Causes of the American Revolution

Question 1

Reasons for British need to strengthen hegemony

Answer 1

National debt

Defence of North America, 10,000 standing army

Costs - increased five fold from 1748 to 1763

Westward expansion

Smuggling

Question 2

Pontiac’s rebellion

Answer 2

Fearing further encroachments by white settlers, Ohio Valley tribes destroyed every British post west of Niagara, except Detroit, killing or capturing hundreds of settlers in the process.
British officials used bribes to detach the Iroquois from Pontiac and to persuade southern tribes to remain neutral.
The fact that it had taken British forces and bribes to defeat the rebellion confirmed the British view that the colonies were either unable or unwilling to defend themselves. This was seen as justification for the demands that the colonies must contribute to their defence.

Question 3

Proclamation Act

Answer 3

The 1763 Proclamation Act: The colonists were prohibited from settling west of a line beyond the Appalachians, to establish a native American reserve. The line caused resentment because as far as the colonists were concerned (particularly wealthy land speculators) they had fought for the right to expand westwards. At least 30,000 colonists ignored the line moved westwards; by 1768 it was meaningless.

Question 4

Anti-smuggling measures 1763

Answer 4

Customs officials had to reside in the colonies. Revenue cases would be heard by a vice-admiralty court in Nova Scotia to counter the leniency of colonial juries towards smugglers.

Question 5

Sugar Act

Answer 5

Sugar Act 1764: Duties on foreign sugar and molasses were reduced from 6d to 3d, but would be strictly enforced.
New England merchants, particularly rum distillers, were especially aggrieved. The list of enumerated commodities was expanded. Stiff penalties were imposed on corrupt customs officials including £500 fine and disqualification.
Colonists complained that Britain was essentially taxing colonists who were unrepresented in Parliament. Zero opposition to act in parliament.

Question 6

Currency Act 1764

Answer 6

Banned colonial paper money. Aimed mainly at Virginia, the deflationary effects of the act threatened some colonists with ruin, but appeased British merchants who wanted money paid in acceptable currency.

Question 7

Stamp Act 1765

Answer 7

Grenville introduced a tax on documents, its payment being confirmed by the affixation of a stamp. Fifty items, including newspapers, legal documents, insurance policies, tavern licences, marriage licences and even playing cards were affected. It was the first direct tax imposed by Parliament on the colonists.

Question 8

Virginia Resolves

Answer 8

The Virginia House of Burgesses adopted 5 of Patrick Henry’s ‘Virginia Resolves’, asserting that Parliament had no right to tax the colonists. Newspapers printed all 7 of the Resolves, including those that were not endorsed, which called for resistance. Soon after other assemblies issued their own resolves.

Question 9

Stamp Act Congress

Answer 9

Delegates from 9 colonies met in NY, declaring that Parliament had no right to impose taxes in the colonies, and calling for the repeal of all of Greville’s reforms.

Question 10

Mob action

Answer 10

Bostonian Samuel Adams, who led a group of Boston artisans known as a Loyal Nine, co-ordinated mob action against the Stamp Act, recruiting and uniting Boston’s North End and South End gangs for this purpose.
The mob targeted:
Andrew Oliver, the Massachusetts stamp distributor
Thomas Hutchinson, Chief Justice of Massachusetts
Francis Bernard, Governor of Massachusetts.

The mob hung effigies from what became known as the Liberty Tree, and destroyed the property and homes of Oliver and Hutchinson. As news of the mob action spread, similar attacks took place elsewhere. Oliver and many other stamp distributors promptly resigned.

Question 11

Sons of Libery

Answer 11

By Autumn 1765 the men leading the mob action had formed a semi-secret society known as the Sons of Liberty, which included members of the colonial elite, merchants, artisans and intellectuals like Sam Adams. They appealed to the colonists to boycott British goods, with many merchants signing non-importation agreements.

Question 12

British response to Stamp Act crisis

Answer 12

MPs: Many MPs were horrified by the mob violence in the colonies and called for the Stamp Act to be upheld, arguing that: to repeal the act would be an act of weakness, many Britons paid taxes yet could not vote, MP’s provided indirect representation to those who could not in Britain and throughout the empire.
Businessmen: Merchants and manufacturers suffered as a result of the colonial boycott, and called on Parliament to repeal the act so trade could be restored.

General Thomas Gage, British commander-in-chief in North America: Gage informed the government that he had insufficient forces to enforce the Stamp Act.

Rockingham persuaded Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in February 1766.

Question 13

Declaratory Act

Answer 13

The Declaratory Act, 1766: At the same time as it repealed the Stamp Act, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act. This asserted that the colonies were subordinate to Parliament, and that Parliament had full authority to pass any and every law it wished.

Question 14

Was the Stamp Act crisis a turning point

Answer 14

The colonists had effectively denied Parliament’s authority over them, meaning that in practice, if not in principle, they were demanding independence.
The colonists recognised only a connection with the Crown.
The crisis had united the colonies, fostering a distinct ‘American’ identity.
The colonial assemblies became more hostile.
Colonists believed they must remain vigilant in defence of their liberties.
The crisis suggested that British authority could be defied if there was colonial unity.
Many British politicians felt that British authority over the colonies had to be reasserted.

Question 15

The Townshend Duties

Answer 15

Townshend was concerned that royal officials (such as governors) in America were dependent on colonial opinion, as they were paid by the colonial assemblies. He decided that instead they should be paid directly by the British government.
Townshend also decided that the colonies would have to take on the burden of this expense. In May 1767 Townshend introduced new duties on colonial imports of glass, wine, china, lead, paint, paper and tea.

Question 16

American Board of Customs Commissioners

Answer 16

To tighten enforcement of the duties, Townshend established an American Board of Customs Commissioners. It would be based in Boston, would be directly responsible to Britain, and would give colonial customs officials greater powers.

Question 17

Quartering Act

Answer 17

The Quartering Act of 1765 required colonial assemblies to provide quartering and supplies for British troops in America. Most colonial assemblies complied with the Act, but New York, where the British forces in America were headquartered, had refused.

Question 18

New York Restraining Act 1767

Answer 18

They complained that the burden of the act fell unfairly upon them as the majority of the British forces were based there. Townshend decided to introduce the New York Restraining Act in March 1767. Under this Act, the New York Assembly was suspended until it complied with the Quartering Act. Most colonists resented the implication that the British had the authority to suspend the colonial assemblies. However, the New York assembly backed down and complied with the Quartering Act.

Question 19

Intellectual response to Townshend duties

Answer 19

The most influential pamphlet was Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer by John Dickinson. He argued that Parliament did not have the right to tax the colonists without their consent, either through internal taxes or external duties (coining the phrase ‘no taxation without representation’), and condemned the British suspension of the New York Assembly as an attack on colonial liberty.

Other pamphleteers claimed that the British were attempting to subvert the power and authority of the colonial assemblies by strengthening control over the Governors and establishing new customs officials.

Question 20

Economic response to Townshend duties

Answer 20

Boston organised a new boycott against Britain. By 1769 every colony except NH had non-importation associations.
Committees of inspection were established in most colonies to enforce non-importation.
Merchants who refused to comply had their warehouses attacked, and some were tarred and feathered.

Question 21

Political response to Townshend duties

Answer 21

The Massachusetts assembly sent out a circular letter denouncing the Townshend duties for violating the principle of ‘no taxation without representation’. The letter appealed to the other colonies for collective action. Governor Bernard of Massachusetts and other governors denounced the letter as treason, but 7 other assemblies endorsed the letter and the Virginia House of Burgesses published its own letter.

Question 22

Wilkesite movement

Answer 22

Colonial resistance to the Townshend measures was spurred on by news of John Wilkes, the Radical British MP, who was imprisoned in 1768. The treatment of Wilkes was well-reported in the colonial newspapers, and the colonies raised money in support of his cause.

Question 23

Boston response to Townshend duties

Answer 23

The decision to base the new customs officials in Boston was a big mistake. Right from the moment they arrived in November 1767 they became targets of mob action, orchestrated by the Sons of Liberty, and the duties proved unenforceable. A 50-gun battleship, the Romney, arrived in Boston in 1768 to support the customs officials, and seized a vessel called Liberty. This led the mob to attack the customs officials, who were forced to take refuge on Castle William, an island in the harbour.

Question 24

The circular letter

Answer 24

In January 1768 the Earl of Hillsborough was appointed as secretary of state for the colonies.
He ordered the Massachusetts Assembly to rescind the circular letter or face dissolution. Francis Bernard, Governor of Massachusetts, attempted to persuade the assembly to rescind the letter. When he was disobeyed Bernard dissolved the Assembly. This simply served to fan the flames of discontent.

Question 25

Leadup to Boston massacre

Answer 25

The Sons of Liberty: Organised marches, meetings and the publication and circulation of radical newspapers. By 1768 the Boston ‘mob’ were more like professional revolutionaries; Royal officials were intimidated and their property attacked.

Troops in Boston: In desperation, Bernard requested that troops be used to restore order, and 600 British troops arrived in late September 1768. This again heightened tensions, which increased over the following months.

Question 26

Tensions in Boston

Answer 26

There was opposition to the barracking and quartering of the troops; Bostonians complained of being harassed by British patrols; off-duty soldiers who supplemented their income by taking part-time jobs were resented; Boston newspapers sprinted stories of British soldiers behaving poorly and being violent; the troops were goaded and abused by Bostonians; fights between troops and Bostonians became common; British troops were treated harshly in local courts.

Question 27

Boston Massacre timeline

Answer 27

22 February 1770: A suspected customs informer killed an 11 year old boy during a riot. The Sons of Liberty turned the funeral into a political demonstration attended by 5000 Bostonians.

2 March 1770: Workers at a factory attacked some soldiers seeking jobs, leading to a pitched battle between the Bostonians and the soldiers.

THE BOSTON MASSACRE, 7 March 1770: A detachment of British soldiers guarding the customs house was attacked by a mob hurling hard-packed snowballs. Under extreme provocation the troops opened fire, killing five Bostonians.

Question 28

Aftermath of Boston Massacre

Answer 28

Sam Adams moved swiftly to portray the event as a deliberate massacre. This perception was reinforced by Paul Revere’s engraving of the event, which was published widely. The funerals were used as an opportunity for mass political demonstrations.

8 of the soldiers were brought to trial. The soldiers were defended by John Adams - cousin of Sam and a prominent Boston lawyer; 6 were acquitted and 2 were found guilty of manslaughter and released after being branded on the thumb.

Question 29

Repeal of Townshend duties

Answer 29

Lord North became PM in 1770. He saw that the Townshend duties were not working; little or no revenue was being raised and trade with the colonies was damaged by the colonial boycott.

Relations between the British authorities and the assemblies had broken down, and there were insufficient troops to impose order.

North repealed all but the tea duty, which he retained to assert Parliament’s authority over the colonies.

Question 30

Committees of Correspondence

Answer 30

In 1771 Sam Adams convinced the Boston Town Meeting to create a Committee of Correspondence to communicate colonial grievances throughout Massachusetts. Other colonies followed Massachusetts’ example and created their own committees; by 1774 every colony except Pennsylvania and North Carolina had committees, ready to coordinate a unified response in the event of another crisis.

Question 31

Tea Act

Answer 31

The Tea Act, 1773: Enabled the East India company to export tea to the colonies without having to pay duties to the British government.

The colonists had to continue paying the tea duties imposed under the Townshend measures, but the tea sold by the company would be so cheap that the colonists would still have to pay far less.

Question 32

Response to Tea Act

Answer 32

Most colonists saw the Tea Act as yet another attempt by Parliament to tax the colonies and undermine their liberties, and refused to buy the tea. Newspapers and pamphlets whipped up opposition. Merchants who imported East India Company tea were threatened with violence. Shipments of tea arriving in seaports were rejected and sent back. Tea agents (officials responsible for collecting tea duties) were intimidated and forced to resign.

Question 33

Boston Tea Party

Answer 33

Between late November and early December 1773 three ships carrying East India Company tea docked in Boston. Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson ordered that the tea be brought ashore but the Boston mob prevented this.

On 16th December sixty Sons of Liberty men, led by Samuel Adams and disguised as Native Americans, boarded the three ships. 342 tea chests worth about £10,000 were dumped into the harbour. There was a British military presence in Boston but no action was taken out of fear that intervention might worsen the crisis.

Question 34

Intolerable Acts 1774

Answer 34

The Boston Port Act closed Boston port to all trade until the destroyed tea had been paid for.

The Massachusetts Government Act allowed the royal governor to appoint and remove most civil officials. Town meetings could no longer be held without his permission.

The Impartial Administration of Justice Act provided for the transfer to Britain of murder trials.

A new Quartering Act gave broader authority to military commanders seeking to house their troops. The Coercive Acts were enforced by a fleet of British warships, and a force of 2000 British troops in Boston. General Gage was appointed Governor of Massachusetts.

Question 35

Quebec Act 1774

Answer 35

Dealt with the governance of Canada. Control of Canada was placed in the hands of a royal governor, with no elected assembly and restrictions on trial by jury. Agitated colonists wrongly suspected the British were planning to impose authoritarian government across the whole of North America.

The act also extended the Quebec boundary south and west; agitated colonists saw this as an attempt by the British to prevent further westward expansion by the thirteen colonies.

Question 36

New York Tea Party

Answer 36

When New Yorkers found East India Company tea aboard the Nancy in March 1774, a crowd dumped the tea overboard.

Question 37

Virginia House of Burgesses response to the Intolerable Acts

Answer 37

On 24th May 1775 the House passed a resolution condemning the ‘intolerable acts’. Two days later Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, dissolved the House.

The next day the House met in defiance of the governor and:
adopted a non-importation agreement
pledged non-consumption of tea
denounced the Boston Port Act
proposed that an inter-continental congress be held to seek redress of the colonists’ grievances.

Question 38

Extra legal conventions

Answer 38

During the summer of 1774 seven other colonies, where royal governors had dissolved the colonial assemblies, followed Virginia’s example and set up their own extra-legal conventions. Meeting in open defiance of British authority, they assumed the role of government.

Question 39

Newspapers and pamphlets

Answer 39

By 1774 almost all of the 42 colonial newspapers, most of which were based in New England, promoted radical ideas, using incendiary language. Countless pamphlets circulated defending the rights of the colonies, including Jefferson’s Summary of the Rights of British America. Others openly talked of independence, including John Adams, writing under the pseudonym Novalangus, who published 12 essays in the Boston Gazette.

Question 40

First Continental Congress

Answer 40

In September 1774 all the colonies, except Georgia, sent delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Most of the 56 delegates were prominent opponents of British rule, and many favoured independence. Congress had no coercive or legislative authority, but it had a powerful unifying effect.

Question 41

Suffolk resolves

Answer 41

Endorsed on 17th September 1774. These resolves declared the Coercive Acts null and void and called on Massachusetts to arm for defence.

Question 42

Continental Association

Answer 42

Congress also called for non-importation of all British goods, starting on 1st December 1774, unless Parliament repealed the Coercive Acts. If Parliament refused to repeal the acts a ban on exports to Britain would begin on September 1775.

Question 43

Declaration of Rights and Grievances 1765

Answer 43

While acknowledging the authority of the Crown, the Declaration proclaimed: while Parliament could regulate imperial trade, it had no authority to raise revenue of any kind from the colonists without their consent; each colonial assembly had the right to determine the need for troops within its territory.

Question 44

Committees of Safety

Answer 44

These were established across the colonies. Some were organised by the old elite, but others involved new, poorer men. The committees enforced the boycott, but many went much further, acting in place of the defunct local government.

Question 45

Impact of CC in Massachusetts

Answer 45

By 1774 British authority had completely broken down. Any officials who remained loyal to Britain were terrorised by mob action and forced out of office. Outside of Boston, authority resided with a Provincial Congress and a range of committees. These bodies stopped trade and organised military resources and militia units. General Gage and his British troops were effectively besieged in Boston. Gage sent a request to the British government for 20,000 soldiers.

Question 46

Impact of CC on other companies

Answer 46

By early 1775 extra-legal conventions and committees had expelled royal authority in most colonies. Arms and ammunition were stockpiled and militias drilled. Rhode Islanders and New Hampshire militiamen seized cannon and munitions from British forts. Not all Americans supported the rebel cause. Most hoped that a solution to the troubles could be found. Relatively few Americans wanted total independence.

Question 47

John Adams

Answer 47

A Boston lawyer and cousin of Sam Adams. He rose to prominence in the aftermath of the Boston Massacre, when he acted as the successful, although unpopular legal defence for the British soldiers involved in the massacre. He would go on to be a leading proponent of independence in the First and Second Continental Congress.

Question 48

Samuel Adams

Answer 48

A leading Bostonian and leading figure in the early revolutionary period, it was Adams who realised that colonial leaders were unable to successfully challenge British policy without popular support.

During the Stamp Act crisis, it was Adams who formed a group of shopkeepers and artisans into the Loyal Nine, united the various gangs within the town, and orchestrated the attacks that led to the resignation of British officials.

Adams’ methods were replicated in other places like New York, and led to the formation of the Sons of Liberty.

During the Townshend crisis, Adams was instrumental in re-mobilising the Sons of Liberty, orchestrating mob action, and in the sending of the circular letter. In the aftermath of the repeal of the Townshend duties, it was Adams who persuaded the Boston town meeting to establish a Committee of Correspondence to communicate colonial grievances, and other colonies soon followed suit. Adams played a leading role in planning and directing the Boston Tea Party, and in leading opposition to the Intolerable Acts.

Question 49

John Locke

Answer 49

An English political theorist and influential Enlightenment thinker, known as the ‘Father of Liberalism’. Although he had died in 1704, his ideas influenced the American revolutionaries.

He argued that man had certain natural rights, such as the right to property. There was a ‘social contract’ between the governed and those who govern, which lasted only as long as basic rights were protected. If those who govern abuse those rights, then the contract is broken and the governed have the right to remove and replace the government.

Question 50

John Dickinson

Answer 50

A Virginia planter, in 1768 he published the pamphlet Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer, in response to the Townshend duties. While accepting Britain’s right to regulate trade, Townshend rejected Britain’s right to tax the colonists without their consent, and criticised the Britain’s suspension of the New York Assembly. His pamphlet was read widely and inspired other pamphleteers.

Question 51

Thomas Jefferson

Answer 51

A Virginia planter, in 1774 he published the pamphlet A Summary View of the Rights of British America, in response to the Tea Act, which was influential in moving many towards the idea of independence. Jefferson argued that Parliament had no right to exercise authority over the colonies. He was particularly critical of the idea that a Parliament elected by 160,000 men in Britain should legislate for America.