Revolutionary War!

*Tension was growing between the British soldiers and the colonists.

*Colonist referred to the soldiers as “redcoats” or “lobster backs”

*Soldiers referred to the colonists as “Yankees”

*On March 5, 1770 Boston exploded!

*Colonist began to throw snowballs at soldiers on duty—they began yelling at the soldiers

*pretty soon, the soldiers began to panic b/c the group of colonists continued to grow

*Suddenly, in confusion, a soldier fired—leading to other soldiers firing.

*This information let to a propaganda for support describing a senseless masacre.

Propaganda……..

The Tea Act

• After the Boston Massacre, the colonies stayed calm• Britain repealed the Townshend Acts—they did keep the tax on tea

• Britain faced a new problem—The East India Company (largest in England) was losing money—to help it recover, Parliament came up with The Tea Act.

• The company was not taxed to ship the tea to the colonies, but the colonies had to pay a tax to England for the tea.

• The Act also let the Company decide which American merchants could sell the tea

• Colonists were angry that Parliament would give one company total control over a trade.

Sons of Liberty

• The Sons of Liberty posted a guard in the harbor to make certain that the tea was not unloaded.

• The Sons of Liberty tried to make Governor

Hutchinson send the ships back to England• Governor Hutchinson refused—so the

Sons of Liberty put into motion a carefully

thought-out and secret plan…..

...Boston Tea Party….

• They dressed up like Mohawk

Indians and blackened their faces with soot so they would not be recognized.

• They hauled 342 chests of tea on deck and dumped them overboard.

• When they finished, the colonists

swept the deck and repaired what they had broken…

• News spread and others began to follow…

• On Christmas Day, a ship with 697 chests of tea tried to dock and 8,000 people turned it back.

Intolerable Acts…

Intolerable Acts

• Split the colonies in two

• Some supported King George III of England

1. Boston port was closed to trade until the tea was paid for…

2. The colonial government would no longer be elected. Instead, it would be appointed by the King.

3. Colonists were required to quarter, or provide housing to, British troops, who would soon arrive to enforce the new laws.

4. Town meetings were tightly controlled. The governor had to approve the agenda.

• Samuel Adams began the First Continental

Congress. They met in Philadelphia. The

committee wrote to one another and discussed

what the British were up to, and what the

colonies were doing about it.

*This was the first time that the colonial leaders

banded together to resist the British.

*The colonists knew they were breaking

British law, and they wanted to be peace-

ful, but tension was growing—nothing was

changing.

The Fighting Begins…..• Colonist forced England to repeal the Stamp Act, and

Townshend Acts. They thought that refusing to trade with Britain would for Parliament to repeal the Intolerable Acts—They would not budge, not this time!

• John Hancock became the head of the Committee of Safety—they began to collect weapons, set up a spy stem, and organize a militia (an army made up of ordinary citizens)

• They had to be ready at a minutes notice, so they were called “Minutemen.”

• On April 18th, the British sent 800 soldiers to seize the weapons…Patriot spies learned of General Gage’s plan...

*Paul Revere and William Dawes snuck out of Boston to warn the surrounding towns that the British were coming—by midnight, every Minuteman was ready and had known about the British plan.

*Paul Revere had three friends signal the British advances to the Patriots—If the British came by land, they would put one lantern in the Old North Church—If the British came by sea, they would place two lanterns to burn in the Old North Church.

*The British soldiers were no match for the Minutemen……

*The British conquered Lexington Green and marched on to Concord.

*In Concord, they ran into 500 Minutemen….

*By the time the British troops staggered into Charlestown, they were beaten, bloody, and exhausted

**These battles were known as the first battles to the…… REVOLUTIONARY WAR

*The Battle of Bunker Hill….

*The Patriots surrounded Boston on every side except Charlestown

*1,000 Minutemen marched in the dark to Bunker Hill…

*The Patriots were told not to shoot until they saw the whites of the British eyes…

*When the Patriots/Minutemen finally shot, fire sent the line of British soldiers reeling.

• A declaration, or statement, telling why the colonies wanted to be free of British rule was drafted.

• Congress appointed a committee to write it—the members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Lovington, and Thomas Jefferson.

It only took Thomas Jefferson a few weeks to write the Declaration of Independence…..

• The first part of the document explains why the colonies had the right to separate from Britain.

• Jefferson meant that everyone had certain rights and that no government should take those rights away.

• It also states that the colonists had no choice but to break free from Britain