Chapter 3
American History
The British Colonies Before the Revolution
Costa
British Colonial System
Colonial Autonomy
• Salutary Neglect
•Distance & British inefficiency allowed colonies
significant freedom.
•International affairs controlled by Britain
•Internal affairs left up to the Colonial Assemblies
Government Structure •
Govornors, Legislatures and Judiciary
• Governors - Either appointed by King or proprietors
• Legislatures - Bicameral in most colonies
•Lower Houses - elected
•Upper Houses - some elected some appointed
• Judiciary - appointed by the Crown or local elites
Mercantilism
Economic theory emphasizing wealth through trade
GOAL : Export More than you import
Colonies as suppliers of raw materials and consumers of finished products
Effects of Merchantilism
The Good and the Bad
• Positives
• Shipbuilding flourished in the colonies
• Protected markets for colonial goods like tobacco and rice
• Negatives
• Limited industrial development in the colonies
• Increased costs for imported goods due to tariffs and shipping
restrictions
Navigation Acts:
• Key Provisions
• Trade Limited to English ships
• A number of goods would be exported only to England
• Tobacco, Sugar
• Foreign goods for colonies were subject to English taxation
• Enforcement issues
• Lax enforcement due to lack of ships and colonial smuggling and
bribery
Molasses Act 1733
Six-pence a gallon imposed on Molasses
Rarely collected
The GREAT AWAKENING
Religion is a changing again
Origins and Leaders
Began in 1730s, inspired by European evangelical movements
• Leaders :
• George Whitefield
• Charismatic preachers known for emotional revival
• Jonathan Edwards
• Intellectual revivalist
• “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” sermon
Key Features
Of GREAT AWAKENING
• Emotional sermons emphasizing personal salvation and
repentance
• Criticized traditional church authority
• Individual relationships with God
• Preached to mixed audiences, crossing class and denominational
lines
Impact
Split congragations
• Old Lights
• Traditionalists favoring established practices
• New Lights
• Revivalists embracing emotional, evangelical preaching
• Increased religious diversity and tolerance
• Promoted new colleges:
• Princeton 1746; Darmouth 1769; Brown 1765; Rutgers 1766
The Enlightenment in America
a quick review of last chapter
Core Ideas
Reason and science as pathways to understanding the world
• Natural Rights, Social Contracts ar the foundations of political concepts
• Locke - Life, Liberty and Property
• Montesquueiu Seperation of Powers and Checks and Balances
• Voltaire - Freedom of Religion
• Rousseau - Freedom and Equality
Impact on Religion
Movement away from strict Calvinism
•Growth of Deism : God as a watchmaker who
created the universe and stepped back\
•Decline of clergy’s dominance in over
intellectual life
Scientific Achievements in America
• Benjamin Franklin : Studied Electricity, Lighting Rod, Franklin
Stove, Bifocals
• promoted libraries, fire companies, hospitals
• John Bartram : Studied and classified Flora (Plants)
• David Rittenhouse : Astronomer who build the first American orrery
(model of the universe)
Colonial Conflicts
Competition with French, Dutch, & Spanish over resources
• King William’s War 1689-1697 Raids by the French and Native
American Allies in New England
• Queen Anne’s War 1702-1713 the British gain Nova Scotia and
Hudson Bay in the Treaty of Utrecht
• King George’s War 1740 1748 New England forces capture and then
returned. Louisbourg (Jenkins Ear)
• These wars in the Americas were extensions of European conflicts
1754 🡪 Albany Plan of Union
Ben Franklin 🡪 representatives from
New England, NY, MD, PA
* Albany Congress 🡪 failed Iroquois
broke off relations with
Britain & threatened to
trade with the French.
* Colonies for the first time try to UNITE
The French and Indian War
Aka The Great war for the Empire, Aka the 7 years war
•Causes in North America
•British and French have disputed land in North America
especially the Ohio River Valley
•Conflict over fur trade
•Alliances with Native American tribes
Major Events
1754-1755
• Washington early Skirmishes 1754
• Failed Claim for Fort Duquesne
• Assisanation of Joseph Coulon de Villers, Sieur de Jumonville at Jumonville
Glen
• Fort Necessity surrender
• Edward Braddock’s Defeat 1755
• Warned by Ben Franklin
• British ambushed on his march to Fort Duquesne
William Pitt’s Leadership
Came to power 1758 because things were not going well
• Strategic investment in troops and resources
• Sent way more English regulars than before
• He used the navy to stop French communication
• Promoted talented young officers to replace stuffy generals
• British Capture key locations Fort Niagara, Quebec, Montreal and
Fort Duquesne (Now Pittsburgh)
Treaty of Paris
The outcome
• Britian Gained Canada and lands east of the Mississippi
• They saw the sugar islands as more valuable economically but
Canada was better Militarily
• Britain Gained French forts in India and Africa
• France ceded Louisiana to Spain who had been their ally (In a
separate treaty)
• Spain gave Britain Florida but gained Cuba and Philipine Islands
North America in 1763
Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763)
The Aftermath: Tensions
Along the Frontier
1763 - Pontiac’s Rebellion
Fort Detroit
British “gifts” of smallpox-infected
blankets from Fort Pitt.
Proclamation Line 1763
Protection not punishment
● Colonists were forbidden to settle west of the Appalachian
Mountains
○ originally was supposed to be temporary
● Some Colonists could cross the line to trade with Native Americans
in the Fur Trade ( as that is why the British wanted to fight this war)
● Colonial Soldiers saw this as a blow because they felt that William
Pitt had promised them land and now it was worthless.
● British believe that the war was won with British money and British
Soldiers more than any help from colonists (according to your book
they were right)
BACKLASH!
British - Proclamation
Line of 1763.
Colonials - Paxton Boys (PA)
Rethinking Their Empire
Br. Gvt. measures to prevent
smuggling:
1761 writs of assistance
▪ James Otis’ case
▪ Protection of a citizen’s
private property must be
held in higher regard
than a parliamentary
statute.
▪ He lost in parliamentary
law and custom had equal
weight.
The Sugar Act and Stamp Act
Sugar Act (1764) Stamp Act (1765) Colonial Resistance
Placed tariffs on imported A highly controversial Led to protests,
goods like sugar and molasses, boycotts of British
direct tax on all
and added new restrictions on
printed materials, goods, and the rise of
paper money and colonial
trade. including newspapers, secret groups like the
Reduced the tax from 6 pence legal documents, and Sons of Liberty to
to 3 pence BUT NOW
playing cards. intimidate tax collectors.
ENFORCED!!!
Declaratory Act
● Stamp Act Congress
○ Boycott of British goods
○ Ben Franklin goes to argue
case
● Parlaiment repealed the
Stamp Act after the Stamp Act
Congress
● Immediately after it passed the
Declataratory Act
○ This claimed that the
Parliament had authority
over the colonies and had
the right to tax the colonies
Townshend Acts
Back to indirect Taxes
❏Charles Townshend - Chancellor
of the exchequer introduces new
indirect taxes
❏ lead, glass, paints, paper, and
tea imported to colonies taxed
❏ renewed non importation
❏ MA General Court issues
“Circular Letter”
Tar and Feathering
The Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, a confrontation between
colonists and British soldiers in Boston
escalated.
British soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five
colonists, including Crispus Attucks.
The event was heavily publicizedn as
"propaganda" by figures like Paul Revere,
fueling anti-British ager and uniting colonists.
In response to the outrage, Parliament
partially repealed the Townshend duties,
except for the tax on tea.
The Boston Massacre (March 5,1770)
Gaspee Incident
• The Gaspee was a patrol ship
• It was pursuing a suspected smuggler up and inlet of
Rhode Island
• It ran aground and the crew exited the ship while they
figured out how to dislodge it
• That night Colonists burned the Gaspee
• No colonists were ever held accountable because no
one would cooperate with the Red Coats
• The British in the colonies and back home were
furious
The Gaspee Incident (1772)
Providence, RI coast
Committees
of Correspondence
● Purpose -warn neighboring colonies
about incidents with Br.
- broaden the resistance
movement.
Tea Act (1773)
• British East India Co.:
• Monopoly on British tea
imports.
• MPs had stock in BEI Co.
• MPs Permitted the Co. to
sell tea directly to
cols. without tax
(cheaper tea!)
• Lord North expected the
cols. to eagerly choose the cheaper tea.
The Tea Act & Boston Tea Party
Boston Tea Party (Dec 1773)
In protest, colonists disguised as Native
Americans boarded ships in Boston
Harbor and destroyed an entire shipment
of tea.
Tea Act (1773) Coercive Acts (1774)
Britain reduced tea prices but kept the Britain's harsh response: The "Intolerable
tax. Colonists saw it as a "trap" to force Acts" closed Boston Harbor and
them to accept taxation without suspended Massachusetts's government.
representation.
Boston Tea Party (1773)
The Coercive or Intolerable
Lord North Acts (1774)
1. Port Bill
2. Government Act
3. New Quartering
This was a Act
punishment that was
inflicted only on
4. Administration of
Massachussetts Justice Act
The
Quebec
Act (1774)
First Continental Congress (1774)
55 delegates from 12 colonies NO GA
Agenda - How to
respond to the
Coercive Acts &
the Quebec Act?
1 vote per colony
represented.
From Resistance to Revolution
The Coercive (Intolerable) Acts were
intended to punish Massachusetts but
• instead sparked colonial unity.
Other colonies rallied in support, fearing
•
their own rights would be taken away next.
• First Continental Congress (1774): Delegates
from 12 colonies met in Philadelphia to organize
• unified resistance and a complete boycott of
British goods.
This marked the final shift from simply
resisting taxes to demanding fundamental
rights, setting the stage for revolution.
The Path to Revolution
The American Revolution was not a sudden event, but was
born from a decade of escalating tensions over taxes, trade,
and representation.