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UNIT 2:
The American
Revolution
(1775-1783)
Standards & Objective:
Standard 1: The student will demonstrate an
understanding of the conflicts between regional and national
interests in the development of democracy in the United States.
Indicator 1.2: Analyze the early development of representative government and
political rights in the American colonies, including the influence of the British
political system and the rule of law as written in the Magna Carta and the
English Bill of Rights, and the conflict between the colonial legislatures and the
British Parliament over the right to tax that resulted in the American
Revolutionary War.
Indicator 1.3: Analyze the impact of the Declaration of Independence and the
American Revolution on establishing the ideals of a democratic republic.
OBJECTIVE: Describe how the government in Britain
influenced colonial governments.
I. Causes of the American Revolution:
A. The colonists brought the ideas of representative
government with them from England.
1. Magna Carta
a.Recognized the rights of Englishmen to be consulted
on the levying of taxes.
i. Basis of the English Parliamentary system
b. Established the idea of a jury of one’s peers.
i. Basis of English Judicial system.
2. English Bill of Right
a. People had the right to be consulted on taxes through their
representatives.
b. The power of the King (the executive) should be limited by
Parliament
c. People have the right to religious freedom
i. Included in the 1st amendment of the Bill of Rights
3. English law clearly stated that everyone had to obey the law,
even the king.
4. The rules of the English legal system were clear, wellunderstood and fairly enforced.
5. The colonial charters granted by the king included statements
that English colonists continued to enjoy the rights of
Englishmen.
B. Early Colonial Governments applied English principals
to their own laws.
1.Examples of early representative governments:
a. House of Burgesses (Va.)
i. Allowed by the Virginia Company in Jamestown as a
way of maintaining order in the colony and attracting
new colonists.
ii. Virginia did not have a true democracy
1. Only property owners could vote.
2. A social elite developed, and others began
deferring to them.
3. By the 1620’s, the king had appointed a Royal
Governor, further limiting democracy in Virginia
b. Mayflower Compact (New
England)
i. Government derives its
authority from the people.
The above depicts the signing of the
Mayflower Compact.
Discussion Question!
• Write this question at the bottom of your
notes page:
• What influences to our government can you
see from Britain?
• Answer the question using notes and our
discussion.
c. New England town meetings
i. Puritans supported representative government in
Massachusetts Bay
1.These ideas were spread to other parts of New England as
Puritans migrated.
ii. Male members of the church governed their society through
town meetings
1. At first, only male members of the church were allowed to
vote
1. By the end of the 1700’s, all male property owners
could vote.
d. All thirteen colonies established a representative assembly which
had the right to levy taxes.
i. By the time of the Revolution, most colonies had a royal
governor, which limited their representative governments.
C. Conditions in England during the 1600’s affected the
development of representative government in the
colonies.
1. During the English Civil War (1640s), the English
government left the colonies alone to develop their own
governments.
a. Parliament’s control on the colonies was limited
by distance and desire.
2. John Locke’s Social Contract Theory
a. Man had natural rights to life liberty and
property
b. The authority of the government rests on the will
of the people
D. The end of Salutary Neglect after the French and
Indian War.
1. Remember: After the 1720s the English government
followed a policy of salutary neglect, leaving the colonies to
govern themselves.
a. The colonial assemblies had the right to tax the
citizens of their colonies.
b. It was the change of this policy that riled the
colonists into revolt.
Join, or Die Political Cartoon by Benjamin Franklin
A political cartoon calling for the American colonies
to band together for protection against the Indians
and the French. First published in the Pennsylvania
Gazette on May 9, 1754.
2. Navigation Acts:
a. After the war, Parliament
ended salutary neglect and
enforced their mercantilist
policies by cracking down
on smugglers.
England viewed colonial sales to
other countries as an economic
threat. The Navigation Acts: were
laws that restricted colonial trade,
and ensured that only England
benefited from the trade.
3. England establish Admiralty Courts (during the Sugar Act)
a. Colonial merchants accused of a crime would be
brought to England
b. Case heard by only a judge, which violated the rights to
a trial by jury (in the Magna Carta)
c. Judges were often corrupt, because they got bonuses
for the amount of fines they collected from the “guilty”
d. Colonists protested the courts and increased
smuggling
Checking for Understanding:
Discussion Section: Start of Revolution
1. What were some early documents that influenced the
representative governments in the colonies?
2. Was the Virginia House of Burgesses a truly democratic
government? Why or why not?
3. According to Locke’s Social Contract Theory, the power
to govern comes from whom?
4. Parliament’s control over the colonies was limited by
what two things?
5. Why were the colonists angry when Britain established
the Admiralty Courts? How did they respond to these?
4. England imposed taxes on the colonies to help pay
for the war debt.
a. Sugar tax
i. Indirect (import) tax on molasses
b. Stamp Act
i. Direct tax on paper goods (documents, envelopes,
letters, stamps, etc)
ii. Colonists strongly opposed the
Stamp Act because it was a
direct tax on the colonists
Tax: Money that
people pay to their
government.
c. Colonial Response
i. Parliament’s failure to recognize the exclusive right of the
colonial assemblies to collect taxes led to the cry of “taxation
without representation”
ii. Protested the loss of ‘rights of Englishmen’
iii. The colonists created groups to fight England’s abuses
1. The Sons and Daughters of Liberty
1. Led riots and helped spread
communication of colonial
grievances.
2. The Stamp Act Congress
1.Led an effective boycott which led to the repeal
(cancelling) of the Stamp Act.
i. England stationed troops in the colonies to re-gain control.
1. This angered and alienated the colonists
2. Led to the Boston Massacre (see next slide)
Red coat or Redcoat is a historical
term used to refer to soldiers of the
British Army because of the red
uniforms formerly worn by the
majority of regiments.
What
advantages do
the redcoats
have that the
colonists do
not?
How could this
engraving
contribute to the
growing support
for the Patriots’
cause?
d. The Townshend Acts:
i. England taxed the colonies
to raise money to pay the
salaries of the governors and
judges so they were
independent of colonial
control.
1.Repealed as a result of
colonists’ boycott.
The Bostonian Paying the Excise-Man, 1774 British
propaganda print referring to the tarring and
feathering of Boston Commissioner of Customs. The
men also poured hot tea down Malcolm's throat.
Note the noose hanging on the Liberty Tree, and the
Stamp Act posted upside-down
e. Tea Act:
i. Gave the British-controlled East
India Company the exclusive
right to sell tea, which was the
most consumed beverage in the
colonies.
1. This would have made the tea cheaper, but there was
still a tax on the tea.
1. The colonists accused England of trying to
“trick” them into paying a tax levied by
Parliament.
ii.Resulted in the Boston Tea Party
Political cartoon showing the reaction to the Boston Tea Party. Boston
was not the only city to have a “tea party.” They took place in
Charleston, New York, Annapolis, and others.
f. Coercive “Intolerable” Acts
i. Created in response to the Boston
Tea Party
g. Colonial responses
i. First Continental Congress
ii.Lexington and Concord
1.“Shot heard ‘round the world”
2. Began the Revolutionary War
The "shot heard 'round the world“ comes from Ralph Waldo
Emerson's "Concord Hymn" (1837), and referred to the
beginning of the American Revolutionary War. This 1775 first
shot was fired during an armed standoff between British
forces and local militia in Lexington, escalating into
engagements at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
E. Common Misconceptions
1. The colonists were not protesting against the taxes
because the taxes were too high.
2. The colonists were not attempting to form a new
form a government.
3. The colonists did not want representation in Parliament,
since they would have been outvoted.
4. The colonists were trying to hold onto the government
that they had developed during the time of salutary
neglect.
5. The colonists wanted England to recognize that only
their colonial legislatures had the right to impose taxes
on the colonists.
Checking for Understanding:
Discussion Section: Acts of Parliament
1. Why did Great Britain start taxing the colonies?
2. What was the reason behind the slogan, “No taxation
without representation?”
3. What groups were formed in response to England’s
abuses?
4. What was a major cause of the Boston Tea Party?
II. The Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution established the ideals
of a democratic republic.
Declaration of
A. The Declaration of Independence
Independence
nd
1. Written in the 2 year of the war
2. Meant to explain the reason of the
colonist’ fight
a. It addressed those within the
colonies who remained loyal to
the king or were uncommitted
to the fight for independence.
The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the
Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. It declared that
the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great
Britain, regarded themselves as independent states,
and no longer a part of the British Empire.
John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, showing the fiveman committee in charge of drafting the Declaration of
Independence in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second
Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson was
selected as the main author of the document.
Patriots:
Colonists who
were for
independence.
Loyalists: Colonist who
were opposed to
independence.
3. Explains the concept of limited government based on the
ideas of John Locke
a.The principles of equality
b.The natural rights of “life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness”
c.The purpose of government to “secure those rights” and
the “right of the people to alter or abolish” government
when natural rights are not protected by government.
4. Specifically addresses the
reasons why the colonists went to
war.
a.The King, not the Parliament,
had violated the rights of the
colonists.
b.Everything the “he” did broke
the bonds between the king
and his loyal colonial
subjects.
c.All of “his” actions unified
the colonies against a
common enemy.
King George III of
Great Britain.
5. French involvement during the war
a.By declaring their independence, the Americans made it
possible to form alliances with other nations.
i. Although the French king did not support democracy, he
supported the colonists against France’s traditional enemy,
Britain.
1. After the Americans defeated the British at the
Battle of Saratoga, the French thought that the
colonists might actually win.
ii. The French treaty provided the colonists with naval
support and supplies which helped them defeat the British
at Yorktown.
North
America
after the
Treaty of
Paris, 1783
6. After the Revolution, Americans began to put the principles of
the Declaration into practice.
a.The Declaration of Independence impacted newly formed
state governments and the Articles of Confederation after
the Revolution.
i. These governments relied primarily on the role of
the legislature and severely limited executive power.
b.Northern states passed laws to gradually emancipate their
slaves.
c.States allowed religious freedom
d.Male property owners could vote.
i. Most American males owned property.
7. Some promises made by the Declaration of Independence
remained unfulfilled by certain groups.
a.Since 1776, the idea that “all men are created equal; that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights … [to] life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” has
been a rallying cry for those denied their rights, both in
the United States and throughout the world.
Checking for Understanding: Discussion
Section: American Revolution
1. Why was the Declaration of Independence written?
2. Who was the intended audience?
3. What are some concepts of Locke’s limited
government that are included in the document?
4. According to the document, who had violated the
colonists’ rights?
5. What was one significant result of the Battle of
Saratoga?
6. After the revolution, how did the Declaration of
Independence impact the new state governments?