So, after he “daubed his face and hands with coal dust, in the shop of a blacksmith,” he gladly joined the other volunteers on that cold December night as they prepared to sneak aboard several British ships anchored in Boston Harbor and destroy the tea stored on board:

“When we arrived at the wharf ... they divided us into three parties for the purpose of boarding the three ships which contained the tea ....  We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water. ...  In about three hours ... we had thus broken and thrown over board every tea chest ... in the ship.”

—quoted in The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six

Massachusetts Defies Britain

Despite the tragedy of the Boston Massacre, the British decision to repeal the Townshend Acts had ended another crisis in colonial relations.  For more than two years the situation remained calm.  Then, in the spring of 1772, a new crisis began.  Britain introduced several new policies that again ignited the flames of rebellion in the American colonies.

The Gaspee Affair

To intercept smugglers, the British sent customs ships to patrol North American
waters.  One such ship was the Gaspee, stationed off the coast of Rhode Island.  Many Rhode Islanders hated the commander of the Gaspee because he often searched ships without a warrant and sent his crew ashore to seize food without paying for it.  In June 1772, when the Gaspee ran aground, some 150 colonists seized and burned the ship.

This incident outraged the British.  They sent a commission to investigate and gave it authority to take suspects to England for trial.  This angered the colonists, who believed it violated their right to a trial by a jury of their peers.  Rhode Island’s assembly then sent a letter to the other colonies asking for help.

In March 1773, Thomas Jefferson suggested that each colony create a committee of correspondence to communicate with the other colonies about British activities.  The committees of correspondence helped unify the colonies and shape public opinion.  They also helped colonial leaders coordinate their plans for resisting the British.

The Boston Tea Party

With tensions simmering in the colonies, England’s new prime minister, Lord North, made a serious mistake.  In May 1773, he decided to help the British East India Company, which 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, the company had over 17 million pounds of tea in its warehouses.

To help the company sell its tea, Parliament passed the Tea Act of 1773.  The Tea Act 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.  The act also allowed the East India Company to sell directly to shopkeepers, bypassing American merchants who normally distributed the tea.  The Tea Act enraged the colonial merchants, who feared it was the first step by the British to squeeze them out of business.

In October 1773, the East India Company shipped 1,253 chests of tea to Boston, New York, Charles Town, and Philadelphia.  The committees of correspondence rapidly alerted the colonies that the tea was on the way.  The committees decided that the tea must not be allowed to land.  When the first shipments arrived in New York and Philadelphia, the colonists forced the agents for the East India Company to return home with the tea.  In Charles Town, customs officers seized the tea and stored it in a local warehouse.

The most dramatic showdown occurred in December 1773, when the tea ships arrived in Boston Harbor.  On the night before customs officials planned to bring the tea ashore, approximately 150 men boarded the ships.  Several thousand people on shore cheered as the men dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.  The raid came to be called the Boston Tea Party.

The Coercive Acts

The Boston Tea Party was the last straw for the British.  King George III informed Lord North that “concessions have made matters worse.  The time has come for compulsion.” In the spring of 1774, Parliament passed four new laws that came to be known as the Coercive Acts.

These laws were intended to punish Massachusetts and end colonial challenges to British authority.  The first act shut down Boston’s port until the city paid for the tea that had been destroyed.  The second act required all council members, judges, and sheriffs in Massachusetts to be appointed by the governor instead of being elected.  This act also banned most town meetings.  The third act allowed the governor to transfer trials of British soldiers and officials to England to protect them from American juries.  The final act required local officials to provide lodging for British soldiers at the scene of a disturbance, in private homes if necessary.  To enforce the acts, the British moved 2,000 troops to New England and appointed General Thomas Gage as the new governor of Massachusetts.

Taken together, the Coercive Acts violated several traditional English rights, including the right to trial by a jury of one’s peers and the right not to have troops quartered in one’s home.  The king was also not supposed to maintain a standing army in peacetime without the consent of Parliament.  Although the British Parliament had authorized the troops, colonists believed their own local assemblies should have had to give their consent as well.

In July 1774, a month after the last Coercive Act had become law, the British introduced the Quebec Act.  This law had nothing to do with events in the American colonies, but it angered the colonists nonetheless.  The Quebec Act stated that a governor and council appointed by the king would run Quebec.  The act also gave more territory to Quebec, including much of what is today Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.  If colonists moved west, they would have to live in territory where they had no elected assembly.

The Quebec Act, coming so soon after the Coercive Acts, seemed to imply that the British were trying to seize control of the colonial governments.  In the colonies, the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act together became known as the Intolerable Acts.

The First Continental Congress

In May 1774, the Virginia House of Burgesses called for a day of fasting and prayer to protest the arrival of British troops in Boston.  When Virginia’s governor dissolved the House, the burgesses went to a nearby tavern.  In a resolution, they urged the colonies to suspend trade with Britain and to send delegates to a colonial congress to discuss more action.  At least one burgess, Patrick Henry, was ready for war:  “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

In New York and Rhode Island, similar calls for a congress had already been made.  The committees of correspondence rapidly coordinated the different proposals, and on September 5, 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia.

The 55 delegates to the Congress represented 12 of Britain’s North American colonies.  Florida, Georgia, Nova Scotia, and Quebec did not attend.  They also represented a wide range of opinion.  Although opposed to the Intolerable Acts, moderate delegates believed a compromise was possible.  Other more radical delegates believed the time had come to fight.  Shortly after the Congress began, the moderates, led by Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania, put forward a compromise.  Galloway’s plan proposed a federal government for the colonies similar to the one outlined in the Albany Plan of Union.  After the radicals argued that the plan would not protect American rights, the colonies voted to put off its consideration.  When the Congress learned that the British had suspended the Massachusetts assembly, they responded with the Declaration of Rights and Grievances.  The declaration expressed loyalty to the king but condemned the Coercive Acts.  It also announced that the colonies were forming a nonimportation association.  Several days later, the delegates approved the Continental Association, a plan for every county and town to form committees to enforce a boycott of British goods.  The delegates then agreed to hold a second Continental Congress in May 1775 if the crisis had not been resolved.

Examining
How did the British react to the Boston Tea Party?
 

The Revolution Begins

In October 1774, while the Continental Congress was still meeting, the Massachusetts assembly defied General Gage and organized the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.  They then formed the Committee of Safety and chose John Hancock to lead it, giving him the power to call up the militia.  In effect, the Provincial Congress had made Hancock a rival governor to General Gage.

A full-scale rebellion was now underway.  Militias began to drill and practice shooting.  The town of Concord created a special unit of men trained and ready to “stand at a minute’s warning in case of alarm.” These were the famous minutemen.

All through the summer and fall of 1774, British control of the colonies weakened as colonists created provincial congresses and militias raided military depots for ammunition and gunpowder.  These rebellious acts infuriated British officials.

Loyalists and Patriots

British officials were not alone in their anger.  Although many colonists did not agree with Parliament’s policies, some still felt a strong sense of loyalty to the king and believed British law should be upheld.  Americans who backed Britain came to be known as Loyalists, or Tories.  Loyalists came from all parts of American society.  Many were government officials or Anglican ministers.  Others were prominent merchants and landowners.  Quite a few backcountry farmers on the frontier remained loyal as well, because they regarded the king as their protector against the planters and merchants who controlled the local governments.

On the other side were those who believed the British had become tyrants.  These people were known as Patriots, or Whigs.  Patriots also represented a wide cross section of society.  They were artisans, farmers, merchants, planters, lawyers, and urban workers.  The Patriots were strong in New England and Virginia, while most of the Loyalists lived in Georgia, the Carolinas, and New York.  Political differences divided communities and even split families.  The American Revolution was not simply a war between the Americans and the British.  It was also a civil war between Patriots and Loyalists.

Even before the Revolution, Patriot groups brutally enforced the boycott of British goods.  They tarred and feathered Loyalists, and broke up Loyalist gatherings.  Loyalists fought back, but they were outnumbered and not as well organized.  Caught between the two groups were many Americans, possibly a majority, who did not favor either side and would support whomever won.

Lexington and Concord

In April 1775, the British government ordered General Gage to arrest the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, even if it meant risking armed conflict.  Gage did not know where the Congress was located, so he decided to seize the militia’s supply depot at Concord instead.  On April 18, about 700 British troops set out for Concord on a road that took them past the town of Lexington.  Patriot leaders heard about the plan and sent Paul Revere and William Dawes to spread the alarm.

Revere reached Lexington by midnight and warned the people there that the British were coming.  He and Dawes and a third man, Dr.  Samuel Prescott, then set out for Concord.  A British patrol stopped Revere and Dawes, but Prescott got through in time to warn Concord.

On April 19, British troops arrived in Lexington and spotted some 70 minutemen lined up on the village green.  The British marched onto the field and ordered them to disperse.  The minutemen had begun to back away when a shot was fired; no one is sure by whom.  The British soldiers, already nervous, fired at the minutemen, killing 8 and wounding 10.

The British then headed to Concord, but when they arrived, they found that most of the military supplies had been removed.  When they tried to cross the North Bridge on the far side of town, they ran into some 400 colonial militia.  A fight broke out, forcing the British to retreat.

Having completed their mission, the British decided to return to Boston.  Along the way, militia and farmers fired at them from behind trees, stone walls, barns, and houses.  By the time the British reached Boston, they had lost 99 men, and another 174 were wounded.  The colonial forces had lost 49 militia, and another 46 were wounded.

News of the fighting spread across the colonies.  Militia from all over New England raced to the area to help fight the British.  By May 1775, militia troops had surrounded Boston, trapping the British inside.

The Second Continental Congress

Three weeks after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia.  The first issue was defense.  The Congress voted to “adopt” the militia army surrounding Boston, and they named it the Continental Army.  On June 15, 1775, the Congress appointed George Washington as general and commander in chief of the new army.

Before Washington could get to his new command, however, the British landed reinforcements in Boston.  Determined to gain control of the area, the British decided to seize the hills north of the city.  Warned in advance, the militia acted first.  On June 16, 1775, they dug in on Breed’s Hill near Bunker Hill and began building a fort at the top.  The following day, General Gage sent 2,200 of his troops to take the hill.  His soldiers, wearing heavy packs and woolen uniforms, launched an uphill, frontal attack in blistering heat.  According to legend, an American commander named William Prescott told his troops, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” When the British closed to within 50 yards, the Americans took aim and fired.  They turned back two British advances and were forced to retreat only after running out of ammunition.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, as it came to be called, helped to build American confidence.  It showed that the colonial militia could stand up to one of the world’s most feared armies.  The British suffered more than 1,000 casualties in the fighting.  Shortly afterward, 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.

Interpreting
Why was the Battle of Bunker Hill important to the Americans?
 

The Decision for Independence

Despite the onset of fighting, many colonists in the summer of 1775 were not prepared to break away from Great Britain.  Most members of the Second Continental Congress wanted the right to govern themselves, but they did not want to break with the British Empire.  By 1776, however, opinion had changed.  Frustrated by Britain’s refusal to compromise, many Patriot leaders began to call for independence.

Efforts at Peace

In July 1775, as the siege of Boston continued, the Continental Congress sent a document known as the Olive Branch Petition to the king.  John Dickinson wrote the petition.  It 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.

In the meantime, the radical delegates of the Congress convinced the body to order an attack on the British troops based in Quebec.  They hoped the attack would convince the French in Quebec to rebel and join the Americans in fighting the British.  The American forces captured the city of Montreal, but the French did not rebel.

The attack on Quebec convinced British officials that there was no hope of reconciliation.  When the Olive Branch Petition arrived in England, King George refused to look at it.  On August 22, 1775, he issued the Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition, stating that the colonies were now “open and avowed enemies.”

With no compromise likely, the Continental Congress increasingly began to act like an independent government.  It sent people to negotiate with the Native Americans, and it established a postal system and a Continental Navy and Marine Corps.  It also authorized privateering.  By March 1776, the Continental Navy had raided the Bahamas and begun seizing British merchant ships.

The Fighting Spreads

As the revolution began, Governor Dunmore of Virginia organized two Loyalist armies to assist the British troops in Virginia, one composed of white Loyalists, the other of enslaved Africans.  Dunmore proclaimed that Africans enslaved by rebels would be freed if they fought for the Loyalists.  The announcement convinced many Southern planters to support independence.  Otherwise, they might lose their lands and labor force.  They also increased their efforts to raise a large Patriot army.  In December 1775, the Patriot troops attacked and defeated Dunmore’s forces near Norfolk, Virginia.  The British then pulled their soldiers out of Virginia, leaving the Patriots in control.

In North Carolina, Patriot troops dispersed Loyalists at the Battle of Moore’s Creek in February 1776.  The British then decided to seize Charles Town, South Carolina, but the Charles Town militia thwarted the British plans.

While fighting raged in the South, Washington ordered his troops to capture the hills south of Boston.  He intended to place cannons on the hills to bombard the British.  After the Americans seized the hills, however, the British Navy evacuated the British troops from Boston, leaving the Patriots in control.

Despite their defeats, it was clear that the British were not backing down.  In December 1775, the king issued the Prohibitory Act, shutting down trade with the colonies and ordering a naval blockade.  The British also began expanding their army by recruiting mercenaries, or soldiers for hire, from Germany.  By the spring of 1776, the British had hired 30,000 German mercenaries, mostly Hessians from the region of Hesse.

Common Sense and Independence

As the war dragged on, more and more Patriots began to think the time had come to declare independence, although they feared that most colonists were still loyal to the king.  In January 1776, however, public opinion began to change when Thomas Paine published a lively and persuasive pamphlet called Common Sense.

Until Common Sense appeared, nearly everyone viewed Parliament as the enemy, not the king.  In Common Sense, 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:

“Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation.  The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ‘Tis Time To Part. ...  Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression.  Freedom hath been hunted round the globe ... [and] England hath given her warning to depart.  Oh! Receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.”

—from Common Sense

Within three months, Common Sense had sold 100,000 copies.  George Washington wrote, “Common Sense is working a powerful change in the minds of men.” Increasingly, many colonists were ready to declare independence.  One by one the provincial congresses and assemblies told their representatives at the Continental Congress to vote for independence.

In early July a committee composed of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson submitted a document Jefferson had drafted on independence.  On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress issued this Declaration of Independence, declaring themselves the United States of America.  The American
Revolution had begun.
 
 

What If...
The Declaration of Independence Had Condemned Slavery?

In 1776 the Continental Congress chose a committee to draft the Declaration of Independence.

The committee included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, and Robert Livingston.  Jefferson later recalled the following in his memoirs:  “[The committee members] unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught.  I consented; I drew it; but before I reported it to the committee I communicated it separately to Dr.  Franklin and Mr.  Adams requesting their corrections....”

Franklin and Adams urged Jefferson to delete his condemnation of King George’s support of slavery.  The two realized that the revolution needed support from all the colonies to succeed, and condemning slavery would certainly alienate pro-slavery colonists and force them to support the king.  Jefferson modified the draft accordingly.

If the Declaration of Independence had included Jefferson’s condemnation of slavery, which is excerpted below, the history of the United States might have been very different.

“He [King George] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. ...  He has [stopped] every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce determining to keep open a market where [people] should be bought and sold....”

Analyzing
How did Thomas Paine help persuade colonists to declare independence?
 

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