The American Pagent Chapter 7 Outline

Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution 1763-1775
The Deep Roots of Revolution
The New World natured new ideas about government, citizen, and society unlike the Old World were they wouldn't bother trying to change their social status.
Republicanism, giving the stability of society and the authority of government to the citizens, and Whig ideas, defending against corruption of the representatives in parliament, were in the minds of the American Colonist by the mid-eighteenth century.
Mercantilism and Colonial Grievances
The only colony that the British government had formed was Georgia.
Mercantilism was a British theory that justified their control over the colonies and consisted of power being measured by wealth being so that a country needed to export more than it imported.
Parliment passed laws to regulate the mercantilist system, the Navigation Law of 1650 cuasing all commerce towards the colonies to only be transpored through British vessels.
The Merits and Menace of Mercantilism
Although the British seemed to be selfish and take of the colonies with the mercantile system, the american colonies needed them as much as British needed the colonies providing them protection free of charge.
The Stamp Tax Uproar
Britain had a very large debt due to the French and Indian War.
In 1763, Prime Minister George Grenville ordered the British navy to begin strictly enforcing the Navigation Laws.
Grenville secured from Parliament the Sugar Act of 1764, the first law ever passed by Parliament to raise tax revenue in the colonies for England. The Sugar Act increased the duty on foreign sugar imported from the West Indies.
The Quartering Act of 1765 required certain colonies to provide food and quarters for British troops.
In 1765, George Grenville imposed a stamp tax on the colonies to raise revenues to support the new military force. This stamp tax, known as the Stamp Act, mandated the use of stamped paper or the affixing of stamps, certifying payment of tax.
Forced Repeal of the Stamp Act
The Stamp Act Congress of 1765,brought together twenty-seven delegates from nine colonies into New Tork City, ignored in England at the time.
The nonimportation agreements against British goods united the American people for the first time in common action.
Violence was sometimes included in colonial protests, but a group known as the Sons of Liberty and Daugters of Liberty enforced the nonimportation agreements against violators.
In 1766 Parliament repealed the Stamp Act and at around the same time passed the Declaratory Act, reaffirming their rights in the colonies.
The Townshend Tea Tax and the Boston "Massacre"
Champagne Charley Townshend persuaded Parliament to pass the Townshend Acts in 1767, distinguishing internal and external taxes making an indirect customs duty payable at American ports.
The London government suspended the legislature of New York in 1767 for failure to comply with the Quartering Act.
On March 5, 1770, a crowd of 60 townspeople attacked 10 redcoats and the redcoats opened fired on the civilians, killing 11 of them. The massacre was known as the Boston Massacre.
The Seditious Committies of Correspondence
King George III was attempting to assert the power of the British Monarchy by 1770, being described as a good man but a bad ruler.
Prime minister, Lord North, peruaded Parliament to repeal the Townshend revenue duties.
Within a short time after the organization of local committes in Boston in 1772 and the creation of the House of Burgesses in Virginia in 1773, every colony established a central committe.
Tea Brewing in Boston
In 1773, the British East India Company was overstocked with 17 million pounds of unsold tea facing bankruptcy which would greatly effect the London Government.
The London government gave the company a full monopoly of the tea sell in America.
Fearing that it was trick to pay more taxes on tea, the Americans rejected the tea.
When the ships arrived in the Boston harbor, the governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, forced the citizens to allow the ships to unload their tea.
On December 16, 1773, a band of Bostonians, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships and dumped the tea into the Atlantic calling it the Boston Tea Party.
Parliament Passes the "Intolerable Acts"
In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed a series of acts in 1774, the Boston Port Act being the most drastic of all by closing the tea-stained harbour.
Parliament also passed the Intolerable Acts, which restricted colonists' rights.
The Quebec Act was also passed in 1774 giving French Canadians religious freedom and restored the French form of civil law, at the same time it expanded their territory to the Ohio River on the south and to the Mississippi River on the west.
Bloodshed
In 1774, the 1st Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in order to redress colonial grievances over the Intolerable Acts. The 13 colonies, excluding Georgia, sent 55 men to the convention.
After 7 weeks of deliberation, the 1st Continental Congress drew up several papers including a Declaration of Rights and solemn appeals to other British-American colonies, to the king, and to the British people.
The creation of The Association was the most important outcome of the Congress.
In April 1775, the British commander in Boston sent troops to Lexington to seize provisions of colonial gunpowder and to capture the "rebel" ringleaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
At Lexington, 8 Americans were shot and killed. This incident was called the "Lexington Massacre".
Imperial Strength and Weaknesses
The population of Britain was was about three times larger than the Americans.
Britain also had a much greater economic wealth and naval power.
Ireland and France, bitter from its recent defeat, were waiting for an opportunity to attack Britain.
Britain was therefore forced to divert much of its military power and concentration away from the Americas.
Britain's army in America had to operate under numerous difficulties; provisions were short and soldiers were treated brutally.
Another disadvantage Britain had was the distance from England and the colonies and size of America bieng so expanse.
American Pluses and Minuses
The revolutionaries had the advantage of having great leaders, Marquis de Lafayette being one of them. He was made a major general at age nineteen being known as the "French gamecock".
The Articles of Confederation was adopted in 1781 being the first written constitution adopted by colonists.
Due to the drained away metallic money in America, Continental Congress was forced to print "Continental" paper money.
A Thin Line of Heroes
At Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, American men went without food for 3 days in the winter of 1777-1778.
Baron von Steuben was a German who helped to whip the America fighters into shape for fighting the British.
In 1775, British royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation promising freedom for any enslaved black in Virginia who joined the British army. "Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment".