1. Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
The Road
to Revolution:
( )
By: Ms. Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

2. Was the
American Revolution
Inevitable??

3. Questions to Consider
1. What factors led a people who were the freest and most prosperous in the western world to launch a revolution?
2. Where American patriots justified in asserting a “right to revolution?”
3. Could the revolution have been averted---and, if so, what difference would it have made?
4. How were the American colonists, who had a long history of quarreling among themselves, able to prevail against the world’s strongest military power?

4. 1. What factors led a people who were the freest and most prosperous in the western world to launch a revolution?

5. Mercantilism
1. Goals of Mercantilism
Some political & Economic Freedom
2. British Management of Colonies up to 1783
Colonies are prosperous
3. Economic structure of colonies – North, Middle, South – in relation to mercantilism
4. Colonial political independence, benefits & burdens of mercantilism
5. British change in policy

6. Reorganization of Empire
“Salutary Neglect” abandoned
King George III and the Whigs want to solve Britain’s financial woes
War was expensive
Military costs money
Colonists should help pay costs  strict enforcement of Navigation Acts and new taxes

7. Theories of Representation
Real Whigs
Q-> What was the extent of Parliament’s authority over the colonies??
Absolute?
OR Limited?
Q-> How could the colonies give or withhold consent for parliamentary legislation when they did not have representation in that body??

8. George Grenville's Program
( )
1. Sugar Act
2. Currency Act
3. Quartering Act
4. Stamp Act

9. Tax Burden in the British Empire in 1765
British Member
Tax Burden in English Shillings (s) and Pennies or Denarius (d)
Great Britain
26s
Ireland
6s 8d
Massachusetts 1s
Connecticut 7d
New York
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Virginia 5d
So why were the colonists so upset about their taxes?
12 pence (pennies) = 1 shilling

10. What meaning did the colonists give to the taxes?
# 8 on Reading Quiz
The American Revolution was the product of 40 years of abuses by the British authorities that many colonists regarded as a threat to their liberty and property. But people do not act simply in response to objective reality but according to the meaning they give to the events.
What meaning did the colonists give to the taxes?

11. Birth of American Freedom
British: History of Liberty
Magna Carta, Petition of Right, Common Law, wars between liberty & tyranny,
Who was considered “free” in British society?
Puritans: “spiritual liberty”
Enlightenment: Deism, Locke, Rouseau
Colonists: -Meeting point between republican & liberal understandings of gov. & society.
-Economic autonomy
“Thus, if the roots of American freedom lay in the traditions of Christian liberty and of the freeborn Englishmen, its emergence as a new and distinct ideology grew out of the struggle for independence…” (Foner, 1998)

12. Questions to Consider
2. Where American patriots justified in asserting a “right to revolution?”
3. Could the revolution have been averted---and, if so, what difference would it have made?

13. Rethinking Their Empire
British --> Proclamation Line of 1763
Colonials --> Paxton Boys (PA)

14. Rethinking Their Empire
Br. Gvt. measures to prevent smuggling:
* > writs of assistance
-- James Otis’ case -- Protection of a citizen’s private property must be held in higher regard than a parliamentary statute.
-- He lost --> parliamentary law and custom had equal wt.

15. George Grenville's Program
( )
1. Sugar Act
2. Currency Act
3. Quartering Act
4. Stamp Act

16. Revenue
Stamps

17. Stamp Act Crisis Loyal Nine - 1765
Sons of Liberty – began in NYC – Samuel Adams
Stamp Act Congress – * Stamp Act Resolves
Declaratory Act – 1766

18. Townshend Duties Crisis (1767 - 1770)
> William Pitt, P. M. & Charles Townshend, Secy. of Exchequer
* Shift from paying taxes for Br. war debts & quartering of troops --> paying col. gvt. salaries.
* He diverted revenue collection from internal to external trade.
* Tax these imports --> paper, paint, lead, glass, tea.
* Increase custom officials at American ports.

19. Tar and Feathering

20. The Boston Massacre (March 5,1770)

21. The Gaspee Incident (1772)
Providence, RI coast

22. Committees of Correspondence
Purpose  warn neighboring colonies about incidents with Br  broaden the resistance movement.

23. Tea Act (1773) British East India Co.: Monopoly on Br. tea imports.
Many members of Parl. held shares.
Permitted the Co. to sell tea directly to cols. without col. middlemen (cheaper tea!)
North expected the cols. to eagerly choose the cheaper tea.

24. Boston Tea Party (1773)

25. The Coercive or Intolerable Acts (1774)
1. Port Bill
2. Government Act
3. New Quartering Act
Lord North
4. Administration of Justice Act

26. The Quebec Act (1774)

27. First Continental Congress (1774)
55 delegates from 12 colonies
Agenda  How to respond to the Coercive Acts & the Quebec Act?
1 vote per colony represented.

28. The British Are Coming . . .
Paul Revere & William Dawes make their midnight ride to warn the Minutemen of approaching British soldiers.

29. The Shot Heard ’Round the World! Lexington & Concord – April 18,1775

30. Questions to Consider
How were the American colonists, who had a long history of quarreling among themselves, able to prevail against the world’s strongest military power?

31. British Strengths Population
Advantage in Monetary wealth and naval power

32. British Weaknesses International Conflict
Internal conflict at the outset:
Tories v. Whigs

33. Colonist’s Strengths Outstanding Leadership
Self-Sustaining in terms of Agricultural goods
Rally cry of a just cause

34. Colonist’s Weaknesses
Poor Organization
Continental Congress was a debate club with no continental congress power
Jealousy between military appointments
Funding – continental money

35. Was the
American Revolution
Inevitable??

36. The Second Continental Congress (1775)
Olive Branch Petition

37. Thomas Paine: Common Sense

38. Declaration of Independence (1776)

39. Declaration of Independence

40. Independence Hall

41. New National Symbols