Speaker 1: Hello, and Welcome to Western civ. Episode four hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty two, The Boiling Pot. The year seventeen sixty three
Speaker 1: should have been a year for Celebration and her colonies.
Speaker 1: The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War
Speaker 1: with a resounding British victory. France seated all territory east
Speaker 1: of the Mississippi River, Spain traded Florida for Havana, and
Speaker 1: the British Empire now stretched across a vast swath of
Speaker 1: North America. But the war had been ruinously expensive. Of
Speaker 1: Britain's national debt had nearly doubled, rising from seventy five
Speaker 1: million to more than one hundred and thirty million. Interest
Speaker 1: alone consumed over half of the government's budget. Prime Minister
Speaker 1: George Grenville and other ministers believed the American colonies, which
Speaker 1: had gained protection and new economic opportunities from the war,
Speaker 1: ought to help pay for the empire's defense. As Grenville
Speaker 1: later told Parliament, quote, the nation has run itself into
Speaker 1: an immense expense to give them protection, and now that
Speaker 1: they are called upon to contribute a small share toward
Speaker 1: the public expense, they grudge to contribute anything now. Even
Speaker 1: before the peace was finalized, there were other issues. Of course,
Speaker 1: Native First nations across the Great Lakes in Ohio Valley
Speaker 1: resisted sudden British encroachment in what turned into Pontiac's rebellion
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of the French and Indian War. Britain's
Speaker 1: victory brought not only vast new territory, but also a
Speaker 1: deep unease among the Native nations of the Great Lakes.
Speaker 1: The removal of France as a colonial power didn't mean
Speaker 1: peace for them. British traders replaced French ones, but often
Speaker 1: with higher prices, stricter terms, and less diplomatic generosity for
Speaker 1: its garrisoned by redcoats, sprang up in Native homelands, while
Speaker 1: settlers quickly pressed into lands belonged the Appalachians. Many Native
Speaker 1: leaders saw this as a threat to their sovereignty and
Speaker 1: their way of life, and so in seventeen sixty three,
Speaker 1: an Ottawa war chief named Pontiac emerged as a central
Speaker 1: figure in uniting disparate tribes the Ottawa, the Delaware, the Shawnee,
Speaker 1: the Miami, and others in a coordinated effort to expel
Speaker 1: the British from their newly conquered lands, Pontiac delivered an
Speaker 1: impassioned speech urging resistance. Quote it is important to us,
Speaker 1: my brothers, that we exterminate from our lands this nation,
Speaker 1: which only seeks to kill us. End quote. His follower,
Speaker 1: is inspired by both traditional religious visions and political necessity,
Speaker 1: struck British forts and settlements. In a sudden wave of
Speaker 1: attacks from May to October seventeen sixty three, Native forces
Speaker 1: captured or destroyed nine of eleven British forts in the region,
Speaker 1: killing or driving off hundreds of settlers. The most famous
Speaker 1: siege was at Fort Detroit, where Pontiac himself directed months
Speaker 1: of attacks. While British troops eventually relieved some of the
Speaker 1: strongholds and counterattacked, the rebellion revealed the fragility of Britain's
Speaker 1: hold on the interior. In seventeen sixty four, British expeditions
Speaker 1: pushed west to reassert control, but peace was gradual and incomplete.
Speaker 1: Formal agreements were reached in seventeen sixty six, but the
Speaker 1: conflict left a lasting impact. There were thousands of people
Speaker 1: who had died as a result of this uprising that
Speaker 1: had in reality only lasted a year and a half.
Speaker 1: Or so, and frontier settlements had been destroyed. British policymakers,
Speaker 1: who were already dealing with the incredible weight of the
Speaker 1: war with France, realized that they had to prevent further
Speaker 1: costly wars, and to do that, what they had to
Speaker 1: do was restrict colonial expansion, because overall, what all of
Speaker 1: these first nations wanted was sovereignty, and that meaning that
Speaker 1: they had to keep English colonists from invading their lands.
Speaker 1: It was the only way to try to secure some
Speaker 1: sort of fragile peace, and as a result, what happened
Speaker 1: was the passing of the Royal Proclamation of seventeen sixty three. Now,
Speaker 1: if you are an American history buff you probably learned
Speaker 1: the Royal Proclamation of seventeen sixty three as the proclamation line,
Speaker 1: because that's what we call it in US history. But
Speaker 1: really what this meant was George the Third had issued
Speaker 1: a proclamation seeing settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains was
Speaker 1: now forbidden without royal permission. So this is a direct
Speaker 1: consequence of Pontiac's rebellion. Now, to British officials, this was
Speaker 1: simply pragmatic. It prevented another costly frontier war, but For
Speaker 1: many colonists, it felt like a betrayal. They had fought
Speaker 1: alongside British troops with the goal of expelling the French
Speaker 1: to get access to these lands. George Washington, who had
Speaker 1: speculated heavily in Western property, lamented privately that the proclamation
Speaker 1: would quote in effect and null every grant made for
Speaker 1: these lands end quote. And there was more to come, because,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, Grenville and others believed that the colonists
Speaker 1: needed to shoulder some responsibility for the cost of the
Speaker 1: French and Indian War in North America the Seven Years'
Speaker 1: War in Europe, and so his first was a sugar act,
Speaker 1: Grenville's Sugar Act of seventeen sixty four. This actually ironically
Speaker 1: reduced the duty or tax on foreign molasses, but it
Speaker 1: gave customs officers much greater power to enforce it. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: colonial merchants saw it less as a tax break and
Speaker 1: more than an efficient way to catch smugglers. In other words,
Speaker 1: they were used to paying no tax because they were
Speaker 1: getting their molasses illegally. Molasses, by the way, a byproduct
Speaker 1: of sugar production, which is generally useless, but in this
Speaker 1: particular case very useful to the colonial economy, because the
Speaker 1: colonists were using it to create cheap rum, which they
Speaker 1: could then sell back to participate in the slave trade
Speaker 1: and all the other ingencies of the Triangle trade, or
Speaker 1: the North Atlantic trade as we still call it today. Now,
Speaker 1: while that was going on, at the same time, Grenville
Speaker 1: passed what was called a Currency Act, and this restricted
Speaker 1: the colonies from issuing their own paper money, which worsened
Speaker 1: an already existing shortage of hard currency. Boston Town leaders
Speaker 1: were quick to petition Parliament, warning that quote the trade
Speaker 1: of the province must most inevitably be ruined end quote
Speaker 1: if these restrictions were not eased. While opposition was initially
Speaker 1: economic rather than ideological, the seeds of resistance were clearly
Speaker 1: being planted. Now this got worse because it was followed
Speaker 1: up by another act, the infamous Stamp Act of seventeen
Speaker 1: sixty five. And again I called this episode the boiling
Speaker 1: pot because I think what you have to imagine is
Speaker 1: a situation between the British and their American colonists, much
Speaker 1: like a pot on the stove, and it's getting close
Speaker 1: to boiling over. Every once in a while it'll start
Speaker 1: to go down a little bit, but the heat just
Speaker 1: keeps getting turned up. Year and year things seem to
Speaker 1: get a little bit worse. And the Stamp Act of
Speaker 1: sixty five is a huge part of that because it
Speaker 1: required now that all newspapers, legal documents, licenses, even playing
Speaker 1: cards carry a revenue stamp. This was the first direct
Speaker 1: internal tax Parliament had ever levied on the colonies. And
Speaker 1: let me explain the clarity. What I mean by that
Speaker 1: is colonists were used to paying duties, so import dues
Speaker 1: on things that they got from colonies that belonged to
Speaker 1: maybe France or Spain, that they had never paid attax
Speaker 1: on something that went from the colony of New York
Speaker 1: to the colony of Massachusetts. This was the first time
Speaker 1: the British Parliament had ever attempted to do such a thing.
Speaker 1: And we're still from the colonists perspective, they're not even
Speaker 1: getting anything for it. At least, when you pay a
Speaker 1: duty on molasses, you get the molasses. Here, you just
Speaker 1: have to put a stamp on something that was created
Speaker 1: in the colonies. So from the colonist perspective, they're not
Speaker 1: getting jack for this. Patrick Henry, speaking before the Virginia
Speaker 1: House of Burgesses, electrified the Chamber by declaring Caesar had
Speaker 1: his brutus, Charles the first, his Cromwell, and George the
Speaker 1: third Trees and treason, cried several members, according to the records,
Speaker 1: may profit by their example. If this be treason, make
Speaker 1: the most of it. In Boston, the Sons of Liberty,
Speaker 1: a loose network led by Samuel Adams on effigies of
Speaker 1: stamp distributors from the Liberty Trees. Andrew Oliver, Massachusetts designated
Speaker 1: stamp Agent, resigned after his house was quite literally besieged.
Speaker 1: When delegates from nine colonies met at the Stamp Act
Speaker 1: Congress in New York, they adopted the Declaration of Rights
Speaker 1: and Grievances, asserting that quote no taxes have ever been,
Speaker 1: or ever can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by
Speaker 1: their respective legislatures. The economic boycott that followed hit Britain hard.
Speaker 1: London merchants petitioned Parliament to repeal the law, warning of
Speaker 1: quote the great injury to our trade and loss of
Speaker 1: our manufacturers end quote. Parliament did repeal the Stamp Act
Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty six, but it paired it with an
Speaker 1: important declaratory Act, insisting that it had full power and
Speaker 1: authority to make laws to bind the colonies and people
Speaker 1: of America in all cases whatsoever. And so the pot
Speaker 1: continued to boil. And this was all with them good,
Speaker 1: but it still left to Great Britain in desperate need
Speaker 1: of tax revenue. And so in seventeen sixty seven a
Speaker 1: new Chancellor, Charles Townsend, proposed new import duties on glass, lead,
Speaker 1: paper and tea. He insisted that these were external taxes
Speaker 1: and therefore not objectionable. The colonists disagreed. John Dickinson's widely
Speaker 1: read Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania countered the Parliament
Speaker 1: unquestionably possesses a legal authority to regulate the trade of
Speaker 1: Great Britain and her colonies. I have looked at every
Speaker 1: other statue relating to these colonies, find every one of
Speaker 1: them founded on this principle. Tell the Stamp Act administration,
Speaker 1: all duties for the purpose of raising a revenue are illegal.
Speaker 1: End quote. Colonial assemblies revived hitherto unused non importation agreements
Speaker 1: in efforts to boycott British goods and therefore force the
Speaker 1: mother country into submission. British officials in Boston found the
Speaker 1: situation so fraught that they had to call for Redcoat reinforcements.
Speaker 1: In seventeen sixty eight, two regiments of Redcoats marched into
Speaker 1: the city of Boston, an armed reminder of Imperial power,
Speaker 1: but the presence of troops in Boston created a tense
Speaker 1: powder keg atmosphere. On the evening of March the fifth,
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy, an argument between a soldier in a wigmaker's
Speaker 1: apprentice drew a crowd Snowballs gave way to rocks and clubs,
Speaker 1: and the confusion soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five,
Speaker 1: including Crispus Attics, a man of both African and Native
Speaker 1: descent who's often cited as the first casualty of the
Speaker 1: American Revolution. Paul Revere's engraving, which was widely circulated, depicted
Speaker 1: disciplined Redcoats simply firing into an unarmed crowd. Samuel Adams
Speaker 1: called it a massacre, using the event to rally public opinion. Now,
Speaker 1: the British captain Thomas Preston insisted that he had not
Speaker 1: ordered his men to fire future Patriot leader, though John
Speaker 1: Adams actually defended the British soldiers in court, and he
Speaker 1: reminded the jury that quote facts are stubborn things end quote,
Speaker 1: and that the law needed to apply evenly, even to enemies,
Speaker 1: that most of the soldiers were in fact acquitted. On
Speaker 1: that same day, Parliament quietly repealed most of the Townsend duties,
Speaker 1: retaining only the tax on tea. Oh, if only that
Speaker 1: were enough. The next flashpoint came with the t Act
Speaker 1: of seventeen seventy three, designed to aid the struggling British
Speaker 1: East India Company. It allowed the company to sell tea
Speaker 1: directly to the colonies, cheaper than smuggled British tea, but
Speaker 1: still taxed under the Townsend Acts. In a pamphlet, Samuel
Speaker 1: Adams warned that quote the monopoly on tea is a
Speaker 1: very dangerous precedent. If they have a right to tax
Speaker 1: us without our consent, they have a right to tax
Speaker 1: us in all things. On December sixteenth, seventeen seventy three,
Speaker 1: a group of men disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three
Speaker 1: ships in Boston Harbor and dumped three hundred and forty
Speaker 1: two chests of tea into the water. One participant later
Speaker 1: recalled quote, we were merry in an undertone. But no
Speaker 1: one uttered a word above his breath, and no one
Speaker 1: in the course of the whole transaction appeared to be
Speaker 1: under any apprehension of danger. Parliament's response to the Boston
Speaker 1: Tea Party was swift and punitive. The coercive acts, which
Speaker 1: get called the intolerable acts if you are in America,
Speaker 1: closed Boston Harbor until the tea was paid for, which,
Speaker 1: if you're interested in knowing, the price tag on that
Speaker 1: in today's dollars was tens of millions of dollars. They
Speaker 1: also altered the Massachusetts Charter to limit town meetings. They
Speaker 1: allowed royal officials accused of crimes to be tried not
Speaker 1: in the Americas but back in Britain, and they expanded
Speaker 1: the ordering of British troops. The Quebec Act, passed at
Speaker 1: the exact same time, extended Quebec's boundaries into the Ohio
Speaker 1: Valley and recognized Kipolicism as an official religion, which was
Speaker 1: deeply upsettling to many Protestant colonists in the Americas. In Virginia,
Speaker 1: George Washington wrote to a friend that quote, the cause
Speaker 1: of Boston, the cause of America is now and ever
Speaker 1: will be considered as the cause of every virtuous American.
Speaker 1: In September of seventeen seventy four, delegates from twelve colonies
Speaker 1: met in Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress. They agreed
Speaker 1: to a colonial boycott of British goods, issued a declaration
Speaker 1: of rights and grievances, and called on each colony to
Speaker 1: prepare its militia. But King George the Third was on move.
Speaker 1: Before we go any further in this story, let's take
Speaker 1: a moment and let's go ahead and introduce George the Third,
Speaker 1: because obviously he's going to be an important character coming forward.
Speaker 1: George William Frederick was born on June fourth, seventeen thirty
Speaker 1: eight at Norfolk House in London. He was the son
Speaker 1: of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxy Gotha.
Speaker 1: As the grandson of George the Second, George was not
Speaker 1: initially the heir apparent. His father was young and healthy,
Speaker 1: in the line of succession seemed secure. George's childhood was
Speaker 1: shaped by his mother's influence and a sheltered, moralistic upbringing.
Speaker 1: Augusta instilled in him a sense of duty, frugality, and
Speaker 1: religious devotion, qualities that would mark his reign as both
Speaker 1: virtues and sometimes limitations. He was also an unusually diligent
Speaker 1: student for a royal child, with early tutors noting his
Speaker 1: keen interest in science, agriculture and philosophy. When George was twelve, though,
Speaker 1: tragedy changed his destiny. In seventeen fifty one, his father
Speaker 1: died unexpectedly from a lung injury, making George the new
Speaker 1: heir to the throne. His mother, fiercely protective, oversaw his
Speaker 1: education and surrounded him with advisers that she trusted, most
Speaker 1: notably a man by the name of John Stuart. He
Speaker 1: was the Earl of Brute. He would become George's political
Speaker 1: mentor and of course, one of the most famous political
Speaker 1: scientists of the eighteenth century. And so it was that,
Speaker 1: on the twenty fifth of October in the year seventeen sixty,
Speaker 1: George the Third ascended the throne at the age of
Speaker 1: only twenty two, following the death of his grandfather. His
Speaker 1: coronation marked a break from his Hanoverian predecessors in one
Speaker 1: crucial respect. He was actually born in Britain, and he
Speaker 1: spoke English as his first language, the first of the
Speaker 1: Hanoveran day and estey to do so. In his first
Speaker 1: address to Parliament, he famously declared born and educated in
Speaker 1: this country, a glory in the name of Britain. Now,
Speaker 1: the early years of his reign, of course, were dominated
Speaker 1: by the end of the Seven Years' War, which ended
Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty three, and that, of course, was when
Speaker 1: under William Pitt the Elder, Britain secured major victories against
Speaker 1: France in North America, Indian and on the seas. George,
Speaker 1: eager to assert royal influence over foreign policy, supported the
Speaker 1: peace negotiations that led to the Treaty of Paris in
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty three. While the Treaty, of course expanded Britain's
Speaker 1: colonial empire, it also sattled the government with significant war debts. Now,
Speaker 1: to be fair to George, he believed in upholding Parliament's
Speaker 1: authority over the empire, so he completely supported the efforts
Speaker 1: to try to get some tax revenue out of the colonies,
Speaker 1: including the Sugar Act, the Stamp Acts on and so forth.
Speaker 1: That being said, George's domestic politics were quite turbulent. He
Speaker 1: faced accusations of favoring John Stewart and interfering with parliamentary independence.
Speaker 1: Factionalism in the House of Commons saw ministries rise and
Speaker 1: fall with dizzying speed. Between seventeen sixty and seventeen seventy,
Speaker 1: no fewer than seven different prime ministers served under George
Speaker 1: the Third. The Boston massacre in that same year seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy deepened the rift with America, but at that point
Speaker 1: George still believed that the unrest could be contained through
Speaker 1: firmness and gradual conciliation. Now, the early seventeen seventies brought
Speaker 1: some moments of calm, but as of course we know,
Speaker 1: the t Act and subsequent Tea Party rekindled crisis, and
Speaker 1: all of the actions that Parliament took, including the coercive
Speaker 1: acts aka in tolerable acts, were backed by George, who
Speaker 1: ordered the imperial authority of Parliament and believed that all
Speaker 1: of this was necessary to maintain order. And that takes
Speaker 1: us up to early seventeen seventy five. In early seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy five, General Thomas Gage, the military governor of Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: ordered troops to seize colonial arms at Conquerd in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: On the night of April eighteenth, seventeen seventy five, British
Speaker 1: General Thomas Gage ordered roughly seven hundred regulars to march
Speaker 1: from Boston to Concord, Massachusetts, to seize colonial military supplies
Speaker 1: stored there. Colonial intelligence networks, organized largely by the group
Speaker 1: the Sons of Liberty, had been watching British movements very closely.
Speaker 1: When the Redcoats began their march, Boston silversmith and patriot
Speaker 1: Paul Revere, along with William Dawes and later Samuel Prescott,
Speaker 1: set out to warn the countryside. Revere had arranged a
Speaker 1: pre arranged signal from the Old North Church in Boston
Speaker 1: two lanterns to indicate the troops were crossing the Charles River,
Speaker 1: and then rode swiftly to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams,
Speaker 1: who were stationed in Lexington. Along the way, he stopped
Speaker 1: at homes and taverns, spreading the alarm the regulars are
Speaker 1: coming out. Although Revere was detained by a British patrol
Speaker 1: before he reached Concord, his mission had succeeded. Local militias
Speaker 1: were awake and mobilizing before dawn. At sunrise on April eighteen,
Speaker 1: seventy seventy five British troops arrived in Lexington to find,
Speaker 1: to their great surprise, seventy militiamen just simply waiting on
Speaker 1: the village, Green Captain John Parker, facing overwhelming arms against
Speaker 1: the British regular redcoats, reportedly turned and told to his men,
Speaker 1: quote stand your ground, don't fire unless fired upon. But
Speaker 1: if they need to have a war, let it begin
Speaker 1: here end quote a shot. Its source is still disputed
Speaker 1: rang and the British fired a ali killing eight colonists.
Speaker 1: The troops rushed on to Conquered where they destroyed some supplies,
Speaker 1: but faced armed resistance at the North Bridge. There, colonial
Speaker 1: militiamen exchanged fire with British soldiers, forcing them into a retreat.
Speaker 1: All along the road back to Boston, militiamen fought much
Speaker 1: like the indigenous peoples they had been fighting against in
Speaker 1: the woods and across the hills of Massachusetts for years
Speaker 1: and decades. They poured fire in from behind stone walls
Speaker 1: and trees, running away and melting into the woods before
Speaker 1: the British regulars could form up, and all along inflicted
Speaker 1: heavy casualties on the retreating British. By the day's end,
Speaker 1: the British had lost over two hundred and seventy men,
Speaker 1: and the colonies were effectively at war with their mother country.
Speaker 1: The ride of Revere and his companions, and the skirmishes
Speaker 1: at Lexington and Concord became immortalized as the spark of
Speaker 1: the American Revolution, what Ralph Waldo Emerson later called the
Speaker 1: shot heard around the world. In just over a decade,
Speaker 1: Britain and her colonies had moved from partnership to estrangement,
Speaker 1: from estrangement to war. The disputes began over taxation and policy,
Speaker 1: but each act, protest and reprisal deepened the mistrust until
Speaker 1: reconciliation seemed impossible. As Thomas Paine would later write in
Speaker 1: common Sense, quote, the cause of America is, in a
Speaker 1: great measure the cause of mankind.