1. During the 1760s, why did the
British government develop a new
colonial policy? Why were
colonists inclined to oppose the
new policy? How did the new
policy and the colonial reaction
to it lead to the Revolution? Why
did colonists divide into Patriots,
Loyalists, and moderates?

2. p. 103-105 The Great War for the Empire
p. 106-107 Burdens of Empire
p. 107-108 The British and the Tribes
p. 108-111 The Colonial Response
p. 111-119 Stirrings of Revolt
p. 126-127 Defining American War Aims
p. 127 The Decision for Independence

3. A. Vast empire to administer
requiring more revenue
• Size: 7 Years War and Treaty of 1763
• Problems: Pontiac and Indian
resistance B. Mercantilism
and Navigation
Acts versus the
French
I. Reasons
for a new
colonial
policy

4. Navigation Acts
leads to duties on
colonies
How was Sugar Act 1733:
mercantilism used How did the designed to create
to justify the Navigation Acts revenue following
French/Indian War;
existence of affect colonial only creates tension
England’s American
colonies?
trade?
Sugar Act 1764:
designed specifically
to STOP colonies from
trading with foreign
countries (not
revenue based)
(mainly France and
Spain

5. B. Country opposition thought
• 1. Power corrupts – continuous growth
of wealth and power at the center
• 2. Conspiracy at the center to take
A. Colonists had liked from the country
the way the imperial
system worked
• 1. It worked like federalism
• 2. Tradition of how the
system had worked – the
British unwritten constitution
II. Reasons
C. Colonial
for indebtedness
colonial
distrust

6. B. Revenue
• 1. External taxes:
Sugar Act,
Townshend Duties
• 2. Internal Tax:
Stamp Act
A. Regulation C. Law
• 1. Proclamation • 1. Admirality Law
Line • 2. Coercive Acts
• 2. Sugar Act • 3. Quebec Act
• 3. Tea Act
III.
British
policy

7. B. Action taken in
resistance
•1. Smuggling
•2. Boycotts (non-importation)
•3. Sons of Liberty
A. Resolutions and C. Pamphlets,
petitions propaganda
•1. Patrick Henry’s Virginia •John Dickinson, Letters from
Resolution vs. the Stamp Act a Farmer in Pennsylvania
•2. Stamp Act Congress
Resolutions
•3. Continental Congress,
Resolutions vs. the Coercive
Acts
IV.
Colonial
reaction
escalates

8. B.
Loyalists
C. Moderates
A.
Patriots
V. Division
among
the
colonists

9. B. Patriots chose
independence
A. George III’ s • Thomas Paine,
Common Sense
Declaration of • 2. Congress votes
Rebellion for independence
• 3. Declaration of
Independence
VI. Rebellion
or War of
Independence

10. During the 1760s, why did the
British government develop a new
colonial policy? Why were
colonists inclined to oppose the
new policy? How did the new
policy and the colonial reaction
to it lead to the Revolution? Why
did colonists divide into Patriots,
Loyalists, and moderates?

11. French and Indian War – a timeline
1754 – 1763
1754 – Fort Necessity (British) lost to French and Indian forces;
Col. George Washington’s first defeat in battle (attack on French Fort
Duquesne)
1755 – Gen. Edward Braddock, KIA trying to retake Fort Necessity
1755 – colonial forces defend against Indian attacks along the Ohio Valley;
1756 – France and England declare war on each other in Europe
1757 – William Pitt takes over war effort in colonies; forced service
(impressment); farmers supplies seized, British troops quartered in colonial
homes with no compensation; violent protest by colonials (NY)
1758 – Pitt relaxes many of the policies; return war effort to colonial control;
Enlistments increase dramatically; Fort Duquesne falls to British regulars
1759 – Battle of Quebec; Gen. James Wolfe finds an unknown trail to take
the “impregnable” fort
1760 – fighting ends; atrocities carried out against natives; French/Indians
retaliate
1763 – Treaty signed
(movie reference: Last of the Mohicans; parts of The Patriot)

12. 1763 Treaty of Paris signed
Colonists see newly acquired land as ripe
for the taking
Native Americans (in general) ie. Ottawa
tribe, led by Chief Pontiac, sees differently
Encroaching settlers attacked
To keep the peace Parliament passes the
Proclamation of 1763: designed to keep
settlers from moving west of the Appalachian
Mountains; it only angers the colonists.
Benefits to Proclamation (in Britain’s eyes):
1. London controls western movement, not
colonies
2. Slowers western settlement means slower
eastern population decline which means
larger population for workforce in coastal
industries
Native Americans not happy with
Proclamation - - really? Cannot imagine
why…
1768 a new agreement is reached because
London cannot keep colonists from
moving west, but this time they
promised the western boundary of the
colonies would not change…
(La La La, whatever…)

13.  The conflict/tension over the Navigation Acts and
various duties attracted more public attention than
any other 18th century affair
 (Anglo)American were accustomed to broad powers
of self-government
 Keys to self-government:
 Provincial assemblies
 Colonial right to give or withhold power to those assemblies
 Parliamentary actions such as overriding provincial
assemblies, raising taxes on the public, providing
salaries to royal officials in America were all attempts
(in the colonists eyes) to control colonial political power
 Home rule was not something new the colonists were trying to
obtain, rather is was something old and familiar which they
desired to keep!
 Resistance of British policies was a movement to conserve
liberties Americans believed they already possessed

14.  Officials in England had contempt for the colonies
 The believed the colonies did little to help themselves
financially in the war; a war that was fought to preserve
the colonies
 Not only were colonists unwilling to pay taxes to
England, they were unwilling to even tax themselves
 Pressure in England from landlords and merchants
about the ever rising taxes on already high rates
 They argued the colonies should be paying more in taxes
 Stationing of more troops in the colonies to prevent
indian attacks raise additional gov’t. spending
 England sees a system of taxation as the only
alternative to force the colonies to raise the revenue
paid to England

15. Established a line east of the
Appalachian Mountains as a
boundary in which no colonist
could cross
The Crown stated it was for the
colonist’s protection from
native American
The colonists felt as if the King
(George III) was trying to keep
them confined

16. •Assumed the throne in 1760 at age 22
•Changed the monarchy – active and
responsible
•Removed the Whig coalition (those who
managed the colonies since their
establishment)
• Replaced them with people he bribed
and gave patronage to
• Allowed him to gain control of
Parliament
•Psychological and intellectual limitations
• “bouts of insanity”
• Confined to the castle
• “painfully” immature
•Appointed George Greenville to Prime
Minister
• Does not share American point of view
(with William Pitt)
• Colonists should be “compelled” to obey
laws and pay a part of the cost of
defending the colonies
• Instantly began imposing a new system
of control on the colonies

17.  An amendment to the Sugar (and Molasses)
Act of 1733
 Lowered rate of tax on molasses
 Increased the number of goods that will be
taxed, including sugar
 Enforcement of this tax drastically reduced
the rum business, limited colonial trade
partners and reduced the amount of English
currency with which the colonies needed to
purchase English manufactured goods

18.  England had thought this act would be the least
controversial but rather it inflamed the revolutionary spirit
of “no taxation without representation”
 Act was not designed to raise money to pay the existing
debt from the war; was designed to keep a failing company
afloat (British East India Company)
 18 million pounds of unsold tea; cannot sell it in England
(no market demand)
 Parliament gave special exemption to the Company to
export the tea to the colonies and pay no navigation taxes
(today, we call those tax breaks for government sponsored
businesses)
 Allowed the Company to undersell American tea merchants
 The Company granted franchises to specific colonial
merchants to sell their tea which resulted in resentment
among businessmen

19.  England hoped that the act would gain
support as it lowered the price of tea
 The Act only increased resentment as the
colonists saw this as yet another way in
which parliament was using unconstitutional
means to control the colonies
 Resulted in the largest boycott of the
colonies; connected the colonies in a
commonly shared experience; women
become leaders of the boycott as they were
the largest consumers of tea in the colonies

20. In a typical tar-and-feathers
attack, the subject of a crowd's
anger was stripped to his waist.
Hot tar was either poured or
painted onto the person while
he was immobilized. Then the
victim either had feathers
thrown on him or was rolled
around on a pile of feathers so
that they stuck to the tar. Often
the victim was then paraded
around town on a cart or
wooden rail. The aim was to
inflict enough pain and
humiliation on a person to make
him either reform his behavior
or leave town. The practice was
never an official punishment in
the United States, but rather a
form of vigilante justice.

21.  Taxeslevied on all goods coming into (the
colonies)
 Sugar
 Molasses
 Foreign goods (glass, paper, paint, lead, tea)
 Although they (colonists) had no say in how
the tax revenue was spent, they generally
considered Parliament had the right to levy
this tax

22.  Taxeslevied on all good produced within (the
colonies)
 Newspapers
 Official documents (death notices, court papers)
 Other goods and services
 For the purpose of raising revenue
 Colonists
had no say in how this money (tax
revenue) was spent, as they had no
“representation” in Parliament
 This causes the thought that the right to tax the
colonies should rest with the colonies

23. Adistinct body of law which governs
maritime questions and offenses
 Also covers many commercial activities which
could be land based or wholly occurring on land
that are “maritime” in nature
 No trial by jury in these courts
 Givenjurisdiction (by Parliament) over cases
as they arose, as with the Stamp Act
 No colonial trial jury would find a colonist guilty
of violating the Stamp Act, therefore Parliament
changed the jurisdiction…

24.  Applied only against Massachusetts
 Center of resistance movement
 Resulted from the Boston Tea Party
1. closed the port of Boston (until East India
Tea was paid for)
2. Reduced power of self-government in the
colony
3. Allowed for royal officers to be tried in
other colonies or England when accused of
crimes
4. Quarter of English troops mandatory

25.  Parliament follows up with the Quebec Act:
 Objective was to provide a civil government for
French-Speaking Roman Catholic inhabitants of
Canada and the Illinois territory
 Granted political rights to Roman Catholics
 Recognized the legality of the Roman Catholic
church
 Long overdue toleration for this practice the colonies
 Worried colonists of an attempt to impose Anglican
rule over all religious sects
 Convinced some that a plot existed in London to
subject the colonies to the tyranny of the Pope

26.  “if this be treason, make the most of it”
Resolved:
1. Americans posfeff the same rightf as English,
efcpecially in matters of taxation by their own
representativef
2. Virginians should pay no taxef except those voted
on by the Virginia Asfembly
3. Anyone advocating the right of Parliament to tax
the colony is deemed an enemy to the colony
 House of Burgess votes down the most extreme
resolutions
 Gives the appearance that Virginia was more militant
than it actually was

27.  New York
 Delegates from nine colonies
 Petition the King
 Acceptance of colonial subordination to the King
 (but) claim taxation should be carried out only
through the colonial assemblies

28.  Acts based in MA. but menaced all colonies
 Congress settles on five decisions:
1. Rejected a plan for colonial union (similar to the
Albany Plan of Union)
2. Called for a repeal of all oppressive legislation on the
colonies since 1763 (but still recognized the right of
Parliament to rule the colonies)
3. Colonies should make military preparations against
possible British attack (in Boston)
4. Complete boycott of all British goods (hence the reason for
military preparedness!!)
5. Established a time and date for a second meeting
indicating they considered the Continental Congress
to be a continuous organization

29. A protest unlike any other in the colonies
 Involved large segments of the population
 Helped link the colonies in a common
experience
 Brought the colonies together which was vital in
the success of the (eventual) war
 Women were particularly important
 Largest consumers of tea (“is that a fat joke?”)
 Mercy Otis Warren – writer of dissident
literature/satirical plays

30.  Vigilante group
 largest group existed in Boston (Sam Adams)
 Encouraged/enforced boycotts and other
forms or resistance
 Daughters of Liberty
 Women’s form of male group
 “rather than freedom, we will part with our tea”

31.  Office holders in the English gov’t.
 Merchants (business tied to the imperial
system)
 Colonists who lived in isolation
 Cultural and ethnic minorities – new colonial
gov’t. might not provide sufficient
protections
 Colonists who feared social instability
 Colonists who hoped to gain favor by staying
loyal (in the event of an English win)

32.  Probably suffered the worst
 (rock - *moderates* - hard place)
 They did not pick a side and as a result were
persecuted by both Patriots and Loyalists

33.  Ordered all subjects of the crown as loyal
British citizens to use everything in their
power to suppress the rebellion and to give
knowledge of anyone involved in the
rebellion against the crown

34.  Wanted to expose the folly of the hope of
reconciliation with England
 Wanted to focus American anger away from
taxes and acts of Parliament and more
toward the entire English constitution
 Wanted Americans to blame the King not
Parliament or ministers
 It was simple “common sense” for Americans
to break from such a corrupt government
 “these are the times that try men’s souls”

35.  Continental Congress was moving slowly
toward a final break with England
 Entered into contracts with foreign countries
(violation of Navigation Acts)
 Opened up ports to ships of all foreign
countries (again, violation)
 Encouraged all colonies to establish
government bodies independent from the
British empire (most had already done this)
 Appointed a committee to draft a
declaration of independence

36.  1. What are Dickinson’s views on the relationship
between the colonies and Great Britain?
 2. Why did the colonists view the Stamp Act as
unconstitutional?
 3. What was the purpose of all acts passed by
Parliament (regarding the colonies) prior to the
Stamp Act?
 4. What is the overall issue with the Townsend
Duties?
 5. What will be the full (and intended) outcome
if the Townsend Duties are allowed to remain
unopposed?

37.  1. What is the objection given to Dickinson’s
letter #2?
 2. What is Dickinson’s reply to the “internal”
and “external” debate?
 3. What is the reason Dickinson gives for the
opposition to the Townsend Duties (as in the
Stamp Act)?

38.  1.
There is a message in Letter 6. This
message was for the colonies in 1770. That
message has truth in it for all the
generations since then. See if you can pick it
out…

39.  1. What is the overwhelming message in
Letter 7?
 2. Outline the steps Dickinson says are
necessary for liberty to be preserved.
(Letter 12)