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Chapter 5: Severing the Bonds of Empire, 1754-1774

Chapter Summary

The main topic of Chapter 5 is the emergence of the colonial resistance movement. The authors explain (1) the interaction of forces that determined how the American colonists and the British perceived each other between 1754 and 1774 and (2) how the actions born of those perceptions created tensions and conflicts that led to the emergence of a widespread and unified colonial resistance movement.

In the first section, "Renewed Warfare Among Europeans and Indians," we learn about the causes and outcome of the Seven Years' War and about the British attitude toward the colonists during that war. That attitude helped shape a negative colonial view of the British and so spurred the emergence of the resistance movement.

The next section, "1763: A Turning Point," presents the consequences of the Seven Years' War, especially the devastating impact of the war on the southern and northwestern Indians and Pontiac's desperate attempt to regain a measure of independence for the northwestern Indians. The consequences of the war on the British, on their North American colonies, and on the relationship between the two takes up the rest of the section, and indeed the rest of the chapter. The authors explain the differing frames of reference of the British and the colonists. The British frame of reference was shaped by (l) Britain's need for additional revenue in the face of financial crisis and (2) Britain's definition of representative government, the role of Parliament, and the nature of the relationship between Parliament and colonies. The colonial frame of reference toward Great Britain was shaped by (l) a feeling of security stemming from the outcome of the Seven Years' War, (2) a wariness of the British based on the influence of the Real Whigs, and (3) colonial theories about representative government. Given this frame of reference, the colonists began "to see oppressive designs behind the actions of Grenville and his successors." Out of this colonial perception grew the "conspiracy theory," considered at the end of the chapter.

Passage of the Sugar and Currency Acts in 1764 and the hesitant protest attending those acts are the topics of the third section, "The Stamp Act Crisis." The debate over constitutional issues led to widespread but relatively moderate protest at the ideological level. Involvement of the masses shifted the protest to the emotional level. Soon some internal colonial divisions appeared, caused by the tension between the "ordinary" and the "genteel" discussed in Chapter 4. Composed of merchants, lawyers, prosperous tradesmen, and the like, the Sons of Liberty attempted to capitalize on this tension, using it to create acceptable forms of resistance.

Repeal of the Stamp Act, passage of the Declaratory Act, passage of the Townshend Acts, and the expansion of the resistance movement are considered in the fourth section, "Resistance to the Townshend Acts." John Dickinson's contention that the colonists had the right to determine the intent of Parliament before deciding to obey its laws suggests that the conspiracy theory was gaining ground. British reaction to the Massachusetts Circular Letter strengthened the perception that the British were conspiring to destroy colonial rights and liberties. The discussion of how the "middling sort" used public rituals to involve the "ordinary" in the resistance movement again shows the internal divisions among the colonists.

We then focus on events in Boston that eventually led to the Boston Massacre, an event that exemplified the fears of the most conservative patriots about involving the masses in the resistance movement. News of the repeal of the Townshend duties (except the tea tax), the use of the Massacre as a propaganda tool against the British, the defense of the British soldiers by two leading patriots, and the relative calm from 1770 to 1773 helped alleviate those fears. Yet both the resistance movement and the conspiracy theory continued to grow in these calm years. It was during this time that Samuel Adams used the Boston Committee of Correspondence to widen the geographic scope of the resistance movement. Both the Boston Committee's statement of rights and grievances and the response of interior Massachusetts towns to this document demonstrate the emergence of patriots more committed to American rights than to loyalty to Great Britain.

Such commitment led to definitive action by patriots, who perceived a corrupt, oppressive, tyrannical Great Britain conspiring to destroy colonial rights and liberties through passage of the Tea Act, the Coercive Acts, and the Quebec Act. As stated by the authors, "It seemed as though the full dimensions of the plot against American rights and liberties had at last been revealed." The chapter ends with the calling of delegates to the First Continental Congress for the purpose of formulating a united plan of resistance against the British.

Learning Objectives

1. Examine the relations between Europeans and North American Indians between 1701 and 1763.
2. Discuss the goals and consequences of the Albany Congress.
3. Discuss the causes and consequences of the Seven Years' War.
4. Through an examination of Parliament's actions relating to the colonies from 1763 to 1774, explain Great Britain's approach to the crisis it faced in the post-Seven Years' War decade.
5. Through an examination of the development of the colonial resistance movement, explain the reaction of the colonists to Parliament's actions in the period from 1763 to 1774.
6. Examine the basic ideological conflict between the British and the colonists concerning (a) the nature of representative government and (b) the nature of political power.
7. Examine the ideological and constitutional arguments presented by the colonists against the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, and the Townshend Acts.
8. Explain the role of each of the following in the development and spread of the colonial resistance movement:
   1. Pamphlets
   2. Legislative protest (e.g., Virginia Stamp Act Resolves)
   3. Crowd action
   4. Economic protest
   5. Public rituals
   6. Committees of correspondence
9. Discuss the various divisions that emerged among the colonists during the development of their resistance against the British.
10. Trace the development of the theory that Great Britain was conspiring to oppress the colonists, and explain how that theory became especially important in relation to the Tea Act, the Coercive Acts, and the Quebec Act.

Chapter Outline

Introduction

An ever-widening split developed between America and England. The Seven Years' War played an important role in events, because the absence of the French altered relations between colonials and the English. Also, Britain levied taxes to pay for the war, and resistance to those taxes brought on the movement for independence.

1. Renewed Warfare Among Europeans and Indians
   
   1. Iroquois Neutrality
   2. Albany Congress
   3. Seven Years' War
   4. American Soldiers
2. 1763: A Turning-point
   
   1. Neolin and Pontiac
   2. Proclamation of 1763
   3. George III
3. Theories of Representation
   
   1. Real Whigs
   2. Sugar and Currency Acts
   3. The Stamp Act Crisis
   4. Patrick Henry and the Virginia Stamp Act Resolves
4. Americans' Divergent Interests
   
   1. Sons of Liberty
   2. Resistance to the Townshend Acts
   3. Massachusetts Assembly Dissolved
5. Rituals of Resistance
   
   1. Daughters of Liberty
   2. Boycotts Boston Massacre
6. Tea and Turmoil
   
   1. The Boston Tea Party
   2. Coercive and Quebec Acts
   3. Implications of the Coercive Acts

Your notes should include these terms:

1. Paul Revere
2. Iroquois-Catawba War
3. Albany Congress
4. the Seven Years War
5. Acadian deportation
6. William Pitt
7. Treaty of Paris of 1763
8. Neolin and Chief Pontiac
9. the Proclamation of 1763
10. George III
11. George Grenville
12. virtual representation
13. individual representation
14. the Real Whigs
15. Cato's Letters
16. the Sugar Act
17. the Currency Act
18. the Stamp Act
19. The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved
20. Patrick Henry
21. the Virginia Stamp Act Resolves
22. Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes on the British Colonies
23. the Loyal Nine
24. Andrew Oliver
25. Thomas Hutchinson
26. Ebenezer MacIntosh
27. the Sons of Liberty
28. Charleston demonstrations of October 1765 and January 1766
29. hiladelphia demonstration against Benjamin Franklin
30. the Stamp Act Congress
31. nonimportation associations of 1765
32. Lord Rockingham
33. the Declaratory Act
34. Charles Townshend
35. the Townshend Acts
36. Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania
37. the Massachusetts circular letter
38. the numbers 45 and 92
39. public rituals
40. the Daughters of Liberty
41. Edenton Ladies Tea Party
42. the boycott of 1768-1770
43. Lord North
44. the Liberty riot
45. the Boston Massacre
46. Committees of correspondence
47. Samuel Adams
48. the Boston Statement of Rights and Grievances
49. the Tea Act
50. the Boston Tea Party
51. the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts
52. the Quebec Act

Discussion Questions

• Why might some scholars call the Seven Years' War the "Great War for Empire"? How accurate a description is that? What role did Indians play in the causes and consequences of the war? Did the war set the stage for the American Revolution?
• How did imperial policy toward western lands offend many Americans? What did the Proclamation of 1763 do and how did Americans respond? Why did Americans resent the Quebec Act?
• How did demonstrations against imperial policy include obvious violations of the law? How did colonists justify their actions? Are those justifications valid? Did they have any legal means of expressing discontent?