The American Revolution
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Sugar Act 1764
After the French and Indian War, Britain was left with a huge debt. Britain borrowed so much money during the French and Indian War that it nearly doubled its national debt. It needed a way to raise revenue and pay these debts back. However, Britain still felt the need to station 10,000 troops in its territories. The British felt the troops needed to remain to protect the colonists from any possible threats from the Native Americans and former French subjects. The colonists felt they did not need British protection because they were defending themselves for over 150 years and the British army might be used against them. Maintaining troops in North America was an added cost to the crown, so in 1763 King George III chose a financial expert as his Prime Minister, George Grenville. He decided the colonists should pay for the troops themselves and in 1764 Grenville encouraged Parliament to enact a law known as the Sugar Act. Parliament passed the law without asking for the colonies' opinions.
The Sugar Act did three things: * It lowered the tax on foreign-made molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon (when the tax was at 6 pence per gallon the colonists smuggled sugar illegally from the Caribbean and other countries. The British wanted to stop this.) * It increased the tax on more foreign goods including sugar, certain wines, coffee, etc. * It strengthened the enforcement of the law by allowing prosecutors to try smuggling cases in front of a British judge and not in front of a jury--something the colonists felt was a violation of their rights under British law. Merchants disliked the Sugar Act because they thought the new tax would hurt the rum industry. The sugar was used to make molasses, which was used to make the rum and by increasing the price of sugar, rum would be more expensive. As a result of the Sugar Act jobs would be lost, wages reduced, and trade would be restricted. The colonists chose instead to continue smuggling sugar and molasses into the colonies to avoid paying the tax. Other colonists such as Samuel Adams and James Otis opposed the Sugar Act for a different reason, they believed that the British government did not have the right to tax colonists without representation in Parliament and thus the saying “no taxation without representation” was born. Soon the colonists' cries of "No taxation without representation! No taxation without Representation! No taxation without representation!" could be heard across the colonies. |
Stamp Act 1765
The Sugar Act was repealed (cancelled) in 1766 due in large part to the action taken by colonists, with Bostonians leading the charge. This act was not repealed until after a new set of taxes had been placed on the colonies: The Stamp Act.
The Stamp Act was a direct tax on Americans by Parliament in 1765. This means that every time a colonist bought a paper good, he had to reach in his pocket for more money. This was a tax which became very personal for many colonists as it quickly drove up their cost of living. In the American colonies the reaction to the 1765 Stamp Act was greeted in America by an outburst of anger. Unlike previous Acts and Taxes imposed by the British on the colonies the Stamp Act effected everyone. The new England, Middle and Southern colonies were all equally effected by the Stamp Act. For the first time the colonists were united in a common cause against the imposition of taxes by the British. |
Townshend Acts 1767
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Shortly after the Stamp Act was repealed, Charles Townshend (a British Government official) came up with a new way of taxing the colonies. The Townshend Acts were indirect taxes that placed new duties on imported goods at the custom house, before they entered colonial markets (meaning the the taxes were paid by the stores before the colonists bought an item. This caused the prices to go up, but the colonists didn't have to an additional charge at checkout.) This was different from the Stamp Act, which was a direct tax that colonists had to pay on legal documents, commercial documents, and all printed matter.
The Townshend Acts imposed taxes on imported materials such as glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. The tax on tea was only three pennies, but tea was the most popular drink in the colonies and many colonists still resented the idea of taxation without representation. Many Bostonians openly protested the Townshend Acts; prominent colonists spoke out against the acts and craftsmen, laborers, and farmers enforced a boycott of British goods. Colonial women organized and stopped buying British luxury goods and boycotted British-made cloth and British tea. Protesting British policies helped to unite the colonists. The Townshend Acts set up new ways to collect taxes while giving the British more powers to enforce the payment of these indirect taxes and more powers to prevent smuggling. Writs of Assistance were reintroduced, giving British officials the right to search colonists’ homes for smuggled goods without needing a search warrant. In a protest against the writs of assistance, James Otis resigned as Advocate General for the British and read a five-hour speech against the writs at the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, 1761. Eventually most of the Townshend Acts were repealed, but quite frankly, many colonists felt it was too little, too late. It was just "Too Late to Apologize..." (click the link above) |
Boston Massacre march 5, 1770
The Boston Massacre was, for the most part, a snowball fight that went crazy. On one side, a mob of angry colonists attacking with words and clubs (and ice); on the other side, an outmatched and outnumbered group of British soldiers with orders to maintain peace and commit no harm. By the time the night was over, five colonists lay dead or mortally wounded. Soon the commanding officer, Captain Preston, and six of his men would be arrested and charged with murder. Defending their trial was the future second President of the United States of America, John Adams. It was complicated time in the colonies, and a fascinating time in history.
While the line that night between colonists and British soldiers is easily noticed, every other detail is obscured. No side was completely innocent, and no side was completely guilty either. To this day what really happened is still clouded in controversy--mostly because history has focused more on how the Boston Massacre--if that is even a true description--was used than on what actually happened. The Boston Massacre is one of the greatest pieces of propaganda America has ever seen. |
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Tea ACT 1773 and the Boston Tea party
Following the Boston Massacre in 1770 the people of Boston were extremely upset. The situation began to settle down when the British removed their troops from the city. Life in Boston slowly returned to normal. England attempted to continue to ease tensions by repealing most of the Townshend Acts; however, one significant duty remained. Parliament refused to eliminate the tax on tea. This was important due to the fact that tea was one of the most widely used products in the American colonies. The Board of Customs Commissioners was in place to ensure that the tax was being paid. While many of the colonists were tired of the conflict with Britain, others saw this tea tax as an issue to be contested. By 1773 the issue of tea came to a head. In May of 1773 Parliament passed the Tea Act. The point of this measure was to help a failing English tea company. Under the Tea Act the East India Tea Company would be allowed to appoint their own agents in America who would sell tea directly to the colonists. The tea could be sold without the added expense of middle men or taxes. Colonists could actually buy tea at a cheaper price; however, American merchants were extremely angry at being cut out of the tea business. Many people in the colonies saw this situation as an act of oppression by the British government.
The Intolerable (Coercive) Act 1774
Following the events of the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed a series of laws to quell the "commotions and insurrections" taking place in Boston. These acts were designed to punish Boston, as well as to restore British control of the colony and to alter the colonial government system in America:
● The Boston Port Bill closed Boston Harbor to everything but British ships. ● The Massachusetts Government Act ended self-government in Massachusetts, placing the Governor in charge of all meetings in Boston. ● The Administration of Justice Act allowed the governor to move trials of accused royal officials to Great Britain. ● The Quartering Act allowed a governor to house British soldiers in uninhabited buildings in the colonies if the colonial legislatures did not provide housing for the soldiers. In September 1774, representatives from 12 of the colonies gathered in Philadelphia to discuss a unified course of resistance to the Coercive Acts. Some delegates argued that a new independent government should be established. Others sought to reconcile with England. Delegates to the First Continental Congress also affirmed their loyalty to King George III while asking for redress of their grievances. The Continental Congress created the Continental Association, an agreement to boycott British goods and, if that did not get the Coercive Acts reversed after a year, to stop exporting goods to Great Britain as well. The Congress also urged colonies to form militias to resist the enforcement of the Intolerable Acts. This pledge of support to Massachusetts in case of attack meant that all of the colonies would become involved when the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord. |
First Continental Congress
In September 1774, representatives from 12 of the colonies gathered in Philadelphia to discuss a unified course of resistance to the Coercive Acts. Some delegates argued that a new independent government should be established. Others sought to reconcile with England. Delegates to the First Continental Congress also affirmed their loyalty to King George III while asking for redress of their grievances.
The Continental Congress created the Continental Association, an agreement to boycott British goods and, if that did not get the Coercive Acts reversed after a year, to stop exporting goods to Great Britain as well. The Congress also urged colonies to form militias to resist the enforcement of the Intolerable Acts. This pledge of support to Massachusetts in case of attack meant that all of the colonies would become involved when the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord. |
Common Sense 1775
Worded in a way that forces the reader to make an immediate choice, "Common Sense" presented the American colonists, who were generally still undecided, with a simple argument for full-scale revolt and freedom from British rule. While it likely had little direct effect on the Declaration of Independence, it nonetheless forced the conversation about the equality of men and the purpose of government to the streets. It was presented in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner that was easy to understand and remember. It used observations of the workings of the universe and of mankind to make its points.
The ease with which it was read made it highly popular throughout the colonies. Within just a few months, the piece sold more than 500,000 copies. "Common Sense" presents as its chief option a distinctly American political identity and, more so than any other single publication, paved the way for the Declaration of Independence, which was unanimously ratified on July 4, 1776.
The ease with which it was read made it highly popular throughout the colonies. Within just a few months, the piece sold more than 500,000 copies. "Common Sense" presents as its chief option a distinctly American political identity and, more so than any other single publication, paved the way for the Declaration of Independence, which was unanimously ratified on July 4, 1776.
Start of the Bloodshed:
The Shot Heard 'Round the WOrld
By 1775, Britain had been imposing laws and taxes on its colonies in America without any respect to colonial governments or popular consent for more than ten years—and colonists’ protests had become increasingly intense. In February, King George III declared Massachusetts a state in active rebellion to the king, and the king responded in kind. The world's greatest army consisting of the best trained and best supplied troops was embedded in the colonies. It was a show of force the patriots could not ignore, and one that definitely magnified how unprepared the colonists were should war develop. They had no standing army nor the gunpowder, muskets, and cannon needed to supply one if they did. No one particularly wanted war, yet by the day a war seemed more and more likely, and the patriots could not be caught unprepared. Patriotic colonists began collecting a cache, or stockpile, of arms. For every patriot, though, there was a loyalist to support the king, and such secrets couldn't be kept for long.
Hoping to avoid an armed rebellion, British troops in Boston, Massachusetts, marched under the cover of darkness toward nearby Concord to seize the local militia’s cache of arms and gunpowder. Patriots from Boston alerted the countryside, and at dawn on April 19, a militia unit gathered on the green in Lexington. They were neighbors, fathers and sons, cousins; at least one was a slave; some were old men, some were teens.
Hoping to avoid an armed rebellion, British troops in Boston, Massachusetts, marched under the cover of darkness toward nearby Concord to seize the local militia’s cache of arms and gunpowder. Patriots from Boston alerted the countryside, and at dawn on April 19, a militia unit gathered on the green in Lexington. They were neighbors, fathers and sons, cousins; at least one was a slave; some were old men, some were teens.
The Battles of Lexington and COncord April 19, 1775
General Thomas Gage, the commander of British forces in North America, had assumed the position of royal governor in Massachusetts to enforce economic sanctions from the Intolerable Acts. However, he tried to minimize friction between his troops and the Massachusetts colonists. Gage did not attempt to stop public meetings and demonstrations against the British occupation of Boston. He also did little to block the activities of the militia groups which drilled in small towns throughout New England.
Reports that the patriots were stockpiling large quantities of weapons and gunpowder did concern Gage, however. On several occasions, he ordered his troops to locate and seize the stockpiles. Gage scheduled such mission for April 19, 1775, to take a patriots supple center in Concord, Massachusetts, twenty miles west of Boston. Paul Revere's Midnight Ride--along with other patriots--would be the only hope for saving the weapons. At dawn, seven hundred British troops dispatched by Gage reached Lexington, Massachusetts--five miles short of Concord. Members of local militias, known as “minutemen,” had been forewarned of their arrival during the night and seventy of them had assembled on the village green. Shortly after the commanding British officer ordered the minutemen to disperse, a gun went off. No one knew who discharged the first shot, but the British troops responded by opening fire on the militia. Within minutes, eight minutemen lay dead or dying. News of the bloodshed at Lexington was immediately relayed to Concord. Minutemen decided to counter the British advance at a wooden bridge crossing the Concord River. After coming under fire from the patriots, the British commander elected to return to Boston. The retreating British faced hit-and-run attacks along the route from local minutemen. More than 2000 patriots, hiding behind fences and bushes, did damage sniping the retreating British. By the time the British reached the safety of Boston late that night, seventy-three from their ranks had been killed and more than two hundred were wounded or missing. Of the militia troops, about one hundred were killed or wounded. The battles at Lexington and Concord were a dramatic escalation of the struggle between the British government and the colonists. Whether the clashes were an isolated incident, like the Boston massacre, or the beginning of a larger conflict remained to be seen. Yet in all of this, no one was really considering fighting for a revolution. Even among the militia forces that had fought at Lexington and Concord, most believed that they were defending their rights as British citizens, not striving for independence. |
Battle of Ticonderoga May 10, 1775
The colonists could produce muskets; they could produce gunpowder and shot. What was much harder to come by was the cannon that Britain would have plenty of. With the first bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, cannon became a necessity. Without them, American forts would be defenseless, and taking control of British Forts would be near impossible. Located in northeastern New York, Fort Ticonderoga was an important British fort during the French and Indian War. Many of its cannon still remained. On May 10, 1775, Benedict Arnold of Massachusetts joined Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys from Vermont for a surprise attack to steal the cannon. They expected strong resistance from the British, but as they crept to the fort in the early dawn light, they were surprised to see its gate swing open and the guard on duty asleep at his post. Not a shot was fired. Although it was a small conflict, and hardly even a "battle," Fort Ticonderoga was the first American victory of the Revolutionary War, and would give the (yet-to-be-formed) Continental Army the much-needed artillery to be used in future battles.
There would be no going back; open warfare between King's army and the colonies was inevitable. On June 14th, 1775, the Continental Congress officially created the Continental Army and chose George Washington to be its commander. Minimum age was 16 years old; or 15, if you had parental consent. Most enlistments were short--less than a year. The men (and a few women) who made up the army were good shots with musket, resourceful, and independent. Qualities developed on the American frontier. However, most had never served in an army, and that independence would hinder them from forming a disciplined fighting force. Ensuring they had proper food, clothing, and supplies was entrusted to each colony and in most cases was too difficult a task to do well. Pay was low, food was often rotten, clothing and shelter hardly present.
Washington's goals at the start of war were simple enough: "our hopes are not placed in any particular city, or spot of ground, but in preserving a good army...to take advantage of favorable opportunities...and defeat the enemy [one small piece at a time.]" All of Washington's command experience, however, was in charge of the disciplined, British troops his army now faced. He needed to create an army that could stand up to the British, and very short time--the British could attack at any moment.
There would be no going back; open warfare between King's army and the colonies was inevitable. On June 14th, 1775, the Continental Congress officially created the Continental Army and chose George Washington to be its commander. Minimum age was 16 years old; or 15, if you had parental consent. Most enlistments were short--less than a year. The men (and a few women) who made up the army were good shots with musket, resourceful, and independent. Qualities developed on the American frontier. However, most had never served in an army, and that independence would hinder them from forming a disciplined fighting force. Ensuring they had proper food, clothing, and supplies was entrusted to each colony and in most cases was too difficult a task to do well. Pay was low, food was often rotten, clothing and shelter hardly present.
Washington's goals at the start of war were simple enough: "our hopes are not placed in any particular city, or spot of ground, but in preserving a good army...to take advantage of favorable opportunities...and defeat the enemy [one small piece at a time.]" All of Washington's command experience, however, was in charge of the disciplined, British troops his army now faced. He needed to create an army that could stand up to the British, and very short time--the British could attack at any moment.
The Battle of Bunker Hill June 17, 1775
Following the fighting at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, colonial militia had surrounded Boston, pinning the British in. Lt. General Thomas Gage knew he was surrounded on land, so he had to control Dorchester Heights and Charlestown to keep the harbor open to British ships. The Americans were able to occupy the Charlestown peninsula before the British. On June 15, defensive walls were ordered to be built on Bunker Hill. The British awoke on the morning of June 17 to see extensive fortifications had been built on Breedʼs Hill by the colonials. Lt. General Gage then sent British ships to bombard the hill, while Maj. General William Howe prepared to sail across the bay and retake the position that afternoon. At three oʼclock in the afternoon, the British finally began an assault on the hill. The American repulsed them twice, but due to dwindling ammunition, they were forced to abandon the position during the third British assault. Though the British technically wan, it came at a high cost and Lt. General Gage resigned his command.
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July 4th 1776--The DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The Declaration of Independence is the most celebrated document in American History. With fighting escalating, and future that few could predict, the Thomas Jefferson crafted the document that, in the short time, changed the purpose of the war, but in the long run, created the challenge and purpose of our country. No longer would the patriots be fighting for their rights as Englishmen.
We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal... The equality of man is concept so embedded in who we are as Americans, it is often difficult for us to understand a different way. We rally behind causes of Freedom; spurn the exploitation of people around the world; Justice and Democracy are the cornerstones of our nation. Yet it is still a concept that we still struggle with. Racial and religious prejudice, social inequity, organizations of hate and ridicule still flourish in parts of our society. It is in this way that the Thomas Jefferson laid out the mission of our nation. In the moment in time that it was written, however, it was simply a break up note: a note that explained the relationship was over; that it was to move on; and that things could never go back to the way they once were. It explained why leaving the relationship was the best choice and why "fixing things" would not work. There is a lot of hoopla around the Declaration of Independence. First, Jefferson felt his fellow convention patriots edited it to a point that was hardly the document and sentiments he wrote. Secondly, the date is of course off--with approval happening one day, and the signing on another, and so forth and so on; however, none of this is really important. What is important is it's legacy as start of a great experiment, one that would see if a government could thrive by deriving its power from the people. Could a country exist where it's leaders resided on the same side of the law as its people? Could a people be trusted to make decisions that affect the entire nation? The answer at that moment was completely unknown, and it was a step taken entire on faith. |
Battle of Saratoga
Valley Forge
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