Chapter 4

From Colonies to States

I. British agencies of colonial policy

A. Incoherent, inefficient, and unfocused British policy

• Colonies given rights in

beginning

• Monarchy was busy

• British would try to take

that back during mid-

18th Century

• Navigation Acts 1651

− First attempt to do so

− Had to be forced

− Dutch charging 2/3

• All because of English

Civil War

Theory of mercantilism

• Idea that a country’s

power/influence

depended up a nations

wealth and economic

self dependence

• Nation can only gain

wealth at expense of

another (colony)

• Total gov’t control

Navigation Acts 1651

• Only English ships with ¾

English crew

• List of products only to

England

• Part II -1663: all colonial

imports stop in England,

unloaded taxed the reship

back

• 1678-Massachusett

3. Influence of John Locke

• Removal of hated

monarch

• Two Treatises on

Government

• Refuted divine right

theory

• People have “natural

rights”…

• Govt made to protect

those rights

• Government fails, they

can be overthrown

E. Period of salutary neglect

• Unofficial British policy of

avoiding strict

enforcement of laws

• Meant to keep

the American

colonies obedient

to England.

• Edmund Burke’s Speech

• Until 1763…

III. Spain and France in America

A. Spanish decline

1. Reasons

• Spain focused on need

to control Indians

• No self-sustaining

colony

• Only looking for Gold

• Emphasized converting

Indians

B. New France

1. Traits of French settlements

• French settled on land

not claimed by Indians

• Champlain joined Indian

allies Huron and

Algonquian

• Was attacked by

Iroquois.

− Killed two chiefs

− Permanent war with

Iroquois

• French had fraternal

bond with Indians

3. French Exploration and settlement to the south

a. Founding of New Orleans

• Moved down Mississippi

River

• Making colonies in:

− Biloxi 1699

− Mobile 1710

− New Orleans 1718

4. French settlements by 1750• Louisiana Territory

claimed

• French pop: 80,000

• British pop: 1.5 million

• French at advantage:

− Indian allies

− French governors could

mobilize w/o a worry of

assembly or religious

differences

− British colonies often

worked against each

other

2. Impact on English finances and politics• Britain emerges as most powerful nation in world

• International commerce became more essential for

expanding the empire

• War led British to build

large army and large navy

− Huge debt

• “critics in Parliament

to charge that traditional

liberties were being usurped

by a tyrannical central

government”

B. The Ohio Valley rivalry in the 1750s

• Ohio Valley became the

chief contention between

French and British

• 1753: VA gov send 21 yr old

to deliver demands to

French 450 miles inland.

Epic Fail…

• 1754: To secure the

Virginians’ claim

Washington was sent to the

Ohio Country

• Washington encountered a

detachment of French troops

(scouts) about 40 miles from

Fort Duquesne and fired

1. Washington’s defeat at Fort Necessity

• The French leader was killed and his men retreated

• The French returned with reinforcements and surrounded Washington

• Washington, after a ten-hour siege, was forced to surrender July 1754

Makes shift Fort 1/3 of 300 men killed

• He was able to march his troops away with full honor.

3. Expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia

• Britain decide for showdown with Navy in Nova Scotia. (1755)

• The British brutally uprooted the French Acadians and scattered them as far

as Louisiana.

Side note:

• The crisis now demanded concerted action:

− In 1754 the British government summoned an intercolonial

congress to met at Albany, N.Y.

− Immediate purpose was to control the Iroquois tribes loyal

to Britain

− The longer-range purpose was to achieve greater colonial

unity and thus bolster the common defense against

France

(cont.)

• Role of Benjamin Franklin at Albany:

− First, he published his famous cartoon—Join, or Die

− At Albany, was the leading spirit of the Albany

Congress presenting a well-devised but premature

scheme for colonial home rule

− The delegates unanimously adopted the plan but

individuals spurned it, as well as the London regime.

V. Global War and Colonial Disunity

(cont.)

• Franklin’s observations: all

people agreed on the

need for union, but their

“weak noddles” were

“perfectly distracted”

when they attempted to

agree on details.

4. Braddock’s campaign against Fort Duquesne

• Stubborn, overconfident

and hated Indians

• Cut 125 mile road

− (with GW & volunteers)

• 6 miles from Fort Duquesne

…AMBUSH

− Lost 63/86 officers

Braddock was one

− 914/1373 soldiers

• May 1756 official war

declared

George Washington started a World War?!

“the volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America

set the world on fire.”

5. Eruption of a world war

• 4 continents, 3

oceans

− N. America where

45k British troops

mobilized (1/2

Americans)

• 1759 climax when

Quebec is captured

• Cleaning up until 1763

• Carolinas vs

Cherokee

− Brits come in and

clean up Cherokee

resistance

8. Peace of Paris

a. British territorial gains

b. Spain receives Louisiana

• 1763: GB took

− France’s N

American

possessions East

of Mississippi

− All of Canada

− Spanish Florida

• Spain given LA but

French

encourage

Catholic settlers to

stay and help

Spanish

c. Pontiac’s Rebellion• French surrendered

Indian land?

• 1763: desperate attacks

• Take Great Lakes forts

• Attack Penns, Maryland

and VA

• Brits neg. treaty that

gave Indians similar

trading with French

• “Proclamation of 1763”

− 10,000 redcoats to

enforce

9. British victories and coming of the A.R.• Taking over French forts

would require 10k more

troops

• National debt already

doubled

• Brits taxes 26 shillings per

year compared to

American 1 per year

• Americans ‘perplexed’

V. Administering the colonies

A. Grenville’s colonial policy

• Called Americans “least

taxed people in the

world”

• Ended salutary neglect

• Dispatched warships to

enforce Navigation Acts

• Set up one court in

Canada overseeing all

colonies

1. Revenue Act of 1764 aka Sugar Act (1764)

• Cut duty in half on

molasses

• Reduce temptation to

smuggle or bribe tax

customs

• New duties on imports:

− Wine, coffee, indigo,

sugar, textiles

• Raise revenue but

regulate trade

• No representation!!

2. Currency Act of 1764• Can no longer print paper money

3. Stamp Act• Revenue stamps to be affixed to all forms of paper

− Newspapers, pamphlets, bonds, leases, deeds, licenses,

insurance policies, diplomas, playing cards

− Effect ALL colonies

− First “internal” tax on American goods

• Quartering Act

− Colonies must house and feed soldiers

B. Colonial responses to Grenville

• 1. Widespread protests

− Whigs vs Tories (loyalists)

• 2. Virginia Resolves

− No colonial rep in parliament = unjust law

• 3. Declaration of the Rights and Grievances of the

Colonies• Colonists owe to the crown "the same allegiance" owed by "subjects born within

the realm".

• Colonists owe to Parliament "all due subordination".

• Colonists possessed all the rights of Englishmen.

• Trial by jury is a right.

• The use of Admiralty Courts was abusive.

• Without voting rights, Parliament could not represent the colonists.

• There should be no taxation without representation.

• Only the colonial assemblies had a right to tax the colonies.

C. Repeal of the Stamp Act (1766)

-Declaratory Act: parliament can make laws “in all cases”

• D. Townshend Acts (1767)

− Suspended NY assembly

− Revenue Act 1767 (glass, lead, paint, paper, tea)

1. Sons of Liberty

1. Protesters met under the “liberty trees” in Boston

2. Daughters of liberty

3. Samuel Adams & James Otis Letter = 4k troops in Boston

Boston Massacre (1770)

Boston Tea Party

• Samuel Adams organized the so-called Boston Tea Party

with about 60 members of the radically anti-British Sons

of Liberty.

• December 16, 1773, the Patriots boarded the British ships

disguised as Mohawk Indians and dumped the tea

chests, valued then at £18,000 (nearly $1 million in

today’s money), into the water.

VII. Coercive Acts

A. Closed port of Boston

B. Allowed trials of government officials to be transferred to Britain

C. New quartering act for soldiers

D. Massachusetts Council and law-enforcement officers made

appointive

E. No town meetings

VA assembly met in May. A young TJ proposed to set aside June 1 for

fasting and prayer in VA

Royal Governor dissolved VA Assembly

Move to Raleigh Tavern where they decide to form a Continental

Congress

B. First Continental Congress, September 1774

2. Adopted Declaration of American Rights

Intolerable Acts are null & void

3. Formed Continental Association

4. Mass participation in the boycott

**Lord North offers to eliminate all

revenue taxes if colonies pay for

own military and governors salary**

IX. British responseC. Gage moved to confiscate supplies in Concord

Paul Revere warns Lexington (4/18/1775)

D. First shots at Lexington

Confrontation with John Parker & “minutemen”

E. Confrontation in Concord and British retreat to Boston

X. Other acts of protest A. Second Continental Congress (5/10/1775)

B. Green Mountain Boys take forts in New York

− Led by volunteers from Vermont & Mass (Benedict Arnold)

C. Congress picks Washington to lead Continental Army

− Experience, from VA, “looked” like a leader

D. Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17)

Actually at Breed’s Hill

3 waves (1054 Redcoat casualties vs 450 Patriots)

After this English generals more cautious

Continental Army asks all able body men to enlist

….9 month stalemate

E. Olive Branch Petition

sent by congress to king to reconciliation

F. Failed American assault on Quebec

2 prong attack, smallpox, 400 Pats captured 12/31/1775

G. Initial fighting in Virginia and the Carolinas

H. Functions of general government gradually assumed by

Congress

neg. treaties with Indian tribes

Org network of Post Offices

Authorized formation of navy & marine forces

I. Hiring of German mercenaries by King George

J. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, January 1776

55 page pamphlet

it was “common sense” the King was responsible

must assert independence & abandon monarchy

“The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ‘TIS TIME TO PART”

In 3 months 150k copies are circulating

K. Declaration of Independence, July 1776 1. Jefferson as the Declaration’s “draftsman“

Committee of 5, down to Adams & TJ, then just TJ

2. Congress’s revisions

-86 total: inserting 2 references to God & deleting a section

3. The Declaration’s main ideas

blamed king NOT parliament

“all men created equal”

Govts derived “their just Powers from the consent of the people” who are entitled to “alter or abolish” those govts that deny

people their “unalienable rights” to “life, Liberty, and the pursuit

of Happiness”

“We must now Hang together or we shall most assuredly hang

separately” - B.F.

XI. Assessment of the causes of the Revolution

John Hancock – region’s largest smuggler

VA and SC feared England’s future policy on slavery

GW – had 60k acres in Ohio Valley he couldn’t touch

Interview with 91 yr old vet from Lexington & Concord pg 138-39