Transcript for:
American Revolution Causes

lecture is on the origins of the american revolution so we're going to be going into the various aspects the ideological aspects the practical aspects uh and just the various causes that led to the american revolution so we're not going to get into the war itself that's going to be next week's lecture um and a lot of people debate about about when the revolution actually started you know what is considered the beginning of the revolution so uh i take mine a little bit further i go all the way to lexington and concord because for reasons we'll get into later uh but we're not going to get into really you know the bulk of the revolution yet this is just the events that caused it to happen what pushed people to revolt and you can see here of course we've got some ideological aspects age of enlightenment we're going to talk taxes and acts those are a big big huge deal and then we're going to talk about the actual protests and forms of rebellion as well as some of the most famous events of course the boston tea party and the shots fired at lexington and concord so in order to understand the events that lead up to the american revolution we have to discuss a massive ideological shift that was occurring during the 18th century when i say 18th century that is referring to the 1700s that's how time is referred to by historians it's a little wonky but it's how it is so similar to the renaissance and humanism a new wave of ideas were flooding throughout europe and the colonies by extension enlightenment was a philosophical and intellectual movement which focused more on human reasons science religious toleration liberty freedom and so there are many philosophers of this time who had a great influence on the people of the colonies and some of their ideas are going to sound pretty similar here when we get into them so this was a time of new ideas as well as revamping some some of the old ones and kind of changing them shaking them up uh people of high intellect were discussing these new philosophies and their ideas were getting shared and heard by all members of society particularly the upper classes were definitely heavily involved but this is good because it actually allows for many of these changes to happen uh the people that are in power the people that have the finances and the authority to make the changes happen are actually listening to some of these positive changes so they're the ones that can push it forward many historians argue that the enlightenment started with the salons of paris so a salon of paris at this time was not a place that one would go to do your hair and nails but it was actually more like galleries and clubs for upper class people to come together and at first they discussed art uh art would hang around the room various you know pictures and paintings and sessions and they would come and talk about it it's what you know intellectual people did but of course these discussions gradually shifted to larger ideas like religion science politics liberty uh various ideas here and these people are in general more educated there's a lot more universities that were established as part of the renaissance even kind of the late middle ages so more people are educated uh there's definitely the renaissance brings in a lot of ideas of humanism which focus more on independent thought and the individual these salons really are an excellent environment to continue the discussions of the changes and ideas so not only are people having new ideas but they're talking about them they're sharing them and they're kind of growing and developing as a larger movement these salons became very popular places not only in france and they spread over to uh other nations england definitely uh other things like lodges and masonic orders also rose up to have very similar types of discussions now another aspect of the enlightenment is also a general increase in literacy many of the protestant religions express the importance of being able to read so that a person could read the bible themselves of course with the launch of the age of enlightenment reading is also emphasized as part of discovery knowledge and and personal individual enlightenment so during this time for example in england the literacy rates for men rose from 30 to 60 percent for women the rate went from 25 to 40 percent uh of course this is nowhere near today's modern standards of where they are in america or where they are in england uh this does show that a good portion of the population can read and it's definitely much more uh than it had been and it's hot much higher than we typically think of people of the past uh the literacy rates for them uh you also have to remember that the printing press is around now and it's a very common tool though a lot of major towns uh and even you know smaller regions have printing presses for publishing the press is definitely becoming a more important way for people to communicate and specifically pamphlets pamphlets of enlightenment ideas and thinkings are being produced anyone who has the money can take their work to the press and share their ideas and have people read them this method of information dissemination is incredibly effective uh pamphlets are cheaper to print as and by compared to a book specifically comparing books and pamphlets and they're much easier to read they're usually of course people do publish books but sometimes they'll publish pamphlet as you know a summary of what they would have written in their book so it's a more accessible for the general population you don't have to be highly educated because a lot of people are making their pamphlets easier to read for the general populace um pamphlets can also be are a little bit easier to discuss because again they're easier to read so it's easier to find specific examples and aspects overall pamphlets and of course still books are highly popular during the alignment but definitely definitely pamphlets kind of take the cake as being the most influential form of uh information sharing uh they're kind of you know the the twitter and facebook of their day and they were definitely effective now many thinkers of the enlightenment arose and their various ideas became very popular in england and by extension the american colonies many of these philosophers were french philosophes is just the french word for philosopher uh and here are definitely some of the more famous ones whose ideas were definitely impactful uh specifically on american colonists uh voltaire voltaire is the man on the top left uh this gentleman right here and he had the ideas various ideas freedom of speech freedom of religion separation of church and state uh of course various people had had these ideas before you know we talked about roger williams and the idea that church and state should be separated but this is you know these philosophers these people who are studying politics who are saying you know hey this is something that we should do uh the second individual french individual at least is this individual here and his name is he believed in the separation of powers basically governmental bodies should be broken up into various branches and more importantly each each branch has the ability to check the powers of the others checks and balances we have a three branch government executive legislative and judicial this originates with montesquieu's ideas on the government the next one is descartes he is not pictured here but he is the father of algebra and calculus he also comes up with this statement that's very popular i think therefore i am because i have thought because i am intelligent and and i can think i am capable of thought i am i am human i exist i am real uh this of course connects to humanity but it really comes into play a lot with slavery because guess what slaves can think slaves have thoughts uh so this is more of a a philosophical idea that comes into play with slavery and then the last individual is rousseau he is pictured on the bottom here rousseau has this idea that government is a social contract with its citizens uh citizens can choose to change that contract if they do not like it so of course you you are part of the contract by being born into a nation but if you don't like what happens then it's your duty as a citizen to make changes to that contract uh then of course the ideas of the enlightenment like i said they spread over to england and of course they have their own share of philosopher and intellectual minds uh who are definitely branching out and really coming up with some new thoughts here uh the english enlighteners are enlightened i guess uh starting at the top right here uh is john locke uh john locke added to rousseau's idea of a social contract he expanded it and and you know added more to it he also discussed the importance of classic republicanism as the best form of government the people representing themselves the people leading the government not the government leading the people also he had this idea of tabla rasa or blank slate humans were born with their minds as a blank slate only to be added upon through life experience uh this was definitely contrary to the idea that humans were you know especially the the catholic idea that humans were born you know in a state of sin in a state of wickedness so in his mind we're all just blank slates there's there's nothing there to start off with and we only add to it but most importantly he has this idea referred to as natural rights basically natural rights are rights that people have simply for existing uh now for john locke these rights were life liberty and property if that sounds familiar that's because it is and uh we'll get to that when we talk about the declaration of independence um the next individual that you see right here is sir francis bacon uh he is the father of empiricism uh basically the scientific method uh using thought logic observation evidence making sure that we understand how the world operates and of course the individual on the bottom right is sir isaac newton uh he of course goes into the laws of gravity motion how light works how the stars work how the planets move so there's definitely a lot of new thought coming around these people are really changing the way that humans see the world around them whether it's philosophically or realistically with their place in the universe their literal place uh so people are definitely coming to a better understanding of the world as well uh in science in humanity rights in government in just a variety of ways and all of these various ideas these men sound like a lot of things that our founding fathers tend to say that's because our founding fathers were studying and reading these enlightenment thinkers uh in universities these ideas that they were were considered of course the the latest developments in intellectual thought so as young men a lot of the founders were reading them and were taking their ideas to heart uh so that's also why in the creation of the new nation they pushed for a lot of ideas that these men had now going into the more tangible the more real you know that was kind of the intellectual basis but the more you know the actual basis what events actually happened that made americans or made colonists so mad well of course uh taxes and acts that is going to be a number one uh they were nothing new for colonists however there was an increase in the taxations and various acts imposed on them which really caused uh anger towards the crown this anger was compounded with the phenomenon known as salutary neglect uh so stallion salutary neglect was an unattentioned and unofficial policy of the british towards the american colonies uh because the colonies the thirteen colonies specifically had been efficiently running themselves uh many of the colonies if you remember they started out as you know joint stock companies and various other aspects they weren't under control of the crown until you know later on the crown did not put as much effort into enforcing various laws on the colonists uh this neglect allowed colonists to get away with things of course things like settling beyond the borders of the colony not paying their taxes smuggling goods uh so that's that's a phenomenon of salutary neglect basically uh they were just kind of let because they were so far away there's a whole ocean separating them uh and because england was more concerned about matters at home uh they just kind of let the colonies kind of get a little out of hand kind of running away with some of their own stuff so after the seven years war which if you remember actually started in the colonies the crown and parliament realized that neglect of the 13 colonies had become a problem many of them specifically saw the neglect as the cause for war in the first place uh not only would new taxes and acts be put into place but they would be strictly enforced within the colonies uh royal officials were specifically told to crack down on smuggling in port cities this came in a form of a direct letter from the prime minister uh the royal proclamation line uh if you remember from the other lecture the french canadian war lecture that line on the appalachian mountain that prevents people from settling west of that is is strictly strictly enforced colonists are not allowed to pass that but in order to start increasing funds and to pay off debts because of the french and indian war as well as to kind of continue raining in the colonies taking them back under control new taxes are put into place the first act to go is the sugar act this was a tax on primarily sugar but it included other imported goods like coffee spices wine etc but it was an incredibly high tax was placed on foreign molasses specifically which made it much harder to make and smuggle rum in the caribbean so this act would the attempt was to actually protect the price of british sugar many colonists were displeased with this forced restriction the cargo of various merchant vessels could be searched without any probable cause and its goods goods could be seized without repayment so not only do we have to basically we have to shop for british sugar only but they can come on our boats without even having a reason they can look around they can steal our stuff and not repay us so definitely a lot of merchants are not happy about this especially those whose industries are dependent on imported goods like sugar also the rum smugglers are not happy another act which causes the colonists much grief is the currency act now hard physical money such as gold and silver coins were very difficult to come by in the colonies a lot of the money they made went overseas to pay debts or pay various companies and investors back in england and so in order to deal with the issue many of the colonies printed their own money each colony had their own certified you know local government paper currency which could not be used to pay debts in other colonies so example virginia paper money could only be used in virginia massachusetts paper money only in massachusetts so british creditors do not like this it creates fluctuating values of colonial money it's it's a little it's it's too risky it's not a very stable form of money and so they felt that it was safer for their investments to have a more regular standard form of paper money so this resulted in the creation of the currency act this act ordered that all colonies were not allowed to print their own money or even mint their own coins any and all payments for imported goods had to be paid with gold or silver coins or with commodities uh with the banning of paper money the value of colonial money fell drastically this also enraged the colonists because not only did the money they have become basically useless uh the the colonial money that they had but if they wanted to purchase imported goods they had to pay with coins which were already incredibly scarce to start off with so how can they pay their debts how can they pay their taxes with no money and any money they did have immediately lost its value so there's going to be a significant economic downturn as a result of this currency act instead of improving situations it actually makes them a lot worse the third in a long line of acts is the quartering act this act required local governments to pay for the food and lodging of soldiers if appropriate lodging could not be found soldiers could be housed at inns taverns and even homes of the colonists this was specifically to deal with the increased number of regular soldiers that were brought into the colonies the british soldiers were brought to help ensure the proclamation line was not crossed and as part of you know getting rid of that salutary neglect making sure that there's a strong force to help keep the colonies in line keep them in check colonists had already gained distrust uh distrust for regulars during the french and indian war as we had discussed uh kind of this you know regulars looked at the colonists as you know hillbillies backwards very you know low-class kind of people uh and this act just continued to increase colonial dislike for soldiers uh of course as was discussed last time soldiers took advantage of the hospitality uh they would assault women they would steal goods so many soldiers were very heavily disliked and of course there's a financial burden for the colonists to fund the regulars and to support them whether they're staying in their house or staying in inns they have to pay for it the colonists have to pay for it the british justified that you know the regulars fought to protect you they're here to keep you safe now uh so you have to pay for it but then again the colonists you know they have been defending themselves from the beginning and a lot of them did fight during the french and indian war and then again you have to remember currency and money is scarce so in the middle of an economic downturn you're telling people okay now you have to pay for soldiers so of course a lot of people do not like this so the next act for some reason the british just can't figure out that people are unhappy so they just keep adding act after act after act but the next act which upsets the colonists is the stamp act of all the acts that have come thus far the stamp act was the most hated uh this act was a tax on all paper goods uh basically any paper good in the colonies had to have a specific colonial seal onto on them proving that the stamp had or the stamp tax had been paid uh this included things from legal documents playing cards newspapers magazines pamphlets etc anything that's paper has to have this stamp and has to have that tax paid more importantly this tax had to be paid with british money not colonial currency uh people don't have money this is something that is just repeating itself over and over and over again but this act was so reviled and protested by the colonists uh in fact it was so hated that it was removed in 1766 but concerning the stamp act a congress even came together in 1765 with delegates from each of the 13 colonies they issued a declaration of rights and grievances and the house of burgesses in virginia published the virginia resolve saying that only virginia should have the ability to tax its citizens one of the members of the house of burgess was a fire brand named patrick henry and he gave a very impassioned speech which came to be known as the treason speech of course he spoke with much bigger much intensity and even called king george the third uh death spot and a tyrant you know he was you know people had to kind of calm him down and be like whoa whoa calm down patrick you're you're talking trees in there buddy and you know his response was like if it's trees and then it's trees and so what uh definitely a very intense guy but this demonstrates that the colonies are starting to come together uh of course ideas of self-governance are continuing to uh be established you know we we are the ones that should be in charge of ourselves of course you know publicly speaking of treason is also a little bit concerning for the british so so it's definitely an escalating problem uh the next in line of acts is the townsend acts uh it was basically a response to the failure of the stamp act so the standback was revoked and the townsend acts were put in its place as a substitute the the british have to come up with revenue somehow so this is what they're attempting to do so the townsend act is basically it's a group of acts actually which included new taxes on glass lead paint colors paper it also gave custom officials more power to search and seize products from merchant vessels it created a new customs board for the north american colonies and the location of this board was in boston and the attempt was to enforce shipping regulations again to tighten down on the regulations on um you know smuggling and such so this definitely definitely led to increased incidents in boston specifically between shipping merchants royal officials and the colonists more regulars are sent to boston to deal with these issues so there's an increase in british presence not only in all the colonies but in boston in particular which only leads to more problems so there are two main factors that really upset the colonists about these taxes now that we've kind of gone through them what they were the the ideological reasons why people hated them so much the first is that these taxes were for revenue uh previous previous to this taxation was used as a means to help regulate commerce and trade these acts were an unashamed attempt to get money from the colonists also or although the funds were meant to pay for war it interfered with again that ideology of what taxes were for for many of the colonists and the second issue was that the colonists had no say or representation in parliament they had what was called virtual representation basically even you know the colonists had no elected representatives but as british subjects the lords and the of the house excuse me the members of the house of lords and the house of commons had the ability to virtually represent them so basically you know because we have british citizens and because you are technically british citizens technically you are virtually represented uh now the anthem for many of the colonists became no taxation without representation they wanted to have a say in what was going on in parliament they wanted to represent themselves uh and their own people because what's going on in britain is very different than what's going on in the colonies so they felt that those individuals had no idea how to represent their interests now an unintended consequence of the act was or the various acts that we've talked about was that it unified the colonists because they were under these same burdens uh all of these acts were implied on all 13 colonies so you know this is not just one colony dealing with this but everyone is getting you know kind of hit hard together uh and especially they're getting hit in their pockets with their money uh this is really what makes people angry is you know economic recessions do a lot of damage and the people are upset by this uh call there's also this really strong mentality that develops of colonists versus the british like yeah we're british but we're colonists too uh this united idea of the colonies as uh separate people of course you know they still consider themselves british subjects but more of you know we're we're different you know we're being treated differently so we are in essence different uh and you definitely see this with the stamp act congress you know coming you know these men from the colonies coming together to discuss their grievances uh so this is definitely what initiates a lot of the protests and rebellions so in direct response to the stamp act a group formed called the sons of liberty in boston even though it started in boston as an organized and definitely very secretive group to plan protests public displays and various things against various acts the group became very popular and other sons of liberty were organized and formed throughout the colonies so initiated in boston but a lot of other people liked the idea so they they made their own sons of liberty uh they used various forms of protest um so i'm just going to kind of talk about some of the main ones here uh the first you know protest focus was called the liberty tree there was a particular tree in boston commons which was a park in boston that everybody had access to that's why it was called the boston commons but the sons of liberty decided to hang an effigy now an effigy is basically a crude dummy it's meant to look kind of ridiculous and and silly uh kind of like a scarecrow if you're kind of envisioning that but they hung an effigy of a customs a british customs official from the tree uh the next morning a group of protesters gathered around the tree and slowly more and more people joined in uh it kind of turned into a giant party hundreds of bostonians were gathered around this tree uh to kind of make fun of this effigy this became a gathering place for protests against the british a lot of times you know if they were upset about something you would go to the liberty tree and you would protest in fact a few weeks after the big party a copper plaque was found affixed to the tree titling it the liberty tree they don't know who put it there but it definitely became a strong symbol and boston's tree became very famous so much so that other cities began establishing their own liberty tree in public squares and public spaces as a focus for local protests unfortunately boston's liberty tree would be cut down by loyalists following the attack at lexington and concord as a means to destroy colonial morale uh there is a plaque where the tree or the tree was today and you can see it if you go to boston i'll talk more about boston uh today uh other people began to establish something called a liberty poll now liberty polls were actually common throughout europe uh it was a general symbol of liberty that has history all the way back to ancient rome you have to remember the enlightenment ideals are bringing back some of the old roman ideals that they had so utilization of this liberty tree or liberty poll is one of those things uh the liberty poll often had a phrygian phrygian cap that's spelled p h r y g i a n uh it's a certain style of cap that was worn kind of by middle class commoners and it was also a common symbol of liberty from europe so you would have this pole with this hat on top symbolizing liberty symbolizing freedom it was basically a portable liberty tree you could set up these liberty polls and then you know have a protest around it uh so it's very common at universities and although they kept getting taken down by british soldiers students would keep putting them back up so liver or universities are also a place where rebellions are taking place now another more dramatic form of protest is a mock funeral people would gather together and have a funeral procession for liberty they would have an effigy or perhaps a coffin that was labeled liberty and they would carry it through town colonists would dramatically you know mourn the death of liberty at the hands of the british these funeral processions occurred in boston new york and even wilmington north carolina of course mob violence is going to be very common as well um things like tarring and feathering of british officials basically you would have hot tar pour it over the person's body and then throw feathers on them it was very humiliating very painful the link that you see here uh is to a youtube video it is from um a mini series on john adams that is excellently well done uh but i would say that if you do want to watch this please be warned it is a bit intense uh because tarring and feathering is it's it's torturous uh so even though it's it's of course an actor and such um it is a little bit intense so fair warning there a movement and a protest which actually turned into all full-out combat actually took place in the south uh so this demonstrates that a lot of the anger in the tension is not just occurring up north but again it's throughout all the colonies uh and this was called the regulator movement it was primarily in north carolina but some of the movement occurred in south carolina as well uh so if you remember from our discussions of the establishment of the colonies uh that specifically north carolina dealt with a lot of corrupt officials this was not helped with the increased taxations and the increased tensions and anger until the colonists decided that they wanted to remove corrupt officials from office the colonists wanted to regulate their own affairs hence the name of movement the regulator movement again the idea of self-governance uh it's our duty to fix the government if it's broken so the movement started out as a protest and of course not only dislike for the taxes uh but dislike for specific corrupt royal officials uh these officials would enforce the policies but line their own pockets with money from the colonists there are plenty of examples of these royal officials would collect debts and then destroy records saying that the colonists had paid their taxes when they really just kept the money for themselves they would return and then demand that the colonists paid the taxes which they had already paid for or face debtors prison uh so you know people money is already short uh things are really tight for a lot of people so to have their money stolen by royal officials or and then having to face prison this really makes a lot of people angry uh so it should come as no surprise that the situation uh actually got violent pretty quick uh the governor uh one of the governors actually just before this uh was named arthur dobbs and he had actually built a large home at the expense of the taxpayers this enraged many colonists a leader in the movement came forward his name was hermann husband and he actually migrated to north carolina from maryland so a new governor is appointed in 1765 which is actually the same year that the stamp act was established and the citizens of the cape fear surrounded his home of the new governor uh william tryon was his name and they basically held him under house arrest until he agreed not to support the stamp act uh basically don't enforce the payments of the tax don't make us pay for it yeah the crown is saying that it has to be done but don't actually charge us for it several years later in 1768 when the north carolina colonial court met in hillsboro the regulators as the protesters had now kind of officially been named marched into the court and dragged out all of the individuals that they deemed corrupt on they dragged them not only out of the court but dragged them through the streets of town they then went to the court judge and tried to force him to hear a pending case against the regulator leader herman husband as well as other regulators who had been arrested uh they felt that they had been unjustly arrested and so they said to the judge hey hear their cases right now you know kind of pushing them to try and find them innocent now the judge refused and actually waited until night to escape the regulars were angry about this and so they rioted in response beating several of the corrupt officials and defacing the courthouse as it was a symbol of their anger they also decided to raid the home of one of the corrupt lawyers who they had beaten the regulators also took advantage of the printing system as i mentioned they published pamphlets and petitions to explain their grievances and to try and help gain support kind of explain why they were doing what they were doing their protest is protesting marches and riots on corrupt officials continued on and off it wasn't continuous it was kind of as events rose up and as things kind of made them angry uh this was until there was a full-scale battle a sort of battle more of a skirmish is a better word for it took place on may 16 1771. just over a week before this date around uh 1 250 militia soldiers under the control of the governor william tryon marched to hillsborough where he knew there was a large group of several hundred reg regulators uh this region had actually kind of been referred to as regulator territory uh they moved on to alamance county and set up a base camp at which uh he left some troops to guard the camp uh so with the remaining thousand troops he set out he sets out to find the regulators he wants to provoke an attack he wants to have a reason to put down the regulators about two thousand regulators had actually gathered together uh there there was no specific leader uh there wasn't you know massive supplies or setups or anything they were just meaning to stand together as a show of force they were not a militia they were not a combative force they just wanted you know power in numbers they wanted to basically scare the governor the same way they had done when they surrounded his house uh so the situation was really at a standoff with uh the governor's militia and the regulators uh until a rogue group a little more of an intense you know more radical group of regulators actually captured some of the governor's men the governor said that this was an act of open aggression and action would be taken if the regulators did not disperse uh the regulators chose not to disband we don't know for sure why uh perhaps they didn't understand you know what he meant you know he was too vague the governor was not as direct as he should have been because he was trying to initiate conflict perhaps they had security because they had twice as many regulators than they had soldiers or perhaps they didn't want to give in you know we're not this is this is a fake threat you're not gonna shoot on citizens that's not gonna happen uh you know this is you're just faking it you wanna try and you know scare us off so they didn't disband governor tryon has his men shoot into the crowd they actually killed one man the regulators immediately dispersed they did not think that the soldiers would take the first shot they thought that they would wait for the regulators to shoot which the regulators didn't want to do so following the chaos a short skirmish ensues with a total death of nine on each side so nine regulators died and nine soldiers died and the regulators surrender like i said they weren't expecting combat they didn't want to fight it was it was just trying to show force all of the regulators at this little skirmish slash battle were arrested but eventually most of them were pardoned however six of them were hanged as leaders of the movement in fact several of those who were hanged were actually a part of tryon's militia but they switched to help defend the regulators when he called for an unprovoked attack basically when william tryon said hey i want you to shoot they were like whoa whoa that's not fair they they aren't doing anything we're not supposed to do this so they actually switched sides so they were considered traitors which is why they had to hang those that were pardoned those that were not executed actually had to sign a a legal oath of loyalty to the crown uh many people were highly displeased by tryon specifically launching an attack uh as well as the execution of the leaders and it would not be too long before he was actually replaced as royal governor in south carolina the regulator movement was far more successful uh it was more of a vigilante movement than one of open protesting and riots and gatherings they were a much smaller group and they were much more cooperative with government officials they had much more support in general because of the way they went about their protesting but you also have to remember that north carolina also had a bigger problem with corrupt government officials as compared to south carolina so it was a lot harder for the people of north carolina to deal with their issues uh so an important point to make is that many of the events which we discuss overlap each other while the regulator movement was in full swing and by the time the events that you know the the battle that happens uh there was actually some other events that had happened during the same time uh so something radical happens in boston of course uh now i'm sure most of you uh have heard of the boston massacre but of course we're still going to go into the details we're going to still going to explain what happened why it happened so boston massacre by 1770 tensions in boston are very high of course more british soldiers have been sent in because they want to help reduce the increased protest the increased mob activity there's just a lot of soldiers in the area two weeks before the famous boston massacre the first blood of a colonist has already been shed in fact an eleven-year-old boy named christopher cedar was shot and killed by a british customs employee on february 22nd 1770. cedar had joined a protest that was going on outside of a customs house and some of the protesters started to throw rocks and sticks at the home richardson which was the name of the customs official came out and shot into the crowd to try and scare them off uh cedar was hit and died later in the evening from his wounds the british official wasn't trying to to kill the boy he was just trying to scare off the crowd but when you shoot a stray bullet into a crowd someone's going to get hurt so cedar's death enraged the bostonians samuel adams actually paid for the funeral arrangements and it was attended by over 2 000 people in fact the funeral procession for the young boy actually walked past the liberty tree through the streets of boston again very symbolic so of course this only heightened the anger and the intensity in boston uh richardson was arrested and charged with murder but he was given a royal pardon this of course made people very angry the media coverage of cedar's death was also wide scale many patriots owned newspapers and various public publishing companies so again this shows the power of the press the power of publications uh to affect and change the way people view and hear about certain situations uh of course many people were enraged by it the colonists also sought out british soldiers uh to harass and to justify cedar's death you know seeking out british soldiers to kind of make them pay for what happened to cedar so 11 days later on march 5th a group of colonists was doing just that uh they had again gathered outside the customs house uh because this was a focus for their anger and their frustration the customs officials are the ones that enforce these acts and various taxes uh so they decide that they're going to harass some of the soldiers that are stationed there uh which of course because of the recent death there were even more soldiers at the custom house than would normally have been there a bostonian man had actually gotten into an argument with a soldier and as the argument uh got louder draw attention of more people it's kind of you know this rose session is going on uh more bostonians kind of come in to look and see what's going on you know people are interested they hear two guys shouting at each other uh as the crowd grew uh the soldiers became very uneasy in fact the bostonians started to throw snowballs ice balls and even snowballs filled with rocks at the soldiers uh the situation was on the brink of turning violent when the crowd had reached 50 people a runner was actually sent to get more soldiers more reinforcements by the time the reinforcements came the crowd had grown exponentially to around 350 people uh numbers vary you know by eyewitness accounts but most historians estimate that about 350 is the most accurate estimate of how many people were at the boston massacre now now the commanding officer was a captain preston uh he warned the people that if they did not disperse they would have to fire on the crowd he attempted to de-escalate the situation seeing where it could lead uh agitated by his warnings which they perceived as a threat uh the bostonians were basically shouting them to fire you know you won't do it come on do it fire shoot fire goading them on essentially basically you know kind of trying to challenge that threat with the shouting and the increased tension one private was actually hit over the head and knocked to the ground he got up he shouted fire and shot his gun into the crowd without being given a command to do so this was of course against preston's orders president had told them to hold fire upon hearing his shot and various people shouting fire you know the crowd is just kind of screaming it's really hard to hear uh so other other soldiers shoot into the crowd in fact preston was telling them to hold he was shouting at them not to fire but of course his voice could not have been heard over that of the crowd after they stopped 11 people had been hit in total three of them died on the spot and one died the next morning the other injuries were not life-threatening now among those that were killed was a man named christmas addicts now he was actually a former slave of mixed race and was considered by many historians to be the first to die as he was very close to the front of the group um and he was actually the one who started to throw snowballs uh it's interesting of course that one of the first men to die uh in what would eventually become the american revolution was a former slave and a black man uh of course you know that really brings into the question racism prejudice slavery um you know and and the american revolution and that's something we are going to talk about um in some of our later lectures now the uh eight of the soldiers were immediately arrested and the next morning all of the newspapers told this of this event in fact the image that you see to the bottom right uh is actually an engraving done by none other than paul revere so we'll talk more about revere but he was a blacksmith so an engraving was basically just you know a carved image out of metal then you would use paint to reproduce a particular image again just for use of newspapers so of course newspapers get word of this this is a big deal samuel adams was also very outspoken against the massacre uh bostonians saw it as another attack on their people only of course this was larger than the seat or murder 11 people had been hit four of them were now dead uh the british were claiming that this was self-defense so in the actual court case the british soldiers were defended by none other than john adams a cousin to samuel adams despite being a leading patriot in the city he wanted to demonstrate that bostonians were not just a violent mob but that they should be taken seriously he wanted to show that they were decent and law-abiding people but he also wanted to ensure that the british soldiers had a fair trial uh you gotta remember the ideal ideologies of a good government are more important to a lot of these individuals so even though we're mad at them even though we're angry with them we have to give them a fair trial that's the right thing to do even though we're mad at the crown we're mad at taxes our anger shouldn't be taken out on these soldiers unless it is just unless it is fair uh so in uh in fact the youtube link that you see here uh is actually again another link from that john adams mini series which actually uh goes into a little bit of the trial of the boston massacre it's again it's very good i definitely encourage you to watch it it's it's really well done uh now six of the soldiers are pardoned uh including preston who had actually tried but failed to de-escalate the situation of two of the soldiers were charged with manslaughter not murder however and their punishment was just to have an m branded on their hands and to be returned to england so of course there is a media circus that follows this uh the story of the massacre itself of the fact that the killers got off you know scot-free um definitely enraged a lot of people but this was not just in newspapers in massachusetts this was throughout the 13 colonies uh in general people of all colonies were enraged by what had occurred and many people started to view boston as kind of a symbol for the entire 13 colonies you know if if boston is suffering we're suffering with you uh and we even see this today you know when certain events happen like the the burning of notre dame it was you know an incident that was an accident but a lot of people felt for paris and for its you know for its people and for the french so you know and a very similar various terrorist acts and things that happen a lot of people you know feel a unity to suffering and then of course uh colonists are not happy about this uh john adams in fact even though he had tried to defend the the british soldiers he said that uh the american revolution started with the boston massacre uh only a year later a similar incident of course the attacks of the regulars happened shortly after this uh definitely reinforce the anger that was spreading throughout the colonies as well as the increase of violence so there's a general anti-british sentiment that is sweeping through the colonies by this point uh two years following the boston massacre there is another violent incident this one occurs in rhode island in june of 1772 a british naval ship called the gatsby i'm assuming that's how it's pronounced again i'm not very talented with languages but a ship named the gatsby ran aground in rhode island uh the hungry crew started to steal the livestock of the local colonists a very enraged crowd boarded the ship shot the captain removed the crew then proceeded to loot and burn the ship so this is obviously a very violent thing to do and a very angry thing to do um so it's it's also very important to remember that even though boston is a hot spot for a lot of patriot and mob activity these feelings of anger and resentment towards the british and the violence that follows it is felt throughout all the colonies not just boston not just massachusetts and again a lot of people start to identify with boston boston is all of us you know boston strong if you will so there are some really cool images i would like to show you um there's actually a walking trail it's called the freedom trail in boston and it includes various revolutionary war sites but this is the british customs house it's still in boston today it's definitely a weird image to see the british customs house surrounded by these huge tall skyscrapers but it's definitely very interesting and just out front there is a marker for where the site of the boston massacre actually happened uh so it's it's very cool if you ever find yourself up in boston please take a cool walk it will take you to a lot of some of the amazing places you know the old north church paul revere's house definitely some interesting stuff boston commons where the tree was a very very interesting revolutionary history there so amidst all this growing conflict the british crown is still trying to increase revenue through taxes some taxes have worked others definitely not so much in fact some like the stamp act were so hated that they had to be removed the latest in a growing string of acts was the tea act as the name indicates this was a tax on tea the british east india company had a massive surplus of tea as the colonists had actually been smuggling a good portion of their tea from the dutch in fact 86 percent of colonial tea was smuggled uh so definitely the british are not getting their money's worth there so this act helped to reduce the amount of smuggling and tax the british tea for an income so considering everything that we have seen up to this point uh what do you think the colonists reaction was exactly they hated it they were so infuriated by it uh so the protest group the sons of liberty and boston decided they were going to do something about it in fact they got together they met at the green dragon tavern and they planned to destroy an income incoming shipment of tea so in general taxes on t would not be implemented until the ships the vessels were unloaded uh so in a town meeting samuel adams uh actually urged the captain of these ships not to unload the tea and just go back to england like okay just leave just go that way we don't have to pay the tax in fact protesters and sons of liberty stayed on the wharf on the docks to actually prevent the ships from being unloaded thus preventing the tax from being collected but of course this standoff would not last forever something had to be done so on december 16th 1773 uh anywhere from 30 to 130 men we don't know the exact numbers because this was a secret operation people did not want to be known for having participated in this event at the time so the estimates are pretty wide again 30-130 of these men snuck onto griffin's wharf the place where the ships were docked dressed as mohawk indians this was not just an attempt to disguise themselves and hopefully avoid capture but it was a distinctive choice to present themselves as americans they did not do this hoping that the british would think they were a group of indians that was not the purpose it was not you know very ornate decorative disguises it was it was general you know paint on our faces and feathers in our hair um they wanted to show that they were distinctly american and not british the native american or the indian was a very common symbol in political cartoons used to represent the american colonies uh it had kind of become uh you know kind of like uncle sam today well a native american was the symbol back then in the colonies so this decision to present ourselves as americans as american colonists was very important which is why they dress the way they did so they boarded three different ships with a strict no damage no theft policy uh the men even went to the ship captains and asked for the keys uh not wanting to break the locks in fact one lot got broken so the sons of liberty actually gave the captain money to pay for the lock that they broke all of the tea was dumped overboard and ruined by the salt water no one was allowed to take any this was a very significant aspect this was not for personal gain it was a symbolic protest in fact one of the one of the men that was there was actually found stuffing tea into his pockets he was severely reprimanded by his fellow protesters and they actually forced him to empty the tea out of his pockets uh now the destruction the amount of tea that they ruined was equal to about 1.7 million dollars worth of money so that is how much money that the british east india company lost now the image that you see to the top right here is the only remaining artifact of the boston tea party it's one of the boxes that the tea was uh packed in uh it was it washed ashore the next day someone found it not realizing what it was and just took it and thought it was a pretty box uh and then it was you know kind of kept and passed down from generation to generation until they realized what it was and it is now at the uh boston tea party ship and museum which is another awesome place to go if you are ever in boston uh so after uh the the dumping of the tea uh the men leave and disperse themselves you know this is not you know we're not going to have a party like unfortunately like it says in the name here uh we go we dump the tea and then we disperse and again participation was a secret uh we do know that john hancock was not there uh he would of course been the first suspect he was a merchant he was a smuggler and he openly protested various taxes so he was he made sure that he was seen in public during the tea party so he could be eliminated as a suspect uh historians debate and are unsure about whether samuel adams was there or not now a lesser known man that was there was a man named george robert twelves hughes very interesting name uh he is the individual depicted on the bottom right there but he was actually part of three major boston protests uh of course the boston tea party uh the boston massacre he actually one of the individuals that was shot and died actually fell into his arms uh and then of course a famous tarring and feathering of a customs official he was actually the oldest living survivor of the tea party and the boston massacre he died in 1840 at the age of 98. at the tea party he was actually a signaler because of his good whistling ability there's a really good book called the tea party and the shoemaker uh if you get a chance to read it it is amazing and it talks about his life what's interesting though is that this particular event was not called the boston tea party until a revival in revolutionary remembrance uh in the 1840s around the time that george 12 hughes uh died but at the time of the revolution they called it the destruction of the tea so that's actually what they would have referred to it as uh the the name boston tea party didn't come till much later on uh but this event just like the boston massacre became known throughout all the colonies it was heralded as a victory for a colonist they stood up they fought against you know fight the power you did it way to go um now other colonists had various ways of rebelling as well against the tea act in edenton north carolina a group of women who were inspired by the boston tea party came together and signed an agreement saying that they would boycott all tea this is very significant because of the role of women was to manage and operate the household they chose what to buy what food to make for their families and such at this time women were thought not to have political ideas or leanings we'll talk about this more but in general it was thought that women's mental capacities they couldn't handle politics it was it was too difficult for them however these women took an active role and instituted a boycott that remained within their realm of accepted roles and duties for women so this is really a genius an excellent way for them to still remain dignified women but present themselves as political activists and of course they advocated for other people to boycott tea as well the british did not take these women's very seriously in fact this image here you see is a british cartoon responding to the editon tea party uh the women are as you can see very uh very manly very unattractive uh they're also promiscuous they're influenced by men you know this guy is basically writing everything down she's just kind of you know going along with it uh also you know they're they're bad mothers i mean look at this poor kid he's being eaten by a dog here so it's definitely a very crass depiction of colonial women and specifically the women of edenton who initiated this boycott now this also demonstrates that people are starting to come together in a way that they they never had before in fact many other people decide to boycott tea and it's a very common thing throughout all 13 colonies so this unification is pushed forth even more by a retaliation against the destruction of the tea that the british take so in 1774 the british parliament puts a new group of laws into effect specifically meant to punish the people of boston for the tea party although legally under a different name the bostonians called these the intolerable acts because of their negative view and intolerable meaning unbearable basically the port of boston under this act was officially closed until the colonists paid back the cost of the tea that was destroyed uh now looking into the math and doing some of the numbers this was asking about 16 000 people to pay back 1.7 million dollars these are you know of course there are some wealthier individuals merchants traders and such but a lot of poor people as well uh again this has to be paid with british money colonial people don't have money so this is really kind of illogical but it's what they instituted also the massachusetts colony charter is going to be revoked again this is scare tactics that were used back with the dominion of new england so they're trying some of the same old stuff to scare them into submission uh british officials and soldiers who committed crimes in the colonies would actually be tried in england not massachusetts this is a direct response to the trial of the boston massacre soldiers uh so a lot of colonists feel like there's no repercussions for the crimes that the soldiers do they're just going to go back to england and get off uh the quartering acts uh are also made stricter not just for boston but for all colonies so everyone is you know even though boston is hurting the most everyone is being affected by these intolerable acts these acts enrage not just the people of boston but all the colonies again they saw boston as a representation of themselves as kind of you know the epitome of the colonies uh the tea act and the boycott just continued to bring them together in solidarity uh the intolerable acts were seen as a complete affront to everyone in fact a north carolina provincial congress met in new bern and decided that the colonies needed to meet together to come up with a unified strategy to deal with this crisis they sent out a call for such a conference to all the colonies and this would lead to what would be called the first continental congress so from september to october of 1774 delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies met in philadelphia to discuss a unified strategy on how to deal with england uh georgia did not attend uh they were still pretty strong on their loyalist sympathies uh so it was just uh 12 not the full 13. uh so much like benjamin franklin's albany plan they they decide they have we have to come together this is the only way we're gonna make it through is if we are unified in how we deal with this uh they publish a declaration and resolutions in which they agree to boycott all british goods starting in december unless the intolerable acts are removed again so unity coming together everyone is going to work on this the the resolutions also requested that each colony create committees of safety to enforce boycotts everywhere so everyone's kind of creating their own militias to help make sure that these boycotts actually take place uh the following year 1775 the imports from england dropped by 97 so these boycotts are highly effective you know if money is what you want money is where we're going to hit you most importantly the congress agreed to meet sometime the following year if their demands are not met so they can decide how to proceed they actually sent letters of invitation for the next congress to georgia nova scotia quebec and the eastern and western florida territories of those colonies only georgia accepts the invitation for the next congress so just imagine how different history would be if you know the regions of nova scotia quebec and others had decided to join for the second continental congress after the first continental congress is the colonies are preparing for retaliation they knew that you know the tea party the british came back about that so they know that issuing this boycott is going to make the british angry uh so as part of the committees of safety many of the patriots militias are encouraged to prepare and stockpile ammunitions and arms just in case situations get hostile so a group of massachusetts massachusetts militiamen had done that very thing they gathered together guns ammunition and even some cannons uh in concord now a british general who was in charge of the colonial regulars had gotten word about this stockpiling concord so he worries that the colonists were planning an uprising he didn't know exactly why they were gathering money even though there are not many weapons even though these weapons were for defense he was worried that they were planning to attack so he determined that he was going to come and take their arms he comes up with a secret plan to bring in 700 british regulars and they would slowly make their way to concord from boston during the night and seize the munitions unknown to gage however a whistleblower told the patriots about his plan uh so the patriots secretly moved their stockpile before the british even left boston uh and they created a plan for when the british would come in it's actually believed by many historians that the whistleblower was none other than gage's wife margaret kimball gage and she's pictured on the bottom left there she was actually born in new jersey to a wealthy and prominent family and she was not shy about her patriot feelings but you have to remember politically minded women are ignored they're you know they're not intelligent enough to actually deal with politics that's just talk uh so although there is little written evidence that supports this uh she's really the only likely candidate and also an interesting point is that gage had been very devoted to his wife but shortly following the incident of lexington in concord she is actually sent back to live in england word had also reached a son of liberty by the name of dr joseph warren that the british were intending on stopping by lexington which was on the way to concord in order to arrest samuel adams and john hancock they had left boston due to the increased tensions and the british believed that adams and hancock were the ones that had planned the militia stockpile a plan was hatched between paul revere his friend william dawes and other members of the sons of liberty they would set a watch to see which route the british would take to get to lexington as there were two main ways that they could travel a signal would be set up in the old north church which at the time was one of the highest points in boston so it could be seen from wherever the messengers would be waiting the signal was one lantern if the regulars would be traveling by land and two if they were coming in by sea across the river so two of these men once they saw which way the soldiers were traveling climbed the sepal of the church and lit the two lanterns as the british were coming from the river and they only let it stay stay lit for just a couple of minutes so as to not catch the attention of the british uh they were warning the other riders about which way they were coming and once the riders saw the signal they took off uh in fact some of the soldiers unfortunately did see the lanterns in the church and went to investigate uh the two signalers actually had to sneak out the back window and in fact uh that picture that you see there is the window that they snuck out at the old north church uh so revere dawes and several other riders set out to warn their respective parties each of them was assigned to warn specific groups now an interesting point is to note that they did not ride through town shouting the british are coming uh at this time even though they consider themselves colonists they are still british subjects uh so shouting that the british are coming would make no sense uh the british are already here they're not going anywhere uh shouting also ruins the secrecy of everything this was a quiet subtle warning that they wanted to make so they were quietly going from house to house place to place warning that the regulars were coming uh that the soldiers were coming their goal was of course to reach lexington to warm adams and hancock and they were able to evade capture revere himself was almost caught unfortunately other writers were captured that's why we don't know their stories uh you're not as famous if you get caught by the british you're definitely if you are if you're one of those guys that gets away after making it to lexington to warren hancock and other sons of liberty a doctor by the name of samuel prescott actually is assigned to ride on to concord uh to warn and assure that the malicious stockpile has been moved you know just double checking that this the stockpile is gone uh revere was definitely part a very interesting person he was part of a rising middle class in boston a middle class isn't a huge thing but it's starting to grow and develop uh he was a silversmith and an engraver again remember that engraving he made from the boston massacre as well as a dentist metal working for you know dental care to filling cavities is not great at this time though he's he's not you know as advanced as hard dentists today but of course he was also a member of the sons of liberty uh at dawn on april 19th the british forces of about 700 troops met up with a group of almost 80 militiamen outside of the tavern at lexington the british were not expecting this they were hoping to surprise the people of lexington now this is actually almost a complete reversal of the ratio of soldiers to militia at the boston massacre and you know something similar had occurred with the regulator movement this is not a new strategy the militia shows up to show solidarity to help keep the british back to show their power but of course in this case there was not a lot of militiamen so a major a british major told the rebels to disperse around 40 to 100 people of conquer the people that lived there or excuse me of lexington looked on just waiting just watching seeing what was actually gonna happen suddenly a shot rang out and both star both sides began to fire at the end of the skirmish eight militiamen were killed and nine were wounded although most historians do not know who fired the first shot there have been several theories uh first off considering that only one british officer was injured compared to the 17 militiamen uh it's much more probable that the british fired first in similar fashion they were angry they were frustrated they wanted to take on the colonists head-on that's highly possible another option was actually suggested that perhaps an onlooker fired the first shot to get a conflict started you know that there was someone waiting around the corner or behind the tavern uh perhaps to launch the fighting whether they were on the side of the british and wanted to kill the militia or they were on the side of militia and wanted to attack the british another suggestion is that perhaps the tension caused a simultaneous shot but no one wanted to take the blame so each one blamed the other side you know there it was a mutual uh aggression and so no one wanted to accept that uh another idea is that because the militia their weapons were not as the same high quality as the british regulars you know people are using their old hunting rifles and such uh so it's possible that there may have been an accidental shot uh which caused the ensuing skirmish uh the militia did disperse quickly afterwards uh again they were not expecting to fight they were hoping to just kind of show their strength the soldiers continued on to concord to seize munitions uh each company broke up into smaller groups to search for the the guns and the ammunition but they found nothing as it had already all been moved they did find a couple of small items but really not enough to confirm this idea that they were hiding weapons but they did decide to burn what they found the fire unfortunately got out of control and many of the people of concord thought the british were burning down the whole town the whole town did not burn but it definitely looked like it for a short minute meanwhile the colonial mission militia men in concord had gotten word about the shots fired at lexington so they began to gather along with people from nearby areas by the time the british approached the north bridge a 400 strong colonial militia had gathered watching to see where the british were going to head next this group of 400 encountered only 100 regulars so again they in this instance the colonials are now outnumbering the soldiers the patriots fought them off and then these regulars fell back to join the ranks of the main british forces the main force decides that they're going to return to boston this has kind of been a huge failure uh but instead of just letting them go the militia decides to pursue in a hit and run style of fighting they go they attack they back off they regroup then they go and attack again uh in fact men from the surrounding areas from surrounding towns join in and add to the militia as they do this hit and run and push the retreat further so overall the british had 300 casualties again casualties are deaths or injuries whereas the patriots only lost 93 people so the militiamen once the troops got back to boston decided to lay siege to boston uh so although we know today uh that lexington in concord is considered you know the first battle of the revolution the start of events uh it's definitely important to think of is revolution inevitable at this point in time is it necessarily true that they're going to revolt that they're going to want an independence that you know this the whole battle as we know it as the the origins of america is it really all for sure definitely gonna happen that's a question that historians have been debating and and if it wasn't inevitable at lexington and concord when was it inevitable uh when was it unavoidable you know for john adams it was with the boston massacre uh and you know for others it may have been at the tea party it may have been the regulator movement you know the regulator movement was very similar to what happened at lexington in concord uh so you know what point is it that there's no turning back that war is definitely going to happen that's something that a lot of people question and a lot of people debate of course there were other options there were other ways that this could have played out but the events happened that the way they did and and eventually the tensions just get too much and we'll see that why and how lexington and concord pushes for full-on full-scale war