SUMMARY AND REFERENCES

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96. Summary. This short chapter contains an account of the discontent of the colonies and their quarrels with the home country, leading up to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 and the First Continental Congress of 1774.

After the French and Indian War the colonists seemed happier and better off than ever before. They belonged to the great British Empire and did not mind that it somewhat limited their trade and controlled their government; but they claimed the right of "no taxation without representation" and the inalienable rights of free Englishmen.

When the British government tried to enforce the Acts of Trade, the colonists protested; when a Stamp Act was passed, laying a tax upon them, they called a Stamp Act Congress (1765). The Stamp Act was withdrawn, but other taxes were laid by Parliament and the colonists again objected: and when all the taxes were withdrawn except one on tea, they still objected, and the Boston Tea Party (1773) was an open defiance of the British government.

The other colonies took alarm and joined in the First Continental Congress (1774), which tried to make England understand that the colonies were determined and would stand together.

The colonists declared that the home country was tyrannical and that the king was led astray by bad advisers, but the real reasons why they finally broke away are deeper. The two main causes are dislike of the Acts of Trade, and the feeling that the colonies were strong enough to govern themselves. In this controversy Benjamin Franklin was a leading spirit, and his belief in the Revolution has always been one of the best reasons for thinking that it was necessary.

REFERENCES

Maps. Avery, Un. States, V. — Epoch Maps, no. 5. Howard, Preliminaries of Rev.

Histories. Becker, Beginnings, 202-247.· Coman, Industrial Hist., 89-106. Fisher, Struggle for Am. Indep., I. chs. i-xxiii. - Fiske, Am. Howard, Preliminaries of Rev.

--

Rev., I.; War of Indep., 39-85.

Sources. Am. Hist. Leaflets, nos. 5, 11, 16, 21, 33. - Beard, Readings, §§ 6-8. Caldwell and Persinger, Source Hist., 167-194.

Harding,

Hill,

Select Orations, nos. 1, 2. - Hart, Contemporaries, II. §§ 130–158. Liberty Docs., chs. xi, xii. MacDonald, Doc. Source Book, nos. 2944; Select Charters, nos. 53-80. Old South Leaflets, nos. 68, 156, 173, 179, 199, 200.

Graydon, Memoirs.

Side Lights and Stories. Barr, Strawberry Handkerchief. — Coffin, Daughters of the Rev. Cooke, Virginia Comedians; Colonel Fairfax. Hawthorne, Grandfather's Chair, pt. iii, chs. ii-vii; My Kinsman, Major Molyneux. Kaler, Charming Sally. - Wallington, Am. Hist. by Am. Poets, I. 125-145.

Pictures. Avery, Un. States, V. - Chase, Beginnings of Am. Rev. — Wilson, Am. People, II. Winsor, America, VI; Memorial Hist. of

Boston, III.

QUESTIONS

(§ 87) 1. What were the British possessions in 1763? 2. What were the British continental colonies in 1763?

(§ 88) 3. What was the British Constitution? 4. How were laws made for the colonies? 5. What sort of governments had the colonies? 6. How was the commerce of the colonies regulated? 7. What did "No taxation without representation" mean? 8. What were the inalienable rights of the colonists?

(§ 89) 9. What kind of king was George III? 10. How did Otis and Henry try to avoid control by the mother country?

(§ 90) 11. What was the Stamp Act? 12. What was the objection to it? 13 (For an essay). Accounts of Stamp Act riots. was the Stamp Act Congress and what did it do?

14. What

(§ 91) 15. What was non-importation? 16. How did the British try to keep the colonies in order? 17 (For an essay). An account of the Boston Tea Party.

(§ 92) 18. How did Samuel Adams organize for the Revolution? 19. Account of the First Continental Congress. 20. What was the Act of Association and how was it enforced?

22.

(893) 21. What were the apparent reasons for the Revolution? What friends had the colonists in Great Britain? 23. What did the colonists think of King George III? 24. What advantages had the colonies under British rule?

(894) 25. What were the real reasons for the Revolution? 26. What kind of government by England would have satisfied the colonists? 27. What were the opinions of the colonists on the Revolution?

(§ 95) 28 (For an essay). Account of the life of Benjamin Franklin. 29 (For an essay). Some good advice taken from Poor Richard's Almanac. 30. What services did Franklin render to the colonies? 31. What made Franklin a great man?

CHAPTER IX

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (1775-1783)

97. Outbreak of War (1775). No answer was made in England to the appeals of the Continental Congress of 1774. Meanwhile the troubles in Massachusetts grew worse. The towns began to drill their militia, who were called "minutemen" because they were ready to march at a minute's notice. The British governor, General Gage, on the night of April 18, 1775, sent out a force from Boston to seize military stores at Concord, eighteen miles away. An alarm was spread by Paul Revere, who rode ahead in the darkness warning the people along the route.

Early in the morning of April 19, the British reached the village of Lexington, and there saw a line of militiamen drawn up across their road. "Disperse, ye rebels!" cried Major Pitcairn, the British commander; but the raw colonials held their ground. A shot was fired, probably by the English. Then came a volley and several of the colonials fell dead. War had broken out at last. The British column marched on to Concord and destroyed some stores, but was again resisted by the minutemen, and retreated in confusion to Boston, worried and fired upon all the way. The militia of Massachusetts and neighboring states closed in and besieged the British in Boston.

A few days later (May 10, 1775) the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia; all the thirteen colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia were represented. None of the other six continental colonies joined in the Revolution. Unless the colonies were willing that the Massachusetts leaders should be treated as traitors by England, Congress must do something at once. Pennsylvania and Virginia, the largest of the middle and the southern colonies, took the lead in support

SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION

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ing Massachusetts. The whole Congress joined in voting to raise men, money, and ships. It appointed Colonel George Washington to be general and head of the Continental forces, and sent him to take command of the troops that were besieging the British in Boston. For nearly a year longer Congress hoped that King George would yield, and the Americans still called themselves Englishmen; but all the while the colonists were capturing British posts and ships, and raising an army to defend themselves against their home government.

They

98. Soldiers of the Revolution.-It looked like a desperate thing for three million colonists to attack eleven million British. began without a navy, while the British had 270 ships of war. They set out with raw militia to fight against a powerful regular army, though many of the Americans had never seen an enemy other than a wild Indian.

The British government not only raised troops in England, Scotland, and Ireland,

Colonial soldiers, wearing Revolutionary uniform

but sent over to Germany and hired about 30,000 Germans, commonly called "Hessians." King Frederick the Great of Prussia scoffed at the little German princes who were willing to sell their subjects to suffer hardship and danger, for a bonus of about $35 per man and more if he were killed! Most of the American troops were organized in what was called the "state lines"; that is, state militia regiments enlisted for short terms. Washington throughout the war protested against depending upon these militiamen. Many served from the purest