Chapter 10 Growing Tensions Between the

Colonies & Britain

Vocabulary

• debts – money that is owed to someone else • acts – laws created or passed by a government • taxation without representation – forcing people

to pay taxes when they have no say in making the law that created the tax

• protest – to complain publicly about something that people believe is wrong or unfair

• Parliament – the lawmaking part of the British government, like the US Congress, in which colonists had no representatives

• repeal – to take back, or to cancel, a law

Think and Write

“Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either”

-Aesop

“In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story”

-Walter Cronkite

10.1 Introduction

• Colonists were happy to be a part of Great Britain and supported the king in the early 1700s.

• Several events would change how the colonists felt.

• Consider both sides for each event

10.2 The French & Indian War

• Britain and France both claimed the Ohio River Valley

• British settlers wanted to farm the rich soil there

• The French wanted to trap beavers and trade their furs

10.2 The French & Indian War

• In 1754, Britain and France went to war over the territory.

• Most Native Americans were friendly with the French and fought on their side.

• Many colonists and some “Indians” fought with the thousands of British soldiers.

• Many colonists called the conflict the French and Indian War.

• The war ended in 1763 with a peace treaty giving Britain control of Canada and the land between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains.

• The war gave Britain more land, but also had created huge debts (almost 30 billion dollars in today’s time)

“Join or Die” Snake

• Designed by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 as a way of rallying the colonists to work together.

10.3 The Proclamation of 1763

• Many settlers moved west into the land that Britain had won from the French.

• This worried the Native Americans and they attacked their forts and houses to drive them out.

• In 1763, nearly 2,000 settlers died because of the fighting

• To stop the fighting and protect the colonists, Britain passed the Proclamation Act of 1763

• It said the Native Americans could have all the land west of the Appalachian Mountains and that the settlers could not move there

Before and After 1763

10.3 The Proclamation Act of 1763

• The colonists disliked this law.

• Many of them ignored it and continued to move west.

• They didn’t like how Britain was trying to control the colonies.

• In the end, the French no longer had territory in North America.

10.4 The Quartering Act

• Britain left thousands of soldiers in the colonies to protect them after the war.

• Britain thought that the colonists should help to pay for this army and

• In 1765, British Parliament passed the Quartering Act.

• It ordered the colonists to provide “quarters” (places to live), food, fuel, candles, and transportation for the soldiers.

• The angered colonists did not want to pay for this and treated the soldiers badly.

10.5 The Stamp Act

• Britain needed money to pay its debts and thought that the colonists should help to pay for the troops that were protecting them.

• In 1765, British Parliament passed a new tax law called the Stamp Act.

• It said that colonists would have to pay a tax on printed papers like:

– newspapers, pamphlets, marriage licenses, playing cards, etc.

10.5 The Stamp Act

10.5 The Stamp Act

• Colonists were furious; This taxed things they used every day and the money went to the British government.

• What angered them most was that they had no say in making the law.

• Some refused to buy the stamps, some protested, and some scared or attacked the tax collectors.

• In October 1765, nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress: – All British subjects had a right to vote on taxes through

their representatives (colonies had no representatives) – It was unfair for Parliament to pass such laws (taxation

without representation)

10.5 The Stamp Act

• The protests surprised the British king and Parliament, but they had no way of forcing them to obey.

• Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March, 1766.

• Parliament let the colonies

know that they still believed

in its right to tax them.

10.6 The Boston Massacre

• In 1770, there was still great tension between the colonists and British soldiers.

• The soldiers weren’t happy because they were far from their homes and their job was difficult. They went out of their way to bother the colonists.

• Colonists didn’t want the soldiers living there. They felt the soldiers were rowdy and rude and took jobs away from them. They called them names like “lobsterback” due to their red uniforms.

• On March 5, 1770, the anger led to violence.

10.6 The Boston Massacre

• A soldier was standing guard that cold night. • About 9 pm a crowd gathered and began to shout

names and throw stones and snowballs. • Captain Preston and seven other soldiers hurried to the

guard’s side and loaded their muskets. • The crowd continued to throw snowballs and chunks of

ice. • Captain Prescott may have told his men not to fire, but

one soldier heard, “Fire!” and shot into the crowd. • The crowd began to move toward them and the

soldiers panicked and fired. • Five people lay dead or dying and six more were

wounded.

10.6 The Boston Massacre

• The colonists referred to the event as a massacre, the murder of people who cannot defend themselves.

• Paul Revere etched a picture of the event showing soldiers firing at a peaceful crowd, thought that isn’t exactly what happened.

• Samuel Adams, a protest leader, made sure to spread the news of the massacre throughout the colonies.

10.6 The Boston Massacre

10.7 The Boston Tea Party

• After the Boston Massacre, the Parliament repealed ALL of the unpopular taxes on the colonists, except the tax on tea.

• The colonists loved tea, but refused to buy it from Britain, which caused the British East India Company to lose a great deal of money.

• To save the company, Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, which said that only the British East India Company could sell tea in the colonies.

• The Tea Act lowered the cost of tea for the colonists, but it made them angry because they thought it was another unfair law.

• Many protested, spoke out against it, and refused to buy tea.

10.7 The Boston Tea Party

• On December 16, 1773, a group of men dressed up as Native Americans and climbed aboard the tea ships in Boston Harbor.

• They split open hundreds of boxes of tea and dumped 90,000 pounds of loose tea into the water.

• Protesters were careful not to damage anything besides the tea.

• Soon the colonists were singing a song about it throughout the colonies.

• King George was furious!

10.8 The Intolerable Acts

• After the Boston Tea Party, Parliament decided to punish the colonists by passing several new laws.

– Boston Port Act: closed Boston Harbor until the lost tea was paid for (nothing in or out)

• Workers lost their jobs

• Would the citizens starve?

• The laws were so harsh that the colonists called them intolerable (Intolerable Acts)

10.8 The Intolerable Acts

• In September 1774, leaders from twelve colonies met in Philadelphia to discuss the problems with Britain.

• The meeting was called the First Continental Congress.

• The delegates agreed to fight the Boston Port Act and the other Intolerable Acts.