Chapter 5

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

From Elite Protest to Popular Revolt,
1763–1783

America Past and Present

Eighth Edition
Divine  Breen  Fredrickson  Williams  Gross  Brand

Copyright 2007, Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman

 Structure of Colonial Society
 1760s an optimistic post-war period
 Striking ethnic and racial diversity
 60% of population under twenty-one
years old
 Relatively high per-capita GDP
 Wealth unevenly distributed
– South has richest individuals, and 90% of
non-free colonial population
– Middle colonies
– New England lags behind because of lack
of export products
 Breakdown of Political Trust
 1760—George III ascends throne
– Despite limited ability, wants to take more active
role in government
– Upsets Whigs by ignoring their role
– High turnover among top ministers
 Hard for Parliament to get adequate
information on colonies
 Parliamentary sovereignty
– English officials assume that Parliament must
have ultimate authority
 No Taxation without
Representation: The American
Perspective
 Colonists try to reserve internal colonial
authority for their own legislatures
 Colonists assume their legislatures equal in
some ways to Parliament
 Americans not represented at all in
Parliament
 British officials espouse “virtual
representation”
 Colonists insist only colonial assemblies
should represent Americans
Ideas About Power and Virtue
 John Locke and “Commonwealthmen"
shape colonial political thought
– Rebellion against arbitrary government
justified
 Power must be countered by virtue
 Bad government reflects sin and
corruption
 Colonists see British officials as sinful
and corrupt
 Newspapers ensure wide dissemination
of political confrontations
Eroding the Bonds of Empire I
 Large, expensive debt and army left in
America from Seven Years’ War
 Colonists doubt the army’s value
 Pontiac’s War
– Exposes the British army’s weakness
– Reveals the desperate situation of Native
Americans after withdrawal of French
– Frontier racism: Paxton Boys
 Eroding the Bonds of Empire
II: Proclamation of 1763
 Colonists determined to settle trans-
Appalachian West
 Proclamation of 1763 bans settlement in
trans-Appalachian West
 Colonists see post-war army as there to
enforce proclamation
 Paying Off the National Debt
 Prime Minister George Grenville
attempts to reduce England’s war debt
 Revenue Act of 1764 (the Sugar Act)
 Merchants and gentry protest; most
colonists ignore
Colonial Products and Trade
 Popular Protest
 1765—Stamp Act requires that colonists
purchase stamps to validate documents
 Patrick Henry and the Virginia Resolves,
unites the gentry and the mass of the
population in protest
 Stamp Act Congress petitions the king
and Parliament for repeal
 Sons of Liberty protest includes riots,
mob violence, and boycotts
 Failed Attempts to Save the
Empire
 1766—Rockingham ministry favors
repeal of Stamp Act
 Repeal tied to Declaratory Act of 1766
– Parliament sovereign over America “in all
cases whatsoever”
 Controversy estranges colonists from
English officials
 Fueling the Crisis:
The Townshend Duties
 Charles Townshend: chancellor of the
exchequer
 1767—Townshend Duties tax American
imports of paper, lead, glass, and tea
 American Board of Customs
Commissioners created to collect duties
 Fueling the Crisis: Response
to the Townshend Duties
 Sons of Liberty organize boycott of
English goods
 Circular letter from Massachusetts
House of Representatives urges protest
 Ninety-two Massachusetts
representatives defy government order
to rescind letter
 Fatal Show of Force
 English government moves 4000 troops
to Boston
 Troops clash with Boston’s population
 March 5, 1770—English soldiers fire on
civilian crowd, kill five Americans
– Incident labeled the “Boston Massacre”
– Victims seen as martyrs
– Paul Revere engraving a best seller
 Townsend Duties repealed 1770,
except tea
 Last Days of the Old Order,
1770–1773
 Customs collectors antagonize
colonists, even wealthy members of the
elite, such as John Hancock
 Radicals like Samuel Adams protest tea
tax as violation of American rights
 Committees of correspondence build up
alternative political structure
 The Final Provocation:
The Boston Tea Party
 1773—Parliament passes Tea Act
– Designed to help the East India Company
by making the sale of its tea cheaper in
America
 Americans interpret this as a subtle ploy
to get them to consume taxed tea
 December 1773—Boston protestors
dump the tea into the harbor
 The Final Provocation:
The Coercive Acts
 Port of Boston closed until tea paid for
 Massachusetts government re-structured
– Upper house made appointive body
– Town meetings permitted only once a year
 Accused officials to be tried in England,
not America
 Army authorized to quarter troops
wherever needed
 The Final Provocation:
The Québec Act
 Québec Act establishes authoritarian
government for Canada
 Gives control over settlement north of
Ohio River to Québec government
 Colonists interpret act as final proof of
Parliamentary plot to enslave America
 Provides unifying threat to colonies
 Steps Toward Independence
 September 1774—First Continental
Congress in response to Coercive Acts
 Congress commends “Suffolk Resolves”
urging forcible resistance
 Intercolonial “Association” halts commerce
with Britain until Coercive Acts repealed
 Shots Heard Around the
World
 April 19, 1775—skirmish breaks out in
Lexington, Massachusetts
 Fighting spreads along road between
Lexington, Concord, and Boston
 English retreat to Boston with heavy
losses
 June 17, 1775—colonists inflict heavy
losses on British in Battle of Bunker Hill
Beginning “The World Over
Again”: Early War Effort
 British colonial governments collapse
 Second Continental Congress—action and inaction
– June 1775—Congress appoints George Washington
commander in chief
– Congress issues paper money to pay war debts
– Debates whether to declare independence
 British action that makes compromise unlikely
– December 1775 Prohibitory Act—British blockade colonists’
trade
– German mercenaries hired to put down rebellion
– Virginia Governor Dunmore urges slaves to take up arms
against their masters
 Beginning “The World over
Again”: Decision for
Independence
 January 1776—Thomas Paine’s Common
Sense
– Convinces ordinary colonists to sever ties with
Britain
– Europe, not England, “is the parent country of
America”
 Jefferson writes Declaration of Independence
 Acceptance
– July 2, 1776—Independence voted by Congress
– July 4—Declaration of Independence issued
 Fighting for Independence
 British confident of victory
– Larger population, more resources
– Naval supremacy
 Britain’s tasks
– Supply troops an ocean away in hostile
territory
– Crush the popular spirit of independence
 British underestimate Americans’
commitment to their political ideology
The American Revolution, 1775–
1781
 Building a Professional Army
 Washington rejects guerilla warfare strategy
 Continental army to be a fighting force and
symbol of the republican cause
 Militia’s role: compel support for Revolution
 African Americans in the Revolution
– New England militias attract slaves with promises
of emancipation
– Southern slaves more likely to side with British
 Testing the American Will
 General Howe replaces General Gage
for British
 Summer 1776—fighting shifts to New
York
 American army routed on Long Island
 New York City captured
 Washington forced to retreat through
New Jersey
 British think rebels will soon capitulate
“Times That Try Men’s Souls”
 General Howe issues pardon for all who
swear loyalty to Britain
– 3000 accept
 December 25, 1776—Washington
captures 900 Hessians in Trenton
 January 3, 1777—Washington captures
Princeton
 Victories re-kindle wartime patriotism
 British consolidate forces; leave much
of New Jersey in patriot control
 Victory in a Year of Defeat
 British strategy
– Cut off New England from other colonies
– Lure Continental army into decisive battle
 The plan for cutting off New England
– Burgoyne’s army moves in from Canada
– Howe’s army moves up from New York
– They meet in Albany
 Burgoyne defeated at Saratoga
 Howe takes Philadelphia instead
 Washington’s army winters at Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania
 The French Alliance
 French help colonists to get back at
Britain for defeat in Seven Years’ War
 Effects of Saratoga
– Convinces France that colonists are
serious enough to become formal allies
– British sue for peace to prevent Franco-
American alliance
 British offer repeal of all laws since
1763, respect for colonial taxation rights
 February 1778—Alliance with France
concluded
 The Final Campaign
 British believe Loyalists stronger in southern
colonies, so fighting shifts there
 Spring 1780—English capture Savannah and
Charleston
 August 1780—American army routed at Camden,
South Carolina
 Continental army rallies under Nathaniel Greene
 Cornwallis moves British into Virginia, 1781
 October 19, 1781—Cornwallis surrenders to
Washington’s combined French and American
forces
 The Loyalist Dilemma
 More than 100,000 Loyalists leave U.S.
at war’s end
 Loyalists share basic ideology with
Patriots
 Loyalists see rebellion as endangering
“life, liberty, and property”
 Loyalists treated poorly by both sides
– British never fully trust Loyalists
– Patriots seize property, imprison, execute
some
Loyalist Strongholds
 Winning the Peace
 American negotiators are John Jay, Ben
Franklin, and John Adams
 They play France against England to
get best terms
 Peace Treaty of 1783
– U.S. independence recognized
– U.S. gets all territory east of Mississippi
River, between Canada and Florida
– U.S. secures fishing rights in North Atlantic
– U.S. will help British merchants and
Loyalists collect debts
 Preserving Independence
 The American Revolution begins
construction of new form of government
 Question remains: a government of the
elite or a government of the people?