Severing the Bonds of Empire

1. Severing the Bonds of Empire

2. Major Questions • What were the causes of the American Revolution? • How and why did colonists go from loyal subjects of British Empire in 1760 to disloyal rebellion in 1775? • What were forces of unification among colonists? • Differences of social class, race, and religion continued to cause conflict in the colonies. Why did various groups fight for independence? • Did they have the same interests in revolution? • What colonists opposed Revolution? Why? • What kind of revolution was it?

3. Causes of Anti-British Feeling • Imperial Neglect and English Civil Wars • Trade • Mercantilism • Assumed Colonies exist only to enrich Mother Country • Navigation Acts • Eliminated trade competition • Regulated goods to/from colonies • Reduced smuggling • Other Acts • Staple Act of 1663 – required products from Europe, Asia and Africa to be landed in England before being shipped to America (import tax) • Plantation Duty Act of 1763 – required captains of colonial ships to post bond in the colonies that they would deliver all enumerated commodities to England or else pay on the spot duties owed and sent customs officers to colonies to collect duties and process violations • Hat Act – prohibited export of colonial made hats And there were many, many more …..

4. Colonial Growth & Religion • Growth • Yeoman Class • High Literacy Rate • Religion • Halfway Covenant • Democratization of the Pulpit Gilbert Tennent George Whitefield Jonathan Edwards

5. Great Awakening • Process of Great Awakening • Establish education centers • Travelling ministers • Tennent Family • George Whitefield • Old Lights vs. New Lights • Results of Great Awakening • Dissenting Religious groups gained respect • Disenfranchised groups more accepted • Religion became a more individualized experience • Colonies polarized along religious lines • Rise in interest in learning – education centers

6. Mixed Results of Great Awakening? • Unifying force? • Disunifying force? • New denominations • Confusion and chaos

7. French & Indian War • 1754-1763 • Part of longer imperial struggle between British and French • Colonial, imperial, and N.A. interests at play • Issues of frontier land, trade with N.A., imperial power in North America • Process of American unification for war effort • Creation of American identity in opposition to British motherland

8. Powder Keg: The Ohio River Valley, 1747–1758 – competing powers, rivalries, coveted territory

9. The North American Colonies Before and After the French and Indian War

10. Native Americans in F&I War • Role and Impact? • Results? • Link to “500 Nations,” Part 2 (17:00 onwards)

11. Pontiac's Rebellion, 1763.The war began when the British abandoned the policy of the middle ground and cut off tribute to the western Indians. In their uprising, the Indians destroyed nine British forts and attacked another four before the war ended in a draw.

12. War for North America How did a war that united colonists and British against the French, result in anti-British sentiment in the colonies? French and Indian War (1756 – 1763) French & Indians vs. British & Colonials & some Indians

13. Paradoxes of British Victory • How could British victory be perceived as acting against colonial American interests? • Or, put another way, how did the F&I War result in the creation of an American identity (opposed to the British)? • How did the F&I War push American colonists towards Revolution so soon after their common victory against the French?

14. Proclamation Line of 1763Goals?Results?

15. Imperial Debt Reform • What were Britain, its new king (George III), and new Prime Minister Grenville trying to achieve with these acts?: • Overall Goals?: • Sugar Act (1764) • Currency Act (1764) • Quartering Act (1764)

16. Stamp Act Crisis, 1765 • Stamp was legal requirement on all legal documents – way to raise revenue for empire • Protest of “internal” interference (internal taxation of colonies) – asserted Rights of Freeborn Englishmen to be taxed only by Representatives • Mob violence – Sons of Liberty established (1765) to prevent stamp sales • Vandalism and intimidation of MA Lt. Governor Hutchinson and other loyalists • Stamp Act Congress – unified meeting of 9 colonies protested legality of Stamp Act

17. Stamp Act Crisis, 1765 • Grenville stepped down • Stamp Act repealed in 1766 • Colonial success, but at a cost • 1766 Declaratory Act: Parliament asserted it “had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes…to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.”

18. Townshend Act Crisis, 1767 • New attempts at raising revenue: • Revenue Act: • imposed import duty on British goods to colonies • salaries for judges and officers paid through crown (loyalty to crown, rather than colonies) • Resistance to Townshend Acts: • called for “nonimportation” of British goods (boycott) • Development of alternative political philosophies • Republicanism – fear of tyranny, effort to keep leaders and govt. on course, must protect liberties

19. Boston Massacre 1770 • British soldiers in Boston – symbol of British power, abuses of power • Mob actions – poor, servants, apprentices, sailors – confronted and taunted soldiers (competitors for jobs, housing, power) • Tensions rose over years • Huge public “cause” – Crowd Assembled • Soldiers opened fire, killed 5 colonists • Used by Paul Revere and colonists for propaganda - became US vs. THEM

20. Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770, in an engraving by Paul Revere. Copied from an earlier print, Revere’s widely circulated version shows—somewhat inaccurately—well-organized soldiers firing on helpless civilians; the names of the dead, including Crispus Attucks, appear below.

21. Last Imperial Crisis How and why did the TEA ACT (1773) incite American revolt? Samuel Adams

22. The Bostonian's Paying the Excise-Man The Bostonian’s Paying the Excise-Man or Tarring & Feathering. This print, published in London in 1774, satirizes American resistance to British tax measures. Four men representing a broad range of social classes pour tea down the throat of a tax collector while the Boston Tea Party takes place in the background.

23. Coercive Acts, 1774 • A.K.A. Intolerable Acts for Colonists • What were they? • Led to 1st Continental Congress • All colonies except Georgia • Committees of Correspondence formed

24. Republicanism • The colonists developed ideas of republicanism as they protested the British acts • Main ideas? How similar or different than previously held political beliefs?