Wentworth Institute of Technology

EIGHT REVOLUTIONARY DOMINOS

Group 5Jessica Lugo

Jeffrey Finck

History 110162

Professor Jarred Haas

November 15, 2015

1765

Stamp Act 1765• The Stamp Act of 1765 was an act of the Parliament of

Great Britain that enforces tax by the British government on the American colonies.

• The embossed revenue stamp was used for printed

materials such as legal documents, magazines, playing cards, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies

• The tax was collected at purchase and a tax stamp affixed to the item showing that it had been paid.

The purpose of the Stamp Act was tax the colonist so the British can raise and support the military troops.Great Britain faced a massive debt because of the Seven Years War.

As the debt had grown, Britain were taxed at a rate that created a serious threat of revolt (Wikipedia).

• The Act was met with great resistance in the colonies as many colonists considered it a violation of their rights as Englishmen to be taxed without their consent (Boundless)

• No taxation without representation - Colonial assemblies sent petitions and protests.

• Protests than started a new secret organization called the Sons of Liberty.

The Stamp Act Congress• Letters were distributed

to other colonies to bring a meeting together to represent the colonies.

• Declaration of Rights and Grievances was drafted declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional (Boundless)

Stamp Act repealed It did not end Parliament conviction however Parliament could not tax colonist.

British Troops Arrivs in Boston1768

• The British arrives was to maintain order of the Townshend Act (Boundless).

• Their goal was to protect and support the crown.

Why was the British sent to Boston?• Revenue Act

• Indemnity Act

• Commissioner of Custom Acts

• Vice Admiralty Court Act

• New York Restraining Act

• British adapted to the Bostonian society.

• The British soldiers were consumers of both large quantities of rum and prostitutes (Histoy.org)

• Troops made themselves comfortable and colonists grew resentments.

• This resenemtment led to the Boston Massacre

Boston, the capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and an important shipping town, was a major center of resistance to unpopular acts of taxation by the British Parliament in the 1760s. In 1768, the Townshend Acts were placed upon the colonists to tax a variety of common items that were manufactured in Britain and exported to the colonies (Boundless)

British troops were stationed Boston in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation (Boundless)

Colonists objected that the Townshend Acts

Which led to violation of the natural, charter and constitutional rights of British subjects in the colonies.

British troops were sent to Boston to enforce the Townshend Acts in May of 1768. (Boundless)

What is the Boston Massacre

Soldiers felt verbally threaten and thrown objects and they fired into the crowd without orders, killing three people and wounding others. Two more people died later of wounds sustained in the incident (Boundless).

The British soldiers were put on trial, and patriots John Adams and Josiah Quincy agreed to defend the soldiers in a show of support of the colonial justice system. When the trial ended in December 1770, two British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded with an “M” for murder as punishment (History.org)

The Sons of Liberty, a Patriot group formed in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act, advertised the “Boston Massacre” as a battle for American liberty and just cause for the removal of British troops from Boston. Copies of the engraving were distributed throughout the colonies and helped reinforce negative American sentiments about British rule (History)

The Boston Tea PartyDecember 16, 1773

The British Tea Act of 1773 was enacted by Parliament to grant a legal monopoly to the nearly bankrupt East India Company.

This allowed the East India Company to undercut American Merchants on Tea prices.

Even those suppling Tea through the use of Smugglers. With the passing of the Tea Act, the seventeen million pounds of unsold surplus tea the

British East India Company owned could be sold to markets in the American colonies.

(www.bostonteapartyship.com/the-tea-act#sthash.PXLNTKzC.dpuf.)

The resentment of the Rebels was made worse by the fact that the tea business was funneled through selected

Loyalist merchants including the sons of the Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson.

Thomas Hutchinson1711-1780

In September and October of 1773 seven ships left England for the colonies. Each ship contained 2,000 chests of tea from East India Company.

One ship each was bound for New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. Four ships were bound for Boston. One ship was destroyed by a storm but

three ships arrived in Boston harbor in November 1773. “In every colony except Massachusetts, protesters were able to force the tea consignees to

resign or to return the tea to England.” (Larabee 96-100) “In Boston, however, Governor Hutchinson was determined to hold his ground. He

convinced the tea consignees, two of whom were his sons, not to back down.” (Larabee 104-105)

The Sons of Liberty vowed that the tea would not be unloaded. “On the night of December 16, 1773, about a 150 men from all layers of

Boston’s economy, masters and apprentices side by side, blackened their faces with burnt cork, dressed as Mohawk Indians, and boarded the

three ships.” (Davis 48) With hatchets they destroyed the tea chests and dumped 600,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. In Britain, this act

united all parties there against the colonies. Even those politicians considered friends of the colonies were appalled. The Prime Minister, Lord

North said, "Whatever may be the consequence, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over". The British government felt this action

could not remain unpunished, and responded by closing the port of Boston and putting in place other laws known as the "Coercive Acts". The

tax on tea was repealed with the Taxation of Colonies Act of 1778, part of another Parliamentary attempt at conciliation that failed.”

(Boundless. “The Boston Tea Party.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 14 Nov. 2015)

“In post-Tea Party fervor, Parliament passed a series of bills, called the Coercive Acts, the first of which was the Port Bill, aimed at closing

down Boston until the dumped tea was paid for.” ( Davis 49) Better known as the Boston Port Act, closed the port of Boston on June 1, 1774

until reimbursement for all the tea that had been thrown in the harbor had been paid to the East India Company and also until King George III

Believed that order in Boston had been restored. The colonist objected feeling that Boston as a whole was being punished not just the

individuals responsible for the act. They objected to being punished without being given the opportunity to testify in their own defense.

“From the moment the tea was dumped, the road to revolution was a short one. “The die is now cast,” King George III told his Prime Minister

Lord North. “The colonies must either submit or triumph.” (Davis 48-49) “On April 22, 1774, Prime Minister Lord North defended the

programme [sic] 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.” (Reid 13))

“The Massachusetts Government Act provoked even more outrage than the Port Act because it unilaterally altered the government of

Massachusetts to bring it under control of the British government. Under the terms of the Government Act, almost all positions in the colonial

government were to be appointed by the governor, Parliament, or king. The act also severely limited the activities of town meetings in

Massachusetts to one meeting a year, unless the Governor called for one. Colonists outside Massachusetts feared that their governments could

now also be changed by the legislative fiat of Parliament.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerable_Acts)

The Administration of Justice Act allowed the Royal governor to order that trials of accused royal officials take place in Great Britain or

elsewhere within the Empire if he decided that the defendant could not get a fair trial in Massachusetts. Although the act stipulated for witnesses

to be reimbursed after having travelled at their own expense across the Atlantic, it was not stipulated that this would include reimbursement for

lost earnings during the period for which they would be unable to work, leaving few with the ability to testify. George Washington called this

the "Murder Act" because he believed that it allowed British officials to harass Americans and then escape justice. Many colonists believed the

act was unnecessary because British soldiers had been given a fair trial following the Boston Massacre in 1770. (Ammerman 9)

Definition of the Intolerable Acts:

The Intolerable Acts, also called the Restraining Acts and the Coercive Acts, were a series of British Laws, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain 1774.

The Intolerable Act targeted at punishing the Massachusetts colonists for the actions taken in the incident known as the Boston Tea Party (Boundless)

Even some British sympathized with the American cause. Here, a British cartoonist pictures America as an Indian woman having the Intolerable Acts forced down her throat. The caption reads, "The able Doctor, or, America swallowing the Bitter Draught (Wikipedia)

Intolerable Act is what led to the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party

The Boston Massacre, called the Incident on King Street by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men and injured six others (Boundless)

The Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773) was a protest by colonists in Boston against the Tea Tax. Boston patriots, led by the Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawk Indians, raided three British ships in the Boston Harbor dumping 342 containers of tea into the water. Tea Pa.

• Intolerable Acts only made matters worse• The colonies reunited together to join the First

Continental Congress protest on September 1774.

• The colonists had sworn and promised to support Massachusetts of any attack. Shortly after became the first Revolution battle of Lexington and Concord.

“The Congress was attended by 55 delegates appointed by the legislatures of twelve of the thirteen colonies. Georgia declined to

send delegates because they were hoping for British assistance with Native American problems on their frontier and did not want to

upset the British.” (Ferling 112)

• “The necessity of a Continental Congress

was not convincing until the British placed a blockade at the Port of Boston in response to the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

• The colonies were united in their effort to demonstrate their authority to Great Britain by virtue of their common causes and through their unity.

• The delegates organized an economic boycott of Great Britain in protest against the Coercive Acts passed by the British Parliament in 1774 and petitioned the King for a redress of grievances. Nevertheless, their ultimate objectives were not consistent. Pennsylvania and New York had sent delegates with firm instructions to pursue a resolution with Great Britain.

• While the other colonies all held the idea of colonial rights as paramount, they were split between those who sought legislative equality with Britain and those who instead favored independence and a break from the Crown and its excesses. On October 26, 1774, the First Continental Congress adjourned. They agreed to reconvene in May 1775 if Parliament still did not address their grievances

• .”(Boundless.“ The First Continental Congress.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 15 Nov. 2015)

“In London, Parliament debated the merits of meeting the demands made by the colonies. However, it took no official notice of Congress' petitions and addresses. On November 30, 1774, King George III opened Parliament with a speech condemning Massachusetts and the Suffolk

Resolves. At that point it became clear that the Continental Congress would have to convene once again.”(Boundless.“The First Continental Congress.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 15 Nov. 2015)

April 19, 1775

On April 18th 1775,Massachusetts Governor and British Military Commander in Chief General Thomas Gage gave secret orders to Lieutenant

Colonel Francis Smith to take 700 British soldiers and ride to Concord to seize and destroy munitions that the Colonial militia had stored there.

Their orders also included the capture of John Hancock and Samuel Adams who had left Boston to hide with Hancock's relatives in Lexington.

But the Rebels had received information from sources in London of the Mission and distributed the stored munitions throughout the towns in the

area. The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a British military action, upon learning of the British plan, Paul Revere and William Dawes

set off across the Massachusetts countryside. They took separate routes in case one of them was captured: Dawes left the city via the Boston Neck

peninsula and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat. As the two couriers made their way, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a

signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston’s Old

North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two lanterns would be hung if they

were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. Two lanterns were hung, and Revere and Dawes set out for Lexington and Concord .Along the

way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of Minutemen, who armed themselves and set out to oppose the British.

“Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before Dawes, but together they warned Adams and Hancock and then set out for Concord. Along the

way, they were joined by Samuel Prescott, a young Patriot who had been riding home after visiting a lady friend. Early on the morning of

April 19, a British patrol captured Revere, and Dawes lost his horse, forcing him to walk back to Lexington on foot. However, Prescott

escaped and rode on to Concord to warn the Patriots there. After being roughly questioned for an hour or two, Revere was released when the

patrol heard Minutemen alarm guns being fired on their approach to Lexington.” (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/revere-and-

dawes-warn-of-british-attack. Retrieved 2015-11-15)

Word had been spread from towns in the area and at sunrise about 70 Colonial Militia, also known as Minutemen, assembled at Lexington

Green to the advanced guard of 240 British soldiers under the command of British Marine Major John Pitcairn. The Minutemen had been

ordered to disperse by their commander Captain John Parker, and the British troops attempted to just ride on, but suddenly a shot was fired. It

is not known which side fired the first shot that later became known as the “Shot heard round the World.” (Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1837).

Emerson's Concord Hymn National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-11-15) Eight Minutemen were killed and another ten were wounded but only

one British soldier was wounded. After the battle the colonists dispersed, and the British continued on the road to Concord. Though not the

official start to the Revolutionary war it is considered by most the beginning the Revolution.

“Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were detained by a British Army patrol in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to Concord.” (Boatner 622) “Prescott

jumped his horse over a wall and escaped into the woods; he eventually reached Concord. Dawes also escaped, though he fell off his horse not

long after and did not complete the ride.” (Fischer 131-132,144) “Revere was captured and questioned by the British soldiers at gunpoint. He told

them of the army's movement from Boston, and that British army troops would be in some danger if they approached Lexington, because of the

large number of hostile militia gathered there. He and other captives taken by the patrol were still escorted east toward Lexington, until about a

half mile from Lexington they heard a gunshot. The British major demanded Revere explain the gunfire, and Revere replied it was a signal to

"alarm the country". As the group drew closer to Lexington, the town bell began to clang rapidly, upon which one of the captives proclaimed to the

British soldiers "The bell's a'ringing! The town's alarmed, and you're all dead men!“(Fischer 136) “The British soldiers gathered and decided not to

press further towards Lexington but instead to free the prisoners and head back to warn their commanders.” (Fischer 133-136, 142-148) “The

British confiscated Revere's horse and rode off to warn the approaching army column. Revere walked to Rev. Jonas Clarke's house, where

Hancock and Adams were staying. As the battle on Lexington Green unfolded, Revere assisted Hancock and his family in their escape from

Lexington, helping to carry a trunk of Hancock's papers.” (Miller 198-200)

The ride of the three men triggered a flexible system of "alarm and muster" that had been carefully developed months before, in reaction to the

colonists' impotent response to the Powder Alarm of September 1774. This system was an improved version of an old network of widespread

notification and fast deployment of local militia forces in times of emergency. The colonists had periodically used this system all the way back to

the early years of Indian wars in the colony, before it fell into disuse in the French and Indian War. In addition to other express riders delivering

messages, bells, drums, alarm guns, bonfires, and a trumpet were used for rapid communication from town to town, notifying the rebels in dozens

of eastern Massachusetts villages that they should muster their militias because the regulars in numbers greater than 500 were leaving Boston with

possible hostile intentions. This system was so effective that people in towns 25 miles (40 km) from Boston were aware of the army's movements

while they were still unloading boats in Cambridge.[54] Unlike in the Powder Alarm, the alarm raised by the three riders successfully allowed the

militia to confront the British troops in Concord, and then harry them all the way back to Boston.[55]

The over confident British troops marched on to Concord where they split into three groups. Some headed to the South Bridge while 100 other

men went to defend the North bridge. Captain Parsons took more troops and headed another two miles up the road beyond the North bridge to

search Barrett's farm for munitions. Noticing that the British had made a tactical error Cornel Barrett orders his troops to attack. The British

being caught off guard and unaccustomed to the Patriots style of fighting from behind trees and stonewalls were forced to retreat and lost most

of their men until they meet up with Lieutenant Cornel Percy’s reinforcements at Munroe Tavern. To quote British Lieutenant Cornel Hugh

Percy, "During the whole affair the Rebels attacked us in a very scattered, irregular manner, but with perseverance & resolution, nor did they

ever dare to form into any regular body. Indeed, they knew too well what was proper, to do so. Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob,

will find himself much mistaken. They have men amongst them who know very well what they are about, having been employed as Rangers

against the Indians & Canadians, & this country being much covered with wood, and hilly, is very advantageous for their method of fighting.“

(Bolton 52) The British returned to Boston with the knowledge that the Patriots were a formidable force.

www.bostonteapartyship.com/boston-tea-party-history. Retrieved 2015-11-14www.pinterest.com/pin/345229127664061962/. Retrieved 2015-11-14www.bostonteapartyship.com/the-tea-act#sthash.PXLNTKzC.dpuf. Retrieved 2015-11-14www.william-bradford-gallery.org. Retrieved 2015-11-14Labaree, Benjamin Woods. The Boston Tea Party. New York: Oxford UP, 1964. 96-100. Print.Labaree, Benjamin Woods. The Boston Tea Party. New York: Oxford UP, 1964. 104-105. Print.thewallmachine.com . Retrieved 2015-11-14Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much about History: Everything You Need to Know about American History but Never Learned. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. 48. Print.Boundless. “The Boston Tea Party.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 14 Nov. 2015upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Nathaniel_Dance_Lord_North.jpg/245px-Nathaniel_Dance_Lord_North.jpg . Retrieved 2015-11-14Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much about History: Everything You Need to Know about American History but Never Learned. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. 48-49. Print.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerable_Acts . Retrieved 2015-11-14Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much about History: Everything You Need to Know about American History but Never Learned. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. 49. Print.Reid, John Phillip. Constitutional History of the American Revolution. Madison, Wis.: U of Wisconsin, 2003. 13. Print.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerable_Acts . Retrieved 2015-11-14Ammerman, David. In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774. Charlottesville: U of Virginia, 1974. 9. Print.www.slideshare.net . Retrieved 2015-11-14www.haikudeck.com . Retrieved 2015-11-14www.haikudeck.com . Retrieved 2015-11-14www.slideshare.net . Retrieved 2015-11-14www.ushistory.org . Retrieved 2015-11-14

americanrevolution-stmm.wikispaces.com . Retrieved 2015-11-14Ferling, John E. A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. 112. Print.Boundless. “The First Continental Congress.” US History to 1877. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 15 Nov. 2015fineartamerica.com . Retrieved 15 Nov. 2015www.haikudeck.com . Retrieved 15 Nov. 2015www.biblenews1.com . Retrieved 15 Nov. 2015http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/revere-and-dawes-warn-of-british-attack. Retrieved 2015-11-15Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1837). Emerson's Concord Hymn National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-11-15www.biblenews1.com . Retrieved 15 Nov. 2015Boatner, Mark Mayo. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: D. McKay, 1966. 622. Print.Fischer, David Hackett. Paul Revere's Ride. 131-132, 144. Print.Fischer, David Hackett. Paul Revere's Ride. 136. Print.Fischer, David Hackett. Paul Revere's Ride. 133-136, 142-148. Print.Miller, Joel. The Revolutionary Paul Revere. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 2010. 198-200. Print.Northumberland, Hugh Percy, and Charles Knowles Bolton. Letters of Hugh, Earl Percy, from Boston and New York, 1774-1776;. Boston: C.E. Goodspeed, 1902. 52. Print.