american revolution note outline

7/27/2019 American Revolution Note Outline

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NOTES AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1760 1776http://historyscoop.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/notes-%e2%80%93-american-revolution

1760: End of salutary neglect when George III demands enforcement of Navigation

Acts. In particular, the authorization for customs officials to use writs of

assistance to force local officials to cooperate in identifying contraband andarresting violators of the Navigation Acts. Writs of assistance also gave royal

officials the rights to search homes or warehouses without a warrant.

1763: The end of the French and Indian War, and England has crushing debt.

Colonies need to pay at least for their own defense, in the eyes of George III. He

decided to make the Navigation Acts into taxation laws, which changes them in

the eyes of the coloniststhey did not dispute the right of the crown to regulate

trade, only to tax without representation. Not all in George IIIs cabinet agreed with

the new taxes; in fact, William Pitt was forced out of the cabinet by George III due

to his opposition to these taxes.

Also this year, Pontiacs Rebellion breaks out along the western border. Detroit

and other western outposts newly surrendered to the British are attacked by

Ottawa War Chief Pontiac and other tribes, including the Seneca, Delaware, and

other Iroquois tribes. British commander Gen. Jeffrey Amherst orders no prisoners

to be taken. Violent and brutal warfare ensues. When news of the rebellion reaches

England, Amhersts policy is overturned, and the Proclamation of 1763 is issued

forbidding white settlement beyond the Appalachians as a temporary measure to

allow the Indians to cool off. The British initiate a policy of negotiating treaties with

tribes to define white settlementthe beginning of the treaty policy which would

endure in America until the 1870s. Sir William Johnson of New York, married to anIndian woman, is sent to negotiate with the members of Pontiacs Rebellion, and

brings peace in 1766. He also begins to negotiate for opening of portions of the

Trans-Appalachian area to white settlement. Most wealthy people supported this

method of opening up new lands, but the poor continued to squat on Indian lands

illegally, provoking Indian counter-attacks. Pacifying the Indians with trade goods

cost England moneymoney that George felt the colonists should pay. Pontiacs

Rebellion further encouraged Georges efforts to force the colonists to pay their

share.

1764: The Sugar Act replaces the Molasses Act of 1733, which forbade imports of

molasses from the French or Dutch West Indies. The Sugar Act allows the purchaseof foreign molasses, but taxes these purchases. The Sugar Act also requires that

cases in which the act was violated were to be tried inVice-Admiralty courts,

which did not use juries. Thus the Sugar Act embodied threats to two cherished

rights guaranteed in the Magna Carta. In response, a Boston town meeting

proposes in May that the colonies unite behind a Non-Importation Agreement, or

boycott, of several British goods. Several colonies join this boycott.


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1765: The Stamp Act is passed to help pay for British soldiers stationed in the

colonies. Once again, colonists feel they are taxed without representation, and Vice-

Admiralty courts are to judge violations, jeopardizing the right to trial by jury.

Samuel Adams organizes the Sons of Liberty in response. Originally called the

Loyal Nine, their organization spreads from Boston to other cities. Their missionwas to intimidate all Stamp agents to resign, making it impossible to collect the tax.

All the agents they contact do resign. Tar and feathers awaits those who do not

cooperate. Patrick Henry of Virginia passes seven resolutions called theVirginia

Resolves, one of which proclaims that only the Virginia legislature has the right to

tax Virginians. Henry says of his resolutions, If this be treason, make the most of

it.

Parliament also passes the Mutiny Act, which has a provision allowing for the

lodging of troops in private homes. When the colonists try to evade the act by

pointing out it did not specifically apply to the colonies, Parliament passes the

Quartering Act, which backs down on the provision placing troops in privateresidences but instead requires colonial authorities to furnish housing and supplies

to British troops. Several colonial legislatures refuse to appropriate funds for this

Act. In response to these challenges, James Otis calls for the convention of the

Stamp Act Congress, which passes a Declaration of Rights and Grievances.

These resolutions attack to concept of taxation without representation and denial of

the right to trial by jury. When the resolutions arrive in Parliament, William Pitt

and others are sympathetic, and move to repeal the Stamp Act before it takes effect.

It didnt hurt that the Non-Importation Agreement had slashed trade from the

colonies by 25%. Prime Minister George Grenville responded to this talk by

suggesting that British troops enforce the Stamp Act, prompting Benjamin Franklin(who was in London as an agent representing Pennsylvanias business interests) to

step in and argue the colonies case to Parliament. In March, 1766, the Stamp Act is

repealed, but Parliament passes the Declaratory Act to save face and retain

Parliaments right to make any laws it wishes in regard to the colonies. Although

the Sons of Liberty officially disbands after the repeal, their network remains

active, sharing information and remaining politically active throughout the

revolutionary period.

1766:Charles Townshend becomes the chancellor of the exchequer (like treasury

secretary). When Prime Minister William Pitt has a breakdown, Townshend takes

charge and forces through the Townshend Acts. These include:

The Townshend Revenue Act, which imposed duties on lead, glass, paint, tea,

and paper imported into the colonies, with the money to be used to pay for the

salaries of royal officials and for military expenses (making royal officials

independent of colonial legislatures for their pay);

An act creating a new system of customs commissioners, who were

notoriously corrupt and received 1/3 of the money collected;


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An act suspending the New York Assembly in punishment for its refusal to

allocate money required by the Quartering Act.

The colonists are angered, and respond by reviving the nonimportation agreement.

Having been effective once, they work again, and all the Townshend duties except

those on tea are repealed in April of 1770. The tea tax is retained because George

III believes there must always be one tax to establish the precedent for the rightof Parliament to tax the colonies.

1768: The Massachusetts General Court issues the Massachusetts Circular

Letter to urge other colonies to resist the Townshend Acts. The Circular letter

decries the Acts as taxation without representation, insists that colonial governors

and judges must not be independent of colonial legislatures, and insists that

Americans can never be represented in Parliament. Due to the Letters demand for

further resistance to British policy, Massachusetts royal governor closes down the

General Court on grounds of sedition. But New Jersey, New Hampshire, Virginia

and Connecticut announce support of the principles in the letter.

Another set of letters which were widely published throughout the colonies and

Britain which protested taxation without representation were the Letters from a

Farmer in Pennsylvania to Inhabitants of the British Colonies by John Dickinson.

Violence also was a response to British oppression. On the North Carolina frontier,

a loosely organized group called the Regulators arose to protest their lack of

representation in the colonial assembly and to protest corruption of royal officials.

The Regulators, armed and dangerous, engage in a few skirmishes with colonial

officials and British troops, but usually back down in the face of organized

resistance, especially since they lack strong leadership. The North Carolinaassembly passes the Bloody Act in 1771 in response to the horsewhipping of a man

they claimed to be an agent of the eastern Carolina aristocrats. The Bloody Act

declares the Regulators to be traitors subject to execution. Finally, Governor

William Tryon leads a force of 1000 troops against an encampment of 2000

Regulators, but the Regulators withdraw after an hours fighting with thirteen of

their leaders captured. One is executed the next day, six more are executed a month

later, and the last six are forced to swear loyalty to the royal government, along

with 6500 other settlers in the region of the battle. New Yorkers also rioted in 1769

over the dissolution of their assembly. In Boston in May of 1768, the seizure of John

Hancocks ship Liberty provoked a riot which resulted in the beating of the customs

official who ordered the seizure, his son, and another customs agent.

1770: The Boston Massacre results in five colonists killed. 7 British soldiers

were indicted on charges of murder. John Adams and Josiah Quincy defend the

soldiers, arguing self-defense. Four were acquitted (by a jury of Bostonians!) and

two were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. They both were discharged

and branded on the thumb.


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1772: The Royal Navy sends a ship named the Gaspee to hunt down smugglers

hiding in Narragansett Bay, near Rhode Island. In response, the governor of Rhode

Island threatens to arrest the commanding officer of the Gaspee, Lt. William

Dudingston. When the Gaspee runs aground on a sandbar, the local sheriff and a

posse row out to the ship, order Dudington to surrender, and board the ship when

he refuses. When Dudington points his sword at one of the invaders he is shot in themidsection, although not fatally. He and his men are forced from the ship and it is

set aflame. Other colonists are excited about this blow to Britain attempt to enforce

its taxes. When British officials attempt to arrest the boarding party and send them

to London to be tried as pirates, though, Sam Adams revives the Sons of Liberty as

a Committee of Correspondence to coordinate action. The Crown backs down,

claiming lack of evidence, but the damage is done.

1773: The Tea Act aims to help the British East India Company by lowering the

cost of its teaup until this point, the colonists had avoided paying the taxes on

British tea by buying smuggled Dutch tea. The Act forgave part of the taxes the

East India Company paid, enabling it to lower costs. It also allowed the Company to

sell the tea directly to American businessmen and cut out the British middlemen.

The colonists, however, view the act as an attempt to get Americans to accept the

tax on tea. Therefore, the Sons of Liberty (aka Committees of Correspondence)

launch a program to intimidate the American merchants from buying the tea. East

India Company ships are turned back at the harbor entrance, or are prevented from

unloading. Three of these ships are the victims of the Boston Tea Party, which

destroyed $90,000 of tea.

In response, Parliament passes the Coercive Acts (aka Intolerable Acts or

Repressive Acts) which included the closure of the Port of Boston, limitations onMassachusetts colonial government, colonial courts, and the right to have town

meetings, and an extension of the Quartering Act designed to place troops in Boston

permanently.

General Thomas Gage is appointed royal governor of Massachusetts as well as

remaining commander in chief of British troops in North America. He immediately

implements the Port Act. He also attempts to disperse the General Assembly, which

then calls for a Continental Congress to be called. The Port Act results in the

unification of the other colonies in sending food to Bostoneven Quebec sent grain.

1774: In the midst of this turmoil, the Quebec Act is passed, which restores the oldborders of the province into the Ohio valley. It requires that French be the official

language, French law be retained, and the Catholic Church be officially recognized.

The First Continental Congress is convened with 56 delegates from all the

colonies but Georgia. It denounces the intolerable Acts, declares 13 different acts of

Parliament unconstitutional, sends protests to the king and addresses to the people


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of Great Britain, and forms the Association to organize a new boycott on British

goods.

The royal governor of Virginia dissolves the House of Burgesses. The lawmakers

meet in a tavern (some say a church) instead. It is there that Henry gives his

famous speech on liberty on March 23, 1775.

1775: King George III and Parliament propose the Plan of Reconciliation, which

proposed to not tax the colonies in return for the colonial assemblies voluntarily

paying for part of colonial defense. They also pass the Fishery Act, banning New

England from the waters off Newfoundland. When Massachusetts calls on the

Provincial Congress to begin arming the colony, Gage imposes martial law and

orders the arrest of Sam Adams and John Hancock. Paul Revere rides to tell them

to escape. He also alerts the colonists that the British are moving toward Lexington

and Concord to capture the stash of weapons there. The British marched to

Concord (One if by land,) and rowed whaleboats to Lexington (Two if by

sea.). In Lexington, the British drove the colonists off, but at Concord, the colonistscarried the day. The first shots had been fired.

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