Name

THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION

Key Concept 3.3— Explain how British colonial policies DIRECTIONS: We all know the phrase “No Taxation without
regarding North America led to the Revolutionary War.
Representation,” but the discontent felt by the colonists goes
Key Concept 3.4 - Explain how and why colonial attitudes beyond that. Explore 4 reasons for the American Revolution. With a
about government and the individual changed in the years partner rank them in order from most to least significant.
leading up to the American Revolution.

ECONOMIC ISSUES

RANK

POLITICAL GRIEVANCES

RANK

3
 PHILOSOPHY & IDEAS

RANK

FEAR OF BRITISH TYRANNY

RANK

Explain your rankings here:

 ECONOMIC ISSUES
OVERVIEW:
Sugar Act (1764) duties (taxes) on imported sugar and
certain luxuries to raise money for the crown along with
stricter enforcement of the Navigation Acts to stop
smuggling.

Stamp Act (1765) In an effort to raise funds to support

British military forces in the colonies, a tax that already
existed in England was implemented. The Stamp Act required
that revenue stamps be placed on most printed paper in the
colonies, including all legal documents, newspapers,
pamphlets, and advertisements. This was the first direct
tax— collected from those who used the goods—paid by the
people in the colonies, as opposed to the taxes on goods that
were imported into the colonies, which were paid by
merchants.

Representatives from 9 colonies met in New York in 1765 to

form the Stamp Act Congress. They resolved that only their
own elected representatives had the legal authority to
approve taxes. The protest against the stamp tax took a
violent turn with the formation of the Sons and Daughters of
Liberty that organized for the purpose of intimidating tax
agents. Members of this group sometimes tarred and
feathered revenue officials and destroyed revenue stamps.
Boycotts against British imports were the most effective
form of protest and homespun garments became
fashionable as women refused to buy British textiles.
 ECONOMIC ISSUES
VISUAL SOURCES:
 ECONOMIC ISSUES
VISUAL SOURCES:

Daughters of Liberty & a Knitting Bee

 POLITICAL GRIEVANCES
OVERVIEW:
Proclamation of 1763: To stabilize the western frontier
after Pontiac’s Rebellion, the British government issued an
order that prohibited colonists from settling west of the
Appalachian Mountains. The colonists reacted to the
proclamation with anger and defiance. After their victory in
the French and Indian War, Americans hoped to reap
benefits in the form of access to western lands. Defying the
prohibition, thousands streamed westward.

Declaratory Act (1766) When news of the repeal of the

Stamp Act reached the colonies, there was widespread
rejoicing. Few colonists at the time were aware that
Parliament had also enacted a face-saving measure known
as the Declaratory Act (1766). This act asserted that
Parliament had the right to tax and make laws for the
colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”

Virtual Representation - when the colonists formed the First

Continental Congress and demanded that the colonists
should have their own representatives in Parliament, the
British government answered with the doctrine of “virtual
representation,” claiming the colonists already were
represented in Parliament because some of its members
were transatlantic merchants and West Indian sugar
planters. They added that members of Parliament speak for
all subjects, not just the district from which they hail.
 POLITICAL GRIEVANCES
IMAGES:

A critique of “Virtual Representation”

Virtual Representative (standing in the middle)
gives the British State (with the gun) permission to
rob a colonist. Catholic Quebec enjoys peace,
Protestant Boston burns, and blinded Britannia
approaches a pit. 1775 cartoon
 POLITICAL GRIEVANCES
IMAGES:

Response the the Tea Act

The price of British tea, even with the tax, was actually lower
than the price of its competitors. The issue was not in the
economic stress caused by the tax, but the principle of the tax.
 PHILOSOPHY & IDEAS
OVERVIEW:
A major influence on the Enlightenment and on American
thinking was the work of John Locke who reasoned that
while the the government is supreme, it must respect the
“natural rights” of the people. He argued that sovereignty
ultimately resides with the people, ultimately a “republic.”
Furthermore, said Locke, citizens had a right and an
obligation to revolt against whatever government failed to
protect their rights. His stress on natural rights would
provide a rationale for the American Revolution and later for
the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution.

After the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689, many

colonists praised the English Whigs for creating a
constitutional monarchy that prevented the king from
arbitrarily imposing taxes and other measures. John
Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1768)
urged colonists to “remember your ancestors and your
posterity” and oppose parliamentary taxes.

The letters circulated widely and served as an early call to

resistance. If Parliament could tax the colonies without their
consent, he wrote, “our boasted liberty is but a sound and
nothing else.” Such arguments, widely publicized in
newspapers and pamphlets, gave intellectual substance to
the Patriot movement and turned a series of impromptu
riots, tax protests, and boycotts of British manufactures into
a formidable political force.
 PHILOSOPHY & IDEAS
VISUAL SOURCES:

1779 Political Cartoon: The Horse

America, throwing his master.
 BRITISH TYRANNY
OVERVIEW
New British efforts to collect taxes without direct colonial
representation or consent and to assert imperial authority in
the colonies, began to unite the colonists against perceived
and real constraints on their economic activities and political
rights.

Quartering Act - required the colonists to provide food and

living quarters for British soldiers stationed in the colonies--the
same soldiers the colonists feared had been sent with the
intent of limiting their freedom.

Boston Massacre (1770) - One day, a crowd of colonists

harassed the guards near the customs house. The guards fired
into the crowd, killing five people including an African
American, Crispus Attucks. At their trial for murder, the
soldiers were defended by colonial lawyer John Adams and
acquitted. Adams’ more radical cousin, Samuel Adams, angrily
denounced the shooting incident as a “massacre.”

Intolerable Acts (1774) - In response to the Boston Tea Party,

the British government enacted a series of punitive acts (the
Coercive Acts). The Port Act closed the port of Boston,
prohibiting trade in and out of the harbor until the destroyed
tea was paid for. Another Act reduced the power of the
Massachusetts legislature while increasing the power of the
royal governor.
 FEAR OF TYRANNY
VISUAL SOURCES:

Engraving by Paul Revere of the

Boston Massacre

SOURCE 1
 FEAR OF TYRANNY
VISUAL SOURCES:

SOURCE 2