History 4 1771-1775

In November 1772 he persuaded the Boston town meeting to establish a committee to urge Patriots to state their own rights, and many had.

In 1773 it's purpose was to provide financial relief to the British East India Company, which was debted. Only the American consumers would pay the duty. It was a plot that encouraged the colonists to buy their tea but also give in to the Townshend duty. Radical Patriots were beginning to use the Committees of Correspondence to lead the organized resistance against the Tea Act.

Governor Hutchinson of Massachussets was determined to uphold the act and had a ship pass through customs immediately so the Sons of Liberty could not prevent its landing. However, Patriots raided the Dartmouth, by disguising themselves as Indians and throwing the tea in the harbor. Instead of repealing the Tea Act in 1774, Parliament made four Coercive Acts to force Mass. into submission. Patriot leaders branded these "Intolerable Acts"

In 1774 passed restricting the western boundaries of Virginia and angering many colonial leaders.

Delegates met in Philedalphia in 1774. They outlined a scheme for a new imperial system that would have checks and balances. However, they ended up passing a Declaration of Rights and Grievances that condemned the Coercive Acts and demanded their repeal. it also repudiated the Declatory Act of 1766. The British branded the congress as an illegal assembly and Lord North imposed a naval blockade on American trade.

Patriots appealed to Yeomem, farmers, and planters

Worried that resistance to Britain would destroy respect for all political intitutions. Rallied to support of Royal governors. Many denounced the Patriot Movement in 1774, accusing it of seeking independence.

The illegal convention of 150 delegates in Massachussets for a Middlesex County Congress advised Patriots to close the royal courts of justice and transfer their allegiance to the House of Representatives. General Thomas Gage of Mass. tried to maintain power of Patriots.

Colonists ready to face British troops at a moments notice.

Lord Dartmouth ordered Gage to use force against force and he captured colonial leaders at Concord on 1775. But Paul Revere and two other Bostonians warned the Patriots and the minutemen met the British first at Lexington and then at Concord. 73 British soldiers were dead and 49 American militia were killed.