Declaratory
Act of 1766
Most
missed this act passed by Parliament in conjunction with the repeal of the
Stamp Act
Parliament
asserted its “full power and authority to make laws to bind the colonies and
people of American…in all cases whatsoever.”
The
basic questions remained unanswered:
Did
the British Parliament have the right to make laws for the colonists and to tax
them when they had no elected representatives in Parliament?
Townshend
Act, 1767
Parliament
once again attempted to collect duties from the American colonies
Charles
Townshend,
a member of the House of Commons, lead Parliament
to pass this act which would once again collect “indirect” taxes
Parliament
hoped that this route would not cause the same issues as the Stamp Act
Townshend
Act levied import duties on articles of everyday use in America –
wine, tea, paper, glass, lead, and painters colors
The
act included Writs of Assistance
Part
of the money was to be used to pay colonial governors and thus prevent the
colonial assemblies from withholding a governor’s salary
Charles
Townshend
Parliament
Writs
of Assistance
In
order to put teeth into the law - they
legalized writs of assistance
Writs
of assistance were written statements giving government officials the legal
right to search a man’s ship, his business, or his home
Writs
allowed these officials to ransack the place with the hope of finding smuggled
goods
American
merchants had been arguing that the use of writs was illegal and an invasion of
their rights
as Englishmen
Opposition
to the Townshend Act
New
Yorkers refused to provide living quarters for British soldiers who enforced
the law – Parliament answered by dissolving the New York Assembly – depriving
New Yorkers of their rights to representative government
Angry
pamphlets, resolutions, and petitions were drafted, published and sent to
Parliament and the king
Massachusetts
legislature drafted a letter to the other colonies, urging them to unite for
resistance
Assemblies
of Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia endorsed the letter – again Parliament
dissolved the legislatures of these colonies
Resolutions
of the Virginia House of Burgesses
Introductory
statement by George Washington in which he referred to “our lordly masters in
Great Britain”
Claimed,
once again, only colonial legislatures had the right to levy taxes on the
colonists
These
resolutions summed up the entire colonial answer to the Townshend Act and the
Writs of Assistance
Direct
Action and Violence
Nonimportation
Agreements were signed again – they had worked with the Stamp Act
Mobs
smashed up revenue cutters (armed ships used to enforce custom laws and to
arrest smugglers), attacked British customs officials, tar and feathered anyone
who dared to inform on smugglers
Bostonians
taunted the soldiers by calling them “lobsters”, “redcoats”, and “bloody backs”
Now
and then patrols were attacked with snow balls containing rocks
Tensions
built, and then an incident finally occurred
The
Boston Massacre – March 5, 1770
a mob
started to gather and taunt a sentry at the Boston Custom House, then they
started throwing rocks and sticks
Captain
Thomas
Preston came to the sentry’s rescue with 8 British soldiers
Now the
mob had a small unit of British to yell at, the crowd grew as they called the
British all kinds of names and started throwing snowballs with rocks in them,
sticks, stones from the street
The crowd
pushed in; the soldiers panicked and fired into the crowd
Propaganda
Five Americans
died and seven were wounded
Sam Adams
and the Sons of Liberty used this as propaganda to advance their cause of
separation from England
Sam Adams
called it the “Boston Massacre” and Paul Revere engraved a picture of the event
so it could be reproduced numerous times and sent to all the colonies
Every
individual is entitled to a fair trial
The soldiers
were tried and John Adams, a patriot, took the case to represent them
Adams
argued
that the soldiers had only defended themselves against an angry mob
The jury
found six of the soldiers not guilty; two were found guilty of manslaughter and
were branded on their thumbs
Repeal
1770
– Lord Frederick North became PM, he urged Parliament to repeal the Townshend
Act
Lord
North pointed out that the nonimportation agreements were once again ruining
British merchants
Parliament
repealed the Townshend Act and allowed the Quartering Act to expire; however,
the tax on tea remained
Calm
Before the Storm
1771 –
1773 was a period of relative peace in the colonies and between the colonies
and Great Britain
Trade
reached
its highest peak at about L4 milli0n per year – all appeared to be going well
1772 –
Massachusetts Assembly established a Committee of Correspondence to discover
the early movements of Parliament and then to spread that information to all
other colonies. Also a way for the
colonies to follow the same tactics in opposing British policy that was deemed
as “against” the colonies and to spread propaganda
These
Committees
of Correspondence became the beginning of the American Union
…and
then the calm was broken….
Tea
Act of 1773
Tea Act
of 1773 – gave a monopoly in the tea trade to the East India Company – thus
making them the only company eligible to sell tea in the Colonies
The
East India Company only had 17 million pounds of unsold tea
The
tea could only be sold to British merchants – who would sale the tea cheaper
than it had been before
Protests
broke
out, especially in the Boston area as the Sons of Liberty, a small, liberal
group of men aggravated the situation
December,
1773 – The Boston Tea Party staged by the Sons of Liberty destroyed
342 chests of tea, which brought condemnation from Parliament and King
Boston Tea Party courtesy of the Sons of
Liberty
Why
Protest????
By
now many colonists were opposed any taxes imposed by Parliament
Granted
a monopoly to the East India Company
If a
monopoly was granted to one British Company, was it not reasonable to expect
that other monopolies would soon be granted to other British companies????????
Intolerable
Acts of 1774
Parliament,
by overwhelming majority, passed four measures designed to discourage further
violence and to strengthen the power of British officials over the colonists
Boston
Port
Bill or Coercive Acts 1774 – stated that Boston Port, the busiest in the
colonies, would be closed from all traffic entering or leaving the Port until
the tea that was destroyed was paid for
Revoked
the Massachusetts Charter of 1691 and forbade the Massachusetts colonist from
holding town meetings
New
Quartering Act – required colonist to provide food and housing for British
soldiers sent to American to enforce the laws
British
officials in Massachusetts charged with crimes committed while enforcing
British laws could have their cased tried, not in that colony, but in England
Quebec
Act of 1774
Enlarged
the province of Quebec – southern boundary of Canada would be the Ohio River
and the western boundary would be the Mississippi River
French
laws would continue and French Canadians who ere Roman Catholics were ranted
religious freedom
Colonists
were angered and viewed the Quebec Act as an attempt to punish them by
destroying the claims of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia to the
western lands
Map
after the Quebec Act
Reaction
to the Intolerable Acts
It
became clear that Great Britain intended to enforce the Intolerable Acts
General
Gage, commander of British forces in North America, was named governor of
Massachusetts and sent reinforcements to uphold laws with physical force
George
III declared that, “The New England governments are in a state of
rebellion. Blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this
country or independent.”
“Give
me Liberty or give me Death”
The
Virginia Convention met in Richmond at St. John’s Church to discuss the
blockading of Boston Harbor
Patrick
Henry presented a resolution to arm the Virginia Militia – this could be seen
as treason
Members
spoke against such a move
Henry
decided he would have to defend his resolution with a speech – his most famous
one that ended with the historical phrase
Virginia
Convention voted 60 to 61
Give
me Liberty, or Give me Death!
First
Continental Congress
Peyton
Randolph
of Williamsburg, VA chosen president
Convened
in
Philadelphia – September – October 1774
Wanted
to
make a clear statement of colonial rights
Wanted
to
place economic pressure on Parliament
Wanted
to
develop a stronger colonial union with the term “United Colonies”
Drew up a
Declaration of Rights and Grievances
Petitioned
the
King for his support
Adopted
the
Continental Association which was a complete non-importation, non-exportation,
non-consumption agreement; trade between England and her colonies dropped 97%
within a year
Agrees
to
give a year for the Crown to make changes before they were scheduled to meet again
in the spring of 1775
Peyton
Randolph of Williamsburg
Some believe that had Peyton Randolph
lived, he would have been the first president of the United States instead of
George Washington
Response
from both sides
Parliament
refused to repeal the Intolerable Acts until the colonists paid for the tea
that had been destroyed
Colonial
leaders refused to pay for anything until Great Britain repealed the
Intolerable Acts
Few
were ready for independence, but they viewed their actions as preserving their rights as Englishmen
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