History Ch.4 Sec.2

Tea Act

(1773) refunded four-fifths of the taxes the company had to pay to ship tea to the colonies, leaving only the Townshend tax; East India Company tea could now be sold at lower prices than smuggled Dutch tea; also allowed the East India Company to sell directly to shopkeepers, bypassing American merchants who normally distributed the tea

Olive Branch Petition

(July 1775) Continental Congress sent a document to the king; written by John Dickinson; stated that the colonies were still loyal to the king and asked George III to call off hostilities until the situation could be worked out peacefully

Olive Branch Peition

-2nd Continental Congress sent to Brit. -stated that col. were still loyal to king & asked George III to call off hostilities (he refused to look at it) -instead he issued the Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion & Sedition; said col. were "open & avowed enemies"

Second Continental Congress

-3 weeks after Lexington & Concord -1st issue-defense; adopted militia & called it Continental Army -George Washington named commander in chief

Loyalists

-AKA Tories; backed Brit. - incl. wealthy merchants, Anglican ministers, backcountry farmers - they were strong in GA, Carolinas & NY

Patriots

-AKA Whigs; not back Brit. - incl. artisans, merchants, planters, lawyers, urban workers -were strong in VA & New Eng.

Lexington & Concord

-April 1775, General Gage sent out to seize Mass. militia's supply depot -700 Brit. troops -Paul Revere's ride accompanied by William Dawes & Dr. Samuel Prescott ("the British are coming") -ordered them to disperse & did not; someone fired shot "shot heard 'round the world" -Brit. soldiers fired; killed 8 & wounded 10 minutemen -Brit. got to Concord & found depot empty; tan into 400 militia; forced to retreat -On way back to Boston, col. hiding behind trees fired on troops -Brit. lost 99 men & 174 wounded; Amer. lost 49 men & 46 wounded

Battle of Bunker Hill

-Hune 6, 1775, col. dug in atop Breed's Hill -Gage sent 2200 Brit. troops to take hill, wearing heavy packs & wool suits -Prescott--> "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" (have to be close) -Amer. turned back 2 Brit. advances & forced to retreat b/c ran out of ammo -helped build Amer. confidence; Brit. had 1000 casualties -Gage resigned & Gen. William Howe replaced

Quebec Act

-July 1774 -Gov. & council appted by king would run Quebec -gave more territory to Q. incl. what is now Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana & Wisconsin -if col. moved west, wouldn't have elected assembly

Committee of Correspondence

-March 1773; helped unify col. -Thomas Jefferson suggested that each col. create one -to communicate w/ other col. about the Brit.

Controversy

-Mass. created an assembly & elected new gov. John Hancock - Sir Thomas Gage still gov. -militias begin training; infuriated Brit - minutemen- in Concord, were ready to stand @ a minute's warning

First Continental Congress

-May 1774, leaders of House of Burgesses met at a tavern to discuss sending delegates to a colonial congress -Patrick Henry was ready for war- "Give me liberty or give me death" -Sept. 5, 1774--> 55 delegates met n Philly; 12 col. represented ( not GA) - issued Dec. of Rights & Grievances--> said they were loyal to king but still condemned Coercive Acts -formed a nonimportation association -Continental Assoc.--> every county & every town would enforce the boycott -also agreed to meet again in May 1775 if crisis not resolved

2nd Continental Congress

-began to act more like a govt. b/c compromise w/ Brit. was unlikely -negotiated w/ Amer. Ind. -est. postal system, Navy & Marin Corps -authorized privateering -began to seize Brit. merchant ships in Carib.

fighting spreads

-gov. of VA created 2 Loyalist armies; 1 for whites, 1 for slaves -promised slaves freedom if fought -convinced wealthy planters to become Patriots -patriot troops defeated loyalists in VA -Brit. withdrew from Boston, leaving Patriots in control -Dec. 1775, began blockade & began to hire mercenaries (soldiers for hire) from Germany

Tea Act

-passed in 1773 to help Brit. East India Co. sell its tea (17 mil. lbs) - refunded most taxes on tea that BEIC had to pay -left Townshend Act on tea -allowed BEIC to sell directly to col. rather than American merchants selling it - Comm. of Cor. alerted col. when 1253 chests of tea en route to col. -ships arrived--> Boston Harbor Dec. 1773 -150 men boarded ships & dumped 342 chests of tea into harbor (Boston Tea Party)

Gaspee Affair

-was a customs ship sent to patrol NA waters -RI hated commander b/c he searched w/o warrants & stole food from col. -ran aground in June 1772; col. burned ship -Brit. got mad--> authorized a commission to take suspects to Eng. for trial; violated right to trial by jury of peers

Coercive Acts

1. shut down Boston harbor until tea was paid for 2. required all council members, judges & sheriffs in Mass. to be appted 3. allowed gov. to transfer trials of Brit. soldiers to Eng. to protect them from Amer. juries - required local officials to provide lodging for Brit. soldiers at the scene of a disturbance -Gen. Thomas George became gov. of Mass. -violated several traditional Eng. rights -2,000 more troops came to New Eng.

negotiate; postal system; Continental Navy; Marin Corps; privateering

After King George III refused to consider the Olive Branch Petition, in what ways did the Continental Congress begin to act like an independent government? It sent people to _________ with Native Americans and it established a __________ ________ and a __________ _____ and ________ ______; it also authorized _________

loyalist

Americans who backed Britain

patriot

Americans who believed the British had become tyrants

British East India Company

Lord North, England's Prime Minister (May 1773) decided to help this company that was almost bankrupt; corrupt management and costly wars in India had put the company deeply in debt, while British taxes on tea had encouraged colonial merchants to smuggle in cheaper Dutch tea (as a result--> company had over 17 million pounds of tea in its warehouses); Tea Act was passed to help sell its tea

Gaspee; 50; 342

Ways the colonists defied Britain after the repeal of the Townshend Acts: Some 150 colonists seized and burned the ________ ship and approximately ____ colonists boarded the ships filled with tea that arrived in Boston and dumped ______ chests of tea into the harbor (Boston Tea Party)

communicate; unify; public opinion; British

What role did the committee of correspondence play in the colonists' move toward independence? For each colony to have one to __________ with the other colonies about British activities; they helped ________ the colonies and shape __________ _________; they also helped colonial leaders coordinate their plans for resisting the __________

August 22, 1775

When did King George III declare the colonies "open and avowed enemies"?

Intolerable Acts

a group of laws that led the colonists to believe that the British were trying to seize control of the colonial governments

Boston Tea Party

a raid by colonists on British tea ships

minuteman

a special unit of the militia trained to fight at a minute's notice

Battle of Bunker Hill

battle between the colonial militia and the British troops

Committee of Correspondence

committees designed to communicate with other colonies about British activities

privateer

cruisers whose primary objective was to disrupt enemy shipping

Declaration of Independence

document that stated the American colonies were free of British rule and were now the United States of America

Battle of Bunker Hill

helped build American confidence; showed that the colonial militia could stand up to one of the world's most feared armies; British suffered more than 1,000 casualties in the fighting; shortly after General Gage resigned and was replaced by General William Howe; the situation then returned to a stalemate, with the British trapped in Boston surrounded by militia

Quebec Act

law had nothing to do with events in the American colonies, but it angered the colonists still; stated that a governor and council appointed by the king would run Quebec; also gave more territory to Quebec (Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana & Wisconsin) if colonists moved west, they would have to live in territory where they had no elected assembly

Patrick Henry

leader of the House of Burgesses

Paul Revere

patriot leader sent to spread the alarm and warn people in Lexington that the British were coming

Thomas Paine (Common Sense)

published a lively and persuasive pamphlet; Paine attacked King George III; parliament, he wrote, did nothing without the king's support; Paine argued that monarchies had been set up by seizing power from the people; George III was a tyrant and it was time to declare independence; pamphlet sold 100,000 copies within 3 months

Samuel Prescott

sent with Dawes and Revere to set out for Concord; only one successful in reaching Concord to warn the people there that the British were coming

mercenaries

soldiers for hire from Germany; spring 1776, British hired 30,000 (mostly Hessians from the region of Hesse)

Coercive Acts

spring of 1774, Parliament passed four new laws that were intended to punish Massachusetts and end colonial challenges to British authority; violated several traditional English rights First- shut down Boston's port until the city paid for the tea that had been destroyed Second- required all council members, judges, and sheriffs in Massachusetts to be appointed by the governor instead of being elected; also banned most town meetings Third- allowed the governor to transfer trials of British soldiers and officials to England to protect them from American injuries Fourth- required local officials to provide lodging for British soldiers at the scene of a disturbance, in private homes if necessary

Continental Army

the Second Continental Congress voted to "adopt" the militia army surrounding Boston

Second Continental Congress

voted to "adopt" the militia surrounding Boston, and they named it the Continental Army; most members wanted the right to govern themselves but they did not want to break with the British Empire