CH 7 Part 2 Notes
The Seditious Committees of Correspondence
The Townshend Acts had failed to produce revenue…though they do produce near rebellion… net proceeds for the tax in one year, 295 pounds, did not come close to paying the expenses, jus for military, 170,00 pounds, and the non-importation (boycott), although not as effective as previously, was also hammering the British economy…
King George III and Lord North, now in power (goodbye Charlie J ), was attempting to assert his POWER.. and due to the facts presented by the failure of the Townshend Acts decided to repeal the Townshend Duties…BUT KEPT THE TAX ON THE TEA as a point of principal (that Parliament & Monarchy was in control)…
Events in the colonies continue to cause discontent…The Navigation Acts enforcement effort was increased…and rebellion was further kindled by SAMUEL ADAMS- ever sensitive to infractions of Colonial Rights (Radical Whigism). S. Adams organizes in Boston, Massachusetts a COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE, 1772…80 towns copied his work in Mass. and other Colonies (Va. in 1773 for example) within a short time EVERY COLONY HAD ESTABLISHED THEIR OWN COMMITTEE, most within its legislatures.
PURPOSE: to spread the spirit of resistance by interchanging letters and keep alive opposition to British Policy. This allows the exchange of ideas and information with all colonies…THIS GROUP EVOLVES INTO THE FIRST 1ST AMERICAN CONGRESSES.
Tea Parties at Boston and Elsewhere
1773 state of the conflict… (text) revolution not inevitable…non-importation weakening…colonists were paying the tax on tea (cheaper than smuggled tea)
HOWEVER…Things change….
The London Gov’t gives the British East India Company a monopoly of the Tea Trade in America….(the co. was about to go bankrupt and the Br. Gov. would lose lots of $)
The Tea would be even cheaper… BUT… the Colonists responded to the Monopoly as a TRICK… (radical whigism) to pay the TAX on tea…(were they not already paying???) Americans began to respond… and saw this as a violation in principle…
British Colonial Officials decided to put the hammer down and ENFORCE the TAX… regardless of the consequences (if they had only known the results…)
Colonists rise up…In BOSTON, Philly, NYC, Annapolis, Charleston, and throughout the colonies PROTEST BECOMES HEATED… MASS DEMONSTRATIONS FORCE MANY SHIPS TO RETURN TO ENGLAND…SOME CARGOES ARE BURNED IN THE PORTS….”Liberty and Independence or DEATH,”….NOT ONE CHEST OF TEA EVER IS SOLD (except to support the Patriot cause in an auction in Charleston J )
BOSTON BECOMES A SCENE OF VIOLENCE….Thomas Hutchinson, Gov. of Mass., whose house was destroyed by the MOB protesting the Stamp Act earlier, was determined not to let the LAW be mocked… he orders the TEA UNLOADED…and things got worse when a private letter written to England was published which included this statement, “ an abridgement of…English Liberties…is necessary for the preservation of Law and Order in the Colonies,”…(confirming a dark conspiracy to deny the colonists of their cherished rights –Radical Whigism)
Boston Colonists react on December 16, 1773 – feeling provoked by the above mentioned actions of the British (Hutchinson) a group of Bostonians, dressed as Indians, boarded the ships carrying the tea and smashed 347 chests of tea and dumped the contents….
Reactions varied…however, BOSTON WAS IN TROUBLE…
British Reaction: WHIP THE UPSTART COLONISTS INTO SHAPE…
PARLIAMENT PASSES THE INTOLERABLE/COERCIVE ACT(s) 1774.
Br. Parliament reacts swiftly… and these measures…BREW A REVOLUTION…
A series of Acts…(detailed on your project) designed to punish Boston in particular…and Massachusetts… most drastic was the Boston Port Act…which closes the harbor to trade until damages are paid and order could be ensured. The other acts (mentioned in the project) swept away cherished rights…restrictions were also placed on Town Meetings…AND Br. Officials who KILL COLONISTS would be tried in ENGLAND ??? PARLIAMENT ALSO PASSES THE HATED QUEBEC ACT 1774…this act was passed to Administer Quebec…it guaranteed the French residents their ability to worship as Catholics, permitted to retain their own customs and institutions, and also EXTENDED the boundary ( see map p. 134) enlarging it considerably…all the way to the Ohio River.
Colonists Reaction: (Quebec act)
The Quebec act was a concern due to the extension of Catholicism, French Autocratic Gov’t, and taking the land away from settlement in the Ohio Area (an area colonists saw as a place to expand [remember the 500,000 acre claim of the Virginians earlier] …They saw this a threat to their liberties…
The Continental Congress and Bloodshed
Colonists Reaction to the Intolerable/Coercive Acts:
-Flags flown at half-mast throughout the colonies on the day the Boston Port Act goes into effect, symbolizing colony wide support for Boston… food is sent from other colonies to help feed the citizens of Boston…
- MOST SIGNIFICANT RESPONSE- 1st Continental Congress is summoned in 1774. Meeting in Philly. Purpose: to consider ways of addressing their grievances… 12 colonies, except Ga., met for 7 weeks, a convention not a congress (as the 2nd CC will become) GW, S. Adams, Patrick Henry, among many famous founders are present…John Adams leads… and is able to defeat the (GALLOWAY PLAN…ALSO SEE JOHN DICKINSON’S INFLUENCE – INTERNET) which is more moderate…
The 1st congress draws up a Declaration of Rights, and appeals to the King….
***MOST SIGNIFICANT ACTION OF THE 1ST CC WAS THE FORMATION OF “THE ASSOCIATION,” which calls for a COMPLETE BOYCOTT OF ALL BRITISH GOOD: NONIMPORTATION, NONEXPORTATION, AND NONCONSUMPTION….
They do not call for Independence***** They sought only to remove the offensive legislation and return to days with no taxation from Britain (an end to the NCP)…if things were resolved, good, if not they were to meet again in May of 1775…
British Reaction to the 1st CC:
Parliament rejects the petitions for repeal of Intolerable acts… a CLASH SEEMED IMMINENT…
Boston: April 1775, the Br. Commander, Gen. Gage, decides to send troops to Lexington and Concord nearby to seize stores of colonial gunpowder and also to capture Sam Adams and John Hancock.
Battles: at Lexington the “shot heard round the World” occurs when colonial “Minute Men,” refuse an order from the British Army to disband and shots were fired (no one knows who or which side fired first) killing 8 Americans and wound several more… the British then move to Concord…however…many more colonists had gathered due to the actions at Lexington and were more prepared…The Colonists fighting from behind stone walls, etc.. (Guerilla/Indian style) proved tough…forced to Retreat all the way back to Boston…where they are attacked consistently and ultimately return with 300 causalties/70 Killed.
WAR HAS BEGUN
IMPERIAL (BRITISH) STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS
STRENGTHS
7.5 MILLION ENGLISH TO 2.5 AMERICANS
MONETARY WEALTH AND NAVAL STRENGTH
PROFESSIONAL ARMY
MERCANARIES HIRED (HESSIANS)
50,000 AMERICAN LOYALISTS
MANY NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES
LORD DUNMORE’S PROCLAMATION (story p 138) - Gov. of Va. promises FREEDOM for any enslaved Black in Va. who joined the British Army…thousands eventually flee slavery…at least 14,000 are free at war’s end and leave when the British evacuate their troops and loyalists from NYC.
WEAKNESS
IRELAND A DISTRACTION
FRANCE
GOV’T CONFUSED AND INEPT
Br. Citizens did not support completely(especially in the Whig party)
FIGHTING SO FAR AWAY FROM HOME- caused various troubles
Br. Army treated their soldiers harshly
Provisions scarce
Britain had to CONQUER the entire America..which was enormous…America had no central city that if captured would end the war… somewhat amoeba like…
American Pluses and Minuses
Positives
Americans could trade space for time…
Outstanding Leadership
European volunteer officers (like Von Steuben and Lafayette)
Could Fight Defensively at HOME
Food? Also a shortage… why?
Moral Advantage
Negatives – A Thin line of Heroes
-Badly organized for war
-Lacked unity (especially early on)
-The CC was not initially very useful (does not adopt its 1st written constitution, The Articles of Confederation until very late in the war, 1781)
-Jealousy among States and Sections of States
-Economic Difficulties (paying for war led – should we tax, print paper $ [the continental dollar becomes worthless], individual states print their own money, prices skyrocket-inflation-families hard hit-husbands at war –huge burdens on mothers at home for many years, and debtors used this “worthless” $ to pay back debts.
-Military supplies almost non-existent..(France at first secretly helps***) only 1in 12 reported with a gun
-Shortages constantly plagued the Patriots…food? Manufactured goods (mercantilism) uniforms…
-Militia often numerous but UNRELIABLE -untrained -often disappeared- only a few thousand “regulars” (7-8,000) eventually trained by Von Steuben and gained valuable experience during the war…
-Despite Lord Dunmore’s proclamation (see above)…Blacks do fight for the colonials.( Does the USA promise anything to slaves? Internet).some states bar them from service, HOWEVER, 5,000 ENLIST AND SERVE IN AN OFTEN INTEGRATED ARMY (the next time America fields an integrated Army is in Korea in the 1950’s) (the navy becomes integrated and continues this tradition, albeit with much discrimination continuously)
Speculators and Profiteers sell to both sides… “Treasonous Trade”
GW (commander of all Armies) could only put 20,000 troops together as its largest force..despite bounties of land and $ for soldiers…
ONLY A SELECT MINORITY OF THE AMERICAN COLONISTS ATTACHED THEMSELVES TO THE CAUSE OF INDEPENDENCE WITH A SPIRIT OF SELFLESS DEVOTION…
“Seldom have so few done so much for so many.”