Lesson 3-1: The Stirrings of Rebellion

Question 1

When was the Stamp Act passed?

Answer 1

March 1765

Question 2

What is the purpose of the Stamp Act?

Answer 2

To finance debts from the French and Indian War.

Question 3

Who advocated for the passing of the Stamp Act?

Answer 3

Prime Minister George Grenville

Question 4

What did the Stamp Act require the colonists to do?

Answer 4

Purchase a special stamped paper for every legal document, license, newspaper, pamphlet, and almanac.
- Some playing cards and dice were also taxed.

Question 5

What happened if the colonists refused to obey the Stamp Act?

Answer 5

They were tried in vice-admiralty courts (courts established by the Crown in the American colonies to hear maritime cases), where convictions were probable.

Question 6

The Sons of Liberty

Answer 6

A group of colonists who organized themselves in order to fight back against the Crown and show their defiance to the King.

Question 7

Who was one of the founding members of the Sons of Liberty? What is his story?

Answer 7

Samuel Adams
- Second cousin of John Adams
- Unsuccessful in business
- Deeply in debt
- Harvard-educated

Question 8

What did the Sons of Liberty do?

Answer 8

• Harassed customs agents
• Harassed stamp agents
• Harassed royal governors

Question 9

What is Virginia’s lower house do in order to confront the Stamp Act measure?

Answer 9

It adopted several resolutions put forth by 29-year-old lawyer Patrick Henry.

Question 10

What did Patrick Henry’s resolutions state?

Answer 10

• That Virginians could only be taxed by the Virginia assembly (by their own representatives).

Question 11

What occurred in October 1765 in order to show even more defiance towards the Stamp Act?

Answer 11

The Stamp Act Congress
- New York City
- Delegates from nine colonies
- Declaration of Rights and Grievances

Question 12

What was stated in the Stamp Act Congress’s Declaration of Rights and Grievances?

Answer 12

Parliament did not have the power to impose taxes on the colonies because the colonies were not represented in Parliament.
- NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

Question 13

What did the colonies reject more than ten years earlier that was to address defense issues?

Answer 13

Benjamin Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union

Question 14

What was so significant about the Stamp Act Congress?

Answer 14

The separate colonies began to act as one unit.

Question 15

Many men agreed to __________________ until the Stamp Act was repealed. What does this mean?

Answer 15

Boycott; refuse to buy goods manufactured in Britain.

Question 16

Women also joined the boycott. How did they do this?

Answer 16

• They assembled themselves and called themselves the Daughters of Liberty.
• They held spinning bees, where women, both wealthy and poor, made homespun cloth to wear instead of buying English clothing.
• They made their own tea, often called “Liberty Tea”

Question 17

Did this boycott work?

Answer 17

Yes! The Stamp Act was repealed in March 1766.

Question 18

What did Parliament issue on the same day that the Stamp Act was repealed that soured the joy of the revoking of the Act? What did it state?

Answer 18

The Declaratory Act; that Parliament had full power to make laws for the colonies in all circumstances.

Question 19

Who advocated for the Townshend Act?

Answer 19

Charles Townshend; leading government minister at the time.

Question 20

When were the Townshend Acts passed?

Answer 20

1767.

Question 21

What was the purpose of the Townshend Acts?

Answer 21

Simply to gain revenue from the colonies.

Question 22

What did the Townshend Acts require the colonists to do?

Answer 22

Pay taxes on…
- Glass
- Lead
- Paint
- Paper
- Three-penny tax on tea

Question 23

How did the Townshend Acts differ from the Stamp Act?

Answer 23

The Stamp Act was a direct tax, while the Townshend Acts were indirect taxes.

Question 24

Samuel Adams called for another boycott due to the Townshend Acts. Mercy Otis Warren then urged her fellow women to “lay their British female ornaments aside.” What effect did this have on women?

Answer 24

Wealthy women stopped buying British luxuries and started to join spinning bees.

Question 25

Spinning bees

Answer 25

Public displays of spinning and weaving of colonial-made cloth designed to show colonists’ determination to boycott British-made cloth.

Question 26

What happened in June 1768 that further intensified the relations between Great Britain and the American colonies?

Answer 26

British agents seized the Liberty, a ship belonging to John Hancock, a local merchant.

Question 27

What was the British agents’ reason for seizing the Liberty?

Answer 27

An inspector claimed that Hancock had smuggled in a shipment of wine from Madeira and did not pay the customs tax on it.

Question 28

What happened as a result of the seizing of the Madeira?

Answer 28

Riots against customs agents.

Question 29

What did the British do in response to the riots against customs agents after the seizing of the Madeira?

Answer 29

Britain placed 2,000 soldiers in Boston; this greatly angered the colonists.

Question 30

What was one sore point that led up to the Boston Massacre?

Answer 30

The fight for jobs between the colonists and the poorly-paid British soldiers who were stationed in the colonies (they usually looked for work in shipyards during off-duty hours.)

Question 31

When did the Boston Massacre take place?

Answer 31

March 5, 1770

Question 32

What took place at the Boston Massacre?

Answer 32

• A fist-fight broke out over jobs
• A mob organized outside of the Customs House
• The colonists taunted the guards
• The guards fired when Crispus Attucks and several other dockhands arrived.

Question 33

How many colonists were killed/wounded at the Boston Massacre?

Answer 33

• Three were killed, including Crispus Attucks
• Two were fatally wounded

Question 34

What were colonial leaders all to quick to do after the event took place?

Answer 34

Label it the Boston Massacre and place all of the blame on the British soldiers.
- They automatically painted the colonists as a group of defenseless citizens.

Question 35

What happened in the two years following the Boston Massacre?

Answer 35

Political intensity died down for a bit.

Question 36

What did a group of Rhode Island colonists do in 1772 that angered King George and prompted him to name a special commission for seeking out suspects and bringing them to England for trial?

Answer 36

A group of Rhode Island colonists attacked a British customs schooner that was patrolling the coast for smugglers.
- The ship accidentally ran aground near Providence, and the colonists got onto the vessel and burned it down to the waterline.

Question 37

What did the colonists do in response to King George III naming this commission?

Answer 37

The assemblies of MASSACHUSETTS and VIRGINIA created committees of correspondence.

Question 38

What are committees of correspondence?

Answer 38

Committees that communicate with each other about threats to Americans freedoms and liberties.

Question 39

What did Lord Frederick North try to do to save the British East India Company in 1773?

Answer 39

He created the Tea Act
- This granted the British East India Company the right to sell its tea directly to the colonists, completely eliminating the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay.
- This would essentially eliminate the colonial merchant involved in the process of Britain selling tea to the colonies.

Question 40

What was the reaction to the Tea Act?

Answer 40

Heavy protests from the colonists.

Question 41

The Boston Tea Party occurred in retaliation for the Tea Act. What occurred at the Boston Tea Party?

Answer 41

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