From Colonies to States · 2018. 8. 30. · 2. Adopted Declaration of American Rights Intolerable...
Transcript of From Colonies to States · 2018. 8. 30. · 2. Adopted Declaration of American Rights Intolerable...
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