2. The War for Independence
Chapter 4

3. The Stirrings of Rebellion
Chapter 4 Section 1

4. AIM/DO NOW
Aim - What taxes were imposed to repay Britain for the French and Indian war? How did the colonists respond to the English demands?
Do Now- What are some things we are taxed on at higher rates? Sometimes these taxes are indirect.

5. Meme of the day

6. First attempts to tax
Navigation Act I & Navigation Act II - goods such as tobacco, sugar, wool products, cotton, ginger, dying woods and a long list of commodities that could be shipped from the colony of origin only to England, Ireland, Wales, or other British colonies before being re-exported to foreign countries.
- Had to use English ships
- Any goods from other places in Europe had to go to Britain first
British start monitoring colonial activity at ports

7. Molasses Act 1733
Molasses Act - heavy duties on the trade of sugar from the French West Indies to the American colonies, forcing the colonists to buy the more expensive sugar from the British West Indies instead. The efforts by the British to prevent smuggling created hostility and contributed to the American Revolution.
- Main purpose to regulate trade

8. The Colonies Organize to Resist Britain
In order to finance debts from the French and Indian War, as well as from European wars, Parliament had turned hungry eyes on colonies resources.

9. Sugar Act Why They passed Law
"it is expedient that new provisions and regulations should be established for improving the revenue of this Kingdom ... and ... it is just and necessary that a revenue should be raised ... for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same.“ – preamble to Sugar Act by parliament
Why They passed Law
Make sure tariffs are collected (Revenue) – unlike molasses act.
Make sure smuggling doesn’t occur
more soldiers in port cities
British court instead of colonial

10. Sugar Act
Sugar Act –
1) set a tax on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies.
2) this impacted the manufacture of rum in New England.
3) Iron and Timber can only be shipped to Britain or her colonies.
The first Navigation Acts targeted southern cash crops and actually benefited the Middle Colonies and New England.
How is the Sugar Act different?

11. The Stamp Act
The seeds of increased tensions were sown in March 1765 when Parliament, persuaded by Prime Minister George Grenville, passed the Stamp Act.

12. The Stamp Act

13. The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act- required colonists to purchase special stamped paper for every legal document, license, newspaper, pamphlet, and almanac.
It imposed special “stamp duties” on packages of playing cards and dice.

14. Stamp Act Protests
When word of the Stamp Act reached the colonies in May of 1765, the colonists united in their defiance.
Sons of Liberty - Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers organized a secret resistance group

15. Stamp Act Protests Founder Samuel Adams-was Harvard Educated
He was an unsuccessful businessman and was deeply in debt, but proved to be a powerful and influential political activist.

16. Stamp Act Protests
During 1765 and 1766, the individual colonial assemblies confronted the Stamp Act measure.
Virginia’s Lower House adopted several resolutions put forth by a 29 year old lawyer named Patrick Henry.

17. Stamp Act Protests
These resolutions stated that Virginians could be taxed only by the Virginia Assembly- that is only by their own representatives.
Other assemblies passed similar resolutions.

18. Stamp Act Protests The colonial assembles also made a strong protest.
In October 1765, delegates from nine colonies met in New York city.
This Stamp Act Congress issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which stated that Parliament lacked the power to impose taxes on colonies because the colonists were not represented in Parliament.
Colonies boycotted British goods
“Taxation without representation”
What does this mean?

19. Stamp Act Protests
More than 10 years earlier, the colonies had rejected Benjamin Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union, which called for a joint colonial council to address defense issues.
Now, for the first time, the separate colonies began to act as one.

20. Stamp Act Congress - first unified meeting of the colonies to respond to British policies.
1) only the colonial assemblies had a right to tax the colonies.
2) trial by jury was a right, and the use of Admiralty Courts was abusive
3) colonists possessed all the Rights of Englishmen
4) without voting rights, Parliament could not represent the colonists.
Declaration of Rights and Grievances

21. Declaratory act Declaratory Act -
colonies were dependent on the king and declaring that all laws passed in the colonies had no effect.

22. The Townshend Acts
Within a year after Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, Charles Townshend, the leading government minister at the time, decided on a new method of gaining revenue from the American colonies.

23. The Townshend Acts – indirect tax
His proposed revenue laws, passed by Parliament 1767, became known as the Townshend Acts.
These were taxes put on imported materials glass, lead, paint, and paper as they came into the colonies from Britain.

24. The Townshend Acts
The acts also imposed a three penny tax on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies.

25. The Townshend Acts
The colonists reacted with rage and well organized resistance.
Educated Americans spoke out against the Townshend Acts, protesting “no taxation without representation”.

26. The Townshend Acts
Conflict intensified in June 1768, British agents in Boston seized the Liberty, a ship belonging to a local merchant John Hancock.
The customs inspector claimed that Hancock had smuggled in a shipment of wine from Madeira and had failed to pay the customs taxes.

27. The Townshend Acts The seizure triggered riots against custom agents.
In response, the British stationed 2000 “redcoats” or British soldiers, so named for the red jackets they wore, in Boston.