Chapter 2 Origins of American Government Section 2 Moving toward Independence.

Chapter 2Origins of American Government

Section 2Moving toward Independence

© EMC Publishing, LLC

Colonial Dependence on Britain

At first, the colonies and Britain had a close relationship:

• British corporations offered financial support to the colonies.

• The British army and navy provided military protection to the colonies.

• The colonies exported agricultural products to Britain.

As time went on, the colonists developed an identity as Americans.

Britain Gradually Dominates the New World in the 1700s



Political Developments

Britain financed and wonthe French and Indian War,which ended in 1763.

Britain forced the colonists to pay the war debt, byenforcing strict trade lawsand taxes. Angered the colonists.

Angry colonists wondered, “Do we really need the protection of the British?”

Believed in popular sovereignty. People rule and have ultimate authority.


Colonial Unity versus Loyalty to Crown

Colonial Unity

Colonists strengthened colonial ties through:

• The 1754 Albany Plan of Union: Was written by Benjamin Franklin

• Delegates from each colony gather annually to act on military and economic issues.

• Rejected by British• The 1764 Stamp Act Congress: Protested the Sugar

Act and was the first colonial union against Britain

• Stamp Act repealed by British a year later.


Committees of Correspondence helped unify the colonies against Britain by:

• by spreading examples of widespread resistance

• Can make it look more widespread by using a few examples

• by enlisting ordinary citizens in the cause of revolution

• by generating sympathy for fellow Americans in other colonies




Loyalty to Crown

Colonists accepted British power over them if:

• They were involved in British administration

• They had commercial ties to Britain

• They wanted military protection

• They were committed to idea of monarchy

Colonial Legislation and Divisive Events

1764 Sugar Act: Taxed sugar and increased costs of coffee, indigo, and wine

1765 Stamp Act: Taxed printed materials

• Stamp Act Congress succeeded in overturning British stamp tax law without the use of violence

1767 Townshend Acts: Taxed glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea; allowed government to seize private property and issue general search warrants

1770 Boston Massacre: Ended with British soldiers killing several colonists

1773 Boston Tea Party: Colonists showed displeasure with the Tea Act by dumping tea into Boston Harbor

• Rebellious tactics used by the “Sons of Liberty.”

Struggle for Power

Not so much a fight over money as much as it was the control of money.

Colonists were doing fine financially.

• Comparatively to English citizens

Colonists wanted the power to rule themselves.

Didn’t like the King across the ocean controlling them.


Slavery

Preferred gradual rather than immediate

“I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery.” George Washington

First step in gradual emancipation was stopping the importation of slaves


Slavery Slavery is an example of one of the issues.

What do you think the issue was?

In 1771, Massachusetts Assembly• End Slave Trade

• Governor rejected Bill

In 1772, Virginia (leader in Civil War) House of Burgesses• Request to the King

• “Trade of great Inhumanity.”

• King disallowed

• Many more attempts


Benjamin Franklin

“. . . a disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America, that many of Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and that even the Virginia Assembly have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more into that colony. This request, however, will probably not be granted as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed.” -- 1773



Colonist Responses

British laws led to colonial unity.

The First Continental Congress, 1774:

• Declared the Coercive Acts void

Second Continental Congress, 1775: American government during and immediately after the Revolutionary War

• Established a national government

• Led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence

• John Hancock was it’s president


Your Turn

How reasonable were British taxes on the colonists? Rank the following taxes in the order of how reasonable you think

they were (with 1 being the most reasonable). Be prepared to explain your ranking.

a. Sugar Act (1764)b. Stamp Act (1765)c. Townshend Acts (1767)


Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” Pamphlet

Was published in January 1776

Used simple language so illiterate colonists could understand it

Was instrumental in turning public opinion

Was distributed in over 150,000 copies

“Common Sense”

“Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offences of Britain, and…are apt to call out, ‘Come, come, we shall be friends again for all this.’ But…tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honour, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you…can still shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and…you have the heart of a coward…”



The Declaration of Independence

Written by Thomas Jefferson (influenced by John Locke’s social contract theory)- 1776

Written to:

• Justify colonies’ revolt to other nations

• Convince wary colonists to join the rebellion

• List grievances against George III, king of England

• Persuade others that the colonists were right (Framers wanted to justify only this revolution, not other rebellions.) Thomas Jefferson feared colonists would justify individual states rebelling.


The Declaration of Independence

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political

bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the

separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…

…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a

design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such

Government.”

Meaning of Equality African Americans

• Declaring Independence for colonists challenged the idea of slavery. What about slaves independence?

• Blacks in the army

• Things would get better in the North after the War but get horribly worse in the South.

Native Americans

• Europeans thought of them as simple, inferior people.

• Not prospective citizens

• Pushed farther and farther west


Meaning of Equality

Women

• Involved in the war effort

• Took step back after the war

• Political Roles limited because they were “too good”- symbols of peace, serenity, and moral happiness rather than political dissension.

• Even women with property were prohibited from voting.

Who did benefit from the Revolution?

• Large landowners


Chapter 2 Origins of American Government Section 2 Moving toward Independence.

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