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Steps Toward Conflict: Things Get Worse...

(Lecture Notes from Mr. Kersey's 8th Grade U.S. History Class)

The Sons Of Liberty

  • To fight back against the Stamp Act on other British laws, some colonists formed secret groups called Sons of Liberty.
  • These groups sometimes used threats and violence to achieve their goals.

The Stamp Act Congress

  • Massachusetts called for a Stamp Act Congress.
  • Delegates from 9 colonies met and issued a declaration stating that the Stamp Act violated their rights.
  • The declaration would have really angered members of Parliament.
  • It asked Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act.

Okay, fine. No More Stamp Act

  • Parliament was under pressure to get rid of the Stamp Act in Britain as well.
  • London merchants didn't like the colonial boycotts.
  • William Pitt was a respected member of Parliament who opposed the Stamp Act. He thought Parliament could make laws for the colonies, but not tax them.
  • But it was Ben Franklin who convinced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act.
  • Franklin told Parliament it was internal taxes the colonists didn't like, but that taxes on trade were okay.
  • If members of Parliament had read the declaration from the Stamp Act Congress, they would have known better.
  • Nonetheless, the Stamp Act was repealed.

The Declaratory Act

  • When Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, they issued the Declaratory Act which stated Parliament could make laws for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."
  • Great, but do laws include taxes?

The Townshend Acts

  • Just a year after or so after the repeal of the Stamp Act, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts.
  • These Acts were more taxes on tea, paper, paints, lead, etc. to help pay for the British military.
  • The colonists responded with more boycotts, this time even bigger than the last ones.
  • Women and the Daughters of Liberty helped out tremendously.

Bad Times in Boston

  • Many colonial legislatures officially opposed the Townshend Acts.
  • John Hancock, a prominent Boston merchant, had his ship seized by British tax collectors.
  • Hancock thought it was because he opposed the Townshend Acts.
  • The Sons of Liberty apparently agreed, because they began stoning and burning the houses of British customs officials.
  • The British Governor of Massachusetts requested British troops come and restore order in Boston.
  • He also disbanded the Mass. Legislature.
  • The troops in Boston were not very welcome.
  • As time went on, tensions mounted, and there were many arguments and problems between colonists and the soldiers.
  • On March 5, 1770, a lone British sentry near the Boston's Custom House got into a verbal argument with a colonist, and he eventually struck him.
  • Word travels fast in Boston, and crowd gathered.
  • As the unruly and dangerous crowd of colonists, a small detail of British troops showed up.
  • The British troops fired on the crowed after being pelted with ice and snowballs. 5 colonists died.
  • Colonists, such as Sam Adams referred this event as the Boston Massacre, and used it as propaganda to show how "terrible" the British were.
  • Was this really a Massacre?

The Tea Act

  • Parliament was not completely deaf to the colonists complaints.
  • They repealed the Townshend Acts but passed the Tea Act.
  • The act allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonies.
  • Colonial merchants didn't like this law either. They were afraid it would hurt business.

As Thomas Kindig at ushistory.org writes:

The Tea Act, passed by Parliament in May of 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The Townshend Duties were still in place, however, and the radical leaders in America found reason to believe that this act was a maneuver to buy popular support for the taxes already in force. The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants.

Colonists in Philadelphia and New York turned the tea ships back to Britain. In Charleston the cargo was left to rot on the docks. In Boston the Royal Governor was stubborn & held the ships in port, where the colonists would not allow them to unload. Cargoes of tea filled the harbor, and the British ship's crews were stalled in Boston looking for work and often finding trouble. This situation lead to the Boston Tea Party.

The Boston Tea Party

  • On Dec. 16, 1773, a group of colonists disguised as Indians snuck aboard three British ships loaded with tea.
  • The colonists dumped all the tea overboard while the ships sailors watched.

Payback Time

  • To punish Boston and the rest of Massachusetts, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts. Colonists called these acts the Intolerable Acts.
  • The Intolerable Acts consisted of 4 laws which:
    • Shut down Boston Harbor
    • Canceled the Mass. Charter and only allowed the legislature to meet with the governor's permission.
    • Moved trials of royal officials to Britain to get a more "fair" jury.
    • And included the Quartering Act.
  • Many colonists who were happy British subjects were upset by these new laws.
  • Soon the colonies would need to meet...