Chapter VII

The American Revolution

By the 1760's, the total population of the English colonies was more than 1,500,000. They had a tradition of self-government. By 1760, there were many merchants in the cities.

In 1764, the British parliament in London passed a new law called the Sugar Act. This law said that the people in the colonies had to pay a tax on molasses, wine, silk, coffee, and a number of other luxury items. The merchants became angry. They said that the tax cut heavily into their profits. They began to say there should be no taxation without representation. Later in the same year, Parliament in London passed the Currency Act. This law said that the colonies could no longer print their own money. It said that the colonies had to use British money printed in Great Britain. This caused great difficulties for business in the colonies because there was very little British money in circulation there. Later, Parliament put more taxes on more items. People stopped buying goods from Britain. Organizations were formed to boycott British goods.

More and more people began to say they should only be taxed by their own representatives. Representation became the central issue. Because the colonies had no voice in London, people began saying that parliament had no more right to pass laws for the colonies than the colonies had to pass laws for England.

In Boston, some people got into a fight with the British tax collectors and hit them. Two regiments of British soldiers were sent to Boston to protect the tax collectors. On March 5, 1770, a group of workers got into a fight with the soldiers. The soldiers began shooting and killed three workers. The first American to die at the hands of the British soldiers was a Black worker named Crispus Attucks.

The English government put a tax on all tea brought to the colonies. Many people said they would not buy tea because they did not have a voice in setting the tax. In England, there was a large business that was named the East India Company. This company imported tea to England. In 1773, the British government gave this company a monopoly on importing tea to America. The American businessmen who had been importing tea were very angry. The new law would force them out of business. People began to protest against the tax on tea and against the monopoly. In December of 1773, a ship full of tea came to the port of Boston. One night a group of young men dressed in Indian clothing went to the ship and threw all of the tea into the water. This was called the Boston Tea Party. People began to buy tea from Spanish ships so that they would not have to pay the tax.

When Parliament in England heard about this, it became angry. It issued a new law saying that Spanish ships could not trade with the American colonies. This made the people angrier because many Spanish goods were cheaper. It said that the people of Boston had to pay for the tea that was thrown into the ocean. Until the tea was paid for, the port of Boston would be closed and no ships could come there. To make certain that no ships came, more soldiers were sent to Boston. Because there was no place for the soldiers to live, each family in Boston could be forced to take a soldier to live in their house. The families of Boston did not want English soldiers to come to live in their houses. They became angrier with the British government.

At that time, the governments of the colonies had been elected by the people. The British dissolved the government of Massachusetts. The king of England appointed men to rule the colony. In addition, if any of the king's officials were accused of a crime, they could be sent out of Massachusetts for trial.

All of these decisions alarmed the people in the other colonies. The government of Virginia asked all of the colonies to send delegates to a conference in Philadelphia. Earlier, the colonies had been very separate, but now they knew they had to cooperate to force the king to give them a voice. The conference sent a protest to England. The delegates agreed to an economic boycott of England. They said the British laws to punish Massachusetts were void. Also, they recommended that each colony begin training a militia in case it was needed for a defensive war.

In Massachusetts, the government did not agree to be dissolved. It continued to meet even after the king said it was dissolved. The British planned to arrest the leaders of the Massachusetts government. By 1775, the British had a thousand soldiers in Boston. The Americans kept a supply of guns and ammunition in the village of Concord so that they could protect themselves from Indian attacks. The English general sent his soldiers to Concord to seize the ammunition. On the road between Boston and Concord there is a village called Lexington. The Americans gathered in Lexington to protest against the English army. Fighting broke out and eight Americans were killed. The British reached Concord, but by that time the Americans had taken away most of the ammunition. As the British walked back to Boston, Americans hiding behind trees began shooting. More than 250 British soldiers were killed or wounded. The Americans lost 93 men. This was the beginning of the American Revolution. The fighting soon spread to the other colonies.

Three weeks after the battle at Lexington, the delegates from the colonies had a second conference in Philadelphia. The delegates named their conference the Continental Congress. Within five days the delegates voted to go to war. They voted to unite the militias of the colonies into a single army and to put George Washington in command. But many of the delegates believed the purpose of the war was to force the British to give them a voice in the government. Instead of agreeing to this, Britain closed the colonies to all overseas trade.

A big battle was fought on June 7,1775, near Bunker Hill just outside of Boston. Losses on both sides were heavy. Fighting continued until March 17, 1776, when the British left Boston. The British were driven out but they began to prepare to return for a big war.