Summary of major events leading to the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution beginning with Bacon's Rebellion

1. Coming of the
Revolution
American History I

2. Bacon’s
Rebellion
• sometimes considered the beginning
of the revolutionary era in the
colonies
• First open defiance of of a duly
established government in the
colonies
• Bacon gathered poor freemen,
indentured servants, and some
slaves to fight against the
government of Virginia essentially
over the dealing with Native
Americans on the frontier
2

3. Navigation Acts
• According to the policies of mercantilism, Parliament passed the Navigation
Acts to ensure that the colonies were trading only with England
• laws were enforced using the writs of assistance which was a general search
warrant that allowed British officials to search colonists homes
• many Massachusetts merchants viewed this as an invasion of privacy
3

4. Navigation Acts
• No country could trade with the colonies unless the goods were shipped in
either colonial or English ships
• All vessels had to be operated by crews that were at least three-quarters
English or colonial
• The colonies could export certain products only to England
• Almost all goods traded between the colonies and Europe first had to pass
through an English port.
4

5. Board of
Trade
• the Board of Trade was an
advisory group that met in
England and recommended laws
to improve trade with the colonies
5

6. Proclamation
of 1763
• To avoid further conflict with Native
Americans.
• Forbade all settlement west of the
Appalachian Mountains.
• Proclamation by Britain at the end of the
French and Indian war that prohibited
settlement by colonists on Indian territory.
• Angered colonists who just fought to gain
the right to settle on that land
6

7. Sugar Act
(1764)
The three parts were:
1. It halved the duty on foreign-
made molasses
2. It placed duties on certain
imports
3. Strengthened the enforcement of
the law allowing prosecutors to
try smuggling cases in a vice-
admiralty court rather than in a
more sympathetic colonial court.
7

8. Stamp Act
(1765)
• It differed from earlier taxes
because it directly taxed
everyone.
• The tax required colonists to
purchase special stamped paper
for every legal document, license,
newspaper, pamphlet, and
almanac.
• Every colonists had to pay and
take money out their pocket.
8

9. Sons of
Liberty Form
• a secret resistance group to
protest Stamp Act and other
perceived liberties
• formed the Stamp Act Congress
• harassed customs workers, stamp
agents, and royal governors
(when necessary)
• successful in preventing the
Stamp Act from going into effect
Sam Adams
9

10. Stamp Act
Congress
Meets
• delegates from nine colonies met
and issued Declaration of Rights &
Grievances
• announced Parliament lacked the
power to tax the colonies because
the colonists were not represented
in Parliament
• conducted a boycott of British goods
• Parliament repeals the Stamp Act,
boycott ends
10

11. Colonists
Boycott British
Goods
• The refusal to purchase the
products of an individual ,
corporation a nation as a way to
bring economic pressure for social
or political change.
• How effective was it and why?
effective because merchants
forced Parliament to repeal the
Stamp Act.
11

12. Declaratory
Act
What the Declaratory Act said:
It gave the British rights to tax and
make decisions for the colonies.
Similar to the idea: “As long as you
live under my roof, you will follow
my rules!”
12

13. Townshend
Acts
What was taxed? Tea, glass, lead,
paper, paint
Colonial Reaction: They revolted
and became enraged. They formed
well organized resistances.
Lord Charles Townshend
13

14. Colonists
Renew Boycott
Examples: Colonist didn’t buy
English imports, and instead made
their own cloth, clothes, teas, etc.
British Response: The British sent
2,000 red coats (soldiers) to Boston
and arrested smugglers to restore
the control.
14

15. Boston
Massacre
• after a fist fight between colonists
& poorly paid British soldiers, a
mob gathered outside the
Customs House that taunted the
guards
• An armed clash erupted
• Crispus Attucks and 4 others are
the first civilian deaths at the
hands of British soldiers
15

16. Committees of
Correspondenc
e
• To communicate with other
colonists about the Boston
massacre and other threats to
American liberties, Massachusetts
and Virginia were the two
colonies.
• The Pony Express was the way
these letters moved through the
colonies
16

17. Tea Act
•the British East India Company
could directly sell their tea to the
colonies without taxes while
colonial sellers still had to charge
a tax
•colonial sellers were outraged
because of their loss of sales and
profits
17

18. Boston Tea
Party
• a protest of the Tea Act
• colonists disguised as Native
Americans, dumped 18,000
pounds of East Indian Company
tea into Boston Harbor
18

19. Intolerable Acts
(1774)
Parliament’s strict response to the
Boston Tea Party had 4 Parts:
1) Shut down Boston Harbor to
American merchants.
2) Established Quartering Act,
requiring colonists to house British
soldiers.
3) Appointed Thomas Gage, British
military officer, new governor of
Massachusetts.
4) General Gage placed Boston under
martial law.
19

20. First
Continental
Congress
Meets
56 delegates from the colonies met in
Philadelphia and decided:
1.colonies have the right to run their
own affairs
2.supported protests in
Massachusetts
3.colonies will fight back against
British if force is used
4.reconvene in May 1775 if their
demands are not met
Carpenter Hall
20

21. Lexington and Concord (1775)
• considered the start of the American Revolution
• British troops were sent to seize and destroy all munitions possible
• as the colonists were backing down at the command of the British, a shot
was fired and the British fired back killing 8 minutemen and injuring 10
more
• British troops were ambushed on the road back to Boston by some 3,000
– 4,000 minutemen all the way
• British soldiers fell by the dozen to the guerilla tactics of the minutemen
21

22. Second
Continental
Congress
They talked about each colony
having its own government, the
colonies being independent, and
money to be printed.
3 things it did:
1. Organized the Continental Army
and commissioned George
Washington as it’s commander
2. Printed paper money to pay the
troops
3. Sent the Olive Branch Petition to
the King
General George Washington
22

23. Battle of Bunker
Hill
• to disperse the militiamen,
General Gage struck out at
Bunker Hill
• the British won the Hill but took
heavier losses than the Patriots
• was the deadliest battle of the
Revolutionary War
23

24. Olive Branch
Petition
It is the urging of “the former
harmony” to return between Britain
and the colonies. The king flatly
rejected it.
24

25. Common
Sense (1776)
Thomas Paine
25
•Written by Thomas Paine
•explains how the revolt against the
King had begun with Lexington and
Concord
•urged the colonists to take arms
and fight for independence from
Britain

26. Declaration of Independence
• based on the enlightenment ideas of John Locke
• written by Thomas Jefferson
• laid out the logical explanation as to why the colonies had declared
independence
• adopted July 4, 1776
26