Mrs Wilson's History Hub

The American Revolution

Important Notes:

This Lecture/Unit Will Cover Chapter Four in Your Textbook

Chapter Four: The Empire in Transition

(there will also be some content from Chapter Five)

The French and Indian War

-The war was a North American manifestation of a larger European struggle known as The Seven Years War. This struggle, between England and France spilled into North America during the 1750s and involved French, English, colonial, and Iroquois fighters.

War is important to American colonists because it exposes some underlying tensions between the British and their colonial subjects.

-By the 1750s religious and economic disputes between England and France spilled into their North American colonial holdings. France claimed a large swath of North American territory from present day Louisiana to Canada, but maintained it by a loosely connected network of forts, missions, and trading posts.

-The French shared some of this territory with the Iroquois Confederacy which consisted of five Indian nations: Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida. This was an independent native nation and maintained its power by forcing slight relationships with both England and France while not becoming close allies with either.

-Each participant in this conflict, the French, Iroquois Confederacy, and the English clashed over dominance in the Ohio River Valley. As France and England butted heads in Europe, the Iroquois nation granted trading concessions to English merchants, thus further straining Anglo-French relations in the colonies. This caused the French to construct new fortresses in the Ohio River Valley. In response the British military also began to construct military forts in the area, which escalated animosities.

-In the Summer of 1754 the governor of Virginia sent Colonel George Washington with a militia into the Ohio River Valley to stop French expansion. Washington thus oversaw the construction of Fort Necessity, which was close to the French Fort Duquesne. The French attacked Fort Necessity which led to huge losses for Washington’s troops and his eventual surrender. This started the French and Indian War.

Washington During the French and Indian War:

Washington played a few roles during the war. Apart from Ft. Necessity, Washington served under Braddock in 1755 when he failed in the Ohio River Valley, but Washington’s bravery earned him a leadership role and he commanded the forces of Virginia for the next three years, gaining vital experience, which would come in handy during the American Revolution.

-The conflict raged in the colonies against a foreign force who was outnumbered and had less access to supplies and money. Fort Louisbourg and Fort Duquesne fell in 1758 and following a successful siege of Quebec, French forces surrendered with the Peace of Paris signed in 1763. The war expanded English holdings in North America, fatally weakened the Iroquois Confederacy’s hold on the Ohio River Valley, and put England and her colonies in a considerable amount of debt.

Conflict In the Colonies:

-The French and Indian War left Britain and her colonies with a massive war debt. In England, the population faced extensive rises in taxes, which led to taxes in the colonies as well. On top of fiscal problems, politically England faced problems with King George III (1760) who upon succeeding the throne after the death of his grandfather, caused a political power upheaval in Parliament, the King was also known to suffer from bouts of extreme illness and insanity. Newly appointed Prime Minister George Grenville also proved hostile towards colonial interests, which would exacerbate growing problems. New Acts that would consolidate power and provide revenue for the English government further alienated colonists and caused a rise in tensions.

-The Mutiny Act of 1765:

-Colonists were required to assist in housing and maintaining the army. This essentially meant colonists had to feed and house British troops, which to some felt like occupational measures, an encroachment on natural freedoms. Although the English government claimed that the increase of troops was provided as a safety measure for colonists and the lodging and feeding assistance were simply easy ways to cut costs… the colonists did not agree. They found the idea of being forced to house and feed troops as a serious miscarriage of justice, and called it another taxation without consent. This led to acts of colonial defiance and English official responses to suppress such.

-Stamp Act of 1765

-This act imposed a tax on many printed documents including newspapers, almanacs, deeds, and other official documents. The passage of this act led to major problems between the colonists and their mother country. This tax hit all colonists and although the relative cost was small, it was an obvious tax to raise revenue for England without the consent of her people and they felt allowing such would cause more unauthorized taxes on the colonists in the future. Patrick Henry and other powerful men in Virginia spoke out against the tax and stated that as British citizens, the colonists of Virginia could only be taxed if said revenues were approved by the Virginia Assembly, this in turn caused other colonies to speak in the same manner. Outbursts against the Stamp Act and Mutiny Act actually resulted in a change of government and the rise to power of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, who was...to say the least, not the best friend of the American colonists. In response to colonial complaints, Townshend disbanded the New York Assembly and levied new taxes on imported paper, paint, lead, and tea. Needless to say, these reactionary measures, while seemingly logical to Townshend, did not go over well in the colonies.

-The Boston Massacre:

-Deteriorating relations between England and her American subjects led to conflicts between encamped British troops stationed on colonial soil. Colonial aggression towards British officials led to an extensive troop buildup in Boston where four regiments of regular British troops were stationed. On March 5, 1770, tensions between British soldiers and a crowd of Bostonians (mainly dockworkers) rose to a boiling point. Some of the men in the crowd began to throw debris at a group of British troops including snowballs and rocks. After one soldier protecting a building was knocked off of his feet, British soldiers fired into the crowd. Five colonists were killed in what was deemed the Boston Massacre, including Crispus Attucks.

Crispus Attucks:

Attucks is an interesting character in the midst of the chaos of the rising tensions between England and the American colonies because he has been lauded as the first real casualty of the American Revolution. Little is known about this man who has been described as a mulatto and black man. From what scant sources we do have regarding Attucks and his background, we know he was a mulatto male who was in his late forties at the time of the Boston Massacre. His participation in the altercation illustrates the muddy waters that the overarching tensions between the British government and her subjects caused on the ground in the colonies. To the colonists, Attucks was a martyr and a hero who shed his blood for the fight against tyranny and oppression, but he was also depicted as an instigator, a trouble maker, and one of the reasons the altercation even occurred by the lawyer who represented the British soldiers during their murder trial… none other than John Adams, the First Vice President of the United States and the Second President. This is important because it brings up the concept of perception in the context of the American conflict and alternating ideas of innocence and guilt… which is in the eye of the beholder here. Incidentally, Adams won his case in favor of the British soldiers.

-The Tea Act and Coercive Acts

In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act to help the struggling East India Company. This enabled the tea merchants to bypass all taxes on the sale and importation of tea into the colonies, while also allowing them to undercut colonial merchant middlemen and take control of the tea trade. The law also added a new tax on tea. The affront to the merchants combined with another unapproved tax on colonial citizens livened passions against England in the colonies once more. Colonists responded by boycotting the purchase and usage of tea. These protests resulted in the Boston Tea Party in December of 1773.

-On December 16th men disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three ships carrying tea from the East India Company and dumped the cargo into Boston Harbor which resulted in further retaliations by the English when colonists refused to pay for the damage.

-The Consequences of the Tea Party manifested as what are called The Coercive Acts, efforts by the English government to suppress growing unrest in the colonies, mainly in Massachusetts. The four acts were put in place in 1774 and:

- Closed the port of Boston

- Restricted colonial self-government

- Moved any trials of royal officials to another colony or back in England.

-Required colonists to quarter British troops

These acts, in combination with the Intolerable Acts, which provided more religious freedom and rights to Catholics. This further intensified American colonial fears of State imposed religion and English plots, which caused an increased division between colonists and England, leading eventually to war.

The Continental Congress:

-First:

-Tensions following the passage of the Coercive Acts and the Intolerable Acts led to a demand for a Continental Congress amongst colonial leaders such as John Adams. The first congress met in Philadelphia in September of 1774. This congress resulted in a list of grievances sent to King George under the title of “Most Gracious Sovereign.” The colonists asked for all of the oppressive acts passed since 1763 to be removed. Moreover, the colonists also, while attempting to appeal to the King, began preparations to continue resistance. They called for military preparation in defense against British troops and stopping trade with the British completely. The Congress also agreed to meet again.

-The Second Congress:

-The Battles of Lexington and Concord further exacerbated problems between the colonies and the English. The British, aware of the Continental Congress’ decree to build defensive arms, kept their troops stationed in the colonies on alert. General Thomas Gage, who was tasked with this sent out 1,ooo troops to seize a store of supplies collected by the colonists and to avoid much conflict by doing so during the night and by surprise. Colonial lookouts spotted Gage’s troop movement and thus sent Paul Revere and William Dawes across the countryside to warn villages of the troops’ approach. Although his ride is famous (mainly because of the poem attributed to him), Paul Revere was captured by British soldiers during his trek. Colonial troops called minutemen awaited the British as they approached the stashed military supplies and a conflict erupted, which resulted in the deaths of eight colonists and the burning of what stores remained. The British soldiers met with death on the march back to Boston, where many of them were killed by colonist who fired at them from trees.

-The second congress met in Philadelphia in May of 1775. Delegates included John Adams. Delegates from almost all of the colonies (save Georgia) attended this congress and agreed to war with Britain. The congress was torn about the future where some, like John Adams wanted complete independence and others sought to mend the ties with their imperial mother.

-The delegates once again petitioned their government, stating that England left the American colonists with little choice on how to handle the growing unrest and oppression...unconditional submission to tyranny or resistance.

-The population was behind the resistance to English authority and wanted to separate entirely. They were in part influenced by Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense,” that cited the true problems between England and her colonies lied in the foundations of the British government, the monarchy and the King. “Common Sense” proved to be very popular in the American colonies, selling thousands of copies and influencing the sentiments of many who began to see separation as the only way to move forward.

-Liberty

-The Declaration of Independence:

The Continental Congress by 1776 began to formally break from Great Britain. On July 2, 1776, the congress appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration of independence, which was approved and adopted on July 4, 1776.

-Thomas Jefferson with the help of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin wrote the declaration.

-What the Declaration Says: The colonies were united, free, and independent of the British state. According to the Declaration (heavily influenced by Enlightenment thought), the main task of any nation’s government was to protect the rights of life, liberty, and property, to protect the natural rights and interests of its people. The declaration claimed that the King of England was not acting in accordance with the government’s duty to the people and thus no longer merited loyalty.

But… were all men equal?

-The struggle with the Declaration of Independence, the rights it celebrated and the facts in the American colonies and elsewhere throughout the British empire said otherwise. Many of the men who attended the Continental Congress were wealthy members of the landed gentry and thus owned slaves. Slaves enabled Washington and Jefferson to have vast estates and both men, children of the Enlightenment, had to contend with conflicting ideas of human bondage and liberty. Although Jefferson did make some efforts to ban the importation of slaves and ban the practice all together in Virginia and in the United States during and after the Revolutionary War...he failed as slavery had already taken a deadly hold over the Southern states and threatened to dissolve the union before it solidified. Although Jefferson held abolitionist ideas, he never freed his own slaves. George Washington would, in his will, free his slaves (some had to wait until his wife's death as they belonged to her). Slavery existed in the United States after the American Revolution and survived the adoption of the Constitution that touted a bill of rights for all people.

Mrs Wilson's History Hub

Thursday, October 22, 2015

William Bradford

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Lecture Notes

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Resources for The American Revolution