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96 C

HAPTER 4

Terms & Names

MAIN IDEA

One American's Story

•Stamp Act

•Samuel Adams

•Townshend Acts

•Boston Massacre

•committees of

correspondence

•Boston Tea Party

•King George III

•Intolerable Acts

•martial law

•minutemen

Conﬂict between Great

Britain and the American

colonies grew over issues

of taxation, representation,

and liberty.

The events that shaped the

American Revolution are a

turning point in humanity’s ﬁght

for freedom.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

On the cold, clear night of March 5, 1770, a mob gathered outside the

Customs House in Boston. They heckled the British sentry on guard,

calling him a “lobster-back” to mock his red uniform. More soldiers

arrived, and the mob began hurling stones and snowballs at them. At

that moment, Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Native

American ancestry, arrived with a group of angry laborers.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN ADAMS

“ This Attucks . . . appears to have undertaken to be the hero of the

night; and to lead this army with banners . . . up to King street with their

clubs . . . [T]his man with his party cried, ‘Do not be afraid of them. . . .’

He had hardiness enough to fall in upon them, and with one hand took hold

of a bayonet, and with the other knocked the man down.

”

—quoted in The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution

Attucks’s action ignited the troops. Ignoring orders not to shoot, one soldier

and then others ﬁred on the crowd. Five people were killed; several were wound-

ed. Crispus Attucks was, according to a newspaper account, the ﬁrst to die.

The Colonies Organize to Resist Britain

The uprising at the Customs House illustrated the rising tensions between Britain

and its American colonies. In order to ﬁnance debts from the French and Indian

War, as well as from European wars, Parliament had turned hungry eyes on the

colonies’ resources.

THE STAMP ACT

The seeds of increased tension were sown in March 1765

when Parliament, persuaded by Prime Minister George Grenville, passed the

Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required colonists to purchase special stamped paper

for every legal document, license, newspaper, pamphlet, and almanac, and

imposed special “stamp duties” on packages of playing cards and dice. The tax

reached into every colonial pocket. Colonists who disobeyed the law were to be

tried in the vice-admiralty courts, where convictions were probable.

Crispus Attucks

The Stirrings of Rebellion

▼

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Page 1 of 7

STAMP ACT PROTESTS

When word of the Stamp Act reached the

colonies in May of 1765, the colonists united in their deﬁance. Boston shop-

keepers, artisans, and laborers organized a secret resistance group called the

Sons of Liberty. One of its founders was Harvard-educated Samuel Adams,

who, although unsuccessful in business and deeply in debt, proved himself

to be a powerful and inﬂuential political activist.

By the end of the summer, the Sons of Liberty were harassing cus-

toms workers, stamp agents, and sometimes royal governors. Facing

mob threats and demonstrations, stamp agents all over the colonies

resigned. The Stamp Act was to become effective on November 1,

1765, but colonial protest prevented any stamps from being sold.

During 1765 and early 1766, the individual colonial assem-

blies confronted the Stamp Act measure. Virginia’s lower house

adopted several resolutions put forth by a 29-year-old lawyer

named Patrick Henry. These resolutions stated that

Virginians could be taxed only by the Virginia assembly—

that is, only by their own representatives. Other assemblies

passed similar resolutions.

The colonial assemblies also made a strong collective

protest. In October 1765, delegates from nine colonies

met in New York City. This Stamp Act Congress issued a

Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which stated that

Parliament lacked the power to impose taxes on the

colonies because the colonists were not represented in

Parliament. More than 10 years earlier, the colonies had

rejected Benjamin Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union, which called for a joint colo-

nial council to address defense issues. Now, for the ﬁrst time, the separate

colonies began to act as one.

Merchants in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia agreed not to import

goods manufactured in Britain until the Stamp Act was repealed. They expect-

ed that British merchants would force Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. The

widespread boycott worked. In March 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act;

but on the same day, to make its power clear, Parliament issued the Declaratory

Act. This act asserted Parliament’s full right to make laws “to bind the colonies

and people of America . . . in all cases whatsoever.”

THE TOWNSHEND ACTS

Within a year after Parliament repealed the Stamp Act,

Charles Townshend, the leading government minister at the time, impetuously

decided on a new method of gaining revenue from the American colonies. His

proposed revenue laws, passed by Parliament in 1767, became known as the

Townshend Acts. Unlike the Stamp Act, which was a direct tax, these were indi-

rect taxes, or duties levied on imported materials—glass, lead, paint, and paper—

as they came into the colonies from Britain. The acts also imposed a three-penny

tax on tea, the most popular drink in the colonies.

The colonists reacted with rage and well-organized resistance. Educated

Americans spoke out against the Townshend Acts, protesting “taxation without

representation.” Boston’s Samuel Adams called for another boycott of British

goods, and American women of every rank in society became involved in the

protest. Writer Mercy Otis Warren of Massachusetts urged women to lay their

British “female ornaments aside,” foregoing “feathers, furs, rich sattins and . . .

capes.” Wealthy women stopped buying British luxuries and joined other women

in spinning bees. These were public displays of spinning and weaving of colonial-

made cloth designed to show colonists’ determination to boycott British-made

cloth. Housewives also boycotted British tea and exchanged recipes for tea made

from birch bark and sage.

The War for Independence 97

▼

Samuel Adams holding the instructions of

a Boston town meeting and pointing to

the Massachusetts charter.

Background

A New York branch

of the Sons of

Liberty was also

founded at around

the same time as

the Boston

chapter.

Vocabulary

boycott: a

collective refusal

to use, buy, or

deal with,

especially as an

act of protest

MAIN IDEA

Comparing

How would

you compare

reactions to the

Townshend Acts

with reactions to

the Stamp Act?

A. Answer

Stamp Act:

Harassing

British stamp

distributers,

boycotting

British goods,

and drawing up

a Declaration of

Rights and

Grievances.

Townshend

Acts: Verbally

protesting and

by organizing

new boycotts.

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Page 2 of 7

History Through

Conﬂict intensiﬁed in June 1768. British agents in Boston seized the Liberty,

a ship belonging to local merchant John Hancock. The customs inspector claimed

that Hancock had smuggled in a shipment of wine from Madeira and had failed

to pay the customs taxes. The seizure triggered riots against customs agents. In

response, the British stationed 2,000 “redcoats,” or British soldiers—so named for

the red jackets they wore—in Boston.

Tension Mounts in Massachusetts

The presence of British soldiers in Boston’s streets charged the air with hostility.

The city soon erupted in clashes between British soldiers and colonists and later

in a daring tea protest, all of which pushed the colonists and Britain closer to war.

THE BOSTON MASSACRE

One sore point was the competition for jobs

between colonists and poorly paid soldiers who looked for extra work in local

shipyards during off-duty hours. On the cold afternoon of March 5, 1770, a ﬁst-

ﬁght broke out over jobs. That evening a mob gathered in front of the Customs

House and taunted the guards. When Crispus Attucks and several dockhands

appeared on the scene, an armed clash erupted, leaving Attucks and four others

dead in the snow. Instantly, Samuel Adams and other colonial agitators labeled

this confrontation the Boston Massacre, thus presenting it as a British attack

on defenseless citizens.

Despite strong feelings on both sides, the political atmosphere relaxed some-

what during the next two years until 1772, when a group of Rhode Island

colonists attacked a British customs schooner that patrolled the coast for smug-

glers. After the ship accidentally ran aground near Providence, the colonists

boarded the vessel and burned it to the waterline. In response, King George named

a special commission to seek out the suspects and bring them to England for trial.

98 C

HAPTER 4

THE BOSTON MASSACRE

Paul Revere was not only a patriot, he was a silversmith and

an engraver as well. One of the best-known of his engravings,

depicting the Boston Massacre, is a masterful piece of anti-

British propaganda. Widely circulated, Revere’s engraving

played a key role in rallying revolutionar y fervor.

• The sign above the redcoats reads “Butcher’s Hall.”

• The British commander, Captain Prescott (standing

at the far right of the engraving) appears to be incit-

ing the troops to ﬁre, whereas in fact, he tried to

calm the situation.

• At the center foreground is a small dog, a detail

that gave credence to the rumor that, following the

shootings, dogs licked the blood of the victims from

the street.

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Visual Sources

1. According to the details of the engraving, what

advantages do the redcoats have that the colonists

do not? What point does the artist make through

this contrast?

2. How could this engraving have contributed to the growing

support for the Patriots’ cause?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R23.

MAIN IDEA

Evaluating

Do you think

that the colonists’

reaction to the

seizing of the

Liberty was

justiﬁed?

B. Possible

Answers

Yes: England’s

policy of taxing

goods that the

colonists traded

with other coun-

tries was unjust.

No: Customs

agents were

simply doing

their duty by

searching ships

they believed to

be involved in

smuggling.

Image not available

for use on CD-ROM.

Please refer to the

image in the textbook.

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Page 3 of 7

The plan to haul Americans to England for trial ignited widespread alarm. The

assemblies of Massachusetts and Virginia set up committees of correspondence

to communicate with other colonies about this and other threats to American lib-

erties. By 1774, such committees formed a buzzing communication network link-

ing leaders in nearly all the colonies.

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY

Early in 1773, Lord Frederick North, the British prime

minister, faced a new problem. The British East India Company, which held an ofﬁ-

cial monopoly on tea imports, had been hit hard by the colonial boycotts. With its

warehouses bulging with 17 million pounds of tea, the company was nearing bank-

ruptcy. To save it, North devised the Tea Act, which granted the company the right

to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes that colonial tea sellers had to pay. This

action would cut colonial merchants out of the tea trade, because the East India

Company could sell its tea directly to consumers for less. North hoped the American

colonists would simply buy the cheaper tea; instead, they protested violently.

On the moonlit evening of December 16, 1773, a large group of Boston rebels

disguised themselves as Native Americans and proceeded to take action against three

British tea ships anchored in the harbor. John Andrews, an onlooker, wrote a letter

on December 18, 1773, describing what happened.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN ANDREWS

“ They muster’d . . . to the number of about two hundred, and proceeded . . .

to Grifﬁn’s wharf, where [the three ships] lay, each with 114 chests of the ill

fated article . . . and before nine o’clock in the evening, every chest from on

board the three vessels was knock’d to pieces and ﬂung over the sides.

They say the actors were Indians from Narragansett. Whether they were or

not, . . . they appear’d as such, being cloath’d in Blankets with the heads mufﬂed,

and copper color’d countenances, being each arm’d with a hatchet or axe. . . .

”

—quoted in 1776: Journals of American Independence

In this incident, later known as the Boston Tea Party, the

“Indians” dumped 18,000 pounds of the East India

Company’s tea into the waters of Boston Harbor.

THE INTOLERABLE ACTS

King George III was infuriat-

ed by this organized destruction of British property, and he

pressed Parliament to act. In 1774, Parliament responded by

passing a series of measures that colonists called the

Intolerable Acts. One law shut down Boston Harbor

because the colonists had refused to pay for the damaged

tea. Another, the Quartering Act, authorized British com-

manders to house soldiers in vacant private homes and

other buildings. In addition to these measures, General

Thomas Gage, commander in chief of British forces in North

America, was appointed the new governor of Massachusetts.

To keep the peace, he placed Boston under martial law, or

rule imposed by military forces.

The committees of correspondence quickly moved

into action and assembled the First Continental Congress.

In September 1774, 56 delegates met in Philadelphia and

drew up a declaration of colonial rights. They defended the

colonies’ right to run their own affairs. They supported the

protests in Massachusetts and stated that if the British used

force against the colonies, the colonies should fight back.

They also agreed to reconvene in May 1775 if their

demands weren’t met.

The War for Independence 99

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Motives

Why were the

committees of

correspondence

established?

MAIN IDEA

Analyzing

Motives

What did King

George set out to

achieve when he

disciplined

Massachusetts?

PROPOSITION 13

A more recent tax revolt occurred

in California on June 6, 1978,

when residents voted in a tax

reform law known as Proposition

13. By the late 1970s, taxes in

California were among the high-

est in the nation. The property

tax alone was ﬁfty-two percent

above the national norm.

Proposition 13, initiated by

ordinary citizens, limited the tax

on real proper ty to one percent

of its value in 1975–1976. It

passed with sixty-five percent of

the vote.

Because of the resulting loss of

revenue, many state agencies

were scaled down or cut. In

1984, California voters approved

a state lottery that provides sup-

plemental funds for education.

Proposition 13 still remains a

topic of heated debate.

C. Answer

To help the

colonies com-

municate with

each other

about threats to

colonial liber-

ties.

D. Answer

He hoped to

quell all rebellion

and enforce

British rule.

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Page 4 of 7

100 C

HAPTER 4

Fighting Erupts at Lexington

and Concord

After the First Continental Congress, colonists in many eastern New

England towns stepped up military preparations. Minutemen, or civil-

ian soldiers, began to quietly stockpile ﬁrearms and gunpowder. General

Gage soon learned about these activities and prepared to strike back.

TO CONCORD, BY THE LEXINGTON ROAD

The spring of 1775 was a cold one

in New England. Because of the long winter frosts, food was scarce. General Gage

had been forced to put his army on strict rations, and British morale was low.

Around the same time, Gage became concerned about reports brought to him

concerning large amounts of arms and munitions hidden outside of Boston.

In March, Gage sent agents toward Concord, a town outside of Boston

reported to be the site of one of the stockpiles. The agents returned with maps

detailing where arms were rumored to be stored in barns, empty buildings, and

private homes. The agents also told that John Hancock and Samuel Adams, per-

haps the two most prominent leaders of resistance to British authority, were stay-

ing in Lexington, a smaller community about ﬁve miles east of Concord. As the

snows melted and the roads cleared, Gage drew up orders for his men to march

along the Lexington Road to Concord, where they would seize and destroy all

munitions that they could ﬁnd.

“THE REGULARS ARE COMING!”

As General Gage began to ready his troops

quartered in Boston, minutemen were watching. Rumors were that a strike by

British troops against resistance activities would come soon, although no one

knew exactly when, nor did they know which towns would be targeted.

With Hancock and Adams in hiding, much of the leadership of resistance

activity in Boston fell to a prominent young physician named Joseph Warren.

Sometime during the afternoon of April 18, Doctor Warren consulted a conﬁden-

tial source close to the British high command. The source informed him that

Gage intended to march on Concord by way of Lexington, seize Adams and

Hancock, and destroy all hidden munitions. Warren immediately sent for Paul

Revere, a member of the Sons of Liberty, and told him to warn Adams and

Hancock as well as the townspeople along the way. Revere began to organize a

network of riders who would spread the alarm.

On the night of April 18, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott

rode out to spread word that 700 British Regulars, or army soldiers, were headed

1765 STAMP ACT

British Action

Britain passes the

Stamp Act, a tax law

requiring colonists

to purchase special

stamps to prove

payment of tax.

Colonial Reaction

Colonists harass

stamp distributors,

boycott British goods,

and prepare a

Declaration of Rights

and Grievances.

British Actions and Colonial Reactions, 1765–1775

British Action

Britain taxes

certain colonial

imports and

stations troops

at major colonial

ports to protect

customs ofﬁcers.

Colonial Reaction

Colonists protest

“taxation without

representation”

and organize a

new boycott of

imported goods.

1767 TOWNSHEND ACTS

British Action

British troops

stationed in

Boston are taunted

by an angry mob.

The troops ﬁre into

the crowd, killing

ﬁve colonists.

Colonial Reaction

Colonial agitators

label the conﬂict a

massacre and

publish a dramatic

engraving

depicting the

violence.

1770 BOSTON MASSACRE

This colonial

engraving was

meant to warn of

the effects of the

Stamp Act.

▼

MAIN IDEA

Summarizing

What did

Warren order Paul

Revere to do?

E. Answer

To warn the

townspeople of

Lexington and

Concord that

British Regulars

were about to

arrive to search

for hidden arms

and to warn

John Hancock

and Samuel

Adams that the

British Regulars

were out to

arrest them.

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Page 5 of 7

The War for Independence 101

The Battle of Lexington, as depicted in a mid-nineteenth-century painting.

for Concord. Before long, the darkened countryside rang with church bells

and gunshots—prearranged signals to warn the population that the Regulars

were coming.

Revere burst into the house where Adams and Hancock were staying and

warned them to ﬂee to the backwoods. He continued his ride until he, like Dawes,

was detained by British troops. As Revere was being questioned, shots rang out

and the British ofﬁcer realized that the element of surprise had been lost. When

more shots rang out, the ofﬁcer ordered the prisoners released so that he could

travel with greater speed to warn the other British troops marching toward

Lexington that resistance awaited them there.

▼

1773 TEA ACT

British Action

Britain gives the East

India Company special

concessions in the

colonial tea business

and shuts out colonial

tea merchants.

Colonial Reaction

Colonists in Boston

rebel, dumping

18,000 pounds of

East India Company

tea into Boston

Harbor.

British Action

King George III

tightens control

over Massachusetts

by closing Boston

Harbor and

quartering troops.

Colonial Reaction

Colonial leaders

form the First

Continental

Congress and

draw up a

declaration of

colonial rights.

1774 INTOLERABLE ACTS

British Action

General Gage

orders troops to

march to Concord,

Massachusetts,

and seize colonial

weapons.

Colonial Reaction

Minutemen inter-

cept the British and

engage in battle—

ﬁrst at Lexington,

and then at

Concord.

1775 LEXINGTON AND CONCORD

This bottle

contains tea that

colonists threw

into Boston

Harbor during the

Boston Tea Party.

▼

Skillbuilder

Answer

Colonial reac-

tion gradually

became more

organized (the

Declaration of

Rights and

Grievances,

boycotts of

British goods,

and the First

Continental

Congress) and

more violent

(the Boston Tea

Party, the bat-

tles of Lexington

and Concord).

SKILLBUILDER

Interpreting Charts

In what ways did colonial reaction to British

rule intensify between 1765 and 1775?

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Page 6 of 7

102 C

HAPTER 4

•Stamp Act

•Samuel Adams

•Townshend Acts

•Boston Massacre

•committees of

correspondence

•Boston Tea Party

•King George III

•Intolerable Acts

•martial law

•minutemen

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signiﬁcance.

MAIN IDEA

2. TAKING NOTES

Create a cluster diagram like the

one shown and ﬁll it in with events

that demonstrate the conﬂict

between Great Britain and the

American colonies.

Choose one event to further explain

in a paragraph.

CRITICAL THINKING

3. DEVELOPING HISTORICAL

PERSPECTIVE

What opinion might a British soldier

have had about the Boston

Massacre? Explain and support

your response. Think About:

• the start of the conﬂict on

March 5, 1770

• the behavior of Crispus Attucks

and other colonists

• the use of the event

as propaganda

4. MAKING GENERALIZATIONS

Explain whether you think the

British government acted wisely

in its dealings with the colonies

between 1765 and 1775. Support

your explanation with examples

from the text. Think About:

• the reasons for British actions

• the reactions of colonists

• the results of British actions

Conﬂict

grows

“A GLORIOUS DAY FOR

AMERICA”

By the morning

of April 19, 1775, the king’s

troops reached Lexington.

As they neared the town,

they saw 70 minutemen

drawn up in lines on the

village green. The British

commander ordered the

minutemen to leave, and

the colonists began to move

out without laying down

their muskets. Then some-

one ﬁred, and the British

soldiers sent a volley of shots into the departing militia. Eight minutemen were

killed and ten more were wounded, but only one British soldier was injured. The

Battle of Lexington lasted only 15 minutes.

The British marched on to Concord, where they found an empty arsenal.

After a brief skirmish with minutemen, the British soldiers lined up to march back

to Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. Between 3,000 and 4,000

minutemen had assembled by now, and they ﬁred on the marching troops from

behind stone walls and trees. British soldiers fell by the dozen. Bloodied and

humiliated, the remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston.

While the battles were going on, Adams and Hancock were ﬂeeing deeper

into the New England countryside. At one point, they heard the sound of mus-

ketﬁre in the distance. Adams remarked that it was a ﬁne day and Hancock,

assuming that his companion was speaking of the weather said, “Very pleasant.”

“I mean,” Adams corrected Hancock, “this is a glorious day for America.”

A View of the Town of Concord,

painted by an unknown artist,

shows British troops assembling

on the village green.

▼

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