September 19, 2013

• Objectives: Students will be able to identify grievances in the Declaration of Independence.

• Question: What led to the colonies wanting their independence? Give at least 3 examples.

• Agenda: Quiz/Notes/Dec

CHAPTER 2:origins of american government

Section 2:the coming of independence

I. Britain’s Colonial PoliciesA. controlled by GB 3,000 miles awayB. power of purseC. paid few taxesD. did not want the royal gov. meddling

in their local affairs

Section 2: coming of independence

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The Road to Independence

Did You Know? In 1764 Britain issued a complete ban on paper money to all the colonies except for military purposes. Benjamin Franklin tried to convince Parliament that paper money was needed, but he did not succeed. The struggle over the right to issue paper money was a major factor of the American Revolution.

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Parliament passed the Sugar Act in 1764 to stop the molasses smuggling between the colonies and the French West Indies.The act lowered the tax on imported

molasses.The British hoped that by lowering the tax,

the colonists would be encouraged to pay the duty on foreign molasses.

The Sugar Act also allowed special courts that had judges not juries, to hear smuggling cases.

As a colonist would you have been upset with the laws that Britain passed after 1763? Why?

II. The Stamp Act (Page 734)

The Stamp Act (1765) taxed almost all printed material in the colonies.

The colonists protested this act. In Virginia, Patrick Henry, although accused of treason “If this

be treason…” by his opponents, persuaded the burgesses to take action against the Stamp Act.

http://www.learn360.com/ShowVideo.aspx?ID=448501

The Sons of Liberty, (patriots or terrorists?) originally organized in Boston by Samuel Adams, protested by burning effigies, raiding and destroying houses of British officials.

Boycotts against importing British and European goods occurred. .

In October, Congress petitioned the king and Parliament saying that only their own assemblies could tax the colonies. In March 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.

Patrick Henry’s famous “Treason” speech, made in the House of Burgesses in May, 1765, when he had introduced his resolutions against the Stamp Act, only a fragment has come down to us. We are told that in the

midst of the debate he exclaimed, in a voice of thunder and with the look of a god, “Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third ——.” At this point the speaker of the House cried “treason,” and the word “treason” was echoed back from many parts of the House. Henry “faltered not for an instant, but rising to a loftier attitude and fixing on the speaker an eye of the most determined fire, finished his sentence with the firmest emphasis on the words, “may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.”]

Parliament passed the Townshend, Acts in 1767, which taxed imported goods at the port of entry.

Another boycott occurred in hopes of showing Britain that only the colonies' representatives had the right to tax them. The Daughters of Liberty urged that Americans should only buy homemade fabrics and products—do not buy British products

Charles Townshend  “Champagne Charlie”

William PittThe Elder

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Did You Know? There were two Boston Tea

Parties. The first one, staged by the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks, occurred on December 16, 1773, when they dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. They were protesting the 3 cents per pound tax on tea. The second one repeated the protest on March 7, 1774. Both tea parties cost the British, in present-day currency, around $3 million.

One of the actual chestsDumped into the harbor

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The Boston Massacre led colonists to call for stronger boycotts of British goods.

Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts except the tax on tea.

Some colonial leaders still called for resistance to British rule. In 1772 Samuel Adams revived the committee of correspondence in Boston to circulate colonists' grievances against Britain.

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I. Colonial Leaders Emerge (Pages 147-150)

The Second Continental Congress met for the first time on May 10, 1775. (most members had read Paine’s

Common Sense)

The Congress governed the colonies. It: authorized the printing of money set up a post office established a Continental Army with George

Washington as the commander sent a formal request to King George III asking

for peace and for the king to protect the colonists' rights. King George III refused this Olive Branch Petition and any question of compromise & prepared for war.

Final 5

Why were the colonists so upset about the acts that parliament passed?

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Homework

• On page 44 of your text books- starting with the Grievances –

• 1. List the grievances in bullet point format on a sheet of paper.

• 2. Compare your letter (from your homework on Tuesday)to the Colonists’ complaints

• -Explain the similarities and differences