Embedded Files
Important Take Away:
- To pay for the war the British taxed the Colonists (and their own citizens too!). Most people do not like taxes.
Key Words:
- Tyranny: the unjust use of government power. A ruler who uses power in this way is called a tyrant.
- Repeal: to take back, or to cancel, a law
- Boycott: a ban of participation or buying of goods
- Quartering: Providing food and housing for troops
Read the summaries for the various British actions.
I have summarized these for you. If you would like to read more please feel free to click on the links provided. You do not have to read the links.
While reading the summary - please take any notes that you believe are important.
At the end of each reading there are bolded questions for you to answer.
The end of the French and Indian War in 1763 was a cause for great celebration in the colonies, for it removed several worrisome obstacles and opened up a host of new opportunities for the colonists.
The French had effectively stopped the British settlers from expanding their land. In addition, the colonists believed the French had turned the "Indians" against them.
The first opportunity on the minds of colonists was the great western frontier that was now open with the French no longer owning the land.
The British royal proclamation of 1763 ended the hope of colonial expansion.
The proclamation closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. The King and his council presented the proclamation as a measure to calm the fears of the Indians, who felt that the colonists would drive them from their lands as they expanded westward.
Many in the colonies felt that the British actually wanted to keep them close to the Atlantic seaboard where they would be easier to control by the British.
{Looking back, with 20/20 hindsight, there is little doubt there was a large measure of truth in both of these positions.}
The proclamation also established or defined four new colonies.
1. Quebec, which was already well settled {Canada}
2 & 3. East Florida and West Florida
4. Grenada {an island}
Most of the proclamation is devoted to the subject of Indians and Indian lands. The Proclamation stated that all of the Indian peoples were thereafter under the protection of the King.
Relations between the Indians and the English colonials were so poor that few settlers would argue in public that the Indians had rights to any lands. Some colonists did not view the Indians as human.
In the proclamation the King sided with the Indians and provided them rights to the land to the west.
Also, the proclamation created British royal out posts along the boundary between colonists and Indians. Parliament understood that the colonists would not respect the boundary without some type of enforcement.
The Proclamation line extended from the Atlantic coast at Quebec to the newly established border of West Florida. Establishing and manning posts along the length of this boundary was a very costly undertaking.
The British ministry would argue that these outposts were for colonial defense, and as such should be paid for by the colonies.
From the American perspective this amounted to a tax on the colonies to pay for a matter of Imperial regulation that was opposed to the interests of the colonies.
***In your document, describe the financial situation for the British after the French and Indian War? Who did the British King side with the Indians or the colonists in regards to the western colonial land?
The Stamp Act was a tax put on the American colonies by the British in 1765. It said they had to pay a tax on all sorts of printed materials such as newspapers, magazines and legal documents. It was called the Stamp Act because the colonies were supposed to buy paper from Britain that had an official stamp on it that showed they had paid the tax.
The Stamp Act of 1765 was a tax to help the British pay for the French and Indian War. The British felt they were well justified in charging this tax because the colonies were receiving the benefit of the British troops and needed to help pay for the expense. The colonists did not feel the same.
The colonists felt that the British government had no right to tax them because there were not any representatives of the colonies in the British Parliament. The colonies had no say in how much the taxes should be or what they should pay for. They did not think this was fair. They called this "taxation without representation".
The colonies reacted in protest. They refused to pay the tax. The tax collectors were threatened or made to quit their jobs. They even burned the stamped paper in the streets. The colonies also boycotted British products and merchants.
***In your document, define and explain"taxation without representation"? Also, why would the taxing of paper goods such as newspapers be so important to the flow of information in the colonies?
Bonus question: should a citizen have to pay taxes for a governmental program or government service that the citizen does not use themselves?
British officers who had fought in the French and Indian War found it hard to persuade a place for quartering (housing) and food for their troops.
While many colonies had supplied the troops with provisions during wartime, many colonies did not want to continue to pay for the quartering of troops peacetime.
The Quartering Act of 1765 was disputed by the colonies. The colonies believed the act was illegal because the act seemed to violate the Bill of Rights of 1689, which forbid taxation without representation and the raising or keeping a standing army without the consent of Parliament.
The colonists also wondered why the British troops remained in North America after the French had been defeated.
The Quartering Act stated that Great Britain would house its soldiers in American barracks and public houses. And if the soldiers outnumbered colonial housing, they would be quartered in inns, alehouses, barns, other buildings, etc.
1,500 British troops arrived in New York City in 1766 and the New York Provincial Assembly refused to comply with the Quartering Act and refused to supply quarters or food for the troops; the British troops were forced to remain on their ships.
For failure to comply with the Quartering Act, Parliament suspended the Province of New York’s Governor and legislature in 1767 and 1769. In 1771, the New York Assembly allocated funds for the quartering of the British troops. All other colonies, with the exception of Pennsylvania, refused to comply with the Quartering Act; this act expired on March 24, 1767.
***In your document, hypothesize why you believe the British wanted to keep troops in the colonies after the French and Indian War?
Summary of the Townshend Act: A set of laws in 1767 named after the British Treasurer Charles Townshend. These laws placed taxes on numerous products such as glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea.
The colonists responded to the Townshend act by boycotting British Goods.
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers.
Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to increase the call for independence.
The presence of British troops in the city of Boston was increasingly unwelcome.
The riot began when about 50 citizens attacked a British sentinel. A British officer, Captain Thomas Preston, called in additional soldiers, and these too were attacked, so the soldiers fired into the mob, killing 3 on the spot (a black sailor named Crispus Attucks, ropemaker Samuel Gray, and a mariner named James Caldwell), and wounding 8 others, two of whom died later (Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr).
A town meeting was called demanding the removal of the British and the trial of Captain Preston and his men for murder.
At the trial, John Adams and Josiah Quincy II defended the British, leading to their acquittal and release. Samuel Quincy and Robert Treat Paine were the attorneys for the prosecution.
Later, two of the British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter. The Boston Massacre was a signal event leading to the Revolutionary War. It led directly to the Royal Governor evacuating the occupying army from the town of Boston.
It would soon bring the revolution to armed rebellion throughout the colonies.
***In your document, describe this political cartoon style engraving by Paul Revere. {Hint: Paul Revere was a colonist who wanted independence and exaggerated the truth in this engraving}
What happened next?
The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes.
The Act was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea.
This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The Townshend Duties were still in place, however, and the radical leaders in America found reason to believe that this act was a maneuver to buy popular support for the taxes already in force. The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants.
Colonists in Philadelphia and New York turned the tea ships back to Britain. In Charleston the cargo was left to rot on the docks. In Boston the Royal Governor was stubborn & held the ships in port, where the colonists would not allow them to unload. Cargoes of tea filled the harbor, and the British ship's crews were stalled in Boston looking for work and often finding trouble. This situation led to the Boston Tea Party.
The Boston Tea Party occurred on the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard.
***See Mr. Hull for the next step for this activity. You will be required to ask a question that you still have about the colonial period.
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