Because the British controlled more North American territory after the Seven Years War,

they had to devote more troops and supplies to secure the territories. The British needed
more money to support this, so they started levying taxes on the American colonists.​

The Deep Roots of Revolution

Two ideas had taken root in the minds of the American colonists by the mid 18th century
(not mutually exclusive):

1) Republicanism: all citizens willingly work towards the common good, which trumps
their private interests. The stability of society and the authority of government depended
on society's capacity for selflessness, self-sufficiency, and courage. This school of
thought opposed authoritarian institutions.

2) Radical Whigs: The Radical Whigs was a group of British political commentators
who criticized the monarchy's corruption and encouraged citizens to be vigilant against
attempts to take away liberty.

Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances

British mercantilism in the colonies was a system in which the British expected the
colonies to export raw materials to Britain and import manufactured goods exclusively
from Britain.
Georgia was the only colony to be formally created by Britain.
The British viewed the American colonists as tenants: the colonists should exclusively
support Britain (via supply of raw materials, purchase of British exports, etc).
The Navigation Law of 1650 stated that all goods flowing to and from the colonies could
only be transported in British vessels. It aimed to hurt rival Dutch shippers.

The Merits and Menace of Mercantilism

British mercantile laws were not strictly enforced in the colonies and these laws benefited
the colonies in some ways. However, many colonists did not like the mercantile laws.

The Stamp Tax Uproar

Britain incurred a large debt due to the Seven Years War, most of which was created
defending the North American colonies. Britain began to look for ways of getting the
colonists to pay for this debt.
In 1763, Prime Minister George Grenville ordered the British navy to begin strictly
enforcing the Navigation Laws. He also got Parliament to pass the Sugar Act of 1764,
the first law ever passed by Parliament to raise tax revenue in the colonies for England.
The Sugar Act increased the duty on foreign sugar imported from the West Indies.
The Quartering Act of 1765 required certain colonies to provide food and quarters for
British troops.

In 1765, Grenville imposed a stamp tax on the colonies to raise revenue to support the
new military force. This stamp tax, known as the Stamp Act, required colonists to use
stamped paper to certify payment of taxes on goods like newspapers, legal documents,
and diplomas.

American colonists started to rebel against the newly passed taxation measures as they
felt the laws were starting to impinge on their liberties.

Forced Repeal of the Stamp Act

27 delegates from 9 colonies met in New York City for the Stamp Act Congress of 1765.

The members drew up a statement of their rights and grievances and requested the king
and Parliament to repeal the hated legislation. The meeting was largely ignored by
England, but it was one step towards intercolonial unity.

Nonimportation agreements (agreements made to not import British goods) were another
stride toward unionism.

The Sons of Liberty and Daughters of Liberty took the law into their own hands by
enforcing the nonimportation agreements.

The Stamp Act was repealed by Parliament in 1766.

Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which reaffirmed England's right to rule
absolutely over the American colonies.

The Townshend Tea Tax and the Boston Massacre

In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts. They put a light import tax on glass,
white lead, paper, paint, and tea.
American colonists were rebellious to the new taxes and as a result of these rebellions,
the British landed 2 regiments of troops in the colonies in 1768.

On March 5, 1770, a crowd of 60 townspeople attacked 10 redcoats and the redcoats

opened fire on the civilians, killing/wounding 11 of them. The massacre was known as
the Boston Massacre.

The Seditious Committees of Correspondence

Lord North, the prime minister of Britain, was forced to persuade Parliament to repeal the
Townshend revenue duties.

Samuel Adams: master propagandist and engineer of rebellion; formed the first local
committee of correspondence in Massachusetts in 1772 (Sons of Liberty).
Committees of Correspondence were created by the American colonies in order to
maintain communication with one another. They were organized in the decade before the
Revolution when communication between the colonies became essential.
​
In March of 1773, the Virginia House of Burgesses, the lower house of the Colony of
Virginia, proposed that each colonial legislature appoint a standing committee for
intercolonial correspondence. Within just a year, nearly all of the colonies had joined.

Tea Brewing in Boston

In 1773, the British East India Company was overstocked with 17 million pounds of
unsold tea. If the company collapsed, the London government would lose tax revenue.
Therefore, the London government gave the company the exclusive right to sell tea in
America (at a discount).

Fearing that it was a trick to get the colonists to pay import taxes, the colonists rejected
the tea. When the ships arrived in the Boston harbor, the governor of Massachusetts,
Thomas Hutchinson, forced the citizens to allow the ships to unload their tea.
On December 16, 1773, a band of Bostonians, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships and
dumped the tea into the sea. (Boston Tea Party)

Parliament Passed the "Intolerable Acts"

In 1774, Parliament punished the people of Massachusetts for their actions in the Boston
Tea Party. Parliament passed laws, known as the Intolerable Acts, which restricted
colonists' rights. The laws restricted town meetings and required that officials who killed
colonists in the line of duty to be sent to Britain for trial (where it was assumed they
would be acquitted of their charges). Another law was the Boston Port Act. It closed the
Boston harbor until damages were paid and order could be ensured.

The Quebec Act was also passed in 1774, but was not a part of the Intolerable Acts. It
gave Catholic French Canadians religious freedom and restored the French form of civil
law. The American colonists opposed this act for a variety of reasons: it angered
anti-Catholics; it extended the land area of Quebec.

Bloodshed
In 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to respond to colonial
grievances over the Intolerable Acts. 12 of the 13 colonies (excluding Georgia) sent 55
men to the convention. (The First Continental Congress was not a legislative body; it
was a consultative body. It was a convention rather than a congress.)

After 7 weeks of deliberation, the 1st Continental Congress created several papers. The
papers included a Declaration of Rights and appeals to other British-American colonies,
to the king, and to the British people.

The creation of The Association was the most important outcome of the Congress. It
called for a complete boycott of British goods: nonimportation, nonexportation, and
nonconsumption.

In April 1775, the British commander in Boston sent a detachment of troops to Lexington
and Concord. Their plan was to seize stocks of colonial gunpowder and to capture the
"rebel" ringleaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. At Lexington, 8 Americans were
shot and killed. This incident was labelled as the "Lexington Massacre." When the
British went to Concord, they were met with American resistance and had over 300
casualties and 70 deaths. Because of this, the British realized that they had a war, rather
than a rebellion, on their hands.

Imperial Strength and Weaknesses

The population of Britain was over 3 times as large as America. Britain also had a much
greater economic wealth and naval power.
Unfortunately for the British, though, British troops were committed to fighting the
rebellion in Ireland. Troops were also needed in case France decided to attack Britain.
(France was bitter from its recent defeat.) Britain was therefore forced to divert much of
its military power and concentration away from the Americas.
Britain's army in America had to operate under numerous difficulties; provisions were
short, officers were not well-trained, troops were operating far from their home base, the
Americans did not have a single city from which they operated (ex: Paris for the French).

CHAPTER 8

Notes

Northern states - democratic republican cultural values, such as equality in the family and
in social relationships.

Southern states - sharply divided by class and race, politicians endorsed aristocratic

republicanism. It stressed liberty for whites rather than equality for all.

Republicanism - private ownership of property and capital, market exchange, individual

opportunity, and activist governments.

Before the Revolution, farmers relied on government-sponsored land banks for loans,
while merchants arranged partnerships or obtained credit from British suppliers. Then, in
1781,

Philadelphia merchants persuaded the Confederation Congress to charter the Bank of

North America, and traders soon founded similar institutions that raised funds and lent
them out Jeersonians attacked the bank as an unconstitutional expansion of federal power.
When the

the bank's 20 year charter expired in 1811, they refused to renew it.

1816, Second Bank of the U.S - there were 246 state-chartered banks with tens of
thousands of stockholders. They generously lent to farmers buying overpriced land.
Panic of 1819 - farmers faced a 30% drop on agricultural prices. They couldn't pay their
debts.

Ambitious New England farmers switched from subsistence crops of wheat and potatoes
to raising livestock.

Commonwealth System - funneled state aid to private businesses whose projects would
improve the general welfare.

The NY constitution of 1821 imposed a property-holding requirement on Black voters.

sentimentalism - celebrated the importance of “feeling” — a physical, sensuous

appreciation of God, nature, and fellow humans.

Polish aristocrats suggested around 1800, American children had “scant respect” for their
parents. American parents encouraged such independence to prepare youth to “go their
own way” in the world.

free blacks in New England volunteered for military service in the First Rhode Island
Company

and the Massachusetts “Bucks.” In Maryland, some slaves took up arms for the rebels in
return for the promise of freedom.

Virginia legislatures passage of a manumission act in 1782, allowing owners to free their
slaves