The Road to Revolution The Sugar & Stamp Acts, 1763-1765 Sir George Grenville, prime minister from 1763 to 1765 Patrick Henry, a young political newcomer, presented a series of resolutions on the Stamp Act that were debated and passed, one by one Virginia Resolves - Henry’s resolutions “The Sons of Liberty”

A warning by the Sons of Liberty against using the stamps required by the Stamp Act, which are shown on the left.

Tea pot protesting the Stamp Act This teapot protesting the Stamp Act was produced in England and marketed in colonial America, illustrating the close political and economic connections between the two.

“Liberty and Property” - came from a trinity of concepts – “life, liberty, property” – that had come to be regarded as the birthright of freeborn British subjects since at least the 17th century The solution came in March 1766: The Stamp Act was repealed, but with the repeal came the Declaratory Act, which asserted Parliament’s right to legislate for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever”

The Townshend Duties - Officially called the Revenue Act of 1767, it established new duties on tea, glass, lead, paper, and painters’ colors imported into the colonies, to be paid by the importer but passed on to consumers in the retail price Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767) by John Dickinson, a Philadelphia lawyer Non-Consumption Agreements – called for a boycott of all British goods “Daughters of Liberty”

Military occupation in Boston and the “Boston Massacre” The burning of the Gaspee, a Royal Navy ship pursuing suspected smugglers near Rhode Island “committee of correspondence” - a network of standing committees established that linked the colonies to pass along alarming news The Tea Act of 1773 Tea in Boston Harbor

Print from an engraving, by Paul Revere, The Boston Massacre

Attucks is at the center of the conflict between the British and the colonists. He grabs a British soldier’s bayonet in one hand and holds a club in the other, and the soldier’s bayonet is about to pierce his throat. Attucks appears to have been playing an active role in the fight before being killed by the British

The Coercive Acts - four laws meant to punish Massachusetts: The Boston Port Act - closed Boston harbor to all shipping as of June 1, 1774, until the destroyed tea was paid for Massachusetts Government Act - The royal governor’s powers were augmented, and the governor’s council became an appointive, rather than elective, body

Impartial Administration of Justice Act - stipulated that any royal official accused of a capital crime – would be tried in a court in Britain Quartering Act - permitted military commanders to lodge soldiers wherever necessary, even in private households  The Quebec Act - It confirmed the continuation of French civil law as well as Catholicism for Quebec, now part of the British empire

The Mitred Minuet, a British cartoon from 1774, shows four Roman Catholic bishops dancing around a copy of the Quebec Act. On the left, British officials Lord Bute, Lord North, and Lord Mansfield look on, while the devil oversees the proceedings.

The First Continental Congress Every colony except Georgia sent delegates to Philadelphia in September 1774 to discuss the looming crisis Delegates sought to articulate their liberties as British subjects and the powers Parliament held over them, and they debated possible responses to the Coercive Acts “We ask only for peace, liberty and security. We wish no diminution of royal prerogatives, we demand no new rights”