Chapter 7

The Road to Revolution

1754 - 1775

Section 1:

An American Way of Life Develops

  1. Colonial Society
  2. New View
  3. Lost ties with former homelands
  4. Influence of Great Britain lessened
  5. Social Classes
  6. Settlers were from different countries and different social classes
  7. Great Britain – social standing based on family and tradition
  8. Colonies – social standing based on wealth and occupation
  9. Classes
  10. Gentry
  11. Highest social class
  12. Included church officials, wealthy landowners and planters, and successful merchants
  13. Middle class – skilled artisans, shopkeepers, doctors and lawyers
  14. Lower class – poor farmers, free servants, unskilled laborers
  15. Lowest class – indentured servants and slaves
  16. Moving Up
  17. Social Mobility - Ability for a person to move from one social class to another
  18. Only occurred in colonies
  19. Great Britain – same social class for entire life
  20. Only slaves could not improve social standing
  1. The Great Awakening
  2. Change in Religion
  3. Settlers had various religions
  4. Religious freedom important to colonists
  5. 1700’s people drifting away from religion and towards attaining wealth and success
  6. 1730’s and 1740’s – Great Awakening
  7. Religious revival
  8. Instilled fear of God
  9. George Whitefield - Leading revivalist preacher from Great Britain
  10. Influence of the Great Awakening
  11. Free people stood side by side with the enslaved
  12. Believed message of God was for all people
  13. People drawn more closely together
  14. Enlightenment Ideas in America
  15. Enlightenment, or “Age of Reason” – movement towards science and reason as a guide to understand the world more clearly.
  16. John Locke and Natural Rights
  17. Locke believed the purpose of government was to protect people’s natural rights = life, liberty, and ownership of property
  18. Change government if rights not protected
  19. Ideas become basis of protest and revolt in the colonies
  20. Scientific Thinking
  21. Respect for science and a curiosity about the world
  22. Italy’s Galileo
  23. England’s Sir Isaac Newton
  24. Belief that the world could be better understood by observation and experimentation
  25. Science is taught at colleges – called ‘natural philosophy’
  26. Benjamin Franklin – helped develop American science
  27. Printer, writer, diplomat, inventor
  28. 1752 – flew kite in thunderstorm to prove lightning had an electrical charge
  29. Colonial Writers
  30. First focused on pioneer histories – written as useful information
  31. Bay Psalm Book – first book printed in the colonies
  32. Colonial poets
  33. Anne Dudley Bradsteet – Puritan and personal poetry. First American poetry to be published.
  34. Phillis Wheatley – African slave poet
  35. Newspapers and Political Writing
  36. Growth of newspapers increased political activity. Why?
  37. Benjamin Franklin – Poor Richard’s Almanac
  38. Calendar, forecast and advice
  39. Idea that anyone who worked hard could be successful
  40. Libraries and Book Collections
  41. Mid 1700’s colonies had libraries, booksellers, and book collectors
  42. Library Company of Philadelphia
  43. Started by Ben Franklin
  44. Allowed gentleman to read books, paying members could check out books
  45. Travel and Communication – What was travel like in early colonies?
  46. Roads become better, improves communication
  47. Better communication leads to easier spreading of ideas – ideas of a revolution

Section 2:

The French and Indian War

  1. European Claims in America
  1. Russia – Alaska
  2. Spain – Mexico (New Spain), Florida
  3. France – northeast Canada (New France), Central North America (Louisiana)
  4. England – central Canada, 13 English Colonies
  1. Trouble in the Ohio Valley
  1. Claimed by France and England
  2. Competition for fur trade
  3. English Colonists Move into Ohio
  4. British and French want to protect claims
  5. France – wanted it to connect lands
  6. British – wanted it for settlements
  1. Native Americans Take Sides
  2. British could offer more and better goods
  3. French offered them respect
  4. Iroquois League
  1. six nations
  2. sided with British
  3. controlled fur trade and all boat travel in their territory and Great Lakes
  1. First Steps Toward War (Seven Years’ War)
  2. Tensions
  3. Rivalry between French and British
  4. Tensions between Native Americans
  5. French Forts in the Ohio Valley
  6. Strengthened claims
  7. From Lake Erie to Ohio River
  8. Makes British furious – accuses French of trespassing
  9. George Washington talks to French, turned down
  10. The First Battle
  11. Washington sent to build a fort where Allegheny, Monogahela, and Ohio Rivers meet (Pittsburgh)
  12. French already building a fort there (Fort Duquesne)
  13. While marching in PA, they attack French scouting party near Great Meadows; kill 10 French
  14. Quickly build Fort Necessity
  15. Surrounded by French
  16. Forced to surrender and taken prisoner
  17. Later set free
  1. Attempts at Colonial Unity
  2. June 1754 – colonies meet with Iroquois League to gain support of Natives
  3. The Albany Plan
  4. Called for a council made up of delegates from each colony, with a leader appointed by the British King
  5. Would manage relations with the Native Americans
  6. Would tax colonists
  7. Was not approved by any of the 13 colonies
  8. Fighting the War
  9. General Edward Braddock
  10. Attacked Fort Duquesne in 1755
  11. Wanted to fight English style.
  12. Argued with George Washington
  13. 1,000 British killed from French in the woods
  14. William Pitt Takes Charge
  15. France and Britain declare war in 1756
  16. France doing well
  17. War being fought in Europe and India as well.
  18. Pitt believed war would be won or lost in America
  19. 1758 - several important British victories
  20. Battle of Quebec
  21. 1759- Pitt instructs General James Wolfe to capture Quebec, capital of New France
  22. Quebec resists several months
  23. Protected by steep cliffs
  24. Find path to get to Plains of Abraham
  25. Battle on the Plains of Abraham
  26. Marquis de Montcalm – French commander
  27. Wolfe defeats Montcalm’s troops
  28. Wolfe & Montcalm both died
  29. Marks end of French power in North America
  30. Fighting lasts until 1760 when Montreal almost captured.
  31. Treaty of Paris
  32. Marked official end to French and Indian War in 1763
  33. France gave Great Britain New France, Ohio Valley, and all French lands east of the Mississippi except New Orleans
  34. Spain, France’s ally, gave Great Britain Florida
  35. France gave Spain Louisiana and New Orleans

Section 3:

Taxes and Boycotts

  1. Introduction
A.Treaty of Paris doubled the size of Great Britain’s North American empire.
B.New territory was expensive to support &protect. Britain forced colonists to pay for those services - made them angry.
  1. Trouble on the Frontier
A.Ohio Valley
  1. Most settlers in Ohio valley had supported the French, now British ruled them.
  2. Ottawa leader, Pontiac, urged other Native Tribes to join against the British takeover.
  3. Pontiac’s Rebellion -May 1763, Natives attack Fort Detroit.
  4. When Pontiac discovered Treaty of Paris signed, he quit fighting.
B.The Proclamation of 1763
  1. Pontiac’s Rebellion forced British to close western lands to settlement.
  2. Proclamation of 1763 – did not allow colonists from settling west of Appalachian Mountains.
  3. Colonists unhappy with proclamation. Some tried to settle west.
  4. British stationed troops in frontier to stop settlement, which angered colonists more.
  1. Money Problems
A.British thought colonists should help pay for war because they were protected from the French.
B.Colonists thought British should pay because they fought the war to protect trade and that the parent country should always pay to protect their empire.
C.Prime Minister of Great Britain, George Grenville, passed the Sugar Act of 1764, putting a tax on foreign molasses and sugar.
D.Colonists refuse to pay the tax.
E.Quartering Act, passed in 1765, required colonists to pay for quartering British soldiers. Also made colonists angry.
  1. Stamp Act Controversy
A.Controversy
  1. Stamp Act, passed in 1765, taxed everyday items: newspapers, playing cards, and legal documents. Items werethen stamped to show the tax had been paid.
  2. Colonists upset by taxation without representation.
  3. Sons of Liberty, a protest group, forms. They took and burned piles of the stamps.
  4. Many colonists begin boycotting all British goods.
B.Stamp Act Congress
  1. October 1765, representatives from all the colonies met to write a protest. Called the Stamp Act Congress
  2. Carefully and respectfully worded and sent to King George III to outline what their rights were.
C.Repeal of the Stamp Act
  1. Grenville saw Act was pointless since no one was following it.
  2. March 1766 Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.
  3. Parliament passed Declaratory Act which stated that Parliament had the right to rule and tax the colonies.
  1. More Conflicts with Parliament
A.Townshend Acts – taxed paint, glass, lead, paper, and tea
B.Writs of assistance – blank search warrants
C.Boycott of British goods
  1. Merchants and planters sign the nonimportation agreements – agreed not to import any taxed items
  2. Daughters of Liberty – group of colonial women protesters
  3. Spun own fabric
  4. Wearing homespun fabric became a symbol of American resistance against tyranny

VI.Talk of Independence

A.Sam Adams – leader of the Sons of Liberty – kept public anger simmering

B.Boston Massacre

  1. March 5, 1770 – Boston youths insult and throw snowballs at a British guard.
  2. More soldiers arrive. British captain, Thomas Preston, tries to calm the crowd
  3. Confusion erupts, guns fired. Five people died – one was Crispus Attucks, an African American sailor.
  4. April 1770, Prime MinisterLord North, repealed Townshend Acts except for tax on tea.

VII.Conflicts Increase

A.After Boston massacre, tensions lessened for a while.

B.1772 – Sam Adams organizes Committees of Correspondence in the towns of Massachusetts to pass along news.

C. Trouble over tea

  1. Early 1773 – Tea Act passed. Allowed East India Company to sell tea directly to America without a tax.
  2. East India Company used its own ships and own sellers.
  3. This cut out some business for colonial sea captains and merchants

D. Boston Tea Party

  1. Fall of 1773 – as a tea ship sat in the harbor, Boston protestors disguised as Mohawks, dumped the tea into the harbor
  2. Organized by Patriot Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty
  3. Parliament is enraged

Section 4:

On the Brink of War

  1. Punishing the Colonies
  2. March of 1774 – Parliament passed series of laws called the Coercive Acts
  3. Closed the port of Boston until tea paid for
  4. British official accused of a crime were tried in English courts instead of American courts
  5. British troops could be quartered in any town
  6. Greatly reduced colony’s right of self-government
  7. Colonists Take Charge
  8. Coercive Acts made colonists want to fight back
  9. September 1774, delegates from all colonies, except Georgia, met to form the First Continental Congress
  10. First Continental Congress
  11. Suffolk Resolves – given by Paul Revere – called for removal of Coercive Acts, return of constitutional government, and an end to trade with Great Britain and West Indian colonies
  12. Approved forming a militia
  13. Continental Congress Takes a Stand
  14. Based final position on John Locke’s “life, liberty, and property” rights
  15. Statement declared that colonists would not give up these rights
  16. Wanted a peaceful resolution
  17. Moving Toward a Crisis
  18. Colonists Take Arms
  19. Colonists asked King George III to remove British troops from America, George III refused and saw colonies as disobedient children.
  20. Massachusetts militia drilled and Britain sent more troops to Boston area
  21. Minutemen – farmers and artisans in the militia that could be ready quickly
  22. Warning for the Minutemen
  23. Spring of 1775 – American spies hear General Gage was going to try to get their supply of guns and gunpowder stored in Concord. Gage was also ordered to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock
  24. April 18, 1775 – waited to find out how British were approaching.
  25. 1 light if by land
  26. 2 lights if by sea
  27. Hung in the spire of North Church in Boston
  28. Paul Revere and William Dawes sent to Lexington to tell them the British were coming
  29. Battles at Lexington and Concord
  30. April 19, 1775 – 700 British soldiers met about 70 minutemen in Lexington armed with muskets and pitchforks
  31. 8 colonists die and 10 are injured, British march towards Concord
  32. North Bridge, just outside Concord, 3 British and 2 minutemen die.
  33. British forced to turn back towards Boston – during retreat shot at by minutemen
  34. More than 3 times as many British casualties as American
  35. Second Continental Congress
  36. May 1775 – all 13 colonies met to appoint a military commander and raise an army
  37. George Washington chose to build and lead military
  38. Olive Branch Petition – sent to Britain in July 1775 – begged king to remove troops and stop the war
  39. George III declared the Americans to be rebels – leads to war…