From Empire to Independence

Albany Conference
(1754)
A meeting between the British officials from the British Board of Trade and an official delegation from the Iroquois Confederacy. British officials wanted to negotiate, with the Iroquois Confederacy, a compromise for a settlement. However, those from the Iroquois Confederacy were well aware and fed up with British land grabbing; therefore, they refused British offers and walked out of the conference. It was in the Albany Conference that Benjamin Franklin’s Plan of Union was proposed; being the British-appointed deputy postmaster general, he suggested that an international union be put in charge to manage defense and Indian affairs in the colonies. However, it was ultimately rejected by the Albany Congress, as colonial assemblies feared the loss of autonomy.

General Amherst and biological warfare
British military governor of the western region, General Jeffery Amherst, in one of his first official actions, banned presents to Indian chiefs and tribes, demanding that they learn to live without "charity." He also refused to supply them with ammunition. This reversal of custom led many Indians to starve.
At Fort Pitt, in response to Pontiac’s attack on British forts, General Amherst proposed that his officers "send the smallpox among the disaffected tribes" by distributing infected blankets from the fort's hospital. This early instance of germ warfare resulted in an epidemic that killed hundreds of Indians.

Peter Zenger
An NYC press editor, Peter Zenger was indicted for seditious libel after printing antigovernment articles. But as it turned out, the case provided the precedent for greater freedom of the press. Thanks to his attorney, Zenger was acquitted. From Peter Zenger’s case on, many more opinionated newspapers were allowed to exist.

radical Whigs
A name used to label advocates for colonial resistance to British measures during the time period before the American Revolution (1760s-1770s). They warned of the growing threat to liberty posed by the unchecked exercise of power. In their more emotional writings they argued that a conspiracy existed among the powerful-kings, aristocrats, and Catholics- to quash liberty and institute tyranny.

Proclamation of 1763
A royal proclamation that set aside land using the boundary known as the Proclamation Line. The region west of the Appalachian Mountains would be “Indian Country” and in theory world not be bothered; in addition, that protected land can only be purchased if such a transaction is approved by the crown.

Sugar Act
The Sugar Act placed a duty on sugar imported into the colonies and revitalized the customs service, introducing stricter legislation procedures for ships and adding more officers. In fact, the duty was significantly less than the one that had been on the books and ignored for years, but the difference was that the British now intended to enforce it.

vice-admiralty courts
Courts that those accused of smuggling in goods by the British would be sent to. These courts were hated because there was no presumption of innocence and the accused had no right to a jury trial.

The Stamp Act Crisis
Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions
In response to the Stamp Act imposed by Great Britain, Patrick Henry presented these resolutions, which emphasized actual representation opposed to virtual representation, and the constitutional issues associated with the Stamp Act in general (The most radical of these decisions were rejected by the Virginia House of Burgesses, however).

Patrick Henry
A lawyer at the time, Patrick Henry presented the Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions in 1765. He was a radical, however; hence, some of his more radical resolutions were rejected. Nonetheless, his resolutions echoed throughout the colonies and the assemblies of eight other colonies followed his lead in denouncing the Stamp Act.

Sam Adams instrumental to and led the opposition to the Stamp Act leader of the