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US US History Lecture 3 American Revolution Uzair Khan

Road to independence
Navigation Acts: (1651, 60, 63, 73, 96)
The Navigation Acts, or more broadly the Acts of Trade and Navigation, was a long series of
English laws that developed, promoted, and regulated English ships, shipping, trade, and
commerce between other countries and with its own colonies.
The Acts generally prohibited the use of foreign ships, required the employment of English and
colonial mariners for 75% of the crews, including East India Company ships. The Acts prohibited
colonies from exporting specific, enumerated, products to countries other than Britain and those
countries' colonies, and mandated that imports be sourced only through Britain. Overall, the Acts
formed the basis for English (and later) British overseas trade for nearly 200 years.
Great Awakening:
 Leaders of the movement George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards
 Religious revivalism: A sense of personal guilt and the need of salvation by Christ
 The movement united the Americans and infused individualism
 “Nation is unity of thought” –Iqbal
Molasses act 1733:
Molasses Act, (1733), in American colonial history, a British law that imposed a tax on molasses,
sugar, and rum imported from non-British foreign colonies into the North American colonies. The
act specifically aimed at preserving a practical monopoly of the American sugar market to British
West Indies sugarcane growers, who otherwise could not compete successfully with French and
other foreign sugar producers on more-fertile neighboring West Indian islands.
The American colonists protested the act, claiming that the British West Indies alone could not
produce enough molasses to meet the demands.
7Years war 1756-63:
“The First World War” Churchill
The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) was a global conflict that spanned five continents, though it
was known in America as the “French and Indian War.” After years of skirmishes between England
and France in North America, England officially declared war on France in 1756, setting off what
Winston Churchill later called “the first world war.” While the French, British, and Spanish battled
over colonies in the New World, Frederick the Great of Prussia faced off against Austria, France,
Russia and Sweden. The Seven Year’s War ended with two treaties. The Treaty of Hubertusburg
granted Silesia to Prussia and enhanced Frederick the Great’s Power. The Treaty of Paris between
France, Spain and Great Britain drew colonial lines largely in favor of the British, an outcome that
would later influence the French to intervene in the war for American Independence.
Sugar act: An irritant contributed towards revolution
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US US History Lecture 3 American Revolution Uzair Khan

The Sugar Act 1764, also known as the American Revenue Act 1764 or the American Duties Act,
was a revenue-raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on 5 April 1764.
The preamble to the act stated: "it is expedient that new provisions and regulations should be
established for improving the revenue of this Kingdom ... and ... it is just and necessary that a
revenue should be raised ... for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the
same."
Currency Act:
The Currency Act or Paper Bills of Credit Act is one of many several Acts of the Parliament of
Great Britain that regulated paper money issued by the colonies of British America. The Acts
sought to protect British merchants and creditors from being paid in depreciated colonial currency.
The policy created tension between the colonies and Great Britain and was cited as a grievance by
colonists early in the American Revolution.
Stamp Act:
The Stamp Act of 1765 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax
on the British colonies in America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be
produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. Printed
materials included legal documents, magazines, playing cards, newspapers, and many other types
of paper used throughout the colonies, and it had to be paid in British currency, not in colonial
paper money.
Stamp Act Congress:
Taxation without Representation is Tyranny!
With that, the STAMP ACT CONGRESS convened in New York in October 1765.
The first Organized Colonial Protest: American colonists responded to Parliament's acts with
organized protest. Throughout the colonies, a network of secret organizations known as the Sons
of Liberty was created, aimed at intimidating the stamp agents who collected Parliament's taxes.
Before the Stamp Act could even take effect, all the appointed stamp agents in the colonies had
resigned. The Massachusetts Assembly suggested a meeting of all the colonies to work for the
repeal of the Stamp Act. All but four colonies were represented. The Stamp Act Congress passed
a "Declaration of Rights and Grievances," which claimed that American colonists were equal to
all other British citizens, protested taxation without representation, and stated that, without colonial
representation in Parliament, Parliament could not tax colonists. In addition, the colonists
increased their nonimportation efforts.
Sons of Liberty and street politics:
The Sons of Liberty were a grassroots group of instigators and provocateurs in colonial America
who used an extreme form of civil disobedience—threats, and in some cases actual violence—to
intimidate loyalists and outrage the British government. The goal of the radicals was to push
moderate colonial leaders into a confrontation with the Crown.
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US US History Lecture 3 American Revolution Uzair Khan

The group may have taken its name from a speech given in Parliament by Isaac Barre, an Irish
member sympathetic to the colonists, who warned that the British government’s behavior
“has caused the blood of these sons of liberty to recoil within them.”
The Sons’ most prominent leader was Samuel Adams, the son of a wealthy brewer who was more
interested in radical rabble-rousing than commerce. Adams wrote his masters thesis at Harvard on
the lawfulness of resisting British rule.
No Taxation without Representation
Quartering Act 1765:
The Quartering Acts were two or more Acts of British Parliament requiring local governments of
the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with housing and food.
Townshend Acts:
Townshend Duties, refers to a series of British acts of Parliament passed during 1767 and 1768
relating to the British colonies in America. They are named after Charles Townshend, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer who proposed the program. While the original intent of the import
duties had been to raise revenue, Charles Townshend saw the policies as a way to remodel colonial
governments. The Townshend Acts would use the revenue raised by the duties to pay the salaries
of colonial governors and judges, ensuring the loyalty of America’s governmental officials to the
British Crown. However, these policies prompted colonists to take action by boycotting British
goods.
Boston Massacre:
The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred on March 5, 1770, on King Street in Boston.
It began as a street brawl between American colonists and a lone British soldier, but quickly
escalated to a chaotic, bloody slaughter. The conflict energized anti-British sentiment and paved
the way for the American Revolution.
Prelude to the Boston Massacre: Tensions ran high in Boston in early 1770. More than 2,000
British soldiers occupied the city of 16,000 colonists and tried to enforce Britain’s tax laws, like
the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts. American colonists rebelled against the taxes they found
repressive, rallying around the cry, “no taxation without representation.”
Crispus Attucks: First causality of War
Trial of Soldiers and Preston’s remarks
“None of them was a hero. The victims were troublemakers who got more than they deserved.
The soldiers were professionals…who shouldn’t have panicked. The whole thing shouldn’t have
happened.”
Tea Act 1773:
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US US History Lecture 3 American Revolution Uzair Khan

The Tea Act of 1773 was one of several measures imposed on the American colonists by the
heavily indebted British government in the decade leading up to the American Revolutionary War
(1775-83). The act’s main purpose was not to raise revenue from the colonies but to bail out the
floundering East India Company, a key actor in the British economy. The British government
granted the company a monopoly on the importation and sale of tea in the colonies. The colonists
had never accepted the constitutionality of the duty on tea, and the Tea Act rekindled their
opposition to it. Their resistance culminated in the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, in
which colonists boarded East India Company ships and dumped their loads of tea overboard.
Boston Tea Party:
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin’s
Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing
“taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India
Company into the harbor. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the
colonists. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn’t take taxation and tyranny sitting down,
and rallied American patriots across the 13 colonies to fight for independence.
Intolerable Acts 1774:
The Intolerable Acts (passed/Royal assent March 31–June 22, 1774) were punitive laws passed by
the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws were meant to punish the
Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest in reaction to changes in taxation
by the British Government. In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts.
The acts took away self-governance and rights that Massachusetts had enjoyed since its founding,
triggering outrage and indignation in the Thirteen Colonies. They were key developments in the
outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.
On April 22, 1774, Prime Minister Lord North defended the programme in the House of Commons,
saying:
“The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your
ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement and so long forbearing
has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. Whatever may
be the consequences, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over”
First Continental Congress:
On September 5, 1774, delegates from each of the 13 colonies except for Georgia (which was
fighting a Native American uprising and was dependent on the British for military supplies) met
in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to Parliament’s
Coercive Acts. The delegates included a number of future luminaries, such as future presidents
John Adams (1735-1826) of Massachusetts and George Washington (1732-99) of Virginia, and
future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and diplomat John Jay (1745-1829) of New York. The
Congress was structured with emphasis on the equality of participants, and to promote free debate.
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After much discussion, the Congress issued a Declaration of Rights, affirming its loyalty to the
British Crown but disputing the British Parliament’s right to tax it.
Second Continental Congress; De facto government
The First Continental Congress had sent entreaties to King George III to stop the Coercive Acts;
they had also created the Continental Association to establish a coordinated protest of those acts,
putting a boycott on British goods. The Second Continental Congress met on May 10, 1775, to
plan further responses if the British government had not repealed or modified the acts; however,
the American Revolutionary War had already started by that time with the Battles of Lexington
and Concord, and the Congress was called upon to take charge of the war effort.
Patrick Henry’s speech setting stage for the revolution 23, March 1775:
In his speech he emphasizes his view that there is a need to fight for truth and God's purpose. His
"Give me Liberty or give me Death!" speech is based on his belief that the alternative to fighting
is slavery (meaning British rule). He believes that fighting for freedom is a responsibility of God
and country, he aligns God on the side of the colonists. He is respectful towards King George III
but that God is the ultimate authority. He believes that the view of the opposition is based on false
hope in that the British will work for the good of the colonists and that this hope will lead to
betrayal "spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne". He then makes reference to
additional British troops that the British have sent to America and their "warlike preparations".
Patrick Henry then makes an urgent call to arms "The war is inevitable - and let it come!"
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense Pamphlet:
Thomas Paine published “Common Sense,” in which he argued that independence was a “natural
right” and the only possible course for the colonies; the pamphlet sold more than 150,000 copies
in its first few weeks in publication.
Key Points:
 Government's purpose was to serve the people.
 Having a king was a bad idea
 America as the home of the free
 America had a rare opportunity to create a new nation based on self-rule
 A strong central government was needed
Declaration of Independence:
The Declaration of Independence was the first formal statement by a nation’s people asserting their
right to choose their own government.
When armed conflict between bands of American colonists and British soldiers began in April
1775, the Americans were ostensibly fighting only for their rights as subjects of the British crown.
By the following summer, with the Revolutionary War in full swing, the movement for
independence from Britain had grown, and delegates of the Continental Congress were faced with
a vote on the issue. In mid-June 1776, a five-man committee including Thomas Jefferson, John
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US US History Lecture 3 American Revolution Uzair Khan

Adams and Benjamin Franklin was tasked with drafting a formal statement of the colonies’
intentions. The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence—written largely by
Jefferson—in Philadelphia on July 4, a date now celebrated as the birth of American independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed.” -----Jefferson

Timeline of War:
4 July 1776 Declaration of Independence
9 Sept 1776 Congress changed the name ‘United Colonies to United States’
1777 Battle of Saratoga
1778 France Joins American Colonies
1779 Spain Declares war on Britain
1780 Holland Joins
Oct 19 1781 Yorktown and Surrender of Lord Cornwallis
1781 Articles of Confederation agreed by all colonies
1783 Treaty of Paris Gives Independence

Why Americans won the War?