Chapter 5: Reform, Resistance, Revolution

Proclamation of 1763: Set proclamation line along the Appalachian watershed to regulate the pace of western settlement. Settlements could not be planted west of the line unless Britain purchased the land by treaty from the Indians.

Sugar Act 1765: Grenville placed duties on Madeira wine, coffee, and other products. Most revenue was expected from molasses (3 pence per gallon). Also launched the war against smugglers, increased paperwork required of ship captains & permitted seizures for what owners considered technicalities. Made it more profitable fro customs officers to hound merchants than to accept bribes, made them immune to civil suit even in vice-admirality courts.

Stamp Act 1765: Imposed duties on most legal documents, newspapers, and other publications in the colonies. Led to colonial resistance & crisis.

Quartering Act 1765: Ordered colonial assemblies to vote for specific supplies and provide the British army with public housing.

Virtual Representation: The English concept that members of Parliament represented the entire empire, not just a local constituency and it's voters. Settlers were represented in Parliament the same way non-voting subjects in Britain were represented. Colonies denied that the term could describe their relationship with Parliament.

Liberty Tree: Andrew Oliver, a stamp distributor, hung the gallows on which enemies of the people deserved to be hanged. A crowd of men demolished his new stamp office and beheaded and burned his effigy.

Sons of Liberty: Men who resisted Britain's post war policies, resisted the stamp act, and protested (Boston Tea Party).

Non-importation Agreements: Agreements not to import goods from England. Designed to pressure the British economy and force the repeal of unpopular Parliamentary acts. They affected only exports from Britain.

Townshend duties: As a result of the Townshend Revenue Act passed in 1767 duties were imposed on tea, paper, glass, red and white lead, and painter's colors. Tea duty remained when the duties were reppealed.

Boston Massacre: The colonial term for the confrontation between colonial protestors and British soldiers in front of the customs house on March 5, 1770. 5 colonists killed, and 6 wounded.

Tea Act: 1773 Franklin repealed import duties on tea in England but retained Townshend duty in the colonies. Lord North said that legal tea would be cheaper in both places, the company would be saved, and by buying legal tea, settlers would accept Parliament's power to tax them.

Coercive Acts: 1774 Parliament passed 4 coercive acts: The Boston Port Act closed the port of Boston until Bostonians paid for the tea. A new Quartering Act allowed the army to quarter soldiers among civilians, if necessary. The Administration of Justice act permitted a British soldier or official who was charged with a crime while carrying out his duties to be tried either in another colony or in England, Most controversial of all was the Massachusetts government act overturning the Massachusetts Charter of 1691, made the council appointive, and restricted town meetings.

Quebec Act: Parliament passed a fifth law irrelevant to the coercive acts. It established French civil law and Roman Catholic church in the Province of Quebec, provided for trial by jury in criminal but not in civil cases, gave legislative but not taxing power to an appointing governor or council, and extended the administrative boundaries of Quebec to the area between the Great Lakes and Ohio river, saving only the legitimate charter claims of other colonies.

Olive Branch Petition: July 5, 1775 the petition affirmed the colonists' loyalty to the Crown, did not even mention "rights," and implored the king to take the initiative in devising "a happy and permanent reconciliation."