Ch. 7: The Road to Revolution Flashcards
Republicanism
A just society in which all citizens willingly subordinated their private, selfish interests to the common good; stability of society and authority of gov’t. depend on virtue of citizenry
Radical Whigs
Feared threat to liberty posed by arbitrary power and of the monarch and his ministers relative to elected representatives in Parliament; these people warned citizens to be on guard against corruption
Mercantilism
British authorities believed that wealth was power and that a country’s economic wealth (and hence its military and political power) could be measured by the amount of gold or silver in its treasury; country had to export more than they imported
Navigation Law of 1650
Parliament passed these aimed at rival Dutch shippers trying to elbow their way into America carrying trade.
- All commerce flowing to and from the colonies had to be transported in British vessels
- European goods destined for America first had to be landed in Britain, where tariff duties could be collected and British middlemen could take a slice of the profits
- American merchants must ship certain “enumerated” products, notably tobacco, exclusively to Britain, even though prices might be better elsewhere
- Inflicted a currency shortage on the colonies; gold and silver coins, mostly earned in illicit trade with the Spanish and French West Indies, drained out of the colonies, creating an acute money shortage
Salutary Neglect
Until 1763, the various Navigation
Laws imposed no intolerable burden, mainly
because they were only loosely enforced; enterprising
colonial merchants learned early to disregard or
evade troublesome restrictions
John Hancock
One of the first to make American fortunes, amassed by wholesale smuggling
Bounties
London paid liberal bounties to colonial producers
of ship parts, VA tobacco planters enjoyed a monopoly
in the British market; colonists benefited from
the protection of the world’s mightiest navy and a
strong, seasoned army of redcoats—all without a
penny of cost
[Prime Minister] George Grenville
First aroused the resentment of the colonists in 1763 by ordering the British navy to begin strictly enforcing the Navigation Laws; also secured from Parliament the Sugar Act of 1764
Sugar Act
Increased the duty on foreign sugar imported from the West Indies; after bitter protests from the colonists, the duties were lowered substantially
Quartering Act
Required certain colonies to provide food
and quarters for British troops
Stamp Act
Mandated the use of stamped paper or
the affixing of stamps, certifying payment of tax; required on bills of sale for about fifty trade items and on certain types of commercial and legal documents, including playing cards, pamphlets, newspapers, diplomas, bills of lading, and marriage licenses
Admiralty Courts
Both the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act provided for trying offenders in the hated admiralty courts, where juries were not allowed; the burden of proof was on the defendants, who were assumed to be guilty unless they could prove themselves innocent - trial by jury and the precept of “innocent until proved guilty’’ were ancient privileges
Virtual Representation
“No taxation without representation” - Americans denied the right of Parliament, in which no Americans were seated, to impose taxes on them. Only their own elected colonial legislatures, the insisted, could legally tax them; elaborating theory of “virtual representation,’’ Grenville claimed that every member of Parliament represented all British subjects, even those Americans in Boston or Charleston who had never voted for a member of Parliament.
The Americans scoffed at the
Stamp Act Congress
Brought together in New York City twenty-seven distinguished delegates from nine colonies; members drew up a statement of their rights and grievances and beseeched the king and Parliament to repeal the repugnant legislation - it was one more halting but significant step toward inter-colonial unity.
Nonimportation Agreements
Widespread adoption of these agreements against British goods; were a promising stride toward union; they spontaneously united the American people for the first time in common action
Homespun
[As part of nonimportation agreements] Woolen garments of homespun became fashionable; groups of women assembled in public to hold spinning bees and make homespun cloth as a replacement for shunned British textiles
Sons of Liberty & Daughters of Liberty
Took the law into their own hands; crying “Liberty, Property, and No Stamps,” they enforced the nonimportation agreements against violators, often with a generous coat of tar and feathers; patriotic mobs ransacked the houses of unpopular officials, confiscated their money, and hanged effigies
Declaratory Act
Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, reaffirming Parliament’s right “to bind” the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” The British government thereby drew its line in the sand. It defined the constitutional principle it would not yield: absolute and unqualified sovereignty over its North American colonies. The colonists had already drawn their own battle line by making it clear that they wanted a measure of sovereignty of their own and would undertake drastic action to secure it.
Townshend Acts
Control of the British ministry seized by
Townshend; persuaded Parliament in 1767 to pass these acts; most important of these new regulations was a light import duty on glass, white lead, paper, paint, and tea; Townshend made this tax an indirect customs duty payable at American ports; colonists, didn’t care - the real difficulty remained taxes—in any form—without representation.
Indirect Tax
Nonimportation agreements quickly revived against Townshend Acts; proved less effective than those devised
against Stamp Act - colonists, again enjoying
prosperity, took the new tax less seriously than
might have been expected, largely because it was
light and indirect
Boston Massacre
A crowd of some sixty townspeople set upon
a squad of about ten redcoats, one hit by a club and another knocked down - apparently without orders but under extreme provocation, the troops opened fire and killed or wounded eleven “innocent’’ citizens; only two of the redcoats were found guilty of manslaughter; soldiers were released after being branded on the hand.
George III
Was attempting to assert power of British monarchy - good man in his private morals, but proved to be a bad ruler; surrounded himself with cooperative “yes men”
Lord North
George III’s prime minister; gov’t of Lord North, bowing to various pressures, finally persuaded Parliament to repeal the Townshend revenue duties; three-pence toll on tea, the tax the colonists found most offensive, was retained to keep alive the principle of parliamentary taxation
Samuel Adams
Master propagandist and engineer of rebellion; ultra-sensitive to infractions of colonial rights - cherished a deep faith in the common people and appealed effectively to what was called his “trained mob’’
