American History I
Notes from 2/20/01

Parliament began to look for ways to generate revenues from the colonies. Review the chart on page 147. Prior to 1763, the British policy toward its North American colonies had been one of salutary neglect. The British pretty much left the colonies alone as long as they provided markets for British manufactured goods, British tea and sugar from Britain’s Caribbean possessions, and as long as the colonies continued to supply agricultural products (tobacco, rice, cotton, indigo) in return. Under this system, each colony’s legislature had developed a sense of independence and autonomy.

With the pressing need for tax revenues, things began to change after 1763. With the Sugar Act (1764), the British began actually lowered the duty on molasses that had been set in 1733, but stepped up efforts to reduce the smuggling and bribery that had made the earlier tax ineffective. Colonists complained that the new British policy violated their right to assess their own taxes, but this first Parliamentary act did not lead to violence or mass protest.

However the next step, the Stamp Act (1765) caused major unrest. This tax on written documents (newspapers, legal documents, license) affected everybody directly, and led to bitter protest. Colonial leaders met in October, 1765 in the Stamp Act Congress to draft a petition to the King. Although the delegates to the Stamp Act Congress tried to be conciliatory instead of confrontational, this event was significant because it was the first time the colonies had met as a group since 1754.

The people hired to sell the revenue stamps that would be put on such documents were intimidated and threatened, and by November, 1765 most had resigned. In 1766, the British Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act, but it issued a statement declaring its right to tax the colonies (this is called the Declaratory Act.)

Subsequent duties on glass, lead, paper, paints and tea (Townshend Acts, 1767) led to further protest. The colonists began a "nonimportation" movement, vowing to boycott British goods until the taxes were lifted. All of the taxes were ultimately repealed as well, except for a tax on tea. Things simmered down for a while.

In 1773, the British passed a Tea Act, which required the colonists to buy their tea from the British East India Company (instead of Britain’s Dutch rivals). Although the Act actually lowered the legal price of tea, the colonists protested because they saw the Act as a way of sneaking in a tax without representation. Additionally, many New England merchants stood to lose if the British cracked down on the smuggling of Dutch tea. In December, 1773, protesters in Boston dumped British tea into the Boston Harbor (the Boston Tea Party) as a protest to the Tea Act.

In retaliation for the Tea Party, Britain closed the port of Boston, restructured the Massachusetts Legislature, restricted meetings and sent in British troops. These are known as the Coercive or Intolerable Acts. The Intolerable Acts lead the the First Continental Congress (1774), during which delegates from each of the colonies try to decide their next move. In 1775, there are skirmishes between poorly armed colonists and British troops in Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. By the time the Second Continental Congress meets in 1775, fighting has already begun, and the chances for reconciliation are fading fast.

Delegates to the Second Continental Congress (1775) begin to direct the early war effort, appointing George Washington as its commander. But they are reluctant at first to actually declare independence from Britain. One of the reasons is that many delegates feel that there is not yet enough popular support for independence.

Thomas Paine’s publication of a pamphlet called Common Sense in 1776 has a tremendous impact on public opinion. An instant best seller, the pamphlet argues that colonists have no obligation to the British king, who by his actions had "surrendered his claim to the colonists’ obedience." As a direct attack on kingship, Paine’s essay laid part of the intellectual foundation for American republicanism; as an appeal to the common man, particularly back country people like the Scotch-Irish and Germans, the pamphlet generated the popular support necessary for a legitimate revolutionary movement.

With public opinion more firmly behind independence (although many Loyalists remained), the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence (July 2, 1776). A committee headed by Thomas Jefferson was chosen to draft the formal declaration of independence, which was then signed by the delegates two days later. The war was on.