Chapter 10

Growing Tensions Between the

Colonies & Britain
 Vocabulary
• debts – money that is owed to someone else
• acts – laws created or passed by a government
• taxation without representation – forcing people
to pay taxes when they have no say in making the
law that created the tax
• protest – to complain publicly about something
that people believe is wrong or unfair
• Parliament – the lawmaking part of the British
government, like the US Congress, in which
colonists had no representatives
• repeal – to take back, or to cancel, a law
 Think and Write

“Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look

at both, before we commit ourselves to either”
-Aesop

“In seeking truth you have to get both sides of

a story”
-Walter Cronkite
 10.1 Introduction
• Colonists were happy to
be a part of Great Britain
and supported the king in
the early 1700s.

• Several events would

change how the colonists
felt.

• Consider both sides for

each event
 10.2 The French & Indian War
• Britain and France both
claimed the Ohio River
Valley

• British settlers wanted to

farm the rich soil there

• The French wanted to

trap beavers and trade
their furs
 10.2 The French & Indian War
• In 1754, Britain and France went to war over the
territory.
• Most Native Americans were friendly with the French
and fought on their side.
• Many colonists and some “Indians” fought with the
thousands of British soldiers.
• Many colonists called the conflict the French and
Indian War.
• The war ended in 1763 with a peace treaty giving
Britain control of Canada and the land between the
Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains.
• The war gave Britain more land, but also had created
huge debts (almost 30 billion dollars in today’s time)
 “Join or Die” Snake
• Designed by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 as a
way of rallying the colonists to work together.
 10.3 The Proclamation of 1763
• Many settlers moved west into the land that
Britain had won from the French.
• This worried the Native Americans and they
attacked their forts and houses to drive them out.
• In 1763, nearly 2,000 settlers died because of the
fighting
• To stop the fighting and protect the colonists,
Britain passed the Proclamation Act of 1763
• It said the Native Americans could have all the
land west of the Appalachian Mountains and that
the settlers could not move there
Before and After 1763
10.3 The Proclamation Act of 1763
• The colonists disliked this law.
• Many of them ignored it and continued to
move west.
• They didn’t like how Britain was trying to
control the colonies.

• In the end, the French no longer had territory

in North America.
 10.4 The Quartering Act
• Britain left thousands of soldiers in the colonies
to protect them after the war.
• Britain thought that the colonists should help to
pay for this army and
• In 1765, British Parliament passed the Quartering
Act.
• It ordered the colonists to provide “quarters”
(places to live), food, fuel, candles, and
transportation for the soldiers.
• The angered colonists did not want to pay for this
and treated the soldiers badly.
 10.5 The Stamp Act
• Britain needed money to pay its debts and
thought that the colonists should help to pay
for the troops that were protecting them.
• In 1765, British Parliament passed a new tax
law called the Stamp Act.
• It said that colonists would have to pay a tax
on printed papers like:
– newspapers, pamphlets, marriage licenses, playing
cards, etc.
10.5 The Stamp Act
 10.5 The Stamp Act
• Colonists were furious; This taxed things they used
every day and the money went to the British
government.
• What angered them most was that they had no say in
making the law.
• Some refused to buy the stamps, some protested, and
some scared or attacked the tax collectors.
• In October 1765, nine colonies sent delegates to the
Stamp Act Congress:
– All British subjects had a right to vote on taxes through
their representatives (colonies had no representatives)
– It was unfair for Parliament to pass such laws (taxation
without representation)
 10.5 The Stamp Act
• The protests surprised the British king and
Parliament, but they had no way of forcing
them to obey.
• Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March,
1766.
• Parliament let the colonies
know that they still believed
in its right to tax them.
 10.6 The Boston Massacre
• In 1770, there was still great tension between the
colonists and British soldiers.
• The soldiers weren’t happy because they were far
from their homes and their job was difficult. They
went out of their way to bother the colonists.
• Colonists didn’t want the soldiers living there.
They felt the soldiers were rowdy and rude and
took jobs away from them. They called them
names like “lobsterback” due to their red
uniforms.
• On March 5, 1770, the anger led to violence.
 10.6 The Boston Massacre
• A soldier was standing guard that cold night.
• About 9 pm a crowd gathered and began to shout
names and throw stones and snowballs.
• Captain Preston and seven other soldiers hurried to the
guard’s side and loaded their muskets.
• The crowd continued to throw snowballs and chunks of
ice.
• Captain Prescott may have told his men not to fire, but
one soldier heard, “Fire!” and shot into the crowd.
• The crowd began to move toward them and the
soldiers panicked and fired.
• Five people lay dead or dying and six more were
wounded.
 10.6 The Boston Massacre
• The colonists referred to the event as a
massacre, the murder of people who cannot
defend themselves.
• Paul Revere etched a picture of the event
showing soldiers firing at a peaceful crowd,
thought that isn’t exactly what happened.
• Samuel Adams, a protest leader, made sure to
spread the news of the massacre throughout
the colonies.
10.6 The Boston Massacre
 10.7 The Boston Tea Party
• After the Boston Massacre, the Parliament repealed
ALL of the unpopular taxes on the colonists, except the
tax on tea.
• The colonists loved tea, but refused to buy it from
Britain, which caused the British East India Company to
lose a great deal of money.
• To save the company, Parliament passed the Tea Act in
1773, which said that only the British East India
Company could sell tea in the colonies.
• The Tea Act lowered the cost of tea for the colonists,
but it made them angry because they thought it was
another unfair law.
• Many protested, spoke out against it, and refused to
buy tea.
 10.7 The Boston Tea Party
• On December 16, 1773, a group of men
dressed up as Native Americans and
climbed aboard the tea ships in Boston
Harbor.
• They split open hundreds of boxes of
tea and dumped 90,000 pounds of loose
tea into the water.
• Protesters were careful not to damage
anything besides the tea.
• Soon the colonists were singing a song
about it throughout the colonies.
• King George was furious!
 10.8 The Intolerable Acts
• After the Boston Tea Party, Parliament decided
to punish the colonists by passing several new
laws.
– Boston Port Act: closed Boston Harbor until the
lost tea was paid for (nothing in or out)
• Workers lost their jobs
• Would the citizens starve?
• The laws were so harsh that the colonists
called them intolerable (Intolerable Acts)
 10.8 The Intolerable Acts
• In September 1774, leaders from twelve colonies met
in Philadelphia to discuss the problems with Britain.
• The meeting was called the First Continental Congress.
• The delegates agreed to fight the Boston Port Act and
the other Intolerable Acts.