1. The Birth of a Democratic
Nation
Chapter 2
Section 2

2. After years allowing the colonists to manage
their own affairs (salutary neglect),
the British began to take an active interest in
the colonies.

3. Why?
Economics
There were economic reasons why England
wanted close control over the colonies

4. The prevailing economic theory in the 1600
& 1700s was mercantilism

5. Characteristics of Mercantilism
 A nation’s wealth is measured by the amount of
gold & silver in its country
 A nation should export more than it imports
 The government should place tariffs on imports
 The government should allow only unfinished
products (raw materials) to be imported
 The government should subsidize key industries
 The government takes an active role in the
economy

6. Mercantilism is the exact opposite of
laissez-fair

7. Protectionism is modern-day mercantilism

8. Colonial America was both a source of raw
materials for England and a market for its
finished goods

9. England wasn’t about to lose control over
this economic gold mine!

10. The key development in the colonies in the
1700’s was the French Indian War
(1754-1763)

11. The French Indian War refers to the two
main enemies of the British:
the French forces and the various American
Indian forces allied with them

12. The French Indian War was one in a
series of wars fought between England and
France beginning in the late 1600s

13. What made the French and Indian War
different from the earlier conflicts was that it
began in the New World

14. Colonial possessions in 1750

15. The reason why the French and Indian War
began in the New World involved the Ohio
Country

17. Both the English and the French claimed the
land west of the Appalachian Mountains

18. Beginning in the 1740s both countries had
merchants engaged in the fur trade with the
Native Americans in Ohio

19. By the 1750s, English colonists, especially
the investors in a venture called The Ohio
Company, also hoped to convert the
wilderness into viable farms

20. In the 1750s, the French and the English
each moved to deny the other access to the
Ohio Country

21. In the early stages of the conflict, the French
enjoyed success, mainly because of help
from their Native American allies

22. Ohio Country natives enjoyed trading with
both the English and the French. However,
most tribes feared the large number of
British colonists in North America.

23. Natives west of the Appalachian Mountains
feared that the number of English colonists
would continue to grow

24. As the English population increased, the
Indians believed that white settlers would
seek their fortunes in the west, driving the
natives from their land

25. I wonder why the Natives would think that!

26. The English, with colonial help, win the war

28. The Albany Plan of Union
(1754)
 Proposed by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany
Congress in 1754 in Albany, New York
 An early attempt at forming a union of colonies
that would unite English colonists with mainland
England to assist in defending the New World
during the French and Indian War
 The Albany Plan of Union was used to help write
the Articles of Confederation
 It established an elected inter-colonial legislature
without the power to tax the citizens

30. Territorial gains/losses results of
the war

31. Proclamation of 1763
 The purpose was to organize Britain's new North
American empire and to stabilize relations with
Native North Americans through regulation of
trade, settlement, and land purchases on the
western frontier
 Colonists could not settle west of Appalachians
without British permission
 This angers western farmers who want more
land

34. In 1765, the colonists still considered
themselves loyal subjects of the British
Crown, with the same historic rights and
obligations as subjects in Britain

35. In 1765, Parliament enacted the Quartering
Act, which stated that British soldiers were
cared for in peacetime in certain areas

37. The Quartering Act provided that Great Britain would house its soldiers
in American barracks and public houses, but if its soldiers outnumbered
the housing available, would quarter them "in inns, livery stables, ale
houses, victualing houses, and the houses of sellers of wine and
houses of persons selling of rum, brandy, strong water, cider or
metheglin, and if numbers required in "uninhabited houses, outhouses,
barns, or other buildings"... "upon neglect or refusal of such governor
and council in any province", required any inhabitants (or in their
absence, public officials) to provide them with food and alcohol, and
providing for "fire, candles, vinegar, salt, bedding, and utensils" for the
soldiers "without paying any thing for the same"

38. England did not expect the colonies to pay
off the war debt, but it did a portion of the
expenses for maintaining British soldiers to
be paid by the Americans

39. In 1765, the Stamp Act was the first direct
tax ever levied by Parliament on the
colonies

40. All newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, and
official documents—even decks of playing
cards—were required to have the stamps

42. Colonists resented it because they had no
representatives in Parliament

43. “No taxation without representation”

44. In short, many in the colonies believed the
lack of direct representation in the distant
British Parliament was an illegal denial of
their rights as Englishmen, and therefore
laws taxing the colonists and other laws
applying only to the colonies, were
unconstitutional

45. All 13 colonies protested vehemently, as
popular leaders such as Patrick ―Give-me-
liberty-or-give-me-death‖ Henry, rallied the
people in opposition

46. Colonists formed groups, such as the Sons
of Liberty, to organize protests and
demonstrations

47. The Sons of Liberty threatened violence if
anyone sold the stamps, and no one did

48. The colonists resorted to an economic
boycott of imported British merchandise

49. Benjamin Franklin made the case for the
boycotters, explaining the colonies had
spent heavily in manpower, money, and
blood in defense of the empire in the French
and Indian War, and that further taxes to pay
for those wars were unjust and might bring
about a rebellion

50. Parliament agreed and repealed (cancelled)
the tax

51. In March, 1766 Parliament passed the
"Declaratory Act‖ that insisted that
parliament retained full power to make laws
for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever"

52. In 1767, the Parliament passed the
Townshend Acts, which placed a tax on a
number of essential goods including paper,
glass, and tea

53. Angered at the tax increases, colonists
organized a boycott of British goods

54. The Boston Massacre
March, 1770
 In Boston, a large mob gathered around a group of
British soldiers.
 The mob grew more and more threatening, throwing
snowballs, rocks and debris at the soldiers.
 One soldier was clubbed and fell.
 All but one of the soldiers fired into the crowd.
 Eleven people were hit
 Three civilians were killed at the scene of the shooting,
and two died after the incident.
 The event quickly came to be called the Boston
Massacre.

56. Although the soldiers were tried and
acquitted (defended by John Adams), the
widespread descriptions soon became
propaganda to turn colonial sentiment
against the British

58. This was the first violence between the
British and the colonists

59. This in turn began a downward spiral in the
relationship between Britain and the
Province of Massachusetts

60. Committees of correspondence –
Organized by local governments of the 13
colonies that helped them communicate with
each other and coordinate plans to resist
British

61. The group of committees was the beginning
of what later became a formal political union
among the colonies

62. The Boston Tea Party
(1773)
 On December 16, 1773, a group of men, led by
Samuel Adams and dressed to evoke American
Indians, boarded the ships of the government-
favored British East India Company and dumped
an estimated $10,000 worth of tea on board
(approximately $636,000 in 2008) into the
harbor.
 This event became known as the Boston Tea
Party and remains a significant part of American
patriotic lore.

64. The British government responded by
passing the Coercive Acts (1774), which
came to be known as the Intolerable Acts,
which further darkened colonial opinion
towards the British.

65. They consisted of four laws enacted by
the British parliament
 The first restricted town meetings in Massachusetts.
 The second Act ordered that all British soldiers to be
tried were to be arraigned in Britain, not in the colonies.
 The third Act closed the port of Boston until the British
had been compensated for the tea lost in the Boston Tea
Party (the British never received such a payment).
 The fourth Act was the Quartering Act of 1774, which
allowed royal governors to house British troops in the
homes of citizens without requiring permission of the
owner

66. The First Continental Congress
(September, 1774)
 A convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen
colonies (Georgia did not send delegates) met in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 Called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts
(also known as Intolerable Acts )
 The Congress was attended by 56 members appointed
by the legislatures of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies
 The Congress met briefly to consider options, an
economic boycott of British trade, publish a list of rights
and grievances, and petition King George for redress of
those grievances.

68. The Congress also called for another
Continental Congress in the event that their
petition was unsuccessful in halting
enforcement of the Intolerable Acts

69. Their appeal to the Crown had no effect, and
so the Second Continental Congress was
convened the following year to organize the
defense of the colonies at the onset of the
American Revolutionary War

70. The king responded by sending more British
soldiers to the colonies

72. Battles of Lexington & Concord
(April 1775)
 The British sent a force of roughly 1000 troops to
confiscate arms and arrest revolutionaries in Concord
 They clashed with the local militia, marking the first
fighting of the American Revolutionary War
 The news aroused the 13 colonies to call out their
militias and send troops to besiege Boston
 The Battle of Bunker Hill followed on June 17, 1775.
 While a British victory, it was made a victory by heavy
losses on the British side;
 About 1,000 British casualties from a garrison of about
6,000, as compared to 500 American casualties from a
much larger force.

74. The Minutemen

75. Many colonists started to question their
loyalty to Britain and began talking about
independence, but others still felt loyal to
Britain

76. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense
(published January 10, 1776) swayed public
opinion toward independence

78. Paine published Common Sense
anonymously because of its treasonous
content. it sold as many as 120,000 copies
in the first three months, 500,000 in the first
year

79. In Common Sense, Paine argued that the
only solution to the problems with Britain
was republicanism and independence from
Great Britain

80. Paine’s arguments
 It was ridiculous for an island to rule a continent.
 America was not a "British nation"; it was composed of
influences and peoples from all of Europe.
 Even if Britain was the "mother country― of America, that
made her actions all the more horrendous, for no mother
would harm her children so brutally.
 Being a part of Britain would drag America into
unnecessary European wars, and keep it from the
international commerce at which America excelled.

81. Paine’s argument’s continued…
 The distance between the two nations made governing
the colonies from England unwieldy.
 If some wrong were to be petitioned to Parliament, it
would take a year before the colonies received a
response.
 The New World was discovered shortly before the
Reformation. The Puritans believed that God wanted to
give them a safe haven from the persecution of British
rule.
 Britain ruled the colonies for its own benefit, and did not
consider the best interests of the colonists in governing
them.

82. The Second Continental Congress
(May, 1775)
 The Second Continental Congress convened in
May, 1775 after the war had started
 The Congress created the Continental Army and
extended the Olive Branch Petition to the crown
as an attempt to peacefully resolve the issues
 King George III refused to receive it, issuing
instead the Proclamation of Rebellion, requiring
action against the "traitors"

85. The Second Continental Congress
(May, 1775)
 The second Congress managed the colonial war effort,
and moved slowly towards independence, adopting the
United States Declaration of Independence on July 4,
1776
 By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing
diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress
acted as the de facto national government of what
became the United States.
 With the ratification of the Articles of Confederation in
1781, the Congress became known as the Congress of
the Confederation

87. The Declaration of Independence
(Adopted July 4 1776)
 A statement adopted by the Continental
Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced
that the thirteen American colonies (then at war
with Great Britain) were now independent states,
and thus no longer a part of the British Empire
 Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the
Declaration is a formal explanation of why
Congress had voted on July 2 to declare
independence from Great Britain

88. The Declaration justified the independence
of the United States by listing colonial
grievances against King George III, and by
asserting certain natural rights, including a
right of revolution

89. Thomas Jefferson was heavily influenced
by the ideas of John Locke and Thomas
Paine.
He argued that the British government did
not look after the interests of the colonists,
and listed many abuses by the king.

92. Preamble to the Declaration
When in the Course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth,
the separate and equal station to which the
Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.

93. Declaration of Rights passage
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government,…

94. Abuses of the King
(29 were listed, among of which:)
 For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among
us
 For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from
punishment for any Murders which they should
commit on the Inhabitants of these States
 For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world
 For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
 For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of
Trial by Jury
 For suspending our own Legislatures

96. The next section states that many
Americans still felt a kinship with the people
of Great Britain, and had tried in vain to
convince the Parliament and the King to
relax his more objectionable policies toward
the colonies. It reflects the disappointment
that these attempts had been unsuccessful.

97. The Final Section … cutting the ties
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united
States of America, in General Congress,
Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do,
in the Name, and by Authority of the good
People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and
declare, That these United Colonies are, and of
Right ought to be Free and Independent States

99. The Declaration of
Independence
 The Second Continental Congress approved the
Declaration on July 4, 1776.
 However, the American colonies were only
independent in theory.
 The Revolutionary War continued until 1781,
and Great Britain officially recognized the United
States as an independent nation in 1783.

102. NC Moves Toward
Independence
• Provincial Congress (1774) met in Wilmington to
elect delegates to First Continental Congress.
• Edenton Tea Party (1774) – women burned their
household supplies of tea to protest British
policy
• Mecklenburg Resolves (1775) – declared
Provincial Congress as only lawful government
in colony
• Halifax Resolves (1776) – called for full
independence from Great Britain.

103. NC Moves Toward
Independence