AND BOSTON PRE-POLITICAL ACTIVITY I. Massachusetts and the Revolution A. Pre-political activity mob actions, boycotting goods, riots, and other things that took place before all the Conventions, etc. How did people get into a position in which they were able to think about revolution? Again, they do not have any models to go on, other nations modeled themselves after the US. Americans no longer saw themselves as English there was something else about them. England had seen bankruptcy, civil wars, endless terrible things. The Stewards died out and a new family took over the monarchy, from Germany. B. "What do we mean by the Revolution?" John Adams, was a nobody until this pre-political activity started. The war was no part of the Revolution, it was only a consequence of it. The Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people, from 1760 to 1775. II. British-American Relations A. Benign neglect no one in England was taking care of the colonies, because all of the new German monarchs were concerned with mistresses and making money. For some things, benign neglect is a good thing. The colonies had to figure it out on their own, and were doing pretty well. a. Its end b. George III the king who lost America; lapsed in and out of insanity. When George took control he didn't have a mistress, he and his wife had 12 children. Was very concerned with doing his job and doing it well meant he had to reassert control over the colonies who were completely out of control and weren't doing what they were supposed to do. The English were being taxed all over, and the colonists weren't getting taxed at all they were getting a free ride, especially since the French were no longer in Canada. The colonists have never paid taxes and weren't about to start. c. Bankruptcy B. Mercantilism what does the imperial country get out of having colonies? The English, for example, couldn't grow tobacco new things were coming in. The other reason is by producing things like ships, for example, and are sent over New England and are bought by Americans. The Spanish offered less expensive ships but the colonists HAD to buy
from the mother country and that is how England got money back. a. Colonies make money for mother country b. Navigation Acts 1764 created to make money for the mother country, the middle man gets the money. the mother country was supposed to get a cut, and the larger the better. This would have probably been fine, because when did consumerism create a revolution? The only people who were really impacted were the merchants the powerful people, not powerful enough to start a revolution. These powerful people had enough money and weren't really willing to shake things up. c. Stamp Act the key tax that got everyone so angry was in 1765. The goal was to gain revenue and the colonies never accepted any of it. The Act said that anything that was paper (newspaper, journal, pamphlet, cards, wills, etc) have to be taken to a man with a stamp to stamp it and he gets paid a small fee. He takes a part of it and the rest gets sent to GB. This impacted most people, because every piece of paper was taxed. This was a slap in the face GB was trying to make themselves more important. d. Absolute power of the Parliament two views of politics. Parliament was in control, passed laws, etc. The king had no veto power, he had some sway but politically, parliament made the rules. i. Natural rights life, liberty and property. These are the rights given to us by the creator, these cannot be taken away or given away (inalienable rights). The idea of "natural rights" comes from John Locke. Ironically, Locke was the one who wrote the directive that gave parliament all the power. ii. Virtual representation how the colonies were represented, and how many English people were represented. Women could not vote, and most men couldn't vote. England, for some reason, never redistricted and in some places, tiny ghost land towns have two representatives and at the same time, the second largest city (Manchester) in England has no representatives. The colonists figured out that pretty much all men should vote, at least in local elections and that representatives had a certain constituency to represent. The
colonists argued that if they accepted virtual representation would be to give up their natural rights. III. Opposition to the Stamp Act this is what makes the difference and makes people mad. A. Throughout the colonies a. Stamp Act Congress the first time, 9 of 11 colonies, met together about anything. Benjamin Franklin proposed unity all of the ties are through GB. They are not tied together but first tied to Britain; called themselves British before they called themselves American. There was no common ground between the colonies but with the Stamp Act, there was a common ground out of opposition. For the first time there were the beginnings of people who seem ready to do something about this. B. Sons of Liberty most of the activity was done by this group. The group was run by the merchants and lawyers but a lot of the middle class. These are the people engaging in prepolitical activity these are the organizations that ran the a. Revolution. Boston Sons of Liberty i. Adams, Hancock, McIntosh pretty much ran the organization in Boston. Sam Adams was mainly in charge politics were the only thing Adams cared about. Sam Adams was committed to independence, knew everyone and their kids, was really good at what he did. Was probably the only founding father that still belonged to a real, Puritan, Calvinist church. John Hancock was vain, pompous, young, and incredibly wealthy. He was probably the richest man in all of Boston Adams and the others made him the President because people trusted that he wouldn't be too radical and that he would invest some of his money. Ebenezer McIntosh was a shoemaker and headed the South Boston Mob and it was a real mob (Gangs of New York). McIntosh wanted to unite or there would be war between colonies. These three together made the Sons of Liberty very powerful and really united these three different types of people together. We know the most about the people in Boston. C. Riot
a. Thomas Hutchinson grew up with Adams, was the first homegrown Massachusetts governor. Was determined to take care of his people and being the stamper was a way to make a lot of money and got his brother in law to do it. The Sons of Liberty threatened the brother in law and scared him so much that he resigned from the job before he even accepted it. The Sons of Liberty went to Hutchinson's house, destroyed it and cut down all of the trees. The next day, McIntosh was arrested because people said they saw him doing this. Two hours later, three men came into the sheriff's office, threatened to burn down the wharf and McIntosh was released. This was a true mob and they held the power. The Sons of Liberty in Boston wrote to Providence, Philadelphia, etc and they started rioting in those towns. b. Minimal violence c. Inability to enforce taxes were impossible to enforce because anyone that took the job as tax collector would be so threatened that they didn't want to do it. The Brits could send the navy over, but that was so expensive and the English were trying to make money, not spend it. But if they didn't send the navy, that gave the impression that the colonists could do whatever they wanted. D. Fighting for principles Britain decided that frankly, they were making so much money off the colonies. When the colonies didn't want to pay taxes, they would boycott English products and start making their own. How can you break a boycott? E. Townsend Duties Champagne Charlie Townsend, always drunk. When he had to come up with these duties, 1767, came up with taxes on paper, lead, glass, and tea. It was clearly a revenue tax and was simply a way to make money. So everyone boycotted these products and Townsend was able to convince the government to send troops to Boston the break the boycott. As time went on, the stupidity on both sides was monumental. The British sent two battalions, which was a lot. a. Colonial conspiracy to the British everything they saw led them to believe there was a colonial conspiracy about staking independence. i. English troops to Boston the Sons of Liberty showed how things were to be controlled. From
1768, when troops arrived, to 1770, there was no breakout. McIntosh controlled his troops, was an amazing strategist and completely understood the people he worked with. British soldiers were the dregs of society, did part-time work which people didn't like, spent their pay on cheap rum. There was an infusion of prostitutes into Boston which the Puritans didn't appreciate. In Response, the colonists started picking out the "good" soldiers (those who don't drink, etc) and make friends with them, offer them better jobs. Desertion became rampant a lot of people fighting in the Revolution were ex-British soldiers. b. British conspiracy the colonists thought that the Brits were conspiring to make the colonists corrupt and more like the people in England. The concept of conspiracy was extremely important in the American Revolution. It is hard to prove that a conspiracy exists F. Boston Massacre March, 1770, fresh snow, good snowballs. Some kids throw snowballs, calling names, and got too close and a kid got butted in the face with a musket. This immediately started a huge overreaction that had been building up. People ran through the streets yelling "town born, turn out!" and it became a turf war. The townspeople surrounded the sentry people threw snowballs, getting in their faces. Someone fired into the crowd and the Boston Massacre occurred (four people died).
Pre-political activity activity that precedes politics and has nothing to do with Constitutional Conventions, Representatives, etc. John Adams: "What do we mean by the Revolution?" "benign neglect" George III Mercantilism British bankruptcy Navigation Acts
Stamp Act of 1765 Parliamentary rights natural rights "virtual representation" Stamp Act Stamp Act Congress Sons of Liberty Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Ebeneezer McIntosh Boston Stamp Act riot Thomas Hutchinson Repeal of Stamp Act Declaratory Act the principle of the thing Townsend Duties colonial conspiracy British conspiracy Boston Massacre (1770)