Lesson 2B: Reform, Resistance, and Revolution

Major Questions Addressed

1. What brought the end of the Seven Years War meant for Native Americans?
2. How did England seek to solve its national debt problem?
3. Factors motivating colonial protesters against England.
4. What influenced different colonists to support sides during the American Revolution?

End of the Seven Years War

• Colonial Poverty and Unemployed Soldiers
• Indian Resistance: Pontiac’s Rebellion
• Proclamation of 1763: Banned white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.
• British-Indian Relations:
  • British stopped giving gifts to Native Americans
  • Increasingly poor relations
  • Pontiac creates a pan-Indian confederation against British forts
• Colonial Land Greed: Worry about westward expansion

England's National Debt Solution

• Taxing Colonies
  • Colonies had lower taxes compared to mainland British citizens
  • England raised taxes on colonies starting in 1764
  • Tax burden increased from 1 shilling/year to 2 shillings/year for colonists
• Proclamation Line of 1763
  • Colonists were restricted from settling newly acquired lands

Motivations of Colonial Protesters

• Political Tensions: Radicals vs. Moderates
• Political Ideologies
  • Real Whigs (Republicans): Elite, educated, supported measured protests
  • Believers in Moral Economy: Fair pricing for goods despite supply and demand; against wage-price disconnection
• Events Leading to Protests
  • Boston Massacre (1770)
  • Burning of the Gaspee (1772)

Composition of the American Army

• Colonial Militia vs. Continental Army
  • Mainly commoners, farmers, artisans
  • Motivated by “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine
• British Army: Best trained and equipped, struggled to reinstitute colonial government without generating resistance

Role of Different Social Groups

• Common Soldiers: Generally poor, non-landowners, high desertion rate
• Officers: Educated elites, politically moderate
• African Americans
  • Majority fought for British due to promise of freedom (Dunmore's Proclamation, Phillipsburg Declaration)
  • Some fought unwillingly or willingly for the American side
• Native Americans
  • Majority sided with British fearing colonial expansion

Key Takeaways

• The tension between different social, economic, and ideological groups fueled the revolutionary spirit.
• Varied motivations and allegiances determined individual and group actions during the revolutionary period.
• Political and military strategies were influenced by class, race, and the promise or threat to personal liberties and properties.