Unit 3 (1754-1800):

○​ 1754 was the start of the French and Indian War

○​ 1800 was the peaceful transfer of power from Federalists to
Democratic-Republicans

●​ French and Indian War (also known as the 7 years' War) (1754)
○​ Began as a border dispute between the French and English about the Ohio River
Valley area
○​ The British kept losing initially, leading to the calling of a congress to set up a
more organized response to frontier defense (along with trade and westward
expansion)
■​ Ben Franklin proposed his Albany Plan of Union, which called for a
more centralized government of the colonies, but the additional taxes it
would require caused it to fail
■​ Laid the mold for the future revolutionary congress
○​ British eventually won by signing the Treaty of Paris (1763). Results:
■​ The French were almost completely kicked out of America
■​ English almost doubled land holdings (all east of the Mississippi)
○​ Consequences of the war:
■​ Colonists started to move westward, angering Natives and leading to the
Royal Proclamation of 1763, which set the line that Colonists couldn't
pass (the Appalachian mountains)
●​ Angered colonists who fought in the war and wanted its rewards
■​ This war was EXPENSIVE and increased English debt significantly,
causing the English to implement TAXES

●​ Taxation w/o representation:

●​ To pay for the French and Indian War, Britain decided to make the colonies shoulder the
burden, ENDING SALUTARY NEGLECT
○​ This angered colonists extremely, creating more separation between them and
the mainlanders
○​ Parlement began with:
■​ Stricter enforcement of the already existing Navigation Acts (Required
merchants to engage in trade in the English colonies and English-owned
ships)
●​ Colonists had been routinely ignoring this rule with smuggling
■​ Quartering Act of 1765: Even though the war was over, imperial troops
would stay in the colonies to enforce these new rules. Also stated that it
was the Colonists' responsibility to feed and house the troops (if the
quarters were inadequate)
■​ Sugar Act: Imposed taxes on Coffee, Wine, and other luxury items
 ■​ Stamp Act: Tax on all paper items (newspapers, playing cards, contracts,
marriage licenses, etc)
●​ Already dealing with declining wages and increasing
unemployment, this made it so much worse
○​ These Taxes started the argument of whether it was just to tax the
colonists if they were not represented in parliament
■​ British fought back by saying they were represented with Virtual
Representation: British representatives represented every CLASS of
citizen, not necessarily every area
●​ This argument wasn't effective on colonists who had gotten used
to their local governments
○​ Groups like the Sons and Daughters of Liberty sprang up to fight for the repeal
of the Stamp Act with protests and going as far as death threats to tax collectors
○​ Representatives from 9 colonies met in New York as the Stamp Act Congress
■​ Resulted in a formal appeal to parliament for the Stamp Acts repeal, with
the main argument of taxation w/o representation = tyranny
■​ Still did so as loyal subjects to the royal crown
■​ Congress DID listen and repealed the Stamp and Sugar Acts the
following year, but passed the Declaratory Act (gave them the official
right to pass any law in the colony at any time) at the same time
○​ The Debts still existed, leading to the passing of the Townshend Acts (1767):
placed taxes on items imported to the colonies (ex. Paper, Glass, Tea)
■​ Because of the success of protesting the Stamp Act, colonists created
highly organized protests from people of all social classes, with the main
point being to boycott British goods
●​ The boycott especially relied on women who began spinning yarn
to make clothes, brewing homemade tea, etc
○​ All these tensions between the colonists and the British boiled to the surface
during the Boston Massacre
■​ A young group of men and boys began harassing a group of British
soldiers, and a shot was somehow fired, leading to more on both sides
■​ Ended with 4 dead colonists and 11 wounded
■​ RESULTS: To the colonists, this was proof of increased British tyranny
○​ Another public resistance to the British was the Boston Tea Party (1773)
■​ Response to the Tea Act of 1773: Gave the British East India Company a
monopoly on tea, which had angered the colonists who used to smuggle
in tea from the Dutch
■​ A group of colonists boarded British ships and dumped 45 tons of tea into
the harbor
■​ RESULTS: The British passed the Coercive Acts, which closed down
the harbor till all the tea was paid for. The Colonists called them the
Intolerable Acts
 ○​ Leaders from the colonies gathered in the First Continental Congress (1774)
and agreed that the colonies needed to resist any further encroachment on their
liberties, but did so as people who still wanted to REMAIN British subjects
■​ Enlightenment ideas significantly influenced this, specifically Natural
Rights (people are given rights by god, not government) and the Social
Contract
○​ In 1776, the congress met again as the Second Continental Congress and was
still debating how to respond, even after shooting began in Lexington & Concord.
■​ But they did eventually conclude that independence was the only option.
■​ Keep in mind that these were the ELITES of the colonies; most people
still hadn't been convinced of this conclusion yet
○​ Thomas Paine’s Common Sense argued that the only rational solution to move
forward w/America was to separate from England using masterful reasoning and
enlightenment ideas
■​ Spread like wildfire, and most colonists had become convinced
○​ The 2nd continental Congress then tasked Thomas Jefferson with writing the
Declaration of Independence
■​ On July 2nd of 1776, the Declaration was shown and adopted
■​ On July 4th of 1776, it was made public and official
○​ Keep in mind that there was still a sizable number of Loyalists in the colonies
who opposed independence

●​ American Revolution:
○​ The Continental Congress approved the assembly of the Continental Army, with
its head being General George Washington
■​ They were ill-equipped, ill-paid, & ill-trained
○​ 1st battle was Lexington and Concord (1775)
○​ The Battle of Saratoga was a crushing defeat for the British and a turning point
in the war because it convinced the French to ally with the Americans
○​ French sent all kinds of supplies
○​ The British ran out of the resources to outlast the Americans with the French’s
Aid, so after their defeat @ the Battle of Yorktown (1781) (Monseuir Hamilton, Monsieur Laffayette! In command, where you belong?),

the British surrendered and the Americans became an independent nation

○​ This successful revolution inspired others around the world, like the French and
Haitian

●​ Confederation period: (end of war - ratification of the Constitution)

○​ All around the revolution period, states created their own constitutions and
governments, with the strongest branch being the legislative
○​ Inspo was taken from above to make the Articles of Confederation:
■​ Officially ratified in 1781
■​ Had many issues, including:
●​ All power was given to the legislative body (no judicial or executive
branches)
 ●​ No mention of a national military
●​ The federal government had very little power to tax
○​ Had to ask states nicely, almost always refused
○​ Problems faced under the Articles of Confederation
■​ Westward migration, despite the proclamation of 1763, led to conflicts
with the natives
●​ Solution: Northwest Ordinance of 1781
○​ Provided a plan for the occupation of new territories and
the annexation of new states
■​ Shays’ Rebellion
●​ Farmers had fallen into immense debt during this period, including
Daniel Shays
●​ He gathered 100 angry farmers and mobbed
●​ Was quickly squashed by the state's militia
●​ RESULTS: showed people that there was no National army to
respond to this, or a person to command said army in the Articles
of Confederation, pointing out its weaknesses
○​ The Constitutional Convention was held to revise the articles to fix its
weaknesses, but it became clear that they needed something new altogether. So
they began to create said work and split into 2 distinct groups
■​ Federalists: More urban background, stronger central government
■​ Anti-Federalists: More rural background, weaker central government
○​ The largest argument between the 2 groups was how people would be
represented in Congress
■​ Virginia plan: Represented by population, favored larger states
■​ New Jersey plan: Equal representation regardless of population, favored
smaller states
■​ The solution was the Great Compromise, which created the bicameral
legislature we have now
○​ The other problem was how slaves would be counted for representation
■​ Southern states wanted the advantage of counting the slaves, while
Northern states didn't want this
■​ Solution was the 3/5ths Compromise: for purposes of representation,
each slave was 3/5ths of a person
○​ The Created Constitution included
■​ More robust central government
■​ Separation of powers, with checks and balances
■​ Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches
○​ The last step was ratification from the states
■​ Federalists Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison turned to
the newspapers and wrote the Federalist Papers, which was a collection
of essays to convince the states to ratify the Constitution
■​ Anti-federalists argued against the ratification of the Constitution because
it didn't name out specific rights
 ■​ In order to convince the Anti-Federalist states, the Federalists added the
Bill of Rights, which named out specific rights and protections from the
government that the Anti-Federalists wanted named

●​ American Culture during this period:

○​ There was a strong desire to create a distinct American culture to separate
themselves further from England
○​ Ambitious plans for Education proposed
○​ Artists devoted time to painting historical themes
○​ Although women were not equal to men yet, the development of Republican
Motherhood gave them a new purpose
■​ Republican Motherhood: Mothers were given the role of teaching their
children the political ideas of the new nation

●​ Post-constitution government:
○​ George Washington was elected the 1st president w/ John Adams as vice
■​ He established all the departments within the executive branch
■​ Appointed Alexander Hamilton as the treasurer
●​ He wanted the nation to assume the state's Revolutionary War
debts
●​ Proposed the creation of the national bank
●​ Both ideas were fought by Anti-Federalists bc the Constitution
never explicitly said this was allowed, but he pointed out the
Elastic Clause, which stated the government could pass any law
as long as it was “Necessary and Proper”
●​ All plans passed, and had the same effects he planned
○​ Whiskey Rebellion:
■​ One of Hamilton's ideas included taxing whiskey, which was not received
well by the poor farmers
■​ These farmers tried to attack and kill the tax collectors
■​ Washington sent in the National Militia to squash the rebellion,
■​ This was seen as federal overreach, and enraged people opposed to the
federalists, who created the Democratic Republicans
●​ Leaders of Thomas Jefferson & James Madison
○​ After 2, 4-year terms as president, George Washington did not run again in order
not to become a king and teach the people to move on. He left the people with
hard-earned advice in Washington’s Farewell Address. In this, he cautioned
against
■​ political parties
■​ Getting entangled in foreign affairs
○​ John Adams was elected as the 2nd president, and his term didn’t go so well
■​ War broke out between England and France.
●​ He attempted to stay neutral, but the French kept seizing
American ships
 ●​ He sent 3 American diplomats to solve the issue, but before they
could even sit down, they were met with French demands for a
bribe
●​ The diplomats refused and went public in what came to be known
as the XYZ affair (bc the French diplomats were never named
outside of X, Y, & Z)
●​ Enragement crossed all party lines
■​ He then passed the Alien and Sedition Acts to disarm his political
enemies
●​ The Alien Acts made it legal and easy to deport any non-citizen
●​ The Sedition Acts made it illegal to criticize the government
publicly
●​ Was just another example of federal overreach seen by the
Democratic-Republicans, leading to
○​ The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions: Both the states
of Virginia and Kentucky stated that any law passed by the
feds that was clearly unconstitutional could be nullified by
the states
■​ Because of how rough his term went, he failed to be reelected, replaced
by
○​ Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the United States, and 1st
Democratic-Republican
■​ Revolution of 1800: The shocking and peaceful transfer of power from
the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans
●​ This could’ve very much been the end of America if it went poorly,
but instead, every man decided to be the better man

●​ Relations between the USA, Britain, Spain, & Natives

○​ Common concern from many political leaders from the Washington
administration to here, of their threat to US political independence
○​ To deal w/ Native conflicts bc of westward migration, Congress passed the
Indian Trade and Intercourse Act, which Regulated the relationships between
natives and Americans for fair trade
■​ Americans largely ignored this law, angering natives (and the English who
supported them)
○​ Conflicts w/Spain on the southern border were cleared up w/ the Pinkney Treaty,
which officially decided the border between the US and Spain

●​ The legacy of Slavery

○​ As the Americans settled into independence, each region formed its own opinion
about slavery and whether or not it should be legal
■​ Northern states saw a rapid increase in free Black Americans, resulting in
their opinion of Anti-slavery
■​ The Southern states' Black population was mostly enslaved, leading to
their opinion of pro-slavery
●​ As these people moved westward, they brought their slaves with
them, establishing slavery in areas that had never seen it before