Part I of this web page was borrowed from the Microsoft Encarta web site:  "French and Indian War," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com  © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.  If you need help with research on any topic, the Encarta site is great place to start.   The ideas, thoughts, and words in Part II on this page were compiled from the U.S. Embassy web site in Sweden. Some wording and phrases from the both of the original sources in Part I and II have been slightly edited / modified for middle school use by Sam Greene.  To view the source article for Part II, navigate to the following links: http://www.usemb.se/usis/history/chapter3.html

Prior to reading this passage, make sure you've previewed the questions to focus your reading of this article.  This is a reading strategy you can and should use in all your classes.

"The revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people." Former President John Adams, 1818  

PART I:

Before the French and Indian War, Britain had not closely controlled its colonies. British leaders regarded the colonial governments as subordinate bodies, subject to the sovereign authority of king and Parliament.  Consequently, the colonists developed a political and economic system that was virtually independent. They were loyal, although somewhat uncooperative, subjects of the crown.

The French and Indian War was a determined and eventually successful attempt by the British to become the dominant force in North America.  The French and Indian War, which lasted from 1754-1763, not only stripped France of its North American empire, but it also caused Britain to reevaluate its relationship with its colonies, a change that eventually led to the American Revolution.

When Britain began fighting in 1754 with a national debt of approximately 75 million pounds, but the war effort caused the debt to soar to 133 million pounds by 1763. Americans had benefited substantially from these military expenditures. They had received a million pounds in direct subsidies and millions more in contracts for food, supplies, and transport for the British military forces in America. Given the size of the British debt and the extent of American prosperity, British leaders saw no feasible alternative to taxing the colonists.

Britain’s first step to reduce their large war debts accumulated during the French and Indian War, was for Parliament to pass the Stamp Act in 1765.  The act was intended to generate revenues that would help pay for part of the cost of maintaining a permanent force of British troops in the American colonies. All official documents, including deeds, mortgages, newspapers, and pamphlets, had to bear British government stamps in order to be deemed legal. Britain's demands soon led the colonists to active resistance and paved the way for the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America.

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PART II:

Americans today think of the War for Independence as a revolution, but in some ways it was also a civil war. American Loyalists, or "Tories" as their opponents called them, opposed the Revolution, and many took up arms against the rebels or Patriots. Estimates of the number of Loyalists range as high as 500,000, or 20 percent of the white population of the colonies.

What motivated the Loyalists? Most educated Americans, whether Loyalist or Revolutionary, accepted John Locke's theory of natural rights and limited government. Thus, the Loyalists, like the rebels, criticized such British actions as the Stamp Act and the Coercive Acts. Loyalists wanted to pursue peaceful forms of protest because they believed that violence would give rise to mob rule or tyranny. They also believed that independence would mean the loss of economic benefits derived from membership in the British mercantile system.

Loyalists came from all walks of life. The majority were small farmers, artisans and shopkeepers. Not surprisingly, most British officials remained loyal to the Crown. Wealthy merchants tended to remain loyal, as did Anglican ministers, especially in Puritan New England. Loyalists also included some blacks (to whom the British promised freedom), Indians, indentured servants and some German immigrants, who supported the Crown mainly because George III was of German origin.

The number of Loyalists in each colony varied. Recent estimates suggest that half the population of New York was Loyalist; it had an aristocratic culture and was occupied throughout the Revolution by the British. In the Carolinas, back-country farmers were Loyalist, whereas the Tidewater planters tended to support the Revolution.

The Paris Peace Treaty required Congress to restore property confiscated from Loyalists. The heirs of William Penn in Pennsylvania, for example, and those of George Calvert in Maryland received generous settlements. In the Carolinas, where enmity between rebels and Loyalists was especially strong, few of the latter regained their property. In New York and the Carolinas, the confiscations from Loyalists resulted in something of a social revolution as large estates were parceled out to yeoman farmers.

About 100,000 Loyalists left the country, including William Franklin, the son of Benjamin, and John Singleton Copley, the greatest American painter of the period. Most settled in Canada. Some eventually returned, although several state governments excluded the Loyalists from holding public office. In the decades after the Revolution, Americans preferred to forget about the Loyalists. Apart from Copley, the Loyalists became non-persons in American history.

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FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR FORTS AND OUTPOSTS

 STAMP ACT TAX STAMPS CIRCA 1765
Courtesy of the Bettman Archive

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