Transcript Document

American Revolution
Outcome 1
(America – 1763-1776)
HTAV Student Lectures – 26 March 2012
Nick Frigo – Santa Maria College
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Outcome 1 (America – 1763-1776)
On completion of this unit the student should be able to
evaluate the role of ideas, leaders, movements and events in
the development of the revolution.
• To achieve this outcome the student will draw on
knowledge and related skills outlined in area of study 1.
Key knowledge
• the chronology of key events and factors which contributed
to the revolution;
• the causes of tensions and conflicts generated in the old
regime that many historians see as contributing to the
revolution; for example, colonial self assertion after the
French and Indian War in the American colonies;
• the ideas and ideologies utilised in revolutionary struggle;
• the role of revolutionary individuals and groups in bringing
about change; in the American colonies, Benjamin Franklin,
Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Thomas
Paine and the Sons of Liberty;
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Legislation
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Proclamation Act 1763
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Reason for it?
British Action
Colonial Response?
British Reaction?
“. . . And we require all persons whatsoever, who have
either wilfully or inadvertently seated themselves
upon the lands . . . Above described . . . Forthwith to
remove themselves from such settlements . . . and to
the end that the Indians may be convinced of our
justice . . . “ – Proclamation Act 1763.
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April 1764 - Sugar Act
• Factual Evidence
Imposed duties on foreign sugar and
and enforced customs duties.
• Primary Source Evidence
“but duties as high as are laid by this Act, cannot by any means . . . Be
collected, being vastly greater than the trade itself can possibly bear . .
. “ – Stephen Hopkins, Governor of Rhode Island.
• Secondary Source Evidence
“The Sugar Act (Grenville’s American revenue Act) was parliaments
first law for the specific purpose of raising money in the colonies”
• Reason – British Action – Colonial Reaction – British Response . . .
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March 1765 -Stamp Act
Factual Evidence
Meant a tax on: legal
documents, business contracts,
licenses, land deeds,
newspapers, journal and playing
cards.
• Primary Source Evidence
How can it be reconciled that the “colonies, who are without one
representative in the House of Commons, should be taxed by the British
Parliament.” – James Otis, “The Rights of the British Colonists asserted
and Proved”, July 1764
• Secondary Source Evidence
“Through this Act, the British were taxing the colonial population to pay
for the French war, in which colonists had suffered to expand the British
Empire.” – Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the US., p. 61.
** Reason – British Action – Colonial Reaction – British Response . . .
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Declaratory Act
• Following the repeal of the Stamp Act, the
Rockingham Ministry consented to the adoption
of the Declaratory Act, “baldly stating that
Parliament retained the power to legislate for the
colonies ‘in all cases whatsoever’.” - Jack Rakove,
Revolutionaries.
• British parliament did not want to look like they
were giving in to the colonists.
• Parliament yielded to colonist protests, but WAS
NOT prepared to exempt colonists from the
highest power of the British Empire.
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Townshend Acts
• In January 1767, Charles
Townshend, the
chancellor of the
exchequer, proposed
levying duties on
miscellaneous goods
imported into the
colonies – glass, lead,
paint, paper, pasteboard,
all items that Americans
could not easily
manufacture.
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The Townshend Duties – Revenue Acts
• Factual Evidence
Taxed items that had to be imported:
paint, tea, glass, paper - Colonists
responded by attempted to lessen the use
of such items (boycott).
• Primary Source Evidence
Contemporary Letter: “Another Act of
Parliament which appears to me to be
unconstitutional and as destructive to
liberty of these colonies.” – Letters from a
Farmer
• Secondary Source Evidence
• Reason – British Action – Colonial
Reaction – British Response . . .
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Townshend Acts
• Townshend “clearly conceived his scheme as a
way of habituating Americans to the payment
of new taxes. He also hoped to exploit
Franklin’s distinction between internal and
external taxes, the former objectionable on
constitutional grounds, the latter presumably
acceptable under Parliament’s general
authority over trade.” – Jack Rakove,
Revolutionaries.
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Intolerable (Coercive) Acts 1774
• This was a ‘punitive’ measure of the British
Parliament in response to the Boston Tea
Party.
• The Boston Port Bill, effective 1 June 1774
prohibited loading or unloading of ships in
Boston harbour until damages had been paid
for the destroyed tea.
– An exception of this was that military food, stores
and fuel could be brought in (if cleared at Salem
rather than Boston).
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Intolerable (Coercive) Acts 1774
• The Administration of Justice Act, 20 May
1774 protected royal officials by providing that
those accused of a capital crime committed in
aiding the government would not be tried by
the provincial court where the official was
located, but would be tried in another colony
or England.
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Intolerable (Coercive) Acts 1774
• The Massachusetts Government Act, 20 May
virtually annulled the colony’s charter, and gave
the governor control over the town meeting.
• At this time, Thomas Gage, commander in chief of the British Army in
America, was made governor of the colony of Massachusetts.
• Extensions to The Quartering and the Quebec
Acts – not actually part of the ‘coercion’ but were
considered so by the colonists.
• The Quebec Act saw the British Parliament extend Canada’s
boundaries to the Ohio River, cutting into territories claimed by the
original 13 Colonies – colonists were NOT happy!
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Intolerable (Coercive) Acts 1774
• The Intolerable Acts “rallied the other twelve
colonies to the side of Massachusetts,
produced the first Continental Congress and
led to the Declaration of Independence” –
Pollard, Factors in American History.
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