Chapter 3 Summary

The pride American colonists felt as citizens of the British empire after defeating France in the French and Indian War was quickly challenged as the British attempted to climb out of debt following the conflict. The British saw it as completely reasonable to tighten enforcement of the Navigation Acts (on the books for a century, but largely ignored) and impose new taxes on the colonists. After all, the war against France had been fought on the colonists' behalf and had led to a financial crisis for the mother country. It was time for the colonials to pay their own way, particularly the cost of the additional troops necessary to protect new territories won in the war.

But the colonists had totally different views. To them, the Stamp Tax was clearly an infringement upon their "rights as Englishmen" -- rights they could trace back to the Magna Carta. Chief among those rights was the right not to be taxed without representation. No one in England would disagree, but people on different sides of the Atlantic could not even agree on the meaning of representation. The British talked of virtual representation while colonists such as Patrick Henry insisted on actual representation. They also debated the difference between internal and external taxes. In fact, the colonies and the mother country had grown apart over the decades and now barely understood one another. The crisis of the 1760s only made that gulf more readily apparent.

The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 was a key turning point on the road toward revolution. Colonial boycotts, protests and violence forced Parliament to repeal the Stamp Tax, but the Declaratory Act passed along with the repeal made clear Parliament's insistence on being supreme to the colonies in "all cases whatsoever." Colonists missed that message in their celebrations over the repeal of the tax they hated. England had backed down and relations would never be the same.

Following the Stamp Tax came a spiral toward a break in relations over the next decade. From the proclamation of 1763 to the Townsend duties to the Quartering Act to issues of writs of assistance and the suspension of trial by jury - the colonies and the mother country drifted further apart as England tried to tighten administration that had been lax over a century of "salutary neglect." The colonists were having none of it and protested every step of the way.

The cycle of British repression and colonial protest grew progressively more violent in the 1770s with the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. British responses became more repressive with measures such as the Coercive Acts of 1774. As the British became more forceful, a new colonial union was born. This is reflected in the calling of the First Continental Congress of 1774, which encouraged colonists to arm themselves. Thus British actions were counter-productive. But even the few voices in Parliament who could see this (William Pitt and Edmund Burke) were drowned out by cries to make the colonists behave.

From the first shots at Lexington and Concord, military campaigns moved across the colonies from New England to Canada to New York and finally to the South. George Washington may have lost as many battles as he won as a general, and yet his leadership was crucial to the American victory. Aid from the French also proved to be critical.

Over the course of the war Americans came to accept the idea of independence and see themselves as a new nation. The conflict became a war of liberation rather than a violent dispute with the mother country? Thomas Paine's Common Sense clearly moved Americans toward a new acceptance of nationhood and Jefferson's Declaration of Independence made the break official to the world. Still, many Americans remained loyal to the crown. Many battles (especially in the South) very much had the characteristics of civil war between loyalists (Tories) and rebels.

The author makes a strong argument that the founders who signed the Declaration of Independence truly did mean all men are created equal. Some historians would disagree, citing the obvious fact that the nation still had slavery and did not include women or Indians in the political process.

The Peace of Paris (1783) recognized America's independence and granted the new nation lands all the way to the Mississippi River. However, the drama of the war was not over until the presence of George Washington quelled desperate, hungry, unpaid American troops and prevented chaos. Then his retirement and surrender of military power separated him from virtually all military strongmen in history. This action on his part led early Americans to call him the "American Cincinnatus."