Towards the American Revolution

Towards the American Revolution

The colonies in 1750

• An outpost with a few small cities– Hierarchy and

stratification

• The countryside– 95% of the population– Running out of land

Colonial politics

• The Glorious Revolution of 1688– “English liberties”

• The role of royal governors

• colonial assemblies– “little parliaments”

Imperial economic policy

• Mercantilism– Theory– Navigation Acts

• Rules, regulations, enumerated goods, and enforcement

• Real benefits• Significance

“awash in a sea of faith”

• The Great Awakening– A long-term process, late

1730s to 1740s

• Jonathan Edwards – Northampton, Mass.– Crisis

• Predestination• Emotional conversion

experiences

The “Grand Itinerant”

• George Whitefield– His message– The implications

• Opposition to the “New Lights”– Why?

• Who cares?

The French and Indian War

• Albany Plan of Union– Inter-colonial

cooperation– Rejection

• American national identity– Differences – Inter-colonial similarities– “American”

Grenville’s Reforms

• The Sugar Act (1764)– Increased duties– Vice-admiralty courts

• The Currency Act (1764)• The Quartering Act

(1765)• The Stamp Act (1765)– Isaac Barre (pictured)

• The Declaratory Act (1766)

English radicalism

• English Whigs– Glorious Revolution of

1688– Aristotle

• Real Whigs– John Trenchard and

Thomas Gordon– Vigilance– Virtue– Cato’s Letters (1721)

The Townshend Acts (May 1767)

• The Suspending Act• The Revenue Act– External tax

• American Board of Customs Commissioners– Revived fears

American responses

• House of Burgesses– Patrick Henry and the

“Virginia Resolves”• Massachusetts General

Court– Calls for a Stamp Act

Congress• Crowd actions– Sons of Liberty

Crowd actions

• In Boston– Effigies– Destruction of property– Goals/symbolism

• In New York City– Fort George– Cadwallader Colden– Destruction of property– Goals/symbolism

• Committees of Inspection– “enemies to the

Liberties of America”

American responses

• Confusion and weariness– No clear unity

• Nonimportation• Merchants (such as “A

Trader”)

• “Save your money, and you save your country”

• John Dickinson– Letters from a Farmer in

Pennsylvania• Tone• Proposals and message

The redcoats arrive

• General Thomas Gage• Trouble– Discipline/desertion– Behavior– “Journal of the Times”

More trouble

• The “Body”– Theophilus Lillie– Ebenezer Richardson– Christopher Seider

• Resentment– John Gray’s ropewalk

(March 2, 1770)

The Massacre (March 5, 1770)

• King Street, 8PM– Edward Gerrish– Private Hugh White

• King Street, 9PM– Captain Thomas Preston– Richard Palmes– Private Hugh

Montgomery

The Tea Act (1773)

• Paradox– Reality vs. reception

• Sons of Liberty and mass meetings– Committees of the

“people,” threats, and violence

• Boston Tea Party– Mass meetings– Radical leadership

The Intolerable Acts

• Boston Port Act• Massachusetts

Government Act• Impartial

Administration of Justice Act

• Quartering Act of 1774• Quebec Act

American Response

• First Continental Congress (Sept.-Oct. 1774)– Suffolk Resolves– Continental Association

• Divisions• Who cares?