The Minutemen and Their World

This chapter shows how Concord and its inhabitants took part in the protests and political developments leading up to the outbreak of the American Revolution. It is tethered to a few important and well-known events between 1764 and 1774 that are commonly cited as causes of the Revolutionary War: the imposition of taxes and tariffs by the Sugar Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts, which imposed additional duties on lead, glass, paper, paint, and tea in 1767, and the Tea Act in 1773. The Declaratory Act of 1776 limited the colonies’ ability to govern themselves, giving Parliament the power to do so “‘in all cases whatsoever’” (31).

The ideological foundations of the core group of revolutionary leaders are connected in this chapter to British politics, and they are known as the “Real Whigs.” From their perspective, Parliament was a crucial hedge against the power of the British monarchy, which otherwise would attempt to exert tyrannical control over its subjects’ lives. The passage of these acts indicated to the “Real Whigs” that the monarchy was gaining ground. The famous slogan of the Revolutionary period, “no taxation without representation,” refers to the colonists’ demand for direct representation in Parliament, in response to direct taxation, which had previously not been a part of Britain’s policy toward its colonies.