Thomson is the little known designer of the great

Thomson is the little-known designer of
the Great Seal of the United States.
Colonial Resistance
and Rebellion
The First Continental Congress assembled because
Americans began to demand more rights. Why did Americans
demand more rights? Separated from Great Britain by more
than 3,000 miles (5,556 km) of vast ocean and left largely to
their own devices, the American colonists gained valuable
experience in self-government. They took on more power and
responsibility. They learned how to manage their own affairs,
and they liked having local control. By the mid-1700s, how-
ever, the British government began to tighten its grasp on the
American colonies.
After 1760, when George III took the throne, the British
adopted a policy called mercantilism in which they tried to
squeeze as much wealth as possible out of the British colonies
in America and from other colonies around the world.
Mercantilism is the theory that a country should sell more
goods to other countries than it buys. For mercantilism to be
successful, Great Britain needed the colonies to be a source of
cheap, raw materials. Parliament required the American
colonies to sell raw materials, such as cotton and lumber, to
Great Britain at low prices.The colonists also had to buy British
products at high prices.As a result, colonial businesses suffered.
Chapter 2 Roots of American Democracy 33
British Colonists’
Actions Responses
Charles
Thomson

34 Chapter 2 Roots of American Democracy
The situation worsened after 1763.
Great Britain had fought a long, costly war
against France—the French and Indian
War—winning French territory in North
America. To cover the costs of ruling these
new lands and to pay off its heavy war debts,
Britain placed steep taxes on the American
colonies. In 1765, for example, Parliament
passed the Stamp Act, which required
colonists to attach expensive tax stamps to
all newspapers and legal documents.
The colonists resented the British taxes.
Because they had no representatives in
Parliament, as people living in Great
Britain did, the colonists believed that
Parliament had no right to tax them. They
summed up their feelings with the slogan
“No taxation without representation!”
In protest, many colonists decided to
boycott, or refuse to buy, British goods.
Rebellious colonists began using homespun
cloth and drinking coffee instead of British
tea. The boycott had its intended effect;
Parliament agreed to repeal, or cancel, the
Stamp Act and other taxes.
Parliament, however, soon passed new
tax laws to replace the Stamp Act. The
same day it repealed the Stamp Act,
Parliament passed the Declaratory Act of
1766, which stated that Parliament had
the right to tax and make decisions for the
American colonies “in all cases.” Then, in
1767, Parliament passed a set of laws that
came to be known as the Townshend Acts.
These laws levied new taxes on goods
imported to the colonies.The taxed goods
included basic items, like glass, tea, paper,
and lead, that the colonists needed
because they did not produce them.These
new laws further angered the colonists.