Grandpa’s US Colonial History to 1800
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Chapter 21
The Critical 13 Years from 1763 to 1776
A. BACKGROUND
Historians begin their accounts of the road to Revolution in 1763. The colonists had many grievances against Britain prior to that date but the signing of the Peace of Paris on 2/10/1763 ended the last of the French-Indian Wars. Rather than resolve all of the previous problems, it created some new ones.
It had taken decades of experience in the 17th century for Britain to mold the old colonial system that had governed a strip of land stretching some 1000 miles along the Atlantic coast. Now, England must erect a new system to deal with a much larger empire but there was a question whether England had the finances to achieve the goal.
The British subjects in the colonies were then the freest people in the world. They argued and fought not to obtain freedom but to confirm their existing freedom. The settled area in 1763 had a population of 1.5 million with 1/3 being Negro slaves. By 1775, the population had grown by another 1 million. The bulk of the population was engaged in agriculture with more than 90% of the country still forested.
Prior to 1775, there was no colonial nationalism or separatist feeling that they were entitled to be a separate and independent nation. On the contrary, they were not only content but proud to be a part of the British Empire but they did feel very strongly that they were entitled to all of the Constitutional rights of Englishmen in England. It took the Radical leaders 10 years after the Stamp Act to reach the decision that Parliament had no rightful jurisdiction over the colonies.
There is no clear evidence that the American Revolution was inevitable and that the 13 colonies were too big and self-sufficient to continue as colonies. Many interventions of the English government in colonial administration had been to protect minority groups against majorities, or small colonies against big ones, such as, Quakers and Anglicans in New England against the dominant Puritans, Delaware against Maryland, New Hampshire and Rhode Island against Massachusetts Bay.
By 1763 there appeared to be movement toward a compromise between imperial control and colonial self-government, between the principle of authority and that of liberty. King and Parliament had control of foreign affairs, war and peace, and overseas trade. Parliament tried to direct all colonial trade into channels deemed profitable to all. In almost every other respect, the colonists were relatively free with their assemblies having the exclusive right to tax their citizens, to appoint officials, and fix their salaries, and to control their own schools and churches.
So, overall, the colonists were fairly well satisfied with their situation in 1763 but not the Government of King George III, as we shall see. Eventual resistance to English rule can be summed up in 5 phases;
• Up to 1764 there were simmering resentments which had not yet broken out into the open
• From 1764-1766 there was the implementation of the Grenville Plan with resistance focusing on the Stamp Act
• From 1767-1770 there was the implementation of the Townshend Acts which produced a colonial boycott and other forms of protest
• From 1770-1773 there was a "Period of Calm" after the repeal of the Townshend Acts
• From 1773-1776 tensions significantly inceased with the passage of the Tea Act and the colonial reaction against it.
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About the Book
Did the American people suddenly become “independent” on July 4, 1776, or is there something more to our shared history?
History books tend to simplify the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence, but not Grandpa! Terrence Hagen wants his grandchildren—and everyone else—to know exactly what happened from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to the time the Founding Fathers broke free from England.
The reality is the real America was developed in that period between the founding of the first settlements to the Declaration of Independence. In this history book, you’ll learn why
America could be called an accident;
self-government was not discovered by America;
colonial America was the result of concurrent conflict among many entities; and
subsequent immigration of non-English settlers changed the nature of the American colonist and produced ethnic, religious, and cultural conflicts.
Laced with chapter summaries, quizzes, and stories of sacrifice, Grandpa’s US Colonial History to 1800 tells the forgotten history of how the American Revolution was fought not to attain independence but to retain the level of independence early settlers enjoyed.
About the Author
Terrence Hagen is a husband, father, grandfather, veteran, and retired corporate manager. He’s had a lifelong appreciation of history, and he wrote this book to encourage others to appreciate their national heritage.