Chapter 05: The American Revolution (1763-1783) Flashcards
How did George III coronation (1760) change British and American relations?
British colonies: separated & British wanted control
Seven Year’s War → Allies
- the mid-1760s: wanted them to be subordinate
- new laws → supported rulers & not colonists
Taxes: fund wars
How was the Navigation Act’s enforcement change with George III coronation?
Navigation Act → (until now) Statutory neglect
British saw: colonists “cheating” the treasury
How did 18th-century British people view their parliament? How did this compare to that of the Americans?
British people: Parliament represent entire empire and right to legislate it
Many not have representation
Theory: VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION
- House of Commons represented the entire empire; whether or not they could vote
- When colonies insisted on representation → no support from Brits
What were the “Writs of Assistance?” (1760s)
British combat Smuggling: “WRITS OF ASSISTANCE”
- unlimited search warrants to look for smuggling
- 1761: Boston lawyer James Otis argued it was destructive to English liberties
What was The Sugar Act (1764)?
Who_: Prime Minister George Grenville_
Reduction of molasses into North American from the French West Indies from 6 -3 pence per gallon
Purpose: Strengthen Navigation Act
Also: new way combat smuggling
- Before: light sentence for smugglers in colonies
- Now: accused could be judged without a jury
How did the colonists view The Sugar Act (1764)?
- Reduction on trade
- Pay a levy otherwise evaded
What was the Currency Act of 1764?
Reaffirmed earlier ban on colonies issuing paper as “legal tender”
What was the Stamp Act (1765)?
First time Parliament directly raised taxes (not through trade regulations)
All printed materials produced in colonies required a stamp purchase from authorities
Motivation: finance operations of the empire
How did the Stamp Act affect the colonists?
Affected all colonists: (especially writers)
- Directly challenged authority local elites
- wanted to defend authority in the name of liberty
Opposition: First drama of the revolutionary era
infringed “English Liberties”
How did the colonial and British outlook on “colonial rights” compare in the 18th century? How did this affect taxation laws?
Colonial outlook: Same rights as Britons
Name of liberty: right to govern self
British outlook: All of the empire subject to the Parliament
Surrendering taxation to colonies: dangerous president
What two views existed regarding the Stampt Act in America?
Distinguish between: (One view)
- “internal” taxes → Parliament no right impose
- Regulations through trade → Parliament right
Other View:
- Parliament no right to tax them at all
- not represented in House of Commons
What was the rallying cry of American opponents to British’s taxation laws?
“No taxation without representation”
What were the 4 resolutions of Patrick Henry (approved by the Virginia House of Burgesses in the 1760s)?
Enjoyed same: cornerstone British freedom
- liberties
- privileges
- franchises
- immunities
Rejected: call to resistance
What was the Stamp Act Congress?
27 delegates from nine colonies
What did the Stamp Act Congress of October 1765 do?
Stamp Act Congress > met in New York to endorse Virginia
- Start Resolution: “subordination to Parliament”
- wanted right to consent to taxation
Merchants boycotted British goods
How did resistance to the Stamp Act not lead to a revolution?
All colonies in Northern Hemisphere protested > only half wanted independence
saw liberties safer in the British colony
How did “liberty” play an important role in resistance to British taxation laws in the 1760s?
- Mock funerals for liberty → person revived last minutes
- Liberty tree → large elm tree
What was the Committee of Correspondence (1760s)?
Committee to oppose Sugar and Currency Act
What physical resistance towards to Stamp Act occurred in 1765?
1765: Sons of Liberty
- lead protest processions
- posted notices about liberty
- Enforced British boycott
What was the Declaratory Act of 1766?
Repealed Stamp Act
- Rejected Americans’ claim that they could levy taxes
- “Parliament power to pass laws for people in America for ever
- Needed more tax money
What land conflicts took place in South Carolina in the 1760s with the Regulators?
- South Carolina
- group of wealthy residents
Protested: underrepresentation and legislator’s failure to establish local governments
Condemned “rich and powerful”
1771: Battle of Alamance
farmers suppressed by militia
What Land Conflict took place in North Carolina (1760s)?
Mobilized small farmers
- refused pay taxes
- kidnapped local officials
- assaulted homes
Motivation: corrupt country authority
What was the Townshend Act of 1767?
Who: Chancellor of the Exchequer → Charles Townshend
Colonies: said Britain right to impose trading taxation
Act:
- tax on goods imported into colonies
- create new board of customs (1) collect them and (2) suppress smuggling
How [3] and why did the colonies reimpose the ban on British goods in 1768?
Resistance to the Townshend Act
(1) Relying on American goods (not British) symbol of resistance
Women spun and wove at home: Daughters of Liberty
(2) Appealed to Chesapeake farmers:
increasing money to British merchants
NONIMPORTATION: could reduce British luxuries without making people think you were poor
(3) Urban Artisans: supported boycott
streets filled with protests against Parliament
What happened in the Boston Massacre (March 05, 1770)?
- fight British troops and citizens
- 5 Bostonians dead
Died: Crispus Attucks
- Baited British officers
- mixed Indian-African-white decent
Trial: Commanding officer and 8 guards
- defender: John Adams
- 7 found not guilty
- 2 convicted manslaughter
Explain Paul Revere’s depiction of the Boston Massacre:
part Boston Sons of Liberty
Circulated (inaccurate) depictions of British soldiers into an unarmed crowd
What was the Nonimportation movement in 1768?
could reduce British luxuries without making people think you were poor
How did the Nonimportation movement collapse in 1770?
- Merchants reduction in profit
- Elite could not live without British goods
British merchants wished removal possible sources of interruption to trade:
- Townshend repealed
- Only tea tax remained
- Removed troops from Boston
How did Americans view British in 1770?
- Corrupt (like own ministers)
- Thought Anglican Church going to send Bishops to America
Explain what happened when the East India Company trade monopoly bubble collapsed (1770s)?
Bubble collapsed → government bailout:
1. market Chinese tea in North America
- enable to dump low-priced tea on American markets
- undercut merchants and smugglers
2. Series of tax exemptions and rebates
What was the American Response to the Government Bailout of the East India Company and tea tax in the 1770s?
- tax on tea not new
- Saw payment as acknowledgment of British right of tax on colonies
- resistance in ports
What happened during the Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773)?
- Group colonists (disguised as Indians) boarded three ships in Boston
- Threw 300 chests of tea into the water
Losses: £10,000 (the equivalent of more than $4 million today).
What was the British response to the Boston Tea Party?
Swift and decisive
Parliament closed Boston ports till tea was paid for
How did the “Intolerable Acts” alter the Massachusetts Charter of 1691?
- authorized governor appoints members to the council
- Empowered military commanders to lodge soldiers in private homes
What was the Quebec Act? What did the colonists react?
- Extended Canadian border to Ohio River
- Granted legal toleration to Roman Catholic Church in Canada
Angered colonists:
- questioned land claims
- thought London conspiring to strengthen Catholicism