 150 years of neglect!  Now that the Colonists were used to governing themselves, the British want to clamp down on them?  The British debt had increased fighting the French in what Americans called the French and Indian War  Since the war was fought, in part, to protect the Colonists it was reasonable to have them help pay.  Or was it?

 The Proclamation Act 1763 told Colonists not to cross into the Indian lands across the Appalachians. Ignored.  The Proclamation was issued to cut down on the costs of protecting them from Indians in that region.  The Stamp Act imposed a tax on all Colonial written material.  The Quartering Act 1765 forcing Colonists to house British soldiers in their homes.

 New trade restrictions reduced $ Colonists could earn.  All Colonists would have to pay higher taxes but wouldn’t be able to have a say in those taxes through their Colonial legislatures.  To protest these measures, Connecticut men formed Sons of Liberty. The name spread.  October 1765 the Stamp Act Congress-an important first step-met to organize resistance. The next year the Stamp Act was repealed.

 But Parliament passed the Declaratory Act saying that if they wanted to pass a tax on the Colonies they could.  1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Revenue Acts taxing such things as tea, paper, and glass.  Daughters of Liberty were women who led boycotts of British goods by producing their own cotton cloth.  Writs of Assistance or blanket search warrants were issued that violated the Colonists castle doctrine!

 British troops were sent to the Colonies to keep order.  In 1770, the Boston Massacre, 5 Americans killed.  Some Americans became convinced that the British would use force on them and began to plan.  Townshend Acts repealed but a Tea Act was passed in 1773 saying, again, that the British could tax anything they wanted in the Colonies anytime w/o representation. Kind of like 1215…  So Boston Tea Party tons of tea…  Boston Tea Party facts Boston Tea Party facts  Worth today $1 million.

 Everything depended on the British response…  The British did the expected and passed the Punitive Acts (called the Intolerable Acts in America)  It closed the port of Boston, allowed British troops to take over American Taverns, altered the Massachusetts Charter to give the royal governor more power(the importance of contracts), limited town meetings, and weakened the Colonial court system.  Huh…

 Committees of Correspondence formed to keep everyone informed of the British actions.  In 1774, 12 Colonies met in Philadelphia to decide what to do. This was the First Continental Congress.  They voted to ban trade with Britain. Britain could have changed their policies toward the colonies.  Instead they ordered the arrest of some Massachusetts colonial leaders.  Massachusetts formed local militias in response to the British refusal to protect their citizen’s rights.

 These militias were called Minutemen.  April 19, British soldiers marched to Concord to destroy reported colonial arms.  Paul Revere and William Dawes took off by horseback to warn the Minutemen that, “The British are Coming.”  Lexington and Concord, the war began.

 November 1775, King George III formally withdrew his protection of the colonies. So, colonial militias…  Winter Thomas Paine’s Common Sense convinced many people to support independence.  June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee of Va. Introduced a Resolution of Independence.  Thomas Jefferson was the lead author of a Declaration of Independence rejecting the sovereignty of the Crown  Continental Congress felt it had to justify this action.  So…

 The Declaration renounces monarchy.  It asserts popular sovereignty, natural rights, human equality, and government by consent.  It is a treatise on the Framer’s philosophy of government.  Then the bulk of the Declaration became a list of abuses by the Crown and the Crown’s representative.  Finally, the right of revolution.