1. The Road
to Revolution:
( )

2. Was the
American Revolution
Inevitable??

3. Remember Mercantilism?...
A country’s economic wealth could be measured by the amount of gold and silver in it’s treasury, therefore it needed to export more than it imported
Colonies – supplied raw materials, provided market for exports, tenants

4. Parliament enforced mercantilism
Navigation Laws - Restricted commerce to English ships
“enumerated” products (tobacco) shipped only to England. Colonies could not ship their goods to foreign markets even though prices might be higher
Could not compete with British manufactured goods – wool, beaver hats
No Banks in colonies

5. Merits of Mercantilism
Salutary Neglect – until 1763
London paid price supports to colonial ship builders
Virginia tobacco planters – guaranteed monopoly of British market
Did not have to tax themselves to provide for an army or navy
Opportunities for self government
Americans shared in British profits
London officials worked for welfare of entire empire

6. Menace of Mercantilism
Limited economic freedom – colonies could not trade or ship for best profits
Southern colonies favored over Northern – grew non-English products
One-Crop Virginians – hurt when tobacco prices dropped – “Liberty or Debt”!
Colonies felt “used” – never allowed to come of age

7. Ben Franklin “We have an old mother that peevish is grown;
She snubs us like children that scare walk alone;
She forgets we’re grown up and have sense of our own.”

8. Acts on the Road to Revolution
S – Sugar Act (1764) – duties on foreign sugar, stop smuggling
S – Stamp Act (1765) – tax on printed paper
Q – Quartering Act (1765) – provided food and shelter to soldiers
D – Declaratory Act (1766) – repealed stamp tax due to success of Stamp Act Congress and Boycotts , but still had right to TAX colonies
T – Townshend Acts (1767) – indirect taxes on tea, glass, and paper, Sam Adams and Otis wrote Circular letter – boycotts and smuggling increased
T – Tea Act (1773) – symbol of right to tax and hoped to help British East India Co.
I – Intolerable Acts (1774) – punished Boston

9. Tar and Feathering
1760s – customs officials were sometimes targeted if they were suspected of informing on smugglers to the British
Used to humiliated the victims
Boston leaders will eventually call for an end to practice, but some colonists continued to use it to intimidate loyalists

10. The Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770)

11. Boston Massacre
Violent incident between British soldiers and American colonists
British soldiers opened fire on a crowd of unarmed American colonists
Led to the death of five colonists
Who was truly to blame?
Many believe the soldiers just shot at unarmed civilians
Others believe that the colonists were throwing snowballs filled with ice at the soldiers to provoke them into fighting
What do you think?

12. The Gaspee Affair (1772) Providence, RI coast
HMS Gaspée  a British customs schooner that had been enforcing the trade regulations imposed by the British government
The ship ran aground off the coast of Rhode Island
The colonists quickly seized control of the ship and set fire to the cargo on board
Providence, RI coast

13. Committees of Correspondence
Purpose  work together to warn neighboring colonies about incidents occurring in New England with the British  broaden the resistance movement throughout the colonies.

14. Tea Act (1773) British East India Company:
Held a monopoly on British tea imports.
Many members of Parliament held shares in the company.
Permitted the colonists to sell tea directly to colonists without colonial middlemen (cheaper tea!)
Lord North expected the colonists to eagerly choose the cheaper tea

15. Boston Tea Party December (1773)

16. Boston Tea Party
Colonists were upset about the decisions that the British government was making on their behalf.
A group of colonists, dresses as Native Americans, dumped three shiploads of tea into the harbor.
Colonists felt that they should not have to pay any type of tax without a voice in Parliament.
“No taxation without representation”

17. The Coercive or Intolerable Acts (1774)
1.Closed the port of Boston
2.Gov’t Act –decreased power of Mass. legislature
3.New Quartering Act
4.Administration of Justice Act – accused royal officials were to be tried in a court in England
Lord North

18. The Quebec Act (1774)
Extended the province of Quebec to the Ohio River
Official religion was Roman Catholicism
Set up government without a representative assembly
Upset Americans because it was a denial of expectations of westward expansion and it set up an autocratic government

19. First Continental Congress (1774)
55 delegates from 12 colonies met in Philadelphia
Agenda  How to respond to the Intolerable Acts
-passed Suffolk Resolves- denounced Intolerable Acts called for non-importation, and preparation of militia
-Rejected Galloway Plan – called for union of colonies within empire and rearrangement of relations