Transcript[]
Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby.
Moby is sitting on a throne holding a scepter and wearing a crown, pretending he is king. He looks at a toy soldier and stuffed animals, bangs his scepter on the throne, and shoots a flame from his finger at a stuffed animal. Tim walks over to him.
MOBY:Beep.
TIM:What are you doing?
MOBY:Beep.
Tim reads from a typed letter.
TIM:Dear Tim and Moby, why did America break away from England? From, Fauntleroy. Listen, don't-- don't answer any more letters without me, okay?
MOBY:Beep.
TIM:Moby is partly right. The original thirteen colonies didn't like being ruled by a king, King George III, of England.
An image shows King George III.
TIM:But that alone probably wouldn't have been enough to spark the American Revolution. What really got the colonists angry was not having any representation in Parliament, the British version of Congress.
An image shows a session of Britain's Parliament.
TIM:The Parliament could pass laws affecting American colonists, even though none of the colonists voted. Parliament passed the Quartering Act in 1765. It said that British soldiers in the colonies could stay in any private home they wanted. The families living there would have to house and feed them.
An animation shows American colonists serving food to a British soldier in their home.
TIM:The colonists were especially angry about all the taxes Parliament heaped on them. The first of these was the Sugar Act of 1764. It was a tax on sugar, molasses, and other stuff the colonies imported.
An image shows James Otis.
TIM:This act prompted James Otis, a Massachusetts lawyer, to famously proclaim: "Taxation without representation is tyranny!"
The quote appears in a speech bubble next to Otis.
TIM:"No taxation without representation" became the battle cry of the colonists.
MOBY:Beep.
TIM:Kind of a complicated battle cry, but, you know, they were saying what was on their minds. But Parliament didn't listen to the colonists. They just kept adding more taxes. The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed all legal and commercial documents, including diplomas, contracts, newspapers, and even playing cards.
Images show the taxed items Tim lists.
TIM:The colonists protested this act bitterly.
An image shows members of the Stamp Act Congress.
TIM:They organized the Stamp Act Congress in New York City to decide what to do. Local leaders like Samuel Adams of Boston organized chapters of the Sons of Liberty.
An image shows Samuel Adams.
TIM:This group was pretty rough. They burned any stamped paper they could find and even tarred and feathered British officials.
An animation shows paper being burned and an image shows a man covered in tar and feathers.
TIM:Many colonists boycotted British goods. That means they stopped buying them. The Daughters of Liberty helped by creating some of the things that people were no longer buying from the British, like clothing.
An image shows colonial women sewing clothing.
TIM:The boycott hurt British trade, and Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. But the British passed another set of new taxes with the Townshend Acts in 1767. These acts taxed imports like glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea. It also allowed British officers to search homes and businesses for smuggled goods. All they would need were search warrants, called Writs of Assistance. Again, the colonists responded with boycotts and protests.
An image shows a Writ of Assistance.
TIM:Eventually, the anger boiled over in the Boston Massacre. That was an incident in 1770 where British troops opened fire on rioting colonists. Five of the colonists were killed.
An image shows British soldiers shooting and killing colonists in Boston.
TIM:The British repealed the Townshend Acts that same year, but later passed the Tea Act in 1773.
MOBY:Beep.
TIM:Yeah, you can sort of see why the colonists might have been getting irritated at this point. The Tea Act said that colonists had to buy all their tea from England. The colonists responded with the Boston Tea Party on December 16th, 1773. A group of men disguised as American Indians boarded three tea ships docked in Boston harbor. They broke open the tea chests and threw them overboard.
An image shows the opened tea chests floating in Boston harbor.
TIM:King George III and the British Parliament knew that they couldn't back down at this point. So they passed the Coercive Acts in 1774. The Acts called for a naval blockade of Boston harbor until the tea from the Boston Tea Party was paid for. No ships were allowed in or out.
An image shows a row of ships in Boston Harbor.
TIM:The Coercive Acts were known to the colonists as the Intolerable Acts. They also banned committees of correspondence. These were groups in different colonies that exchanged letters about colonial politics. In response to the Intolerable Acts, all of the colonies, except Georgia, met in the First Continental Congress.
An image shows colonists attending the First Continental Congress.
TIM: The Congress decided to ban all trade with England until the acts were repealed. It also called on each colony to begin training militias, or armies.
An image shows colonists in military uniforms.
TIM: Fighting broke out between British and colonial soldiers in Lexington, Massachusetts.
An image shows a map of Lexington, Massachusetts.
TIM:It was April 19, 1775: the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
MOBY:Beep.
TIM:Fine, you can keep playing king, now.
MOBY:Beep.
TIM:No, I, don't think I want to be one of your loyal subjects.
