis succeeded in illuminating the core of the colonists' opposition to Parliamentary actions in the colonies.
Pontiac
Pontiac was an Ottawa Indian leader, who led a series of attacks against the British forts near the Great Lakes, eight of which he successfully sacked. He was a great proponent of driving the British out of Indian territory, fearing the British presence there would encourage the colonists to move west and overrun the tribal lands.
Charles Townshend
Townshend was the chancellor of the exchequer under Prime Minister William Pitt. However, when Pitt fell ill, Townshend took effective control of the government. His most notable action was the passage of the Revenue Act of 1767, popularly called the Townshend duties. The act enraged the colonists and provoked widespread resistance.
John Wilkes
Wilkes was a political dissident who had fled Britain to evade arrest. During the outcry against the Townshend duties, he returned to London to run for Parliament in 1768. He was elected, but denied his seat and jailed. A mass movement grew up in Britain and the colonies in support of Wilkes, and when he was finally released in 1770, he was hailed by one Boston celebration as "the illustrious martyr of liberty."
Terms
Committees of Correspondence
Committees of Correspondence were organized by New England patriot leader Samuel Adams and made up a system of communication between patriot leaders in the towns of New England and eventually throughout the colonies. Committees of Correspondence provided the political organization necessary to unite the colonies in opposition to Parliament.
Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act stated that Parliament could legislate for the colonies in all cases. Passed just after the repeal of the Stamp Act, most colonists interpreted the act as a face-saving mechanism and nothing more. However, Parliament continually interpreted the act to its broadest extent and continued to try to legislate in the colonies.
Letters From a Pennsylvania Farmer
This series of twelve letters published by John Dickinson denounced the Townshend duties, demonstrating that many of the arguments employed against the Stamp Act were valid in regard to the Townshend duties as well. The letters inspired anti-parliament sentiment throughout the colonies.
Loyal Nine
The Loyal Nine was a group of Boston merchants and artisans that formed during the Stamp Act crisis to lead the public in attempts to drive the stamp distributors from the city. This was one of the first steps toward political organization in the colonies.
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was enacted in 1765, requiring colonial assemblies to pay for certain supplies for troops stationed within their respective colonies. In 1767, New York, the colony in which the greatest number of troops were stationed, refused to comply with the law, provoking parliament to threaten the nullification of all laws passed by the New York colonial legislature.
Salutary Neglect
Salutary neglect refers to the state of Anglo-American relations before the end of the French and Indian War. British Parliament did not interfere in the government of the colonies, and America existed in relative political isolation.
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were the successors of the Loyal Nine as the leaders of the opposition to the Stamp Act. They brought a new level of sophistication to the mass demonstrations, prohibiting their followers to carry weapons and using strict discipline and military formations to direct the protestors.
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act required Americans to buy special watermarked paper for newspapers and all legal documents. Violators faced juryless trials in vice-admiralty courts, just as under the Sugar Act. The Stamp Act provoked the first truly organized response to British impositions.
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act lowered the duty on foreign-produced molasses from six pence per gallon to 3 pence per gallon, in attempts to discourage smuggling. The act further stipulated that Americans could export many commodities, including lumber, iron, skins, and whalebone, to foreign countries, only if they passed through British ports first. The act also placed a heavy tax on formerly duty- free Madeira wine from Portugal. The terms of the act and its methods of enforcement outraged many colonists.
Townshend Duties
Parliament passed the Revenue Act of 1767 on July 2, 1767. Popularly referred to as the Townshend duties, the Revenue Act taxed glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea entering the colonies. The colonists objected to the fact that it was clearly designed more to raise revenue than to regulate trade in a manner favorable to the British Empire.
Virginia Resolves
In response to the Stamp Act, Patrick Henry persuaded the Virginia House of Burgesses to adopt several strongly worded resolutions that denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies. These resolutions were known as the Virginia Resolves, and persuaded many other colonial legislatures to adopt similar positions.
Virtual Representation
The concept of virtual representation was employed by Prime Minister George Grenville to explain why Parliament could legally tax the colonists even though the colonists could not elect any members of Parliament. The theory of virtual representation held that the members of Parliament did not only represent their specific geographical constituencies, but rather that they took into consideration the well being of all British subjects when deliberating on legislation.
Writs of Assistance
Writs of assistance were general search warrants, which allowed customs officers to search any building or ship they thought might contain smuggled goods, even without probable cause for suspicion. The colonists considered the writs to be a grave infringement upon personal liberties.
Events
Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a crowd led by sailor Crispus Attucks formed to demonstrate against the customs agents. When a British officer tried to disperse the crowd, he and his men were bombarded with rocks and dared to shoot by the unruly mob. After being knocked to the ground, one soldier finally did shoot, and others followed. Five people were killed, including Attucks, who is often considered the first casualty of the Revolutionary War.
Massacre of St. George's Fields
After John Wilkes was denied his seat in Parliament, some 30,000 of his followers, known as Wilkesites, gathered on St. George's Fields, outside the prison where he was being held, to protest his arrest. When the protestors began throwing objects, soldiers fired into the crowd, killing eleven. The so- called Massacre of St. George's Fields emphasized the disagreement in Britain over colonial rights and spurred the movement that grew up in support of Wilkes' cause.
Stamp Act Congress
In response to the Stamp Act, and representing a new level of pan-colonial political organization, on October 7, 1765, representatives of nine colonial assemblies met in New York City at the Stamp Act Congress. The colonies agreed widely on the principles that Parliament could not tax anyone outside of Great Britain, and could not deny anyone a fair trial, both of which had been done in the American colonies.
Study Questions
Describe the increasing level of political organization in the American colonies between 1763 and 1773. What conditions provoked each successive step?
During the period from 1763 to 1773, opposition to British actions developed from the disorganized clamor of scattered mobs to a highly organized, highly connected network of political leaders. The first signs of growing political organization arose during the Stamp Act crisis. The Loyal Nine, a group of Boston merchants, took the first step by uniting antagonistic factions in Boston and channeling their collective energy against the city's stamp distributor. Though successful, the Loyal Nine's followers worked without discipline and were unnecessarily violent. The Sons of Liberty addressed the problems of recklessness and disorganization by taking charge of the anti- British protests, adding an element of order and purpose to the actions of the masses. Finally, convinced that the masses would not ruin the colonial rights movement through unnecessary violence and disorder, the political and economic elites took control of the opposition, giving a more sophisticated and powerful voice to the masses through governmental resolutions and a policy of non- importation. The final step in increasing political organization took place in 1772, with the creation of the committees of correspondence. The committees linked political leaders throughout the colonies, enabling widespread unity of political thought and action.
The period 1763 to 1773 has been called the prelude to the American Revolution. How did events early on in this period mold the colonial perspective in regard to Anglo-American relations?
As soon as the French and Indian War came to a close, it became clear that the colonists had a distinctly different idea of the role of the British government than did the government itself. The Proclamation of 1763, which named Britain as the sole arbiter of land transactions to the west of the Appalachian Mountains, was the earliest manifestations of this conflict. The colonists saw the proclamation as a direct threat to the independence they had traditionally enjoyed on the continent, and many opposed the measure, asserting the belief that Parliament should stay out of North American affairs. The advent of the writs of assistance convinced many colonists that not only did Parliament intend to wield a strong hand in colonial life, but that that hand was prone to tyranny. Although he lost the case against the writs of assistance, James Otis hit upon precisely the ideological cornerstone that would lead the colonies up to and into revolution. The British Constitution was not a written document; it was an unwritten collection of customs and traditions guaranteeing certain rights, and therefore an abstract and fungible thing. Most British subjects assumed that all laws made by Parliament were incorporated into the Constitution, and thus that Parliament could alter the Constitution as it wished, without question. However, Otis' primary argument in front of the supreme court centered on the growing sentiment in the colonies that even Parliament could not infringe on certain basic rights. Otis contended that in the principles of government there existed certain limits "beyond which if Parliaments go, their Acts bind not." This claim echoed and helped crystallize the growing conception of the great majority of colonists as to the proper role of Parliament under the British Constitution. In the years to come, the colonists continued to complain that the British government had infringed upon this set of "inalienable" rights. This infringement was commonly claimed as the motive for revolution.
Prime Minister George Grenville advanced the argument that the colonies were "virtually represented" in Parliament. What was the basis of this theory and how did the American colonists respond to it?
The theory of virtual representation held that the members of Parliament did not only represent their specific geographical constituencies, but rather that they took into consideration the well-being of all British subjects when deliberating on legislation. During the Stamp Act crisis, Americans refuted as invalid the theory of virtual representation. In the common colonial view, unless a legislator shared, to some extent, the interests of his constituents, he could not be expected to consider their welfare. Since the needs of the American colonists differed substantially from the needs of inhabitants of England, the colonists feared that if Parliament were permitted to legislate for the colonies, its members would be easily persuaded to vote against the Americans' best interest, especially if England stood to gain. Many colonists believed that such a scenario played out in the case of the Stamp Act.
