American History Lesson 49: Continental Congress

In this lesson I learned about the Continental Congress. After the British closed the port of Boston, a movement for the colonies to unite began to form. This of course stemmed from Massachusetts, for without the active support of the other colonies, Massachusetts would be left alone to face the might of the British Empire. The First Continental Congress was held in 1774 at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia. While they hoped it would be the last they would have to hold it, a second Continental Congress would be held in 1775, managing the colonial war effort. Ultimately, the Congress becomes a government by accident, and though its members put off the final step, the British force it by going to invade New York. The Congress, not being able to delay any longer sign the formal Declaration of Independence.

As there was no screencast, I watched Liberty! The American Revolution Part II.

American History Lesson 48: Coordinating Resistance

In this lesson I learned about Coordinating Resistance. As there was no screencast I watched a video documentary on the American Revolution.

American History Lesson 47: Boston Tea Party

In this lesson I learned about the Boston Tea Party. Dr. North started with his theory of revolution, which he said i fairly conventional. He said that revolutions must change the legal order, which he drew from Harold Berman. If the activity looks like revolution but does not change the legal order it is not revolution, it is a Coup d’état. Revolutions are never spontaneous, they are always planned and initially, they are planned by small groups of elites. Despite this planning, there are always something that aren’t foreseen, and revolutions can quickly get out of hand.

The fundamental issues that led to the Boston Tea Party did not involve the colonists’ dislike of a certain beverage. The main issue was ultimately sovereignty. The British Parliament thought itself sovereign, including over the colonies. The colonies however though that colonial legislatures should be sovereign. The saying “No taxation without representation” was a subset of the primary issue, relating to the colony’s fiscal sovereignty. The colonists were also upset about indirect taxation, about how Parliament thought they could tax the East India Company, which would pass the taxes onto the colonists, in effect taxing them. Other sellers of tea were also upset because the East India Company was a monopoly, and was able to sell for lower prices than them even if they smuggled it in. There was the battle in political leadership between Adams and Hutchinson, the governor of Massachusetts. On the Parliament’s side, they were tired of sending designated agents into the colonies only for them to be attacked. Finally there was the matter of the solvency of the East India Company, it may have been a monopoly on the sale of tea since 1721, but this monopoly was not over the retail sale of tea.

Those were the main issues, and notice I did not mention that the level of taxation was one of them. Of course the colonist didn’t like the taxes, but they were very minimal in most cases. What the colonists really disliked was what the taxes represented, the Parliament’s sovereignty. Another issue that was peripheral was that of smuggling, Parliament didn’t care too much about the smugglers, they were able to make the East India Company so much of a monopoly that even smuggled goods costed more than the EIC’s goods.

While on the topic of the East India Company, why don’t we delve a bit deeper into the situation it was in. The EIC had had the monopoly over the sale of tea in North America since 1721. It had been unprofitable, it was jut sitting there with a huge inventory of tea. The EIC needed somewhere to sell its inventory, and the Parliament thought that that place was North America. So taxes were reduced in England in order to make it competitive, and the EIC sold directly to the four big cities in the colonies, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Parliament also taxed the imports in order to pay the governors, which got the colonial legislators out of the loop. The colonial legislators had previously paid the governors, but by imposing this tax and directing some funds to the governors, the Parliament was able to assert their dominance over the colonies. In turn this gave the protesters in the colonies a target which any revolution needs in order to persuade the masses to join.

In the same way that an enemy is needed to persuade people against, people also need a symbol, and that’s what the Boston Tea Party was, a symbol. From a public relations standpoint, this symbolic action was genius. However it worked both ways, as a symbol and as an action worth punishing on the Parliament’s side. It was also a huge loss of money for the shippers, though I have used the word symbol a lot, the money lost was very real, and someone had to pay it. Parliament didn’t want to pay it, and the colonists didn’t want to pay it.

Initially Massachusetts was to be the only colony punished, they threw the tea into the water. All merchants in Boston would be effected as the port was closed, all merchants in Boston faced bankruptcy. So Adams coordinated an inter colonial response, saying that if the other colonies didn’t back Massachusetts, they would be next. As a result the Continental Congress of 1774 was formed.

American History Lesson 46: Freemasonry

In this lesson I learned about freemasonry. Freemasonry was the first widespread organization to support religious toleration and liberty, and it would be through it that those principles would be spread throughout America. Though according to a book called Masonic Membership of the Founding Fathers by Ronald E. Heaton, only eight of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence were freemasons. However it is apparent that their initiation affected them and changed how each of them thought.

American History Lesson 45: Liberty! The American Revolution (1997), Part 1

In this lesson I watched a documentary called Liberty! The American Revolution.