5 4 conflict in the colonies

Conflict
in the

Colonies

Fascinating Facts
•

When Britain occupied Boston, there was one British
soldier for every four colonists.

•

Land was very important to the colonists—nearly
90 percent of them were farmers!

•

The British government thought the rebellion would
be easy to end. They did not believe that farmers would
be able to fight.

Genre

Nonfiction

Comprehension Skill

Cause and Effect

Text Features

•
•
•
•

Captions
Time Line
Map
Sidebars

Scott Foresman Social Studies

ISBN 0-328-14673-0

ì<(sk$m)=beghde< +^-Ä-U-Ä-U

by Ann Rossi


While Patriots in all thirteen American colonies were
speaking of freedom, Massachusetts was the location
of important events that led to the beginning of the
American Revolution. In this book you will read about
how events in and around Boston led to the first shots
being fired in the battle for independence.

Vocabulary
Patriot
militia

Conflict

Write to It!

in the

The colonists worked hard to gain their
independence and change things that
they did not agree with. They organized
boycotts, set up ways to communicate
with each other, and so on. What are some
Ann
Rossi
ways that you by
could
make
changes in your
community? Write about three things you
would change, why, and how you would
go about it.

Colonies

minutemen
revenue
tyranny

Write your ideas on a separate sheet of paper.

repeal
tariff
boycott
massacre
intolerable
Photographs Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material.
The publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.
Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Background (Bkgd).

ISBN: 0-328-14673-0

Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the
United States of America. This publication or parts thereof, may be used with appropriate
equipment to reproduce copies for classroom use only.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

Opener: ©Bettmann/Corbis
Backgrounds: ©Rare Book and Special Collections Division/Library of Congress
2 Geoffrey Clements/Corbis
5 ©Bettmann/Corbis
6 North Wind Picture Archives
7 North Wind Picture Archives
9 ©Private Collection/Bridgeman
ArtOffices:
Library Glenview, Illinois • Parsippany, New Jersey • New York, New York
Editorial
10 ©Bettmann/Corbis
11 ©Giraudon/Art Resource,
NY Offices: Needham, Massachusetts • Duluth, Georgia • Glenview, Illinois

Sales
12 ©Susan Van Etten/PhotoEdit
Coppell, Texas • Ontario, California • Mesa, Arizona
13 (B) ©Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, USA/Bridgeman Art Library, (T) The Granger Collection, New York
15 ©New-York Historical Society, New York, USA/Bridgeman Art Library


The Revolution Begins
In February 1775 Great Britain’s lawmakers declared
that Massachusetts was in open rebellion against the king
and government. Two months later, Thomas Gage, the
British general who controlled Boston, received orders to
arrest leaders of the rebellion, including Samuel Adams.
The Patriot leaders learned of this and fled to Lexington.
On April 18, 1775, Patriots in Boston learned that
British soldiers were planning a nighttime march to
Lexington, to search for the Patriot leaders, and then to
Concord, to destroy Patriot supplies. They knew that the
militia must be warned!

Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott rode
to Lexington to warn the Patriot leaders, but a British
patrol stopped Revere and Dawes as they left. Only
Prescott reached Concord, where he alerted the militia.
Minutemen were ready when the British arrived in
Lexington.
The next day, fighting began between British soldiers
and American Patriots in Lexington. No one knows who
fired the first shot, but it marked the beginning of the
Revolutionary War in North America.

But how had this come about? All of the colonists were
British, and very few had friends and family in Great
Britain. The colonists had fought alongside the British
during the French and Indian War. Surely they were still
loyal to the king. How could they be fighting each other?
To find out, we need to look back to 1763.

The Shot Heard Round the World
In 1836 Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American writer,
wrote about these events. He called the first shot fired by
the Patriots at Lexington “the shot heard round the world.”
The Patriots’ success in gaining independence inspired
people in many other lands to fight for the independence
of their own countries.

Paul Revere rode to Lexington to warn
Patriots that the British were coming.

2

3


Britain and the American Colonies in 1763
From 1756 to 1763, all the great powers of Europe were
engaged in the Seven Years’ War. France, Austria, Great
Britain, Russia, and other countries battled over land in
Europe. They also fought over their colonies. England
and France fought over—and in—their colonies in North
America. This part of the larger European war was known

as the French and Indian War.
When the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763, the French
and Indian War ended with it. Great Britain had won most
of France’s North American territories. Many American
colonists were pleased to be part of the powerful British
Empire.
With the war over, King George III of Great Britain began
to take a greater interest in his colonies in the Americas.
They were much larger now, and he had the time to govern
them more closely. Unfortunately for King George, new
ideas were becoming popular in the 1700s—ideas that would
make it difficult for him to control his colonies.
The term “natural rights” was beginning to be used in
political discussions and in writing. People began talking
about the rights of the individual. Among the many rights
they discussed were the right to be free, to own property,
and to participate in government.

People in Europe were only able to talk about these ideas.
They still had rulers and traditions that limited their rights
and freedoms. However, in the Thirteen Colonies, people had
long enjoyed these and many other rights and freedoms.
American colonists had begun to think that these were
rights and freedoms that they would always have. When
Great Britain’s Parliament and king began passing new
laws, many colonists felt that their rights and freedoms
were being threatened.

This map
shows the

thirteen
American
colonies.

4

5


Acts and Reactions
The Seven Years’ War left Great Britain with huge
debts. Many British leaders felt that the American colonies
should help pay these war debts. British soldiers offered
protection. Surely the colonists would be glad to help pay
for all this.
In 1764 the British government began passing laws that
they hoped would increase revenues, or money coming
in, from the American colonies. The first law was the
Revenue Act of 1764, also called the Sugar Act. It set taxes
on sugar and molasses from non-British ports. The British
government hoped this act would stop colonists from
buying sugar from French and Dutch traders. The taxes
angered many colonists. They wanted sugar that cost less,
even if they were buying it from Great Britain’s enemies.
The following year, the British passed the Stamp Act.
This required colonists to pay a tax on business and legal
documents, newspapers, and other materials printed
in the colonies. The colonists were outraged, and many
refused to pay.

Representatives from several colonies met in New
York to protest the Stamp Act. They pointed out that the
colonists were British subjects and should have the same
rights as people living in Great Britain. They said it was
their right that only their elected representatives could
tax them, but they had no representatives in Parliament.
So Parliament should not tax the colonies. They said that
ignoring their rights was tyranny, or the cruel or unfair
use of power. The slogan “Taxation without representation
is tyranny” became popular.
When colonists stopped buying British goods, it hurt
British merchants. Also, Parliament realized that they
would probably never collect much revenue from this tax,
so the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766.

Tax stamps such as the
ones on these pages could
be attached to printed
materials to show that the
tax had been paid.

6

7


When Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, it also
passed the Quartering Act. This law required colonists
to care for British soldiers stationed in the American
colonies. Colonists were responsible for providing food,

drink, housing, coal or firewood, and candles to troops
stationed in their towns.
Colonists who resented the Quartering Act often
provided fewer supplies than the soldiers needed. The
colony of New York had to support the largest number
of soldiers, so tensions were greatest there. When
the New York Assembly refused at first to assist with
quartering British troops, a fight occurred, and
a colonist was wounded.
At the same time Parliament repealed the Stamp Act
in 1766, it passed a law that stated that Parliament had
the right to tax colonists even without representation. The
next year, colonists learned what the next taxes would be.

Tea and the East India Company
In the 1700s, the East India Company began carrying tea
from China to Great Britain and the colonies. Tea became
very popular. In Great Britain, it became more popular
than drinks that were taxed—so soon tea was taxed. Tea
smuggling became common, which hurt the East India
Company. However, the company was a source of revenue
for the British government, so the government tried to
protect the company. This would later lead to problems in
the colonies.

8

British soldiers arrive at Long Wharf, Boston Harbor, in 1768.

In 1767 Britain passed the Townshend Acts. One of

these laws prohibited the New York Assembly from
conducting business until it met the requirements of the
Quartering Act. Another law created tariffs on many
imported goods. A third act established a system of
customs, or tax collection, in the colonies. In 1768 soldiers
were sent to Boston to keep order and to enforce the
Townshend Acts.
Angry colonists organized boycotts of British goods,
which hurt British merchants. On March 5, 1770, the
British Parliament agreed to repeal some of the taxes.
However, it did not repeal the tax on tea. That same day,
an incident occurred in Boston that would dramatically
increase anti-British feelings in the colonies.

9


The Boston Massacre
On March 5, 1770, an unfriendly crowd surrounded
a group of British soldiers outside the Custom House.
According to some reports, the crowd quickly grew in
size, and people began yelling at the soldiers and throwing
things at them. The commanding officer told his soldiers
to hold their fire, but a snowball hit one of the soldiers.
Startled, first one soldier and then another fired into
the crowd. Three people were killed. Eight more were
wounded. Two of the wounded later died.
Patriots called the incident a massacre, or the needless
killing of a large number of people. Although the killing
of five people is not truly a massacre, it was a violent

event that showed how strained feelings were between the
colonists and the British. The Patriots used the incident,
which they called the Boston Massacre, to stir up antiBritish feelings among the colonists.
This picture by Paul Revere is not really accurate,
but it shows how the people of Boston felt about the
shootings. It helped fuel anti-British feelings.

10

John Adams
John Adams was a Patriot
who opposed both the Stamp
Act and the Townshend
Acts, but he knew that it was
important to protect the rights of
the British soldiers involved in the
Boston Massacre. His defense of the
soldiers made him unpopular for a time, but Adams
continued to be an important Patriot leader. In 1797
he became the second President of the United States.

Like many colonists Samuel Adams thought the use
of soldiers against civilians was wrong. He proclaimed
the Boston Massacre a battle for American liberty.
The British soldiers who participated in the Boston
Massacre were put on trial. John Adams, a cousin of
Samuel Adams, defended them. Adams argued that the
crowd had started the fight with the soldiers and therefore
the soldiers were innocent of murder. Two of the soldiers
were later found guilty of manslaughter, or killing people

without intending to. In keeping with the custom of the
time, the two soldiers were branded on their thumbs as
punishment.

11


After the Massacre
The British withdrew their troops from Boston shortly
after the Boston Massacre, thanks in part to the efforts
of Samuel Adams. In 1772 Adams and other Boston
leaders formed a Committee of Correspondence. Express
riders delivered their correspondence, or letters, to other
communities. These letters kept people informed of events
and helped unite the colonies.
Samuel Adams also organized
resistance to the next new British law—
the Tea Act. The tax on tea still existed
after the Townshend Acts were repealed
in 1770 because the British government
wanted to show that it had the right to
tax the colonies. However, the colonists
had avoided paying the tax by buying tea
smuggled in by Dutch traders.
In 1773 the British passed the Tea Act,
a law that reduced taxes on tea and made
it easier for the East India Company,
a large British company, to sell tea in
the colonies. The East India Company’s
tea would be able to compete with the

smuggled tea because their prices would
be the lowest available, even though the
tea was still taxed! But the colonists did
not like the idea of the British government
taxing the colonists, and despite the lower
price, they would not buy the tea.
This is the Boston Massacre
Monument in Boston, Massachusetts.

12

This picture shows the Patriots dumping the tea during
the Boston Tea Party.

Merchants in most cities canceled tea orders. However,
the British-appointed governor in Boston wanted to obey
the law. He insisted that three ships waiting in the harbor
be allowed to unload their cargo of tea—and that they be
paid for it.
On the night of December 16, 1773, a group of about sixty
Patriots disguised as Mohawks boarded the ships. A large
crowd came with them and watched as chest after chest of
tea was dumped into the harbor. Colonists knew this was
an important event, and some collected samples of tea as
souvenirs.

This bottle was filled
with tea by T.M. Harris.
Notice that the date on
the label is the day after

the Boston Tea Party.

13


The Colonies Unite
Parliament passed several laws in 1774 to punish
Bostonians for the Boston Tea Party. Colonists called these
the Intolerable Acts, because they were intolerable, or
unbearable. The port of Boston was closed, unapproved
town meetings were banned, and British soldiers returned.
Samuel Adams sent letters throughout the colonies
pointing out that Britain could interfere with other colonial
governments, just as it had in Massachusetts.
From September 5 to October 26, 1774, representatives
from every colony except Georgia gathered in Philadelphia
for the First Continental Congress. They voted to stop
trade with Britain until the Intolerable Acts were repealed.
Most representatives did not call for independence,
but they agreed that each colony’s militia should be
strengthened. They also agreed to a second meeting in
May 1775 if Britain had not changed its policies by then.

Key Events in the Conflict
1766

The French and
Indian War ends.

1761

14

1763

As you read at the beginning, Britain did not change
its policies. Instead, it decided to arrest the Patriot
leaders. British soldiers marched to Lexington, and
“the shot heard round the world” was fired, starting the
Revolutionary War.

1770

1764
1763

Samuel Adams

Parliament passes
the Revenue Act of
1764, also called
the Sugar Act.

1765

Parliament
abolishes the
Stamp Act, but
passes the
Declaratory Act.

1767

March 5:
Parliament
repeals the
Townshend Acts,
except for the
tax on tea.
The Boston
Massacre occurs.

1769

1773
Parliament passes
the Tea Act.
December 16:
The Boston Tea
Party occurs.

1771

1775
April 19: The
Revolutionary War
in America begins.

1775

1773

1765

1767

1774

The Quartering Act of 1765 and
the Stamp Act are enacted by
Parliament.

Parliament passes
the Townshend Acts.

Parliament passes the Intolerable Acts.
September 5–October 26: The first Continental
Congress meets in Philadelphia.

15


Glossary

While Patriots in all thirteen American colonies were
speaking
of freedom,
Massachusetts
the location
boycott

organized
refusal to buywas
goods
of important events that led to the beginning of the
intolerable unbearable; too much to be
American Revolution. In this book you will read about
endured
how events in and around Boston led to the first shots
massacre
thebattle
cruel for
andindependence.
needless killing of
being
fired in the
many people
militia a volunteer army

Vocabulary
minutemen colonial
militia groups that could
be ready to fight at
a minute’s notice
Patriot
Patriot a colonist who
opposed British rule of
militia
the American Colonies
minutemen
repeal to cancel

revenue
revenue money coming in; income
tyranny
tariff a tax on imported goods
repeal
tyranny cruel or unfair use of power
tariff

Write to It!
The colonists worked hard to gain their
independence and change things that
they did not agree with. They organized
boycotts, set up ways to communicate
with each other, and so on. What are some
ways that you could make changes in your
community? Write about three things you
would change, why, and how you would
go about it.

Write your ideas on a separate sheet of paper.

boycott
massacre
intolerable
Photographs Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material.
The publisher deeply regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.
Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Background (Bkgd).

ISBN: 0-328-14673-0

Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the
United States of America. This publication or parts thereof, may be used with appropriate
equipment to reproduce copies for classroom use only.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

16

Opener: ©Bettmann/Corbis
Backgrounds: ©Rare Book and Special Collections Division/Library of Congress
2 Geoffrey Clements/Corbis
5 ©Bettmann/Corbis
6 North Wind Picture Archives
7 North Wind Picture Archives
9 ©Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library
10 ©Bettmann/Corbis
11 ©Giraudon/Art Resource, NY
12 ©Susan Van Etten/PhotoEdit
13 (B) ©Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, USA/Bridgeman Art Library, (T) The Granger Collection, New York
15 ©New-York Historical Society, New York, USA/Bridgeman Art Library