ROAD TO REVOLUTION

British Actions Colonist Actions

• 1764-Writs of Assistance

• 1764—Sugar Act

• 1765—Stamp Act• 1766—Declaratory Act• 1766—Quartering Act• 1767—Townshend Acts

• 1773—Tea Act• 1774—Coercive Acts

• 1774—Quebec Act

• James Otis offers arguments for colonist

• Opposition fragmented and ineffective

• Mass resistance• Ignored it• New York resisted• External/internal argument—

Letter from a Penn. Farmer

• Boston Tea Party• Intolerable Acts—1st

Continental Congress• Further inflamed colonist

WRITS OF ASSISTANCE

• BLANK SEARCH WARRANTS—designed to stop smuggling

• Otis argued that it violated traditional respect privacy of family homes

• Otis argued that any “act that violated the Constitution was void”

• Justice ruled that same warrants were being used in England so they were legal

Sugar Act

• All colonial goods exported to foreign countries had to go through port in Britain

• Instituted complicated paperwork for ships captain

• Stipulated that smugglers were not to be tried by a jury of their peers but by he vice-admiralty court

Stamp Act

• Tax placed on paper used for newspaper, doucments, licenses, diplomas etc.

• Touched every American colonist

• “no taxation without representation”

• Mass resistance and violence against government officals

• Creation of the Sons of Liberty

• Parliament agreed to repeal it

Declaratory Act

• Delcared that Parliament had the authority to legislate for all the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”

Quartering Act

• New York resisted further damaging colonial favor with Parliament

Townshend Acts

• Tax on glass, paint, lead , paper, and tea

• Townshend believed the colonist would accept it as an “external tax”

• Coloniest rejected them as an effort to raise revenue—not to regulate trade

• John Dickinson gained support for resistance with his “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania”

Tea Act

• Stipulated that the colonist could only buy tea from the East India tea Company

• This was an obvious attempt on the part of Parliament to enrich a company that many of them had stock in

• With much Bostonian support the “The Boston Tea Party” occurred

Coercive Acts

• Closed Boston Harbor

• Boston had to pay for damages

• Revoked the Mass charter

• No town meetings were allowed

• Colonist learned of the Quebec Act at the same time. Giving great benefits to the French Catholics of Quebec, which further incited them.

Timeline of eventsTreaty of Paris 1763Proclamation of 17631764-1767—British efforts to raise money from colonist1770—Boston Massacre1772—Committee of Correspondence1773-1774—Boston Tea Party and Intolerable ActMeeting of the 1st Continental Congress1775—Battles of Lexington and Concord2nd Continental CongressOlive Branch PetitionBattle of Bunker and Breeds HillJan. 1776—Publication of Common SenseJuly 1776—Declaration of Independence