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Colonial Resistance to Reorganization

Colonial Resistance to Reorganization. Overarching Themes. English attempts to increase control over the colonies led to increasing efforts by Americans to resist that control. These efforts led to increased coordination between the colonies that ultimately led to

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Colonial Resistance to Reorganization

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  1. Colonial Resistance to Reorganization

  2. Overarching Themes • English attempts to increase control over the colonies led to increasing efforts by Americans to resist that control. • These efforts led to increased coordination between the colonies that ultimately led to • growth of a feeling of American identity • creation of institutions that gave representative structure to the revolution. Broadside created by Sons of Liberty after the Boston Massacre

  3. Organized Response #1: Committees of Correspondence • Response to the Stamp Act of 1765 • Colonies each formed committees which communicated with each other through letters to coordinate activities • Activists selected to keep open communication within and between colonies • Devised by Samuel Adams, after MA Gov. Hutchinson dismissed colonial assembly Fanuiel Hall in downtown Boston, where the first Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence met

  4. Organized Response #2: Sons of Liberty • Began after Stamp Act • Traditionally said to have been founded by Samuel Adams • Loosely organized resistance across colonies. Reality: collection of groups • Primarily active in New England and New York; existed in all colonies • Took direct action to intimidate and frighten English representatives

  5. Boston Massacre • Boston crowd protested against customs officer who had shot a child • Crowd led by Crispus Attucks protested British soldiers defending customs office • British opened fire killing 5 and wounding 6. Dubbed a “massacre” by colonial press to foment distrust of English (See Paul Revere’s engraving) • John Adams represented soldiers at trial • British soldiers were later acquitted or punished lightly

  6. Response to Tea Act: Boston Tea Party • East India Company (colony) could only pay its own operations by selling tea • Americans purchased smuggled Chinese tea, avoiding taxes • Tea Act of 1773 reduced tax on English Indian tea to make Indian tea cheaper than smuggled tea in America • American agitators feared that Tea Act would lead to Americans accepting precedent of paying British tax • Boston Sons of Liberty staged “Tea Party” by dumping tea into Boston Harbor

  7. “Intolerable Acts” • (AKA “Coercive Acts”) • Collection of Acts that responded to Boston Tea Party, seeking to punish Massachusetts. • Revoked MA charter, abolishing its assembly. • Closed Boston Harbor. • British soldiers charged with murder to be tried in England, not America

  8. Organized Response #3: First Continental Congress • Response to Intolerable Acts • All colonies but Georgia sent delegates • Adopted “Suffolk Resolutions” which stated: • Colonies did not have to obey Intolerable Acts, • MA set up a provisional government to collect taxes, etc, • Boycott British goods and cease exporting goods to England.

  9. Organized Response #4: Second Continental Congress • Drafted “Olive Branch Petition” which asked George III for • cease fire in Boston, repeal of the Intolerable Acts • negotiations to establish basic American rights. • Held out hope that past policies were from Parliament, not from King George III • Established continental Army with Washington as leader. • Second meeting, 1776, • After George rejected petition • Drafted and passed the Declaration of Independence

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