Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures 20240703

Several weeks talking about the revolution, the. Justifications for it, the actual fighting in the wake of it. What do we do having all this freedom and not knowing how to set up a democracy . So well be going that direction. Weve just covered the founding of jamestown in massachusetts in the middle colonies. And last time we were talking about how diverse the colonies were getting not just british, but different people, how much more population, how much were growing, how the economy was booming, and how the great awakening was both dividing. Colonies one from another, or rather people within, the colonies one from the another, but also providing a common experience right . This is where weve come from. Where were going is the revolution. Were talking about wars and were talking about tensions. The theme of today is the colonists were whining freeloaders getting all the benefits of british citizenship. Yep. Without footing any of the cost. Thats the motherland fought to protect them. They then objected to carrying any of the burden for paying their share of the costs of protecting them. Were going to talk about the situation at the end of the last war, what the solutions, including curb the freeloading colonists. Just stay with me on this, okay . Stay with me on this. The european in nations were war over and over and over. By the time you get to george washington, hes telling america to dont get involved in europe. Theres always going war to war with each other and so forth and history coming up to the revolution is experienced enough of that. King williams queen ends working. George is war over and over again. Different reasons having to do with succession and having to do with colonial empires. Some colonies are really thriving and the nations that own them are enriching themselves. Others are jealous of of that. And this is providing extra fuel to the already burning fires of the tensions between the different european nations. So theres a sort of extra of reasons these are happening. They affect the colonies some small degree or another. This is the one that affects the colonies a lot. And in some ways sets the stage for the divisions that going to be talking about. We it the french and indian war. The fighting started, the ohio river valley. In the 70 and 1754, but it officially started and thats why its called the seven years war. The british and the french are at each other, not just in north america, but all over the place. This is a very big war, a very costly war in terms of the seven years war and and north america. Theres and newfoundlan theres fighting quebec city, montreal, fort niagara in western pennsylvania. The french are winning the british are winning. Its a real contest. One of the key turning points in this war is, the Iroquois Confederation taking the side the british and in that way turning the tables on the french and allowing the british to succeed and the french back off. And the winnings in this war are tremendous for britain. Are the colonists who are mostly settled much in maine maine is a part of massachusetts and its very sparsely. But from here on down, what role are they playing . 40 of the people fighting in north america are in fact troops. Did the british send an army over . Yes. So youve got redcoats who are fighting the sort of trained british army that are fighting, but 40 of those fighting are troops at this time the colonies colonies were very informal. Lets say. And so our professional troops. Thats whats that what won us the war along with the native american allies. What did the colonial troops do . They fought when it was close to their home. They didnt pay when it was further away. When harvest time came, they left the battlefield and went home. Harvest and. So one of the lessons coming out of the seven years war is that going to win a future confer picked. Its going to be the redcoats is going to be our standing our regular army and whats really important is those native American Connections that weve got. What were the effects of the seven years war territory . The french controlled all of this territory and claim armed an awful lot of territory all the way down to louisiana. In 1763, in the peace that the seven years war britain gets all of the territory east of the mississippi. This is a huge part of north america. Much larger the 13 colonies that we had to with that is to say its not doubling the size its more than doubling the size of british holdings. So what did we win out of the seven years war . A massive amount of land, a huge victory. What else are effects of this war . Losses, debt. This was a big fought in the caribbean, fought in north america, fought in other on sea and on land. This was a very big war france is in debt. Britain is in debt. The losses are, real colonial losses we its not like we didnt lose people over here. British losses diverging views of what happened. If youre somebody who lives in massachusetts sits and you were fighting up the Lake Champlain and going to it you have a sense of the way in which you were contribute you were fighting for the british. Thats really different from the view in london where theyre saying the key parts of this are the iroquois and army. What this person did fighting over here not really in the field vision so competing of even the experiences that we just went through. So the seven years war is something that like the great awakening affected the entire set of colonies. Its a common experi. All of the colonies fighting against the french were fearing what was going happen on the frontier with native american. So its bringing us together, but also setting up a little bit of a divide between our perceptions of even how the war was being fought and who was contributing. The british and the colonies. Things make sense. So far. Do ask questions if if something is unclear, i can unclear. So what do we do . In 1763, the french settled by ceding all of these territories by the british have all of these territories now and one thing is clear the british to us to british is that things have to change. Look what just happened with this war and the lessons from it we cant keep going on the way that weve gone in particular, there are three things that we need to make sure dont happen right now or do three things that have to happen. One is that we cannot have any more fighting. We are in debt. We have had this huge victory. We need to consolidate our gains. We have an empire that is worldwide. Now so much territory. We need to make sure that we do not go to war again with the native american tribes in the wye valley. That were the key part of this fight against the french. So they set up a proclamation line. Your book has a your textbook has a nice map of it i should have brought in a map for how long . The Appalachian Mountains saying we can up to that line but we are not going to go past that because we cannot have another war right now. So peace with, native americans, absolutely essential now for the whole empire and for the british north american colonies. Thats one of the things. The second thing is its so clear that the colonies cant take care of themselves. Look at how they were fighting so casual. When the fighting got rough, they run away. Its the british regulate. We have to have a Standing Army in north america. If were going to hold on to these gains. We have to have a standing in north america. Dont fight native americans. Thats one Standing Army, the third one is we are deeply in debt and the entire empire needs to pay for the gains that weve got. That doesnt just mean taxing people in north america. That doesnt mean just taxing people in britain or in bermuda. It means everybody. But we cant single anyone out for special treatment. This we must not do. Were all british. And so we have be equitable in how were fashioning taxes and how were getting people to help pay their share of what was for the entire empire share the british north american colonies got a whole lot of the gain from this they had enemies on all and now they dont what an amazing thing for the first time in the history of, british colonialism in north america. They have peace on their borders. Thats a huge thing that. The British Empire did for british north american colony. But we shouldnt make them pay more than their share, but they should pay their share. So starting in 1764, theres series of acts. The is just over right . The proclamation line of 1763, thats at the end of the war. There wase was fighting for sevn years before that. So right this the sugar we had navigation acts we talked out those the other day those are the ways the british connected the empire. And in essence, they made money if you were violating them you would be paying fees and so forth. But mostly it was to guide trade to britain you have to trans ship things through British Ports to, get to the colonies. And in that way they made money and trans ship things that are exported out of the colonies to the rest of europe. In that way they made money. They were about orienting trade. Now theyre about making money off of the colonies, defraying the expenses of defending, protecting and securing colonies. The colonies had hardly been taxed at all before this, where we taxing people in britain, of course we were all kinds of taxes as taxes on legal documents taxes on goods, certainly real estate, on all of things. Was parliament taxing, the british, north american colonies . Hardly at all, mostly through navigation act stuff. Parliament understanding that they had the right to just as they to everybody is british. Were just taxing different of the empire in 1865 the next year they didnt have enough money coming in the act didnt do it, they needed more. And so is on legal documents and so the stamp might make us think about postage. No, its watermarks on paper if you had a legal document, if youre signing a will, if youre signing a deed, all kinds of things, playing cards, all kinds of things. It has to be on watermarked paper. And thats how they kept track of it. And you paid a tax on the watermark paper. Another attempt to get the colonies to pull their weight you know, are they after this paying more than the british are paying in taxes. They still arent paying much as the british britain are paying in taxes, but at least theyre paying a little bit more. Theyre contributing to all that security that we gave them when our army and with the iroquois were able to push away the french and everything another attempt and we buckled. What a mistake parliament down when unreasoning colonial opposition flared and as a british person, i just have to say what a dramatic mistake, because what this does is teach wisdom that theres something special, that theyre british like the rest of us. Were paying our taxes were not rebelling. They can get a little upset and. We back down. What good is that kind of do you need to teach them a lesson. Along with this, we tried to teach them a lesson. The declaratory actitoesnt rae more money and thats a problem because without the stamp act, were still not getting enou mey into the coffers to pay our debt from the last war. Parliament couple the repeal of the stamp with this act which simply clarified, lets make it clear those guys in the colonies that parliament has sovereignty over the colonies in all cases whatsoever. The right to make laws, the right to tax. If you are fact. Violating those laws, you are a criminal is the law were talking about. This is how society is going to work in this way. Theyre making the colonies at least after this. We were dumb enough to get rid of the stamp act, and so we have a debt problem. But at least theyre that they need abide by the taxes that were setting up for them. And the next year we course have to pass more taxes. We still the debt problem the entire empire needs this help other people are paying it. We need you to pay it. Do place new upon glass lead r paints tea it also tightened enforcement of what weve got there parliament clear in its right to tax. Of course got a right to tax all of the british people everywhere they are in the world. Push forward, legislate lectures it. This is i mean if you laws on the books a parliament is passing them and you have people are objecting to them and saying lets not go along with the laws of britain. Treasonous is not a bad word to use for that the rule of law itself requires you to abide by the laws and they arent. So the governors i mean obviously if these upstart assemblies colonial assemblies are acting in treasonous way, youre going to disband. You cant abide. These in place for several years. And after a terrible disorder and a terrible they to stupidly i would say were repealed they were repealed because of the boston massacre. What a drag today. Nobody wanted this to happen. This was terrible. What hoodlums these young with stes throwing stones at. Soldiers they cornered in a square and were throwing stones and snowballs. The mob was growing, growing. They were cornered. They couldnt get away. And yes, somebody started they fired of this terrible that they fired a volley. This crowd five died. What a tragedy. But why were they there . Why were they being cornered . Why were people pelting them with rocks . I mean, what start . This wasnt the troops is what started this. The colonists throwing stones and like thugs we the same things that any government would do when there is tragedy and disorder we tried to make sure this didnt happen again we should be able to have our army wherever our army needs to be. But we moved it out of boston to make there were no further problems. We repealed most of the town towns and duties except the one against 14 giving in to colonial again i argue this is a mistake that this does is teaches the colonists that theyre you know unable disordered way of living is going to be rewarded by not having to be like the rest the british in the empire were treated they want to be treated as something special. The east India Company we have to pass laws that are of benefit to everybody. And there was a particul pt of the empire, an poant part of the empire, the east India Company, a very Profitable Company previously, was having a hard times it s ar baruptcy and to save it the crown gave a monopoly to this company and it set up more firm. Nobody else is going to be trading for tea in colonies and were going to lower the duties that we had on tea. Remember the towns and duties and 1767 had a duty on tea, lowered it. But even though they lowered the duties and were doing this for the whole empire, instead of celebrating it, they interpreted legal tea. As. What the hells going on. They whipped themselves into frenzy and they dumped tea and were talking about a cup of tea. Were talking about barrels and and 45 tons. This is hundreds, thousands of pounds of tea, private that is destroyed, going into salt water. What do you do in the face of mobs who are destroying private property and thinking thats okay, what do you do in the face of who think that theres something who think that can be freeloaders letting the rest of the empire pay for the benefits that theyre getting and being unwilling to pay. Their way. What you do is you crack down. What else can you do . We tried else. We tried to be nice, which we even backed off on some of tax. We were clear. Does it declare theratory act . But in the wake of this parliament passed a nof acts. Note the plural. To bring this colony. We having such a problem South Carolina with the tidewater it was massachusetts. Since that was being such a problem right now. And so were going to be measured. Were not going to make everybody pay. Were going to make them pay. These acts closed. Bostons port restricted the represent it of governing body that we could not trust longer look at how they were acting. Were going to try british in england. Are you thinking were going to try british officials, which could include soldiers, by the way, in mass issues. Its theres no way we could get free trial there. And we authorized the army has to be where it has to be the quartering of troops wherever they were needed content for the law mom behave youre freeloading cannot be condoned. Next 30 seconds think about this. All right. You colonists, you america. Hence, can you poke holes in any of my arguments there . You freeloading people, you. Am i wrong with any of this . How would you. How would you phrase it . Yeah. Speaking generally by saying. Oh, rights forever or this forever, when it was really just like people basically it was a whole bunch to talk about. Yes. Okay, good thats nice. Other things that come to mind. Yeah, i was kind of being told from the british point of view, i was just a little bit. Yeah, but it was that point of view, the right point of view and maybe our Elementary Schools and middle schools and high schools where youve learned a rather different story about this are wrong. Whats wrong here. Yeah, well, i never once said it was very honestly biased towards british. There was no explore blaming the colonial motive england outside of that one part where you said that like someone who fought on side of the colonists during civil war, thats awesome. But that was really hadnt yet flipped into my british persona yet at moment. But yeah so its not giving the justification. Did you have something of it . No, no. And yeah, i was kind of going to say that in high school, ive never this point here is that true . Yeah, they no reason for doing anything. The Boston Tea Party looks like a school that we did it. I actually dont think i knew why i was in the boston. Its a party know it was it was lovely. No thats not the way that it was taught im sure but nevertheless is a perspective that we dont tend to get a until you get to college until start like on that first day flipping the map from one side to another. What does it look from another perspective . This is a different perspective, but the piece that i want to i to press just a little bit harder on is any of this wrong. Yeah, i dont it isnt necessarily wrong. So i guess more broadly, maybe bias point towards the british. I feel like main points of mean both points view and see like you know where each person is coming from environmental and technology so im not necessarily wrong. Im glad that i was able to present it to you and youre not rejecting it. Was there anything that was particularly convince singh . Was there a piece of evidence or slide or something that you felt like, wow, thats to think about. Was there something that was less convincing. I think im going to leave that. But i want you to keep mulling that over. And weve got another bit that im going to do and then im going to be asking some similar questions toward the end and pull that. What was most convincing from this side from that side . This is what i put up right at the beginning and then this awful, stupid british professor trotted on a tirade where he was saying unbelievably mean about our colonies free. That is mean. Well, could you guys bring this here or just find this . Were in the middle of a class . Well talk later. Yeah, that was very interesting. Freeloading colonies. Thats just insulting, whining. Good lord, what is the matter with this guy getting all the benefits . Well, of course they should have benefits. Paying for their what . Not only do pay something in the navigation, but we pay taxes ourselves to the colonialism, to the colonies. Our assemblies have tax power and weve been paying taxes ourselves to ourselves. We have been running things within our own colony. If were not paying as much as other people to the empire, or maybe thats something to talk about, dont talk about us not paying taxes. So this just in. So you want to know what we should be talking about . We need to. The tyranny of t british. The british turned away from their faith and liberty is whats going on here in the wake of the seven years war over and again parliament demonstrated that it had abandoned its sense democracy abandoned its defense of us and obviously, by the time you get the coercive acts, i would say obviously its goal of this is a word that you need to keep in mind for the next 20 years of American History usurping, taking away the power and authority of the colonies, especially the colonial assemblies, the colonial assemblies are more democratic than parliament, not in britain. Votes for parliament. Not everybody in the colonies vote for the colonial assemblies either. But more a greater percentage of men, white men. Im just being realistic here are voting for their elected officials in. The assemblies then voted in britain for the parliament. Its more democratic and undercutting that thats undercutting us. And for generation boys, weve had a way that weve dealt with the motherland, with britain, and they are violating the way in which we have done business all the way through this period. We did not start with violent. We did not start this process after. The seven years war thinking, these wild thoughts that this british professor trotter was talking about. We were measured, offended yes, we were offended. We were offended by the by the line drawn through the Appalachian Mountains. The proclamation we went territory like england, like european powers. When any war that they thats what you do is you settle up at the end of a war by trading territories you can see that throughout the history europe thats what happened here and britain gained all these territories theyre saying dont go there. What the hell is that to . Start with is insulting that we now all of this land and we have tripled the size of british north america and youre saying oh but stay right here on the east coast thats insulting. This is insulting. So what have we do we were measured. We were calm we had our largest who protested to parliament directly that, you know we are taxing the colonists and this is an increase judgment upon the colonialists wembleys authority to tax. This is where we started to get a little up in arms and for good reason legal documents throughout the colonies. Nobody can avoid this tax. This is a way of pulling every body into a moneymaking venture that weve never had before for us. No, for us. For things that are going on in the rest of the empire. A storm of protests, of course, did this is affecting everybody body legislatures resolve. Oppose the stamp act. Were getting our act together. We just started petitioning. Were going to continue petition, but a lot more strongly. And there are some who are going to be in mass protests. So some hands, some violence im not condoning the violence, but there was some violence. Stamp act official where tarred and feathered, their houses broken into and stuff like that. A movement to boycott British Goods was under way that put pressure on british merchants who put Pressure Parliament and they repealed the act why would they repeal the act . Because it was wrong we knew it was wrong. It was clear that it was wrong. This is not the way weve done business with britain and with empire and they are imposing upon us and our colonial assemblies ability, tax and this how we are right. Who cares about this, blah blah blah. You had to say few things to cover your. When you backtrack from having the wrong policy. We didnt pay much toand why would we say what you need to say in order to get to the place where you do in the right thing . Youre taxing again the next year . Well versed now in how we had practice by this point, columnists are boycotting British Goods. Theres a circular thats sent around to colonies about how to defy the duties. Its not. Its three more years. They actually come down, but they come down. Why do they come down . Because of the horrific violence against im going to call them martyr to liberty. These people who were stand up to having a stand. So you need a Standing Army in north america. Okay. Put them on the frontier. Youre going put them in boston. Why the hell do you need a r army . I mean, red army. Im sorry. The red coats. Well, that would be quite a different, wouldnt it . The red army and in this moment was now the red coats in boston and housed on boston common. This is not the british army protect, the colonies. This is the british army intimidating the colonies. You dont put them in an urban area full of british people. If its to manage the british people. So is a terrible thing. This of course it is. Whos to blame the people who brought this army to are to blame heartless as the soldiers werent there to protect us. They were there to intimidate. It was inevitable all that there was going to be a conflict conflict. And instead of celebrate the lonies somehow and what hell is that . We got tea from the dutch, as well as thenish a. Now we cant cheaper tea from the dutch you brought down the price. What you did is try to cage us into a monopoly and under guise of lowering the duties up the enforce cement that us rigidly tied in to. You know its not like it was just tea like it is now tea was the most popular drink the time it was a central part of british and britain and the british colonies life for the last decade made parliament overstepping its bounds year after year after year. Its not like we werent telling how theyre being. We told them, petitioned them. We got out in the streets and petition them this is just example, sneaking the of taxation by the people. These are patriots who decided youve got in fact hit them in the pocketbook theyre not listening to us. Lets throw the tea, the sea and then see what they think of that. The of liberty is alive in the colonies is where the hell is it . Gone in britain. Are they trying to enslave slave or british sons and daughters they. Thats what it seems like from this moment. And then you know, you push somebody far enough and they show their true colors and we push them and look at what they showed all of the colonies, not just massachusetts. Massachusetts freaki about this. Of course, its about to destroy the colony, but all the coloi mean,utng off the port is cutting the lifeblood of massachusetts thats trying to kill the colony. All of the colonies are respond to this ending the, you know, limiting and ending democracy in massachusetts what i give away. What is it you care about making money off of us . What is it youre willing to sacrifice . Apparently the lives of colonists, the massacre democracy itself, and the lifeblood of. This colony. Youre. Who your true nature. Or does parliament have the right to such laws usurping the rights of colonists, forcing its way . This is the moment that we have a Continental Congress that meets in 1774 for the first time in which representatives from all of the colonies come to try to figure out how you respond to this kind of in hunger. Rebel. Series acts against us us. 30 seconds was anything here raw. Now . Not really. Thats not what the issue is. Was anything here biased or was i just telling the truth . Yeah, i think, like, just both sides. Sides hillary as a threat. And i think that like, i mean, time one side did something they emphasized just chuck it very aggressively and like with like that here it was like, oh im lowering your taxes on the kids and that if i were to vote for the colonies, it was like, youre trying to trick us into whatever into whatever welfare, right . Yes. Excellent. Other responses. Whats going on here . Is anything wrong. Was there a particular part that was convincing you or now having heard the other side less convincing than it was when you heard some of these arguments in middle school in high. Yeah, i then like just to realize that the colonies kind of said, yeah, were not going to pay taxes and all the very same reason. Well i dont they never framed like that. I framed it like that as a historian, they werent framing it in comparative terms to what other people talking about. But very good point that that that issue is one that seems from historians to be pretty darn important and at the time i dont know that everybody knew what other people were paying. You know, sometimes i like this class and so ive been teaching this since before you were born. This this and this, the class period. And i like this one a lot. And thats why i chose it to be one that might be filmed. Because every time i do it, i convince myself the revolution was stupid. And then i convinced myself that it was a good thing. And you can convince yourself of both of those things with the facts that at hand. It is not that there is one part of the evidence. Thats right. And the other part is wrong it is that it depen is on how you look at it, which is the way life i mean, life is complicated, like that so so so yeah. The, the piece that gets me the most is the one that youre youre poking at there read, which if the color is really understood how much in taxes people were paying in britain would they have felt differently about taxes that they were asked to pay. They didnt understand that and people werent setting it up in that way. And it just makes me wonder, is communication really problem . Just if they had talked to each other a little better, would we not had a revolution . Other things that from looking at this other side, american doctor, tragedy was talking about this that come to the fore for you that stand out as being either more convincing or less convincing in this side of the argument. Okay. How do we reconcile directly competing perspectives directly competing use of some of the same evidence . Just looking at it from lines or valuing it differently, do we find meaning in this moment . What an credit. Only important moment in the development of the United States right on on the edge of deciding im going to pick up a gun and start shoot at people in red coats who i was fighting next to 12 years before i. Mean imagine what it would take for somebody who thought of themselves an eight in 1763 and four and five as british. And then one of my next im a virginian. One of my way later down the list an american what the hell at i mean it is in a class vacation yet to think of yourself as somehow united the other 13 colonies. So how do you how do you get from this place of im british british to let me pick up a gun and shoot the british. Thats a what in 12 years. And so this is a really important moment and figuring out meaningful in this moment is a lot what were going to be doing in the next couple of weeks. Were starting it now. Were going to be do it in the next couple of weeks. What does this add up to . Thats a sort of know. Where does this leave you in thinking about this conflict . And i want you to talk to the person next to you about anything in terms of this, for or one minute or maybe two, just to get wheels going on this. And were going to talk about together. All right. I like a lot of the conversations im hearing little bits and pieces of, but i get tired of not being a part of the conversation because im extremely selfcentered. And so i want us to talk as a group about anything. You guys were just talking about that sort of, leaping up to the fore for. Yeah. James of i was saying that i dont think that even having the seven years war that the colonists really identified as british because like you said they didnt fight far away from their homes. They went back to their farms during harvest time. So they cared about defending their own, their own colonies more than the. And yes, i think they just shared a mutual, which is why they were together. I dont think that they were british. Okay. So maybe the era of benign neglect and that we talked about last time, the ways in which the british were hands off and governing the colonies and letting them do more of their own thing led to a sort of underground separation that becomes when you have all of this conflict. But maybe there was more separation that was already there. Is that fair to say . I think thats a really interesting thing to think about. Thats thats really rich other things that you guys have that came out of your conversations you were just having. What does this add up to . You know . We talking about it just adding it all. The 13 colonies joining is one and opinionated and eventually okay, thats definitely the direction we go in where the separation just in facts get gets more and more were going to be looking at conquered massachusetts in a book that were looking at and were going to be seeing this sort of process out with individuals, individual community. But one of the key moments were going to be talking about in a future class period is once you start. Its really hard to go back. Theres blood thats been spilled now and so once conquered in lexington happened in 1775, thats a sort of increasingly step separating kind of kind of thing. Can we hold more than perspective in our mind at the same time and say both are legitimate or do we need to pick . Are you picking one . Are you deciding one is right and one is wrong . Is where youre going to land with this . Why not . I think tend to look for like i look at my notes. I had 200 page one person couple, you know, like i kind of like formulate my own ideas based off like what makes more sensible from inside my own point of view. I think everybody has their own point of view. Its sort of like, yeah, i hope so. Yeah. Processing it and finding is most compelling on one side or on the other, just by show of nods or Something Like that, or raised or something. Are you guys thinking some of the arguments the british were making made more sense than the and some that the americans made more sense than the british or are you leaning really in direction or the other or that was you cant nod when i say two different possibilities. Just the first one where you take some from both. Im seeing im definitely seeing some nods there. Yeah i. At least im just looking at the fact that im like if i was like looking at the whole picture, i probably, okay, theres the earth, theres the battles of yeah, i would be like, yeah, i had this in the room. I also feel like the americans have my dna wrong and. It almost comes up like we at this point that youre not. If they dont know they have the wisdom to give them. If they have. Yeah this is going to happen. There is a way in which you can step back from the way i was, blow by blow and say, isnt it kind of inevitable. Well, if youre separated by an ocean and youre getting more and complex civilization in british north america, that youre going to be growing apart from whats going on in britain and youre going to be a little more alienated, the needs than that they have. So theres a way in which this is the moment it happens, but theres a sort of natural developed mind here. And thomas paine has some really interesting things that were going to read about his sort of justification. Why wood, for instance, why would an island, a continent they certain its common sense that we should rebel and so forth so were going to be getting into that other things from what was convincing on one side or the other or how we can balance perspectives. Is there a way that we can this that takes both into view is there can you think of a line or a couple of sentences that would allow us to give a nod to both british doctor treaty and the american doctor tragedy. Yes i take a stab on i think i know its all right in moment. Yeah, i did definitely looking at both you can really if you really sat down id like to choose like and so this was the british that decided. I mean the american right. I think looking at both you could really align yourself with either. And i think thats the great thing about history is that, you know, theres always going to be two sides, everything no one was there was like a film crew recording what was happening. Thats right. Were being much better documented right now than even if there is no one like documenting. Yeah. You know, the Boston Tea Party instance. So we kind of have to work off of what people were there, saw or different people were documenting and figure out ways. So someone might have been, you know, where his side, something about the american side. So i think taking both you can kind of formulate in an hour. Yeah and in fact you can of apply that to the moment and say doesnt it always happen in history that one action means that everyone adjust to that one action and theres going to be a counter you know that both sides are in fact moving along to get it together. Its opposition to the stamp act that might have led to more parliamentary members, Parliament Members being more firm about how to crack down the colonies later that were teaching them a lesson and they were teaching us a lesson. And those lessons, you know, stamp townsend duties boston massacre you know that this is its dance history is is not just one person moving around its everyone moving around the dance floor. And in this case youve got the british perspective in american perspective, bouncing off of each other. Do you think would have been as angry if they werent so angry that they doing things that otherwise they wouldnt wanted to do five years before . But because of all the things they saw us doing now, they were doing you know, its a its a bouncing back and forth. So were they you slurping the powers of the colonial . They were to some extent, but those were never really written down anyway. You know, those were informal kinds of relationships that we had in the era of benign neglect as its called and parliament had the right to tax it. But we absolutely felt like there utterly trying to change relationship between colony and mother country in a way that we cannot endure. And once you get to the coercive acts though. 1774 close thing of the harbor all of that that just seems brutal there it really seem like two colonists you cant interpret this as anything other than trying to destroy this colony massachusetts. We cant condone that when did the American Revolution start. That is exact actually the right answer. Looking at me was sort of big and saying what the date that automatically comes mind in terms of the revolution. Everybody as of Elementary School or maybe before Elementary School, whats the date . July fourth. So the declaration of there are good reasons that when did the fighting actually start. You know, lexington, concord, which was 1775 of when did it become inevitable that there would be fighting . You could call that the beginning, the revolution. And im not sure that you could say it was the coercive acts that made it inevitable. And if you say the coercive acts, then maybe what youre really is its the tea act or the boston party or, you know, whatever, which thing, what the spark. Some historians, these proximate reasons for something to happen, the ones that are close at hand, the spark that lights the fire whats the spark . Is it going to be lexington and concord . Is it going to be the coercive acts . The you can make an argument for any of these things, but its a whole series of them that are happening in the early 1770s 1773 for five that are leading us in the direction. So okay not proximate not the spark but whats the tinder what is it thats fundamentally putting us in a place where were doing this . Whats, you know, seemingly amazing. Lee huge thing of turning from in years. Im british to im going to shoot the british british whats tender whats the what is the spark fire to i think there you got to go to bigger themes bigger arguments and were going to be building of those in the coming several class periods talking about how colonists were thinking about themselves the empire, the revolution that was underway so but these bigger themes is that englands change. So 17 im going to say the the biggest change is 1774 im sorry,. 1764 with sugar act and the stamp act in 1770s, 1765 i cant say my date because thats when boom britain changes the nature of our relationship. Turning the switch and trying to profit of us in a different way. Nothing you know thats going to cause problems or, is it america . Grab annually over several generations becoming Something Different than british diversifying the population becoming compete competitors with britain in terms of seafaring New England States seeing ourselves as being more and more distinct. Youve got generations who are born and grow up here. Is it something that there are different answers . All of this in one more minute. I want you to write down what you would say this class period adds to the bigger question