Unit 4 the independence war

Until the 1760s most Americans seemed quite content to be ruled by Britain. An important reason for this was the presence of the French in North America. So long as France held Canada and Louisiana, the colonists felt that they needed the British navy and soldiers to protect them. Another reason the colonists accepted British rule was that the British government rarely interfered in colonial affairs.

A century earlier the British Parliament had passed some laws called Navigation Acts. These listed certain products called "enumerated commodities" that the colonies were forbidden to export to any country except England. It was easy for the colonists to avoid obeying these laws. The long American coastline made smuggling easy. The colonists did not care much either about import taxes, or duties, that they were supposed to pay on goods from abroad. The duties were light and carelessly collected. Few merchants bothered to pay them. And again, smuggling was easy. Ships could unload their cargoes on hun­dreds of lonely wharves without customs officers knowing.

When a British Prime Minister named Robert Walpole was asked why he did not do more to enforce the trade laws, he replied: "Let sleeping dogs lie." He knew the independent spirit of the British colonists in America and wanted no trouble with them. The trouble began when later British politicians forgot his advice and awoke the "sleeping dogs."

After the French and Indian war finished and the Peace of Paris was signed in 1763, France gave up its claim to Canada and to all of North America east of the Mississippi River. Britain had won an Empire, but its victory led directly to conflict with its American colonies. Britain decided to tighten its control over the colonies, but the colonists disagreed with the change in policy. The war had cost a great deal of money, and the British government faced large debts. Many leaders in Britain felt the colonies should help pay a part of the debts.

New policies for the colonies were introduced. One idea was to have the colonies strictly obey the Navigation Acts and to limit colonial trade only to Britain. In addition, a new series of laws were introduced. The Grenville Acts included several separate parts. Three of these resulted in much disagreement between Britain and the colonies. The first was the Proclamation of 1763. Even before the final defeat of the French, colonists in search of better land began to move over the Appalachian Mountains into the Ohio valley. To prevent war with the Amerindian tribes who lived in the area, the English king, George III, issued a proclamation in 1763. It forbade colonists to settle west of the Appalachians until proper treaties had been made with the Amerindians.

The second was the Sugar Act of 1764. To raise more money from colonial trade the British government told that colonists must pay new taxes on imports of sugar, wine, coffee, textiles, and other goods. More British navy ships were to patrol the American coast to stop smuggling. The third major part of the Grenville Acts was the Stamp Act passed in 1765. According to it colonists had to buy special stamps and attach them to newspapers, licenses and legal papers such as wills and mortgages. The government also told them that they must feed and find shelter for British soldiers it planned to keep in the colonies (the Quartering Act of 1765). These orders seemed perfectly fair to British politicians. It had cost British taxpayers a lot of money to defend the colonies during the French and Indian War. Surely, they reasoned, the colonists could not object to repaying some of this money.

But the colonists did object. Merchants believed that the new import taxes would make it more difficult for them to trade at a profit. Other colonists believed that the taxes would raise their costs of living. They also feared that if British troops stayed in America they might be used to force them to obey the British government. Trade with Britain fell off sharply in summer 1765, when prominent men organized themselves into the “Sons of Liberty” – secret organization to protest the Stamp Act, often through violent means.

Ever since the early years of the Virginia settlement Americans had claimed the right to elect representatives to decide the taxes they paid. Now they insisted that as "freeborn Englishmen" they could be taxed only by their own colonial assemblies. We have no representatives in the British Parliament, they said, so what right does it have to tax us? "No taxation without representation" became their demand. In 1765 representatives from nine colonies met in New York. They formed the "Stamp Act Congress" and organized opposition to the Stamp Act. All over the colonies merchants and shopkeepers refused to sell British goods until the Act was withdrawn. In Boston and other cities angry mobs attacked government officials selling the stamps. Most colonists simply refused to use them.

As the conflict between the British and the colonists increased, the American people divided into two groups. The colonists who supported a possible break with the British were called patriots. Those who remained loyal to the English were called loyalists. At the head of the opposition was Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, a politician and writer who fought tirelessly for independence. Being shrewd and able in politics, Samuel Adams published articles in newspapers and made speeches in town meetings as he wanted to make people aware of their own power and importance.

All this opposition forced the British government to withdraw the Stamp Act. But it was determined to show the colonists that it had the right to tax them. Parliament passed another law called the Declaratory Act. This stated that the British government had "full power and authority (over) the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever."

In 1767 the British placed new taxes on tea, paper, paint, and various other goods that the colonies imported from abroad. A special customs office was set up in Boston to collect the new duties. Again the colonists refused to pay. Riots broke out in Boston and the British sent soldiers to keep order.

The presence of the British troops angered colonists and caused disorders. On March 5, 1770 antagonism between citizens and British soldiers brought violence. A Boston mob began to shout insults at a group of British soldiers. Angry words were exchanged. Sticks and stones began to fly through the air at the soldiers. One of the crowd tried to take a soldier’s gun and the soldier shot him. Without any order from the officer in charge, more shots were fired and three more members of the crows fell dead. Several others were wounded. Samuel Adams, who organized opposition to British tax laws in Massachusetts, used this “Boston Massacre” to stir up American opinion against the British. He wrote a letter which described the happening as an unprovoked attack on a peaceful group of citizens. He sent out copies of the letter to all the colonies. To make his account more convincing, he asked a Boston silversmith Paul Revere to make a dramatic picture of the “Boston Massacre”. Hundreds of copies were printed. Adam’s letter and Revere’s picture were seen by thousands of people throughout the colonies. Together they did a great deal to strengthen opposition to British rule.

It was not until 1770 when the British removed all the duties except for the one on tea. But some colonists in Massachusetts were determined to keep the quarrel going. In December 1773, a group of them disguised themselves as Mohawk Amerindians. Led by Samuel Adams, they boarded British merchant ships in Boston harbor and threw 342 cases of tea into the sea. "I hope that King George likes salt in his tea," said one of them.

The British reply to this "Boston Tea Party" was to pass a set of laws to punish Massachusetts. Colonists soon began calling these laws the "Intolerable Acts." Boston harbor was closed to all trade until the tea was paid for. More soldiers were sent there to keep order. The powers of the colonial assembly of Massachusetts were greatly reduced.

On June 1, 1774, British warships took up position at the mouth of Boston harbor to make sure that no ships sailed in or out. A few months later, in September 1774, a group of colonial leaders came together in Philadelphia. They formed the First Continental Congress to oppose what they saw as British oppression. They were deeply worried by the British actions but were divided in their ideas for meeting the crisis. Some hoped to ask the king for help. If George III would aid them, they would remain in the British Empire. They believed there were still some advantages of being tied to England and under Parliament’s rule. Others took the view that Parliament had no authority over the colonies.

The Continental Congress claimed to be loyal to the British king. But it called upon all Americans to support the people of Massachusetts by refusing to buy British goods. Many colonists went further than this. They began to organize themselves into groups of part-time soldiers, or "militias," and to gather together weapons and ammunition.

On the night of April 18, 1775, 700 British soldiers marched silently out of Boston. Their orders were to seize weapons and ammunition that rebellious colonists had stored in Concord, a nearby town. But the colonists were warned that the soldiers were coming. Signal lights were hung from the spire of Boston's highest church and two fast riders jumped into their saddles and galloped off with the news.

In the village of Lexington the British found seventy American militiamen, farmers and tradesmen, barring their way. These part-time soldiers were known as "Minutemen." This was because they had promised to take up arms immediately – in a minute – whenever they were needed.

The British commander ordered the Minutemen to return to their homes. They refused. Then someone, nobody knows who, fired a shot. Other shots came from the lines of British soldiers. Eight Minutemen fell dead. The first shots had been fired in what was to become the American War of Independence.

The British soldiers reached Concord a few hours later and destroyed some of the weapons and gunpowder there. But by the time they set off to return to Boston hundreds more Minutemen had gathered. From the thick woods on each side of the Boston road they shot down, one by one, 273 British soldiers. The soldiers were still under attack when they arrived back in Boston. A ring of armed Americans gathered round the city.

The next month, May 1775, the second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and began to act as an American national government. It set up an army of 17,000 men under the command of George Washington. Washington was a Virginia landowner and surveyor with experience of fighting in the French and Indian War. The Continental Congress also sent representatives to seek aid from friendly European nations – especially from France, Britain's old enemy. For those still hoping for peace, the delegates sent to George III one last appeal – the Olive Branch Petition. George turned it down and declared that the Americans were rebels.

By the following year the fighting had spread beyond Massachusetts. It had grown into a full-scale war. On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress finally took the step that many Americans believed was inevitable. It cut all political ties with Britain and declared that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." Two days later, on July 4, it issued the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence is the most important document in American history. It was written by Thomas Jefferson, a landowner and lawyer from Virginia. After repeating that the colonies were now "free and independent states" it officially named them the United States of America.

The Declaration of Independence was more than a statement that the colonies were a new nation. It also set out the ideas behind the change that was being made. It claimed that all men had a natural right to "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It also said that governments can only justly claim the right to rule if they have the agreement of those they govern – "the consent of the governed." Ideas such as these were a central part of the political traditions that the colonists' ancestors had brought with them from England. Colonial leaders had also studied them in the writings of an English political thinker named John Locke. Men like Jefferson combined Locke's ideas with their own experience of life in America to produce a new definition of democratic government. This new definition said that governments should consist of representatives elected by the people. It also said that the main reason that governments existed was to protect the rights of individual citizens.

So Americans considered themselves independent, but they still had to fight and win a war to prove it. After some early successes, they did badly in the war against the British. Washington's army was more of an armed mob than an effective fighting force. Few of the men had any military training and many obeyed only those orders that suited them. Officers quarreled constantly over their rank and authority. Washington set to work to train his men and turn them into disciplined soldiers. But this took time, and meanwhile the Americans suffered defeat after defeat. In September 1776, only two months after the Declaration of Independence, the British captured New York City. Washington wrote to his brother that he feared that the Americans were very close to losing the war.

Success began to come to the Americans in October 1777. They trapped a British army of almost 6,000 men at Saratoga in northern New York. The British commander was cut off from his supplies and his men were facing starvation. He was forced to surrender. The Americans marched their prisoners to Boston. Here, after swearing never again to fight against the Americans, the prisoners were put on board ships and sent back to England. The American victory at Saratoga was considered the turning point of the war. It was important to Americans because it brought France into the war. From this point on, the French, who had already given secret help to Americans, began to help them openly. In 1778 French leaders signed a treaty of alliance promising guns, ships and money to Americans. French ships, soldiers and money were soon playing an important part in the war.

From 1778 onwards most of the fighting took place in the southern colonies. It was here that the war came to an end. In September 1781, George Washington, leading a combined American and French army, surrounded 8,000 British troops under General Cornwallis at Yorktown, on the coast of Virginia. Cornwallis was worried, but he expected British ships to arrive and rescue or reinforce his army. When ships arrived off Yorktown, however, they were French ones. Cornwallis was trapped. On October 17, 1781, he surrendered his army to Washington. When the news reached London the British Prime Minister, Lord North, threw up his hands in despair. "It is all over!" he cried.

North was right. The British started to withdraw their forces from America and British and American representatives began to discuss peace terms. In the Treaty of Paris, which was signed in September 1783, Britain officially recognized her former colonies as an independent nation. The treaty granted the new United States all of North America from Canada in the north to Florida in the south, and from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River.

DISCUSSION

1. What were the reasons for most American colonists to be quite content by the British rule until 1760s?

2. How did Navigation Acts passed by the British government limit colonial trade? Did American colonists obey these acts?

3. Why did the British victory in the French and Indian war lead directly to their conflict with colonists? What kind of proclamation did the English king George III issue in 1763?

4. When was the Sugar Act passed? What kind of taxes did it raise?

5. What kind of proclamation did the English king George III issue in 1763?

6. Why did the order to pay new taxes on imports and to give food and shelter to British soldiers seem perfectly fair to British politicians?

7. What was the Stamp Act of 1765 intended for?

8. Americans claimed the right to elect their representatives to the British Parliament to decide upon the taxes they paid. What was their motto?

9. What do we learn about the Stamp Act Congress of 1765?

10. What was Samuel Adams’s contribution to American independence?

11. What occurrence is known as the Boston Tea Party? What was the British reply to this action?

12. When did the First Continental Congress take place? What was its appeal to colonists?

13. Were American “minutemen” professional soldiers?

14. What do we learn about the armed clash that took place in Lexington?

15. When was the Declaration of Independence issued?

16. Why did Americans do badly in the beginning of the war against the British?

17. When did Americans hold their decisive victory over the British? How did they treat captured British soldiers?

18. Why did the French king agree to help Americans fight against the British?

19. Why did General Cornwallis have to surrender his army to George Washington?

20. When was the Treaty of Paris signed? What did the British guarantee to their former colony?

SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES

Listen to a special program from Voice of America – an intermediate listening comprehension course. Then read the transcript and fill in the blanks.

1. to be tried in court for murder

2. to enforce the law

3. the First Continental Congress

4. to be in rebellion

5. to approve a series of documents

6. the shot heard round the world

7. the Boston Tea Party

8. to become involved in a dispute

9. colonial troops

10. to destroy the supplies

11. the American Revolution

12. to ease the tensions

13. to seize the weapons

14. the British policy of taxing

15. to control trade

VOICE ONE:

This is Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF THE NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

Today, we tell about the start of the American colonies’ war for independence from Britain in the late seventeen hundreds.

VOICE ONE:

The road to revolution lasted several years. The most serious events began in seventeen seventy. War began five years later.

Relations between Britain and its American colonists were most tense in the colony of Massachusetts. There were protests against …(1) the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament. To prevent trouble, thousands of British soldiers were sent to Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts. On March fifth, seventeen seventy, tension led to violence. This is what happened.

VOICE TWO:

It was the end of winter, and the weather was very cold. A small group of colonists began throwing rocks and pieces of ice at soldiers guarding a public building. They were joined by others, and the soldiers became frightened. They fired their guns. Five colonists were killed. The incident became known as the Boston Massacre.

VOICE ONE:

The people of Massachusetts were extremely angry. The soldiers ... (2). Most were found innocent. The others received minor punishments. Fearing more violence, the British Parliament cancelled most of its taxes. Only the tax on tea remained. This … some of …(3) for a while. Imports of British goods increased. The colonists seemed satisfied with the situation, until a few years later. That is when the Massachusetts colony once again … (4) with Britain.

VOICE TWO:

The trouble started because the British government wanted to help improve the business of the British East India Company. That company organized all the trade between India and other countries ruled by Britain. By seventeen seventy-three, the company had become weak. The British government decided to permit it to sell tea directly to the American colonies. The colonies would still have to pay a tea tax to Britain.

The Americans did not like the new plan. They felt they were being forced to buy their tea from only one company.

VOICE ONE:

Officials in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New York sent the East India Company’s ships back to Britain. In Massachusetts, things were different. The British governor there wanted to collect the tea tax and … (5). When the ships arrived in Boston, some colonists tried to block their way. The ships remained just outside the harbor without unloading their goods.

On the night of December sixteenth, seventeen seventy-three, a group of colonists went out in a small boat. They got a British ship and threw all the tea into the water. The colonists were dressed as American Indians so the British would not recognize them, but the people of Boston knew who they were. A crowd gathered to cheer them. That incident – the night when British tea was thrown into Boston harbor- became known as … (6).

VOICE TWO:

Destroying the tea was a serious crime. The British government was angry. Parliament reacted to the Boston Tea Party by punishing the whole colony of Massachusetts for the actions of a few men. It approved a series of laws that once again changed relations between the colony and Britain.

One of these laws closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. Other laws strengthened the power of the British governor and weakened the power of local colonial officials.

In June, seventeen seventy-four, the colony of Massachusetts called for a meeting of delegates from all the other colonies to consider joint action against Britain.

VOICE ONE:

This meeting of colonial delegates was called … (7). It was held in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September, seventeen seventy- four. All the colonies except one was represented. The southern colony of Georgia did not send a delegate.

The delegates agreed that the British Parliament had no right … (8) with the American colonies or to make any laws that affected them. They said the people of the colonies must have the right to take part in any legislative group that made laws for them.

VOICE TWO:

The First Continental Congress … (9) that condemned all British actions in the American colonies after seventeen sixty-three. It approved a Massachusetts proposal saying that the people could use weapons to defend their rights. It also organized a Continental Association to boycott British goods and to stop all exports to any British colony or to Britain itself. Local committees were created to enforce the boycott. One of the delegates to this First Continental Congress was John Adams of Massachusetts. Many years later, he said that by the time the meeting was held, the American Revolution had already begun.

VOICE ONE:

Britain’s King George the Second announced that the New England colonies … (10). Parliament made the decision to use troops against Massachusetts in January seventeen seventy-five.

The people of Massachusetts made a provincial assembly and began training men to fight. Soon, groups of armed men were doing military exercises in towns all around Massachusetts and in other colonies, too.

VOICE TWO:

British officers received their orders in April, seventeen seventy-five. By that time, the colonists had been gathering weapons in the town of Concord, about thirty kilometers west of Boston. The British forces were ordered … (11). But the colonists knew they were coming and were prepared.

Years later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about what happened. The poem tells about the actions of Paul Revere, one of three men who helped warn the … (12) that the British were coming:

Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

On the eighteenth of April in seventy-five

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town tonight

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-

One if by land; and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm

For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

VOICE ONE:

When the British reached the town of Lexington, they found it protected by about seventy colonial troops. These troops were called “Minute Men” because they had been trained to fight with only a minute’s warning. Guns were fired. Eight colonists were killed.

No one knows who fired the first shot in that first battle of the … (13). Each side accused the other. But the meaning was very clear. It was called “…” (14).

VOICE TWO:

From Lexington, the British marched to Concord, where they … whatever … (15) the colonists had not been able to save. Other colonial troops rushed to the area. A battle at Concord’s north bridge forced the British to march back to Boston.

It was the first day of America’s war for independence. When it was over, almost three hundred British troops had been killed. Fewer than one hundred Americans had died.

VOICE ONE:

The British troops had marched in time with their drummers and pipers. The musicians had played a song called “Yankee Doodle”. The British invented the song to insult the Americans. They said a Yankee Doodle was a man who did not know how to fight. After the early battles of the revolution, the Americans said they were glad to be Yankee Doodles.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Following the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts government organized a group that captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York State. The other colonies began sending troops to help. And another joint colonial meeting was called: the Second Continental Congress. That will be our story next week.

VOICE ONE:

Today’s MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States.