From Empire to Independence

Chapter 6

The Seven Years War in America

AKA – French & Indian War

Britain & the colonists vs. the French & the Indians

The Albany Conference of 1754

Albany Plan of Union – Ben Franklin

Rejected but still significant early attempt at colonial unity

Colonial Aims & Indian Interests

Indians on both sides and playing both sides against each other

Colonists want room to expand without threat of Indian attack

West is currently across the Appalachians to the Mississippi River – mostly in the Ohio River Valley

Frontier Warfare

British lose many early battles

Fighting in VA backcountry – Geo. Washington

The Conquest of Canada

When British take over Nova Scotia the Acadians were removed – became Cajuns of Louisiana

1760 Fall of Montreal

Ended French control of Canada

The Emergence of American Nationalism

Increased unity – fight with men from other colonies

Learned British tactics and fighting style

Learned Indian fighting style

Colonists think they can now settle west of Appalachians

The Press, Politics, and Republicanism

Newspapers – intercolonial communication

More talk of government tyranny

People need to protect their liberty

“republicanism” – these ideas of protecting against tyranny and protecting liberty

Debt & Proclamation of 1763

British get out of war but heavily in debt

Start enforcing long neglected Navigation Acts

Colonists cannot settle west of Appalachian Mountains – “what did we just fight for?”

High cost of protecting colonists on the frontier

The Sugar & Stamp Acts

Sugar Act – lowered tax but ended smuggling

Stamp Act – internal tax– “taxation without representation is tyranny”– Virtual representation– Documents, playing cards, newspapers– Upper & middle-class leaders of

opposition

Repeal of the Stamp Act

Harassment of tax collectors – tar & feather, ride out of town on a rail

Sons of Liberty forms

Stamp Act Congress – 9 colonies meet & denounce taxes

Nonimportation - boycott

Declaratory Act – British have right to tax colonists

The Townshend Revenue Acts

Lead, glass, paint, paper, tea

John Dickinson “Letter from a Pennsylvania Farmer”

Nonimportation: An Early Political Boycott

Appeals to values of self-sufficiency & independence

Peer pressure enforcement

Helps colonial industries

The Massachusetts Circular Letter

Denounces Townshend Acts

British demand its repeal – MA refuses

British shut down the General Assembly

Violence against British officials gradually escalate

The Politics of Revolt and the Boston Massacre

Soldiers in town

Compete for jobs because they are so poorly paid

Snowball fight gone bad

5 dead

Public opinion

From Resistance to Rebellion

Committees of Correspondence

Tea Act – NOT A TAX ON TEA– Effort to save British East India Co.

• They did not have to pay tax on tea so their tea was cheaper

• Upset other tea importers

– intimidate tea sellers

The Boston Tea Party

Not the only one – Philadelphia, NYC, Falmouth

Dressed as “Indians”

Led to harsh punishments

The Intolerable Acts/Coercive Acts

Closed Boston Harbor – until tea paid for

Limited town meetings – officials appointed by governor or king

Trials in military courts – admiralty or vice-admiralty courts – in another colony or eve in Britain - no jury, judges got paid part of taxes collected

Quartering of soldiers

Quebec Act – toleration for Catholics

The First Continental Congress

Philadelphia – September 1774

Boycotts extended – local enforcement committees

Letter to King George III protesting treatment

Lexington & Concord

April 19, 1775 – 700 British want to arrest leaders & capture colonial weapons & ammo (1500 with reinforcements who come later)

Lexington – minutemen outnumbered & fall back

Concord – met a strong force (3800 by end of day)

British - 73 Killed, 174 wounded, 53 missing

Colonists – 49 killed, 39 wounded, 5 missing

The Second Continental Congress

May 1775

Olive Branch petition

Organized army – George Washington

Canada, the Spanish Borderlands, and the Revolution

French Canadians do not support rebellion

Spain – officially neutral – secret support

British Caribbean islands support but British navy makes them unable to help

Fighting in the North & South

Bunker Hill – moral victory

Fort Ticonderoga

Spring of 1776, British forced out of Boston

No Turning Back

Unsuccessful effort to take Canada

Benedict Arnold expedition

Common Sense – Thomas Paine

1/5th Patriots

2/5ths Loyalists (NY & Carolinas)

The Declaration of Independence

Thomas Jefferson/John Locke

Three parts– Describes a good government– 27 things the British are doing wrong– Declaring independence

Who are we trying to convince?– Neutral colonists 2/5ths of population– Foreign countries – especially France