What Are We Doing Today?
Leading to the Revolution
Homework
Notes quiz Monday
Do Now
What were the Stamp Acts?
January 7, 2021
Britain Passes
New Laws
Grenville & the Sugar Act
After the war, 10,000 British soldiers left in the colonies
Protect against any lingering threats
Colonists thought they were trying�to intimidate them
Defended themselves for 150� years
Colonists required to pay British troops
Prime Minister Grenville to tax colonists in order to raise money
Sugar Act 1st law passed; taxed sugar and molasses imported from French & Spanish West Indies
Northern merchants�disliked it - feared it �would hurt rum industry
Samuel Adams, Boston
Forcing colonists to pay taxes �without a representative in �Parliament meant they went �from freedom to slavery
“No taxation without �representation”
The Stamp Act Brings Protests
Passed 1765
Required government stamp on all legal�documents (contracts, licenses)
First direct tax on colonists; protests�erupted
Those who the Stamp Act affected�most led public opinion (lawyers,�merchants, printers, ministers, innkeepers)
Patrick Henry, Virginia
Speech to House of Burgesses
Virginia only pay taxes�voted by their assembly
Massachusetts made the�Stamp Act Congress to�protest Stamp Act
October 1765 - delegates met in NY
Sent a petition regarding taxation without representation
Sons of Liberty
Response to new laws,� organize protests
Initially unskilled workers,� artisans, small farmers
Sales in England dropped
Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, still taxed colonies
Quartering Act (1765)
Colonists must find quarters, �or living space, for British �soldiers in the colonies
Sons of Liberty then included prominent citizens (lawyers, merchants)
Women joined as Daughters of Liberty
Tactics included boycotts, or refusing to buy
Stopped buying British goods, made own
Pressured�merchants�who did not join
Townshend Acts
Many thought parliament gave in too easily to colonists
Charles Townshend - government �minister, 1767
New way to tax colonists: lead, �paint, paper, glass, tea �imported from Britain (England)
Pay army costs and salaries of officials
Writs of Assistance gave customs officers the right to search colonial homes for smuggled goods without a warrant
Townshend Acts brought these back from the 1600s
“A man’s house is his castle; and while he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate [destroy] this privilege. Custom-house officers may enter our houses when they please; we are commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter—may break locks, bars, everything in their way...”
What Are We Doing Today?
Quiz
Leading to the Revolution
Homework
Quarter Exam on Wednesday
Do Now
Who was Paul Revere?
January 11, 2021
The Colonists Respond
Customs officials strictly enforced laws
Boston always avoided duties
Joined with Philadelphia and
New York in non-importation
agreements
Some southern merchants/planters joined
Townshend Acts
Most of it repealed in March 1770
First serious confrontation happened the
same day in Boston
The Boston Massacre
March 5, 1770
Colonists threw snowballs at
sentries, taunting soldiers
Called them “lobster scoundrels”
Someone yelled “fire”
British shot into the crowd
5 died, including Crispus Attucks
Portrayed as an attack on innocent civilians
British put on trial for murder
John Adams (Samuel Adams’�cousin) represented the �soldiers
All freed except two,�who received a light �punishment
Troops left Boston
Samuel Adams introduced the Committees of Correspondence
Spread news of British�injustices throughout the�colonies
Became a political network� to unify the colonies