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5 The Problem of Empire 1763–1776 C H A P T E R I IDENTIF Y THE BIG IDEA AN EMP...

5 The Problem of Empire 1763–1776 C H A P T E R I IDENTIF Y THE BIG IDEA AN EMPIRE n June 1775, the city of New York TRANSFORMED faced a perplexing dilemma. Word Consider whether the collapse of The Costs of Empire arrived that George Washington, who British authority in the thirteen George Grenville and the Reform had just been named commander in chief rebellious colonies might have Impulse of the newly formed Continental army, been avoided through compromise An Open Challenge: The was coming to town. But on the same measures and more astute leader- Stamp Act day, William Tryon, the colony’s crown- ship. Was colonial independence THE DYNAMICS OF appointed governor, was scheduled to inevitable, and was war the only REBELLION, 1765–1770 return from Britain. Local leaders orches- way to achieve it? Formal Protests and the Politics trated a delicate dance. Though the Pro- of the Crowd vincial Congress was operating illegally in the eyes of the crown, it did not wish to The Ideological Roots of offend Governor Tryon. It instructed the city’s newly raised volunteer battalion to divide Resistance in two. One company awaited Washington’s arrival, while another prepared to greet the Another Kind of Freedom governor. The “residue of the Battalion” was to be “ready to receive either the General Parliament and Patriots Square or Governour Tryon, which ever shall first arrive.” Washington arrived first. He was met Off Again by nine companies of the volunteer battalion and a throng of well-wishers, who escorted The Problem of the West him to his rooms in a local tavern. Many of this same crowd then crossed town to join Parliament Wavers the large group assembled to greet the governor, whose ship was just landing. The crowd met him with “universal shouts of applause” and accompanied him home. THE ROAD TO This awkward moment in the history of one American city reflects a larger crisis of INDEPENDENCE, loyalty that plagued colonists throughout British North America in the years between 1771–1776 1763 and 1776. The outcome of the Great War for Empire left Great Britain the undis- A Compromise Repudiated puted master of eastern North America. But that success pointed the way to catastro- The Continental Congress phe. Convinced of the need to reform the empire and tighten its administration, British Responds policymakers imposed a series of new administrative measures on the colonies. Accus- The Rising of the Countryside tomed as they were to governing their own affairs, colonists could not accept these Loyalists and Neutrals changes. Yet the bonds of loyalty were strong, and the unraveling of British authority VIOLENCE EAST was tortuous and complex. Only gradually — as militancy slowly mounted on both AND WEST sides — were the ties of empire broken and independence declared. Lord Dunmore’s War Armed Resistance in Massachusetts The Second Continental Congress Organizes for War Thomas Paine’s Common Sense Independence Declared 150 The Great New York Fire of 1776 In the wake of the Declaration of Independence, General William Howe’s first objective was to capture New York, with its strategic location and excellent harbor. Patriot forces under George Washington’s command attempted to defend the city but were forced into retreat and abandoned it to the British in September 1776. Early in the morning of September 21, a fire broke out near the southern tip of Manhattan and burned northwestward, driven by a strong wind. As many as a quarter of the town’s buildings were destroyed; residents, already distressed by the fighting, fled into the streets with whatever possessions they could carry. Each side accused the other of arson, but that charge was never proven. Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 151  152 PART 3 REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1763–1820 kinds of ordinary goods — salt and beer, bricks and An Empire Transformed candles, paper (in the form of a stamp tax) — that were consumed by middling and poor Britons. In the 1760s, The Great War for Empire of 1756–1763 (Chapter 4) the per capita tax burden was 20 percent of income. transformed the British Empire in North America. The To collect the taxes, the government doubled the British ministry could no longer let the colonies man- size of the tax bureaucracy (Figure 5.1). Customs age their own affairs while it contented itself with min- agents patrolled the coasts of southern Britain, seizing imal oversight of the Atlantic trade. Its interests and tons of contraband French wines, Dutch tea, and responsibilities now extended far into the continental Flemish textiles. Convicted smugglers faced heavy interior — a much more costly and complicated propo- penalties, including death or forced “transportation” to sition than it had ever faced before. And neither its America as indentured servants. (Despite colonial pro- American colonies nor their Native American neigh- tests, nearly fifty thousand English criminals had bors were inclined to cooperate in the transformation. already been shipped to America to be sold as inden- British administrators worried about their Ameri- tured servants.) can colonists, who, according to former Georgia gover- The price of empire abroad was thus larger gov- nor Henry Ellis, felt themselves “entitled to a greater ernment and higher taxes at home. Members of two measure of Liberty than is enjoyed by the people of British opposition parties, the Radical Whigs and the England.” Ireland had been closely ruled for decades, Country Party, complained that the huge war debt and recently the East India placed the nation at the mercy of the “monied inter- EXPLAIN Company set up dominion over ests,” the banks and financiers who reaped millions of CONSEQUENCES millions of non-British peoples pounds’ interest from government bonds. To reverse What was the impact of (Map 5.1 and America Compared, the growth of government and the threat to personal the Great War for Empire p. 153). Britain’s American pos- liberty and property rights, British reformers demanded on British policymakers sessions were likewise filled with that Parliament represent a broader spectrum of and the colonies? aliens and “undesirables”: “French, the property-owning classes. The Radical Whig John Dutch, Germans innumerable, Wilkes condemned rotten boroughs — sparsely popu- Indians, Africans, and a multitude of felons from this lated, aristocratic-controlled electoral districts — and country,” as one member of Parliament put it. Con- demanded greater representation for rapidly growing sequently, declared Lord Halifax, “The people of commercial and manufacturing cities. The war thus England” considered Americans “as foreigners.” transformed British politics. Contesting that status, wealthy Philadelphia lawyer The war also revealed how little power Britain John Dickinson argued that his fellow colonists were wielded in its American colonies. In theory, royal gov- “not [East Indian] Sea Poys, nor Marattas, but British ernors had extensive political powers, including com- subjects who are born to liberty, who know its worth, mand of the provincial militia; in reality, they shared and who prize it high.” Thus was the stage set for a power with the colonial assemblies, which outraged struggle between the conceptions of identity — and British officials. The Board of Trade complained that in empire — held by British ministers, on the one hand, Massachusetts “almost every act of executive and leg- and many American colonists on the other. islative power is ordered and directed by votes and resolves of the General Court.” To enforce the collec- The Costs of Empire tion of trade duties, which colonial merchants had The Great War for Empire imposed enormous costs on evaded for decades by bribing customs officials, Great Britain. The national debt soared from £75 mil- Parliament passed the Revenue Act of 1762. The min- lion to £133 million and was, an observer noted, istry also instructed the Royal Navy to seize American “becoming the alarming object of every British sub- vessels carrying food crops from the mainland colo- ject.” By war’s end, interest on the debt alone consumed nies to the French West Indies. It was absurd, declared 60 percent of the nation’s budget, and the ministry had a British politician, that French armies attempting “to to raise taxes. During the eighteenth century, taxes Destroy one English province... are actually sup- were shifting from land — owned by the gentry and ported by Bread raised in another.” aristocracy — to consumables, and successive minis- Britain’s military victory brought another funda- tries became ever more ingenious in devising new ways mental shift in policy: a new peacetime deployment of to raise money. Excise (or sales) taxes were levied on all 15 royal battalions — some 7,500 troops — in North AMERICA C O M PA R E D Britain’s Atlantic and The following table enumerates the economic benefits derived by Great Britain from its various colonies, which sent a wide variety of goods to Britain and also Asian Empires served as markets for British exports. TABLE 5.1 English/British Imports and Exports (annual averages in pounds sterling) England* Britain* 1700–01 1750–51 1772–73 1789–90 Imports from Asia, Africa, and America North America 372,000 877,000 1,997,000 1,351,000 The Fisheries** 0 7,000 27,000 188,000 West Indies 785,000 1,484,000 3,222,000 4,045,000 Africa 24,000 43,000 80,000 87,000 East Indies 775,000 1,101,000 2,203,000 3,256,000 Total 1,956,000 3,512,000 7,529,000 8,927,000 Exports to America, Asia, and Africa North America 362,000 1,355,000 3,254,000 3,763,000 West Indies 336,000 589,000 1,402,000 1,892,000 Africa 145,000 188,000 777,000 799,000 East India 125,000 653,000 893,000 2,173,000 Total 968,000 2,785,000 6,326,000 8,627,000 *The “England” column shows data for England and Wales; “Britain” includes Scotland as well. **Includes Massachusetts Bay, Maine, and Newfoundland; by the 1760s more than £500,000 worth of fish was being sent annually to the West Indies and southern Europe. Source: Adapted from The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 2, ed. P. J. Marshall (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 101. QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS 1. Compare Britain’s colonies in their roles as 2. How did the American Revolution (1776–1783) producers of British imports to their roles as impact the economic relationship between consumers of British exports. Why are the Great Britain and its mainland colonies? Is it mainland colonies of North America a distant reasonable to conclude that political indepen- third as producers of imports, but ranked first dence did not bring economic independence? as consumers of exports? America. The ministers who served under George III Britain’s frontier forts. Moreover, only a substantial (r. 1760–1820) feared a possible rebellion by the 60,000 military force would deter land-hungry whites from French residents of Canada, Britain’s newly conquered defying the Proclamation of 1763 and settling west of colony (Map 5.2). Native Americans were also a the Appalachian Mountains (see Chapter 4). Finally, concern: Pontiac’s Rebellion had nearly overwhelmed British politicians worried about the colonists’ loyalty 153  154 Greenland (Den.) Iceland (Den.) PART 3 GREAT SWEDEN RUSSIAN EMPIRE BRITAIN DENMARK Bristol POLAND L CANADA Newfoundland St. Malo Quebec O FRANCE Montreal St. Pierre, Bordeaux UIS Philadelphia Boston Miquelon PORTUGAL SPAIN New York OTTOMAN Lisbon Seville IAN Jamestown EMPIRE JAPAN Cádiz A GEORGIA CANARY New Orleans CHINA FLORIDA ATLANTIC IS. PERSIA PACIFIC NEW (Br. 1763–83) SPAIN OCEAN BENGAL Canton BAHAMAS Formosa OCEAN Calcutta Macau Veracruz CUBA Santo Domingo Diu Daman Acapulco Jamaica LESSER ANTILLES St. Louis Bombay INDIA Rangoon Da Nang PHILIPPINES HAITI (Fr. & Br.) Manila Gorée Goa BELIZE Curaçao Fort Madras ANNAM NEW Trinidad James BENIN Porto Bello Accra ETHIOPIA GRANADA Lagos Ceylon SURINAM Cayenne Mogadishu DUTCH Sumatra MOLUCCAS BRAZIL Mombasa INDONESIA (1630–54) NEW PERU ANGOLA Java GUINEA Recife Timor BRAZIL Bahia Mozambique Spanish transcontinental Beira Madagascar Mauritius route Rio de Janeiro Réunion Fort Dauphin NEW HOLLAND REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1763–1820 PACIFIC OCEAN RIO DE Buenos Aires LA PLATA Capetown INDIAN OCEAN N W E FALKLAND ISLANDS (Fr. 1763–65, Br. 1765–70, Sp. 1770) British control, c. 1770 Portuguese control S French control, c. 1770 Spanish control 0 1,000 2,000 miles Dutch control, c. 1770 Russian empire in 1763 0 1,000 2,000 kilometers MAP 5.1 Eurasian Trade and European Colonies, c. 1770 By 1770, the Western European nations that had long dominated maritime trade had created vast colonial empires and spheres of influence. Spain controlled the western halves of North and South America, Portugal owned Brazil, and Holland ruled Indonesia. Britain, a newer imperial power, boasted settler societies in North America, rich sugar islands in the West Indies, slave ports in West Africa, and a growing presence on the Indian subcontinent. Only France had failed to acquire and hold on to a significant colonial empire. (To trace changes in empire and trade routes, see Map 1.4 on p. 24 and Map 2.2 on p. 46.)  CHAPTER 5 The Problem of Empire, 1763–1776 155 FIGURE 5.1 The Cost of Empire, 1690 –1790 Military spending Net tax income American War It cost money to build and maintain an empire. As Civil spending (£ sterling, millions) of Independence, Britain built a great navy, subsidized the armies of 30 1775–1783 European allies, and fought four wars against France and Spain between 1702 and 1783, military expendi- War of the Seven Spanish Years’ War, tures soared. Tax revenues did not keep pace, so the Succession, 1756–1763 government created a large national debt by issuing 1702–1713 bonds for millions of pounds. This policy created a 20 class of wealthy financiers, led to political protests, War of the and eventually prompted attempts to tax the Austrian American colonists. Succession, 1740–1748 10 0 1690 1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 now that they no longer faced a threat from French The Sugar Act Grenville also won parliamentary Canada. approval of the Sugar Act of 1764 to replace the widely The cost of stationing these troops, estimated at ignored Molasses Act of 1733 (see Chapter 3). The ear- £225,000 per year, compounded Britain’s fiscal crisis, lier act had set a tax rate of 6 pence per gallon on French and it seemed clear that the burden had to be shared by molasses — a rate so high that it made the trade unprof- the colonies. They had always managed their own itable. Rather than pay it, colonial merchants bribed finances, but the king’s ministers agreed that Parliament customs officials at the going rate of 1.5 pence per gal- could no longer let them off the hook for the costs of lon. Grenville settled on a duty of 3 pence per gallon, empire. The greatest gains from the war had come in which merchants could pay and still turn a profit, and North America, where the specter of French encircle- then tightened customs enforcement so that it could ment had finally been lifted, and the greatest new post- actually be collected. war expenses were being incurred in North America This carefully crafted policy garnered little support as well. in America. New England merchants, among them John Hancock of Boston, had made their fortunes smug- George Grenville and the gling French molasses. In 1754, Boston merchants paid customs duties on a mere 400 hogsheads of molasses, Reform Impulse yet they imported 40,000 hogsheads for use by 63 The challenge of raising revenue from the colonies fell Massachusetts rum distilleries. Publicly, the merchants first to George Grenville. Widely regarded as “one of claimed that the Sugar Act would ruin the distilling the ablest men in Great Britain,” Grenville understood industry; privately, they vowed to evade the duty by the need for far-reaching imperial reform. He first smuggling or by bribing officials. passed the Currency Act of 1764, which banned the American colonies from using paper money as legal The End of Salutary Neglect More important, col- tender. Colonial shopkeepers, planters, and farmers onists raised constitutional objections to the Sugar Act. had used local currency, which was worth less than In Massachusetts, the leader of the assembly argued British pounds sterling, to pay their debts to British that the new legislation was “contrary to a fundamental merchants. The Currency Act ensured that merchants Principall of our Constitution: That all Taxes ought to would no longer be paid in money printed in the colo- originate with the people.” In Rhode Island, Governor nies, boosting their profits and British wealth. Stephen Hopkins warned: “They who are taxed at 156 PART 3 REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1763–1820 The Treaty of Paris allowed the British-run Hudson’s Bay Company Hudson to expand its territory and influence. Bay HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY Newfoundland QUEBEC MAINE (part of Nova Mass.) Scotia M N.H. MASS. AT L A N T I C N.Y. R.I. OCEAN S PA N I S H PENN. CONN. LOUISIANA N.J. ine MD. DEL. n L tio VA. British Colonies: Comparisons Royal Proprietary Corporate ma Britain gained much more N.C. cla o American territory from Pr Population Average Annual Exports the Treaty of Paris (1763) S.C. White Black Exports per White than it had from the Treaty GA. (in 1770) (in 1770) (shillings)* of Utrecht (1713). The new West Indian islands 40,000 330,000 £1,856,000 928s. treaty gave Britain control FLOR Southern mainland 600,000 394,000 £1,703,776 57s. of Spanish Florida and all of IDA Northern mainland 1,092,000 45,000 £1,105,376 21s. New France east of the BA Mississippi River. H A *20 shillings = £1 (one English pound); £1 = about $400 in 2010 prices. M AS Gulf of Mexico (B r.) SANTO DOMINGO N (Sp.) CUBA Guadeloupe (Fr.) E (Sp.) W Puerto Martinique ST. DOMINIQUE Rico (Fr.) S BELIZE JAMAICA (Fr.) (Sp.) (Br.) Barbados Caribbean Sea (Br.) 0 250 500 miles In 1763, West Indian sugar was still Britain’s primary colonial 0 250 500 kilometers export crop, but its value was now less than the combined worth of the tobacco, rice, and flour exported from the mainland colonies. MAP 5.2 Britain’s American Empire in 1763 The Treaty of Paris gave Britain control of the eastern half of North America and returned a few captured sugar islands in the West Indies to France. To protect the empire’s new mainland territories, British ministers dispatched troops to Florida and Quebec. They also sent troops to uphold the terms of the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited Anglo-American settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. pleasure by others cannot possibly have any property, The Sugar Act revived old American fears. The and they who have no property, can have no freedom.” influential Virginia planter Richard Bland emphasized The Sugar Act raised other constitutional issues as well. that the American colonists “were not sent out to be Merchants prosecuted under the act would be tried in the Slaves but to be the Equals of those that remained vice-admiralty courts, tribunals governing the high behind.” John Adams, the young Massachusetts lawyer seas and run by British-appointed judges. Previously, defending John Hancock on a charge of smuggling, merchants accused of Navigation Acts violations were tried by local common-law courts, where friendly juries often acquitted them. The Sugar Act closed this To see a longer excerpt of the Richard Bland legal loophole by extending the jurisdiction of the vice- document, along with other primary sources from admiralty courts to all customs offenses. this period, see Sources for America’s History.  CHAPTER 5 The Problem of Empire, 1763–1776 157 argued that the vice-admiralty courts diminished this assembly declared, and therefore “cannot participate in equality by “degrad[ing] every American... below the the general Legislature of the Nation.” rank of an Englishman.” Asserting “the Right of Parliament to lay an inter- In fact, accused smugglers in Britain were also tried nal Tax upon the Colonies,” the House of Commons in vice-admiralty courts, so there was no discrimina- ignored American opposition and tion against Americans. The real issue was the growing passed the act by an overwhelm- UNDERSTAND power of the British state. Americans had lived for ing majority of 205 to 49. At POINTS OF VIEW decades under an administrative policy of salutary the request of General Thomas Why did most British and neglect. Now they saw that the new imperial regime Gage, the British military com- colonial leaders reject would deprive them “of some of their most essential mander in America, Parliament the idea that the colonies Rights as British subjects,” as a committee of the Mass- also passed the Quartering Act should be represented in achusetts assembly put it. In response, Royal Governor of 1765, which required colonial Parliament? Francis Bernard replied: “The rule that a British subject governments to provide barracks shall not be bound by laws or liable to taxes, but what and food for British troops. Finally, Parliament approved he has consented to by his representatives must be Grenville’s proposal that violations of the Stamp Act be confined to the inhabitants of Great Britain only.” To tried in vice-admiralty courts. Bernard, Grenville, and other imperial reformers, Using the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy, Americans were second-class subjects of the king, with Grenville had begun to fashion a centralized imperial rights limited by the Navigation Acts, parliamentary system in America much like that already in place in laws, and British interests. Ireland: British officials would govern the colonies with little regard for the local assemblies. Consequently, the prime minister’s plan provoked a constitutional con- An Open Challenge: The Stamp Act frontation on the specific issues of taxation, jury trials, Another new tax, the Stamp Act of 1765, sparked and military quartering as well as on the general ques- the first great imperial crisis. The new levy was to tion of representative self-government. cover part of the cost of keeping British troops in America — which turned out to be £385,000 a year (about $150 million today), 70 percent more than the initial estimate. Grenville hoped the Stamp Act would The Dynamics of Rebellion, raise £60,000 per year. The act would require a tax 1765–1770 stamp on all printed items, from college diplomas, court documents, land titles, and contracts to news- In the name of reform, Grenville had thrown down the papers, almanacs, and playing cards. It was ingeniously gauntlet to the Americans. The colonists had often designed. Like its counterpart in England, it bore more resisted unpopular laws and aggressive governors, but heavily on the rich, since it charged only a penny a they had faced an all-out attack on their institutions sheet for newspapers and other common items but up only once before — in 1686, when James II had unilat- to £10 for a lawyer’s license. It also required no new erally imposed the Dominion of New England. Now bureaucracy; stamped paper would be delivered to the danger to colonial autonomy was even greater colonial ports and sold to printers in lieu of unstamped because both the king and Parliament backed reform. stock. But the Patriots, as the defenders of American rights Benjamin Franklin, agent of the Pennsylvania came to be called, met the challenge posed by Grenville assembly, proposed a different solution: American and his successor, Charles Townshend. They organized representation in Parliament. “If you chuse to tax us,” protests — formal and informal, violent as well as he wrote, “give us Members in your Legislature, and let peaceful — and fashioned a compelling ideology of us be one People.” With the exception of William Pitt, resistance. British politicians rejected Franklin’s idea as too radi- cal. They argued that the colonists already had virtual Formal Protests and the Politics representation in Parliament because some of its members were transatlantic merchants and West Indian of the Crowd sugar planters. Colonial leaders were equally skeptical Virginia’s House of Burgesses was the first formal body of Franklin’s plan. Americans were “situate at a great to complain. In May 1765, hotheaded young Patrick Distance from their Mother Country,” the Connecticut Henry denounced Grenville’s legislation and attacked  158 PART 3 REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1763–1820 Protesting the Stamp Act in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Throughout the colonies, disciplined mobs protesting the Stamp Act forced stamp distributors to resign their offices. In this engraving, protesters in the small city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, stone an effigy of the distributor as other members of the mob carry off a coffin representing the death of American “Liberty.” Illustration from “Interesting Events in the History of the U.S.” by J. W. Barber, 1829/Picture Research Consultants & Archives. George III for supporting it. He compared the king to Oliver and then destroyed Oliver’s new brick ware- Charles I, whose tyranny had led to his overthrow and house. Two weeks later, Bostonians attacked the house execution in the 1640s. These remarks, which bordered of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, Oliver’s on treason, frightened the Burgesses; nonetheless, they brother-in-law and a prominent defender of imperial condemned the Stamp Act’s “manifest Tendency to authority, breaking his furniture, looting his wine cel- Destroy American freedom.” In Massachusetts, James lar, and setting fire to his library. Otis, another republican-minded firebrand, persuaded Wealthy merchants and Patriot lawyers, such as the House of Representatives to call a meeting of all the John Hancock and John Adams, encouraged the mainland colonies “to implore Relief ” from the act. mobs, which were usually led by middling artisans and minor merchants. In New York City, nearly three The Stamp Act Congress Nine assemblies sent del- thousand shopkeepers, artisans, laborers, and seamen egates to the Stamp Act Congress, which met in New marched through the streets breaking windows and York City in October 1765. The congress protested the crying “Liberty!” Resistance to the Stamp Act spread loss of American “rights and liberties,” especially the far beyond the port cities: in nearly every colony, right to trial by jury. And it challenged the constitu- angry crowds — the “rabble,” their detractors called tionality of both the Stamp and Sugar Acts by declaring them — intimidated royal officials. Near Wethersfield, that only the colonists’ elected representatives could Connecticut, five hundred farmers seized tax collector tax them. Still, moderate-minded delegates wanted com- Jared Ingersoll and forced him to resign his office in promise, not confrontation. They assured Parliament “the Cause of the People.” that Americans “glory in being subjects of the best of Kings” and humbly petitioned for repeal of the The Motives of the Crowd Such crowd actions Stamp Act. Other influential Americans favored active were common in both Britain and America, and pro- (but peaceful) resistance; they organized a boycott of testers had many motives. Roused by the Great British goods. Awakening, evangelical Protestants resented arrogant British military officers and corrupt royal bureaucrats. Crowd Actions Popular opposition also took a In New England, where rioters invoked the anti- violent form, however. When the Stamp Act went monarchy sentiments of their great-grandparents, an into effect on November 1, 1765, anonymous letter sent to a Boston newspaper promis- COMPARE AND disciplined mobs demanded the ing to save “all the Freeborn Sons of America” was CONTRAST resignation of stamp-tax collec- signed “Oliver Cromwell,” the English republican revo- Why did the Stamp Act tors. In Boston, a group calling lutionary of the 1650s. In New York City, Sons of arouse so much more resis- itself the Sons of Liberty burned Liberty leaders Isaac Sears and Alexander McDougall tance than the Sugar Act? an effigy of collector Andrew were minor merchants and Radical Whigs who feared  CHAPTER 5 The Problem of Empire, 1763–1776 159 that imperial reform would undermine political lib- French philosopher Montesquieu, who had main- erty. The mobs also included apprentices, day laborers, tained that a “separation of powers” among govern- and unemployed sailors: young men with their own ment departments prevented arbitrary rule. notions of liberty who — especially if they had been The republican and Whig strands of the English drinking — were quick to resort to violence. political tradition provided a third ideological source Nearly everywhere popular resistance nullified the for American Patriots. Puritan New England had long Stamp Act. Fearing an assault on Fort George, New venerated the Commonwealth era (1649–1660), when York lieutenant governor Cadwallader Colden called England had been a republic (see Chapter 2). After the on General Gage to use his small military force to Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689, many colonists protect the stamps. Gage refused. “Fire from the Fort praised the English Whigs for creating a constitutional might disperse the Mob, but it would not quell monarchy that prevented the king from imposing taxes them,” he told Colden, and the result would be “an and other measures. Joseph Warren, a physician and a Insurrection, the Commencement of Civil War.” The Radical Whig Patriot, suggested that the Stamp Act tax was collected in Barbados and Jamaica, but fright- was part of a ministerial plot “to force the colonies into ened collectors resigned their offices in all thirteen rebellion” and justify the use of “military power to colonies that would eventually join in the Declaration reduce them to servitude.” John Dickinson’s Letters of Independence. This popular insurrection gave a from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1768) urged colonists democratic cast to the emerging Patriot movement. to “remember your ancestors and your posterity” and “Nothing is wanting but your own Resolution,” declared oppose parliamentary taxes. The letters circulated a New York rioter, “for great is the Authority and Power widely and served as an early call to resistance. If of the People.” Parliament could tax the colonies without their con- sent, he wrote, “our boasted liberty is but A sound and nothing else.” The Ideological Roots of Resistance Such arguments, widely publicized in newspapers Some Americans couched their resistance in consti- and pamphlets, gave intellectual substance to the tutional terms. Many were lawyers or well-educated Patriot movement and turned a series of impromptu merchants and planters. Composing pamphlets of riots, tax protests, and boycotts of British manufactures remarkable political sophistication, they gave the resis- into a formidable political force. tance movement its rationale, its political agenda, and its leaders. Patriot writers drew on three intellectual traditions. Another Kind of Freedom The first was English common law, the centuries-old “We are taxed without our own consent,” Dickinson body of legal rules and procedures that protected the wrote in one of his Letters. “We are therefore — lives and property of the monarch’s subjects. In the SLAVES.” As Patriot writers argued that taxation famous Writs of Assistance case of 1761, Boston lawyer without representation made colonists the slaves of James Otis invoked English legal precedents to chal- Parliament, many, including Benjamin Franklin in lenge open-ended search warrants. In demanding a Philadelphia and James Otis in jury trial for John Hancock in the late 1760s, John Massachusetts, also began to con- COMPARE AND Adams appealed to the Magna Carta (1215), the demn the institution of chattel CONTRAST ancient document that, said Adams, “has for many slavery itself as a violation of Why were southerners Centuries been esteemed by Englishmen, as one of slaves’ natural rights. African more threatened by chal- the... firmest Bulwarks of their Liberties.” Other Americans made the connection lenges to the institution of lawyers protested that new strictures violated specific as well. In Massachusetts, slaves slavery than northerners? “liberties and privileges” granted in colonial charters or submitted at least four petitions to embodied in Britain’s “ancient constitution.” the legislature asking that slavery be abolished. As one Enlightenment rationalism provided Patriots with petition noted, slaves “have in common with other a second important intellectual resource. Virginia men, a natural right to be free, and without molesta- planter Thomas Jefferson and other Patriots drew on tion, to enjoy such property, as they may acquire by the writings of John Locke, who had argued that all their industry.” individuals possessed certain “natural rights” — life, In the southern colonies, where slaves constituted liberty, and property — that governments must protect half or more of the population and the economy (see Chapter 4). And they turned to the works of depended on their servitude, the quest for freedom 160 PART 3 REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1763–1820 alarmed slaveholders. In November 1773, a group of Virginia slaves hoped to win their freedom by support- ing British troops that, they heard, would soon arrive in the colony. Their plan was uncovered, and, as James Madison wrote, “proper precautions” were taken “to prevent the Infection” from spreading. He fully under- stood how important it was to defend the colonists’ lib- erties without allowing the idea of natural rights to undermine the institution of slavery. “It is prudent,” he wrote, “such things should be concealed as well as sup- pressed.” Throughout the Revolution, the quest for African American rights and liberties would play out alongside that of the colonies, but unlike national inde- pendence, the liberation of African Americans would not be fulfilled for many generations. Parliament and Patriots Square Off Again When news of the Stamp Act riots and the boycott reached Britain, Parliament was already in turmoil. Disputes over domestic policy had led George III to dismiss Grenville as prime minister (Table 5.2). Phillis Wheatley However, Grenville’s allies demanded that imperial Born in West Africa and enslaved as a child, Phillis Wheatley reform continue, if necessary at gunpoint. “The British was purchased by Boston merchant and tailor John Wheatley legislature,” declared Chief Justice Sir James Mansfield, when she was eight. Tutored by Wheatley’s children, Phillis “has authority to bind every part and every subject, learned to read English, Greek, and Latin by the age of twelve. This engraving, which pictures her at a writing desk, whether such subjects have a right to vote or not.” was the frontispiece for her Poems on Various Subjects, Yet a majority in Parliament was persuaded that Religious and Moral (1773), which was praised by George the Stamp Act was cutting deeply into British exports Washington and gained attention in both Britain and the and thus doing more harm than good. “The Avenues colonies. Freed upon the death of her master, Wheatley married John Peters, a free black man. He was later impris- of Trade are all shut up,” a Bristol merchant told oned for debt, forcing Wheatley to take employment as a Parliament: “We have no Remittances and are at our maid. She died in 1784 at age thirty-one; none of her three Witts End for want of Money to fulfill our Engagements children survived infancy. Library of Congress. with our Tradesmen.” Grenville’s successor, the Earl of Rockingham, forged a compromise. To mollify the colonists and help British merchants, he repealed the Stamp Act and reduced the duty on molasses imposed by the Sugar Act to a penny a gallon. Then he TABLE 5.2 pacified imperial reformers and hard-liners with the Declaratory Act of 1766, which explicitly reaffirmed Ministerial Instability in Britain, 1760 –1782 Parliament’s “full power and authority to make laws Dates of and statutes... to bind the colonies and people of Leading Minister Ministry American Policy America... in all cases whatsoever.” By swiftly ending Lord Bute 1760–1763 Mildly reformist the Stamp Act crisis, Rockingham hoped it would be forgotten just as quickly. George Grenville 1763–1765 Ardently reformist Lord Rockingham 1765–1766 Accommodationist Charles Townshend Steps In Often the course of William Pitt / 1766–1770 Ardently reformist history is changed by a small event — an illness, a per- Charles Townshend sonal grudge, a chance remark. That was the case in 1767, when George III named William Pitt to head a Lord North 1770–1782 Coercive new government. Pitt, chronically ill and often absent  CHAPTER 5 The Problem of Empire, 1763–1776 161 Celebrating Repeal This British cartoon mocking supporters of the Stamp Act — “The Repeal, or the Funeral Procession of Miss Americ-Stamp” — was probably commissioned by merchants trading with America. Preceded by two flag bearers, George Grenville, the author of the legislation, carries a miniature coffin (representing the act) to a tomb, as a dog urinates on the leader of the procession. Two bales on the wharf, labeled “Stamps from America” and “Black cloth return’d from America,” testify to the failure of the act. The Granger Collection, New York. from parliamentary debates, left chancellor of the Townshend thought this distinction was “perfect non- exchequer Charles Townshend in command. Pitt was sense,” but he indulged the Americans and laid duties sympathetic toward America; Townshend was not. only on trade. As a member of the Board of Trade, Townshend had sought restrictions on the colonial assemblies and A Second Boycott and the Daughters of strongly supported the Stamp Act. In 1767, he prom- Liberty Even so, most colonial leaders rejected ised to find a new source of revenue in America. the legitimacy of Townshend’s measures. In February The new tax legislation, the Townshend Act of 1768, the Massachusetts assembly condemned the 1767, had both fiscal and political goals. It imposed Townshend Act, and Boston and New York merchants duties on colonial imports of paper, paint, glass, and began a new boycott of British goods. Throughout tea that were expected to raise about £40,000 a year. Puritan New England, ministers and public officials Though Townshend did allocate some of this revenue discouraged the purchase of “foreign superfluities” and for American military expenses, he earmarked most of promoted the domestic manufacture of cloth and other it to pay the salaries of royal governors, judges, and necessities. other imperial officials, who had always previously American women, ordinarily excluded from public been paid by colonial assemblies. Now, he hoped, royal affairs, became crucial to the nonimportation move- appointees could better enforce parliamentary laws ment. They reduced their households’ consumption of and carry out the king’s instructions. Townshend next imported goods and produced large quantities of devised the Revenue Act of 1767, which created a homespun cloth. Pious farmwives spun yarn at their board of customs commissioners in Boston and vice- ministers’ homes. In Berwick, Maine, “true Daughters admiralty courts in Halifax, Boston, Philadelphia, and of Liberty” celebrated American products by “drinking Charleston. By using parliamentary taxes to finance rye coffee and dining on bear venison.” Other women’s imperial administration, Townshend intended to groups supported the boycott with charitable work, undermine American political institutions. spinning flax and wool for the needy. Just as Patriot The Townshend duties revived the constitutional men followed tradition by joining crowd actions, so debate over taxation. During the Stamp Act crisis, women’s protests reflected their customary concern for some Americans, including Benjamin Franklin, distin- the well-being of the community. guished between external and internal taxes. They sug- Newspapers celebrated these exploits of the gested that external duties on trade (such as those long Daughters of Liberty. One Massachusetts town proudly mandated by the Navigation Acts) were acceptable to claimed an annual output of 30,000 yards of cloth; East Americans, but that direct, or internal, taxes were not. Hartford, Connecticut, reported 17,000 yards. This  162 PART 3 REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1763–1820 surge in domestic production did Despite the enthusiasm of Patriots, nonimporta- EXPLAIN not offset the loss of British tion — accompanied by pressure on merchants and CONSEQUENCES How did the nonimpor- imports, which had averaged consumers who resisted it — opened fissures in colo- tation movement bring about 10 million yards of cloth nial society. Not only royal officials, but also merchants, women into the political annually, but it brought thou- farmers, and ordinary folk, were subject to new forms sphere? sands of women into the public of surveillance and coercion — a pattern that would arena. only become more pronounced as the imperial crisis The boycott mobilized many American men as unfolded. well. In the seaport cities, the Sons of Liberty published the names of merchants who imported British goods Troops to Boston American resistance only and harassed their employees and customers. By March increased British determination. When the Massachu- 1769, the nonimportation movement had spread to setts assembly’s letter opposing the Townshend duties Philadelphia; two months later, the members of the reached London, Lord Hillsborough, the secretary of Virginia House of Burgesses vowed not to buy dutied state for American affairs, branded it “unjustifiable articles, luxury goods, or imported slaves. Reflecting opposition to the constitutional authority of Parlia- colonial self-confidence, Benjamin Franklin called for a ment.” To strengthen the “Hand of Government” return to the pre-1763 mercantilist system: “Repeal in Massachusetts, Hillsborough dispatched General the laws, renounce the right, recall the troops, refund Thomas Gage and 2,000 British troops to Boston the money, and return to the old method of (Map 5.3). Once in Massachusetts, Gage accused its requisition.” leaders of “Treasonable and desperate Resolves” and Edenton Ladies’ Tea Party In October 1774, a group of fifty-one women from Edenton, North Carolina, led by Penelope Barker created a local association to support a boycott of British goods. Patriots in the colonies praised the Edenton Tea Party, which was one of the first formal female political associations in North America, but it was ridiculed in Britain, where this cartoon appeared in March 1775. The women are given a mannish appear- ance, and the themes of promiscuity and neglect to their female duties are suggested by the presence of a slave and an amorous man, the neglected child, and the urinating dog. Library of Congress.  CHAPTER 5 The Problem of Empire, 1763–1776 163 1763 1775 Louisbourg! QUEBEC QUEBEC Quebec Quebec ! ! ! Halifax ! ! Trois Rivières Halifax Trois Rivières Montreal ! Montreal ! Annapolis Nova Royal Nova Michilimackinac ! Crown Point Scotia Crown Point Scotia ! ! ! Michilimackinac ! ! Ticonderoga ! ! Ticonderoga Ft. Frontenac Ft. Frontenac ! Boston ! (11 Battalions) ! Albany !Albany Boston ! ! ! ! Ft. Detroit Ft. Niagara Ft. Detroit Ft. Niagara ! New York N ! New York N ! E ! E Ft. Pitt ! ! Ft. Pitt Philadelphia Philadelphia W W S S Ft. Chartres ! ! Ft. Chartres AT L A N T I C OCEAN Ft. Prince George Small detachment AT L A N T I C Company ! Charleston OCEAN ! Charleston 2–3 companies 4–5 companies ! ! Mobile ! ! ! ! St. Augustine Pensacola St. Augustine Battalion (350 men) Mobile Pensacola 0 150 300 miles Gulf of Me x ico 0 150 300 kilometers Gul f of Me x ico (after Shy) MAP 5.3 British Troop Deployments, 1763 and 1775 As the imperial crisis deepened, British military priorities changed. In 1763, most British battalions were stationed in Canada to deter Indian uprisings and French Canadian revolts. After the Stamp Act riots of 1765, the British placed large garrisons in New York and Philadelphia. By 1775, eleven battalions of British regulars occupied Boston, the center of the Patriot movement. advised the ministry to “Quash this Spirit at a Blow.” In interested in westward expansion. First, gentlemen 1765, American resistance to the Stamp Act had who had invested in numerous land speculation com- sparked a parliamentary debate; in 1768, it provoked a panies were petitioning the crown for large land grants plan for military coercion. in the Ohio country. Second, officers who served in the Seven Years’ War were paid in land warrants — up to 5,000 acres IDENTIFY CAUSES The Problem of the West for field officers — and some, led What groups were most At the same time that successive ministries addressed by George Washington, were interested in western the problem of raising a colonial revenue, they quarreled exploring possible sites beyond lands, and why did over how to manage the vast new inland territory — the Appalachians. Third, Indian Hillsborough oppose about half a billion acres — acquired in the Treaty of traders who had received large them? Paris in 1763 (see Chapter 4). The Proclamation Line grants from the Ohio Indians had drawn a boundary between the colonies and hoped to sell land titles. And fourth, thousands of Indian country. The line was originally intended squatters were following the roads cut to the Ohio by as a temporary barrier. It prohibited settlement “for the Braddock and Forbes campaigns during the Seven the present, and until our further Pleasure be known.” Years’ War to take up lands in the hope that they could The Proclamation also created three new mainland later receive a title to them. “The roads are... alive colonies — Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida — with Men, Women, Children, and Cattle from Jersey, and thus opened new opportunities at the northern Pennsylvania, and Maryland,” wrote one astonished and southern extremities of British North America. observer (Thinking Like a Historian, p. 164). But many colonists looked west rather than north All of this activity antagonized the Ohio Indians. In or south. Four groups in the colonies were especially 1770, Shawnees invited hundreds of Indian leaders to THINKING LIKE A HISTORIAN Though the Royal Proclamation of 1763 called the territory between the Appa- Beyond the lachian Mountains and the Mississippi River “Indian country,” the reality was more complex than this phrase indicates. The following documents illustrate Proclamation Line some of the patterns that shaped life beyond the Proclamation Line between 1763 and 1776. 1. Colonel John Bradstreet’s Thoughts on Indian 3. “Indians Giving a Talk to Colonel Bouquet,” Affairs, 1764. Colonel John Bradstreet led a force 1766. Based on a painting by Benjamin West, this of British redcoats to Fort Niagara in response to engraving from a book about Bouquet’s campaign Pontiac’s Rebellion. He drafted these remarks to the Ohio following Pontiac’s Rebellion depicts shortly afterward. a meeting with Delaware, Seneca, and Shawnee Of all the Savages upon the continent, the most knowing, representatives in October 1764. the most intriguing, the less useful, and the greatest Vil- lains, are those most conversant with the Europeans, and deserve most the attention of Govern[men]t by way of correction, and these are the Six Nations, Shawanese and Delawares; they are well acquainted with the defenceless state of the Inhabitants, who live on the Frontiers, and think they will ever have it in their power to distress and plunder them, and never cease raising the jealousy of the Upper Nations against us, by propagating amongst them such stories, as make them believe the English have noth- ing so much at heart as the extirpation of all Savages. The apparent design of the Six Nations, is to keep us at war with all Savages, but themselves, that they may be employed as mediators between us and them. 2. William Johnson to the British Lords of Trade, 1763. William Johnson, a New Yorker with extensive experience in Indian relations, was the crown’s superintendent for Indian affairs in the northern Source: The Granger Collection, New York. colonies. [T]he Colonies, had all along neglected to cultivate a 4. David Jones’s journal, 1773. David Jones was a Bap- proper understanding with the Indians, and from a tist minister who traveled down the Ohio River in mistaken notion, have greatly dispised them, without 1772 and 1773. His journal offers a compelling considering, that it is in their power at pleasure to lay glimpse of life in the valley’s trading communities. waste and destroy the Frontiers.... Without any exag- FRIDAY [January] 22, in company with Mr. Irwine, set eration, I look upon the Northern Indians to be the out for Chillicaathee.... Here Mr. Irwine kept an assort- most formidable of any uncivilized body of people in ment of goods, and for that purpose rented an house from the World. Hunting and War are their sole occupations, an Indian whose name is Waappee Monneeto, often called and the one qualifies them for the other, they have few the White Devil.... Went to see Mr. Moses Henry a gun- wants, and those are easily supplied, their properties smith and trader from Lancaster. This gentleman has of little value, consequently, expeditions against them lived for some years in this town, and is lawfully married however successful, cannot distress them, and they to a white woman, who was captivated so young that she have courage sufficient for their manner of fighting, speaks the language as well as any Indian.... Mr. Henry the nature and situation of their Countrys, require lives in a comfortable manner, having plenty of good beef, not more. pork, milk, &c. … Chillicaathee is the chief town of the Shawannee Indians — it is situated north of a large plain 164 adjacent to a branch of Paint Creek. This plain is their of the militia in Pittsburgh, was at the center of corn-field, which supplies great part of their town. Their the controversy. houses are made of logs.... Since the return of the Celebrated Doctor Connelly from WEDNESDAY [February] 10.... This is a small town Virginia last to this place, which he did on the 28th of consisting of Delawares and Shawanees. The chief is a March, our village is become the scene of anarchy and Shawanee woman, who is esteemed very rich — she enter- Confusion.... tains travelers — there were four of us in company, and for The Doctor now is in actual possession of the Fort, our use, her negro quarter was evacuated this night, which with a Body Guard of Militia about him, Invested, as we had a fire in the middle without any chimney. This woman are told, with both Civil & military power, to put the Vir- has a large stock, and supplied us with milk. Here we also ginia Law in Force in these parts, and a considerable got corn for our horses at a very expensive price.... Number of the Inhabitants of these back Parts of this FRIDAY [February] 12... We passed [the Delaware Country, Ready to join him on any emergency, every arti- chief] Captain White Eye’s Town.... He told me that he fice are used to seduce the people, some by being promoted intended to be religious, and have his children educated. to Civil or military employments, and others with the He saw that their way of living would not answer much promises of grants of Lands, on easy Terms, & the giddy longer — game grew scarce — they could not much longer headed mobs are so Infatuated as to suffer themselves to pretend to live by hunting, but must farm, &c. — But said, be carried away by these Insinuating Delusions.... he could not attend to matters of religion now, for he in- The Indians are greatly alarmed at seeing parties of tended to make a great hunt down Ohio, and take the armed men patrolling through our streets Daily, not skins himself to Philadelphia. knowing but there is hostility intended against them and their country. 5. Killbuck to the governors of Pennsylvania, Mary- land, and Virginia, December 1771. John Killbuck Jr., or Gelelemend, a Delaware headman, aired Sources: (1, 2) E. B. O’Callaghan and Berthold Fernow, eds., Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, 15 vols. (Albany, 1856–1887), 7: 690–694, 574; grievances on behalf of Ohio Delaware, Munsie, (4) David Jones, A Journal of Two Visits Made to Some Nations of Indians on the West and Mahican Indians. Side of the River Ohio, in the Years 1772 and 1773 (Burlington, 1774 [rep. NY, 1971]); (5) K. G. Davies, ed., Documents of the American Revolution, 1770–1783, 19 vols. Great numbers more of your people have come over the (Shannon and Dublin, 1972–1981), 3: 254–255; (6) Samuel Hazard, ed., Pennsylvania Great Mountains and settled throughout this country, and Archives, series 1, 12 vols. (Philadelphia: Joseph Severns & Co., 1856), 4: 484–486. we are sorry to tell you, that several quarrels have hap- pened between your people and ours, in which people have been killed on both sides, and that we now see the ANALYZING THE EVIDENCE nations round us and your people ready to embroil in a 1. John Bradstreet, a career British army officer, based his quarrel, which gives our nations great concerns, as we, on observations (source 1) on his wartime experiences in the West. William Johnson (source 2) had lived in close our parts, want to live in friendship with you. As you have proximity to Iroquois Indians for many years. Compare always told us, you have laws to govern your people by, their views: what do they agree upon, and where do -- but we do not see that you have; therefore, brethren, they differ? unless you can fall upon some method of governing your 2. Charles Grignion’s engraving (source 3) appeared in print a short time after Pontiac’s Rebellion. How does it por- people who live between the Great Mountains and the tray the Ohio Indians? Compare Grignion’s image with Ohio River and who are now very numerous, it will be the descriptions in sources 1 and 2 and John Killbuck’s out of the Indians’ power to govern their young men, for speech (source 5). What parallels or differences do you we assure you the black clouds begin to gather fast in this see? country.... We find your people are very fond of our rich 3. What do you find most surprising about source 4? What evidence of European influence do you see in the Indian land. We see them quarrelling every day about land and towns Jones describes? burning one another’s houses, so that we do not know 4. Sources 5 and 6 describe the state of affairs on the upper how soon they may come over the river Ohio and drive us Ohio shortly before the outbreak of Dunmore’s War. from our villages, nor do we see you, brothers, take any What concerns does Killbuck express? Why was Virginia’s willingness to organize a militia so important to the care to stop them. residents of the region? 6. Aeneas MacKay to Pennsylvania governor John PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Penn, April 4, 1774. MacKay, a magistrate of Penn- Using these documents and what you have learned in sylvania’s Westmoreland County, reported on Chapter 5, write a short essay that surveys British and Virginia’s effort to create a competing jurisdiction Anglo-American attitudes toward the Ohio Indians and in the vicinity of Pittsburgh. Dr. John Connolly, explores the contradictions between these attitudes and the reality of life in the Ohio country. appointed by Governor Dunmore as commander 165 166 PART 3 REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1763–1820 gather at the town of Chillicothe on the Scioto River. duties. However, North retained the tax on tea as a There they formed the Scioto Confederacy, which symbol of Parliament’s supremacy (Figure 5.2). pledged to oppose any further expansion into the Ohio country. The Boston Massacre Even as Parliament was Meanwhile, in London, the idea that the Procla- debating North’s repeal, events in Boston guaranteed mation Line was only temporary gave way to the that reconciliation between Patriots and Parliament view that it should be permanent. Hillsborough, who would be hard to achieve. Between 1,200 and 2,000 became colonial secretary in 1768, adamantly opposed troops had been stationed in Boston for a year and westward expansion, believing it would antagonize a half. Soldiers were also stationed in New York, the Indians without benefitting the empire. Moreover, Philadelphia, several towns in New Jersey, and various he owned vast Irish estates, and he was alarmed by frontier outposts in these years, with a minimum of the number of tenants who were leaving Ireland for conflict or violence. But in Boston — a small port town America. To preserve Britain’s laboring class, as well on a tiny peninsula — the troops numbered 10 percent as control costs, Hillsborough wanted to make the of the local population, and their presence wore on the Proclamation Line permanent. locals. On the night of March 5, 1770, a group of nine For colonists who were already moving west to British redcoats fired into a crowd and killed five settle in large numbers, this shift in policy caused con- townspeople. A subsequent trial exonerated the sol- fusion and frustration. Eventually, like the Patriots diers, but Boston’s Radical Whigs, convinced of a min- along the seaboard, they would take matters into their isterial conspiracy against liberty, labeled the incident a own hands. “massacre” and used it to rally sentiment against impe- rial power. Parliament Wavers Sovereignty Debated When news of North’s com- In Britain, the colonies’ nonimportation agreement promise arrived in the colonies in the wake of the was taking its toll. In 1768, the colonies had cut imports Boston Massacre, the reaction was mixed. Most of of British manufactures in half; by 1769, the mainland Britain’s colonists remained loyal to the empire, but colonies had a trade surplus with Britain of £816,000. five years of conflict had taken their toll. In 1765, Hard-hit by these developments, British merchants American leaders had accepted Parliament’s authority; and manufacturers petitioned Parliament to repeal the the Stamp Act Resolves had opposed only certain Townshend duties. Early in 1770, Lord North became “unconstitutional” legislation. By 1770, the most out- prime minister. A witty man and a skillful politician, spoken Patriots — Benjamin Franklin in Pennsylvania, North designed a new compromise. Arguing that it Patrick Henry in Virginia, and Samuel Adams in was foolish to tax British exports to America (thereby Massachusetts — repudiated parliamentary supremacy raising their price and decreasing consumption), he and claimed equality for the American assemblies persuaded Parliament to repeal most of the Townshend within the empire. Franklin suggested that the colonies FIGURE 5.2 Imports from Britain Exports to Britain