Liberty Brew Ladder

♦ British Actions lead to . . .

♦ Colonial Response!!!

Writs of Assistance

♦ Legal Document which allowed British naval officers to inspect colonial ship (to check for smuggled goods). The British did not need to have any reason at all to search.

♦ Response: They said Writs violated their rights to privacy as British citizens

Proclamation of 1763

♦ British barred the settlement of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains

Colonial Response:♦ Anger after just having fought the war♦ Prevented some from moving west, others

moved West anyway

Sugar Act, 1764

♦ Tax on molasses and sugar (from Triangular Trade)

♦ British actually lowered the tax, but it was enforced for the first time.

♦ Smugglers were put on trial without juries (a group of their peers-single person decided)

♦ Colonial Reaction:– Taxation without representation is wrong!– Trial without juries is wrong! –Against their Brit.

Rights

Stamp Act, 1765

♦ Required revenue stamps to be put on all publications and legal documents (newspapers, wills, marriage papers, etc

Colonial Response♦ Organized Stamp Act Congress:fought the

tax, Sons of liberty: they boycotted British goods

Declaratory Act, 1766

♦ Claimed the British could make laws and raise taxes whenever they wanted

♦ Reaction: Not much. Stamp Act was just repealed(overturned), so they didn’t notice this act.

Quartering Act, 1765

♦ Required the colonist to quarter (only feed) British troops in America.

♦ Reaction: New Yorkers refused, Bostonians grew more upset

Townshend Act, 1767

♦ Tax on tea, glass, lead, paper, and silk

♦ Allowed writs of assistance

♦ Reaction: Colonists signed non-importation agreements-stop importing goods from Eng. that were taxed by Townshend Acts.

Boston Massacre, 1770

♦ March 5, 1770♦ Snowballs and rocks thrown at British

soldiers♦ Unknown person shouted “Fire”♦ 5 colonists were killed♦ Crispus Attucks, former slave, first to die

for liberty

Boston Massacre cont’d

♦ Sam Adams publicizes it with propaganda (using the press to prove or exaggerate a point of view)-calls it a massacre of innocent victims-was actually fault on both sides

♦ Paul Revere prints an engraving showing unarmed men and women being fired upon (and even a little puppy dog )

♦ John Adams, a lawyer, defends the British troopsSaying the most imp. idea was for the colonists to

uphold the rule of law and avoid mob rule.

Reaction to Boston Massacre

♦ Colonists Propaganda♦ British respond by repealing the most of the

Townshend Acts, but left the tax on tea.

Tea Act, 1773

♦ Removed taxes paid by the British East India Company (had 15 million pounds of extra tea)

♦ Let BEIC sell directly to colonist-cut out the colonial merchant middleman-colonial business lost huge money, even though the tea was actually cheaper

Colonial Response: Boston Tea Party

♦ December 16, 1773: 60 members of the Sons of Liberty dressed up as Mohawk Native Americans and threw 342 chests of tea overboard on three different ships-a social, economic and political act

Intolerable Acts, 1774

♦ Britain reacts to the Boston Tea Party:

• Closes the port of Boston

• Town meetings could only be held once a year

• British officials committing crimes in the colonies would be tried in Great Britain, where they would find a more friendly environment

• Stronger Quartering Act-now had to house soldiers as well as feed them

First Continental Congress

Continental Congress, 1774

♦ Responded to Intolerable Acts by:– Forming an association to boycott British trade– Declaring Intolerable Acts unconstitutional– Claimed their liberties as Englishmen had been

violated– Urged each colony to form a militia (an army of

citizens)

To be continued . . .