The March of Folly: British and American Colonial relations

[Galveston Bay]

1757-1763
Seven Years War (known as the French and Indian War in the Colonies)

1763
Pontiac War results in the deaths of 450 British soldiers, 2000 settlers killed or enslaved, and unknown but large number of Indians killed or dying from Smallpox and other diseases, and a military stalemate.  Results in the Royal Proclamation creating an Indian Reserve between the Alleghanies/Appalachians and Mississippi River, and reserves all dealings with the Indian tribes to the Crown.  Neither the Indians or the American colonials are satisfied with the result

1765-66
Determined to raise money to pay off the war debt, as well as pay for defending the enlarged empire obtained in the Seven Years War, the British attempt to raise income from the 13 Colonies.  The Stamp Act is passed, deeply angering the Americans, with protests all through the colonies.  By 1766 the act is repealed, although the Crown and Parliament pass the Declaratory Act in an attempt to address both the constitutional and the economic issues, which affirmed the right of Parliament to legislate for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever", while admitting the inexpediency of attempting to enforce the Stamp Act. Only Pitt and three or four others voted against it. Other resolutions passed which condemned the riots and demanded compensation from the colonies for those who suffered losses because of the actions of the mobs. The Americans respond further by forming Committees of Correspondence.

1767
Parliament passes the Townshend Acts as there is now more determination then ever to make the Americans pay their fair share of the war debt and Imperial defense.  Townshend passes away shortly after its passage.   Colonial reaction has yet to be fully seen.   At the end of the year, a new budget proposal makes it clear that 1768 will see the British Parliament entrenched in its position and determined to tax the Americans. Meanwhile in Canada, the great land owners and the Church are concerned about their position as their 2 greatest defenders, Governors Murray and Carleton have both been reassigned after pressure from British merchant traders and the new governor, Brigadier General Clinton, is an unknown quality.

[Galveston Bay]

1768
Word reaches England of the Colonial boycotts, as well as the sharp intake of smuggling.  This brings anger in Parliament, and orders are sent to the Navy to more heavily patrol the American coast for smugglers, while the Army is ordered to send troops to key locations.  

Naval forces
12 Brigs are reassigned from the various fleets in the Channel Coast (Nore, Channel and Home each send 4) to Western Approaches Station.  The Western Approaches station sends 5 Frigates and 10 Brigs to reinforce the North American Station, doubling its size. These ships begin arriving in the Fall of 1768

Army forces
Recruitment begins for troops to man forts to be established at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Williamsburg (VA), New Bern (North Carolina), Charleston (South Carolina), and Savannah (Georgia) in 1769.

[Ottoman]

1769

As British troops arrive in the colonies with the support of the Royal Navy. The enforcement of Townsend Acts come into full force.

Colonial smuggler trade takes a hit, all Port and shipping unit income values are cut by 50% effective 1769. This reduction in income will stay in place until the Acts are repeal or other action is taken...

Tension is building in colonial ports such as Boston, with the presence of British troops in the city. Its only matter of time before something happens.

OOC: I will be rolling for a Boston confrontation between British troops and Colonial citizens, will post once the rolls trigger the incident. Will roll once a year starting 1769 for this event.

[Galveston Bay]

Winter 1769 Order of Council
Concerned as always about manning levels in the Royal Navy, additional manpower is sought. The Crown issues an Order of Council allowing the impressing of up to 10% of crew of any American merchant vessel until such time as the 13 Colonies begin paying their full tax burden.

No more than 5% of a ships crew can include Americans however

In addition, Free Blacks can be accepted for service in ships bound for Caribbean or Indian Ocean service. No more than 10% of a ships crew can consist of such.

[Haneastic]

The latest moves of the crown are viewed as inflammatory by many in the Colonies, particularly the impressing of sailors. Politicians in the South in particular are troubled by the addition of free blacks to Royal Naval vessels, particularly on routes critical for the slave trade. Missives from Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas to London raise these concerns directly with the King and Parliament.

Protests and riots continue on and off, and heaven save the unlucky British tax collector who stops into the wrong tavern at night, but for now there is no spark yet. The south sees a surge in local militia as fearmongering spreads that English ships mist be taken over by former slaves and incite a revolt, and Georgia commissions further forts along their border to prevent native and freedmen raids.

[Ottoman]

1769

As British troops arrive in the colonies with the support of the Royal Navy. The enforcement of Townsend Acts come into full force.

Colonial smuggler trade takes a hit, all Port and shipping unit income values are cut by 50% effective 1769. This reduction in income will stay in place until the Acts are repeal or other action is taken...

Tension is building in colonial ports such as Boston, with the presence of British troops in the city. Its only matter of time before something happens.

OOC: I will be rolling for a Boston confrontation between British troops and Colonial citizens, will post once the rolls trigger the incident. Will roll once a year starting 1769 for this event.

Effective 1770

The impact of British enforcement continues have a negative impact on the colonial economy, unable to trade with Dutch West Indies. Shipping value falls another 25%, Port income falls another 20%. The colonial finish goods industry(i.e craft sector) starts to show signs of weakness and lost about 25% of their value per center.

[Ottoman]

The latest moves of the crown are viewed as inflammatory by many in the Colonies, particularly the impressing of sailors. Politicians in the South in particular are troubled by the addition of free blacks to Royal Naval vessels, particularly on routes critical for the slave trade. Missives from Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas to London raise these concerns directly with the King and Parliament.

Protests and riots continue on and off, and heaven save the unlucky British tax collector who stops into the wrong tavern at night, but for now there is no spark yet. The south sees a surge in local militia as fearmongering spreads that English ships mist be taken over by former slaves and incite a revolt, and Georgia commissions further forts along their border to prevent native and freedmen raids.

Jan-April 1769

A number of incidents are reported to British officials in London, of colonial mobs and British troops facing off in the major port cities of the colonies. For now cooler heads prevails with no bloodshed, aside from some bruising from fist fights for both sides.

[Galveston Bay]

Summer 1769
Squadrons of Battleships (4 ships at a time) begin rotating to American ports where they take on crew by impressment before sailing to the Caribbean to add on Free Blacks. Generally only one squadron is in American waters at any one time, with another in route, another in the Caribbean and one on its way back to home waters.

[Haneastic]

In early 1769, a letter written by Samuel Adams and James Otis Jr on behalf of the Massachusetts General Court circulates through Massachusetts, and later much of New England and the Mid-Atlantic Colonies. The letter states that the English taxation of the colonies is unlawful because they lack representation in Parliament. Only the colonial authorities could tax themselves, and it was therefore just to circumvent English taxation attempts wherever necessary.

The General Court votes by mid-1769 to reaffirm the contents of the letter in response to pressure to rescind it.

[Galveston Bay]

In 1769, upon learning of the Adams/Otis Letter, Parliament responds to the unrest by reactivating the Treason Act 1543 which called for subjects outside the realm to face trials for treason in England. The governor of Massachusetts was instructed to collect evidence of said treason

[Ottoman]

Summer 1769
Squadrons of Battleships (4 ships at a time) begin rotating to American ports where they take on crew by impressment before sailing to the Caribbean to add on Free Blacks.   Generally only one squadron is in American waters at any one time, with another in route, another in the Caribbean and one on its way back to home waters.  

May- Dec 1769

Tenisons over impressment result full out brawls between Royal Navy press gangs and Colonial sailors in the various colonial port cities. Over time these actions were adding to fueling resentment along the colonies of their treatment by the Britain.

[Galveston Bay]

Winter 1770
Word reaches British governors late in the winter that a repeal of the Townshend Acts are likely, except for the continued duty on Tea. However, the British Government remains deeply unhappy that the Americans are not paying their share of the defense of the realm.

[Haneastic]

Petitioners to the crown, a mixture of staunch loyalists and moderates, send messages to the King and Parliament, proposing the full repeal of taxation and ending of the Treason Act.

In return, the colonial authorities propose to take over the garrisoning and arming of all fortifications in the 13 Colonies. It is hoped this measure will mollify the need of England to contribute to their defense.

[Ottoman]

March 5,1770

Boston Massacre, happens like rl

Deaths 5
Injured 6


March 7, 1770

Yorktown riot

In Yorktown, Virginia

British Royal Navy sailors leading a impressment gang face hostility colonial townspeople , who very resistance to the attempts to recruit their sailors into the service of the royal navy. In total, only four men were impressed, and were being held prisoner in the town square, before being taken to the ship. A angry mob descends upon the group of Royal Navy sailors and Marines with cubs to free their kinsmen from impressment.

The Royal Marines in panic fire into the mob, killing 3 and injuring 6. The Royal Navy group was force to withdraw after forcing the mob to back off.

However news of these two events is spreading like wildfire throughout the colonies.....

OOC: Basing the Yorktown incident off this rl event in Britain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easton_Massacre

[Galveston Bay]

March 5,1770

Boston Massacre, happens like rl

Deaths 5
Injured 6


March 7, 1770

Yorktown riot

In Yorktown, Virginia

British Royal Navy sailors leading a impressment gang face hostility colonial townspeople , who very resistance to the attempts to recruit their sailors into the service of the royal navy.  In total, only four men were impressed, and were being held prisoner in the town square, before being taken to the ship. A angry mob descends upon the group of Royal Navy sailors and Marines with cubs to free their kinsmen from impressment.

The Royal Marines in panic fire into the mob, killing 3 and injuring 6. The Royal Navy group was force to withdraw after forcing the mob to back off.

However news of these two events is spreading like wildfire throughout the colonies.....

OOC: Basing the Yorktown incident off this rl event in Britain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easton_Massacre

Having acted contrary to standing orders, the Governors of Massachusetts and Virginia remand the officers and noncommissioned officers involved in both incidents over to civilian authorities for indictment and criminal trial. The British government approves the decisions but also waits to see if the men involved receive fair and just trials.

Meanwhile however Parliament rejects colonial requests for a repeal of the Treason Act as well as calls for lifting of the tax on tea, noting that authority is fully with Parliament on these matters and in the case of the Treason Act, tradition and precedent as well.

[Haneastic]

The news of the massacres in Boston and Yorktown sweep through the colonies. In Massachusetts, a publication known as the "Journals of Occurences" provides a monthly accounting of the worst English acts inflicted upon the people of Boston. Its unique nature as a frequent publication allows it to spread throughout New England and New York. It's account of the massacre, particularly the coldblooded nature of the British troops' actions, makes for a horrifying read (although some claim its accuracy is spotty at best).

Samuel Adams, rapidly turning from a moderate seeking compromise to a firebrand, gives a fiery speech to the Massachusetts General Court, in which he proclaims:

For if our Trade may be taxed, why not our Lands? Why not the Produce of our Lands & everything we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our Charter Right to govern & tax ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our Fellow Subjects who are Natives of Britain. If Taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal Representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the Character of free Subjects to the miserable State of tributary Slaves?

His speech, and sermons by Jonathon Mayhew, who cites favorably the overthrow of Charles I turn many in New England into radicals demanding justice for the dead and a withdraw of England of the hated taxes.

In Philadelphia, a satirical publication written by Benjamin Franklin makes the rounds, known as "Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One":

If when you are engaged in War, your Colonies should vie in liberal Aids of Men and Money against the common Enemy, upon your simple Requisition, and give far beyond their Abilities, reflect, that a Penny taken from them by your Power is more honourable to you than a Pound presented by their Benevolence. Despise therefore their voluntary Grants, and resolve to harrass them with novel Taxes. They will probably complain to your Parliaments that they are taxed by a Body in which they have no Representative, and that this is contrary to common Right. They will petition for Redress. Let the Parliaments flout their Claims, reject their Petitions, refuse even to suffer the reading of them, and treat the Petitioners with the utmost Contempt. Nothing can have a better Effect, in producing the Alienation proposed; for though many can forgive Injuries, none ever forgave Contempt.
In laying these Taxes, never regard the heavy Burthens those remote People already undergo, in defending their own Frontiers, supporting their own provincial Governments, making new Roads, building Bridges, Churches and other public Edifices, which in old Countries have been done to your Hands by your Ancestors, but which occasion constant Calls and Demands on the Purses of a new People. Forget the Restraints you lay on their Trade for your own Benefit, and the Advantage a Monopoly of this Trade gives your exacting Merchants. Think nothing of the Wealth those Merchants and your Manufacturers acquire by the Colony Commerce; their encreased Ability thereby to pay Taxes at home; their accumulating, in the Price of their Commodities, most of those Taxes, and so levying them from their consuming Customers: All this, and the Employment and Support of Thousands of your Poor by the Colonists, you are intirely to forget. But remember to make your arbitrary Tax more grievous to your Provinces, by public Declarations importing that your Power of taxing them has no Limits, so that when you take from them without their Consent a Shilling in the Pound, you have a clear Right to the other nineteen. This will probably weaken every Idea of Security in their Property, and convince them that under such a Government they have nothing they can call their own; which can scarce fail of producing the happiest Consequences!

[Ottoman]

1769

As British troops arrive in the colonies with the support of the Royal Navy. The enforcement of Townsend Acts come into full force.

Colonial smuggler trade takes a hit, all Port and shipping unit income values are cut by 50% effective 1769. This reduction in income will stay in place until the Acts are repeal or other action is taken...

Tension is building in colonial ports such as Boston, with the presence of British troops in the city. Its only matter of time before something happens.

OOC: I will be rolling for a Boston confrontation between British troops and Colonial citizens, will post once the rolls trigger the incident. Will roll once a year starting 1769 for this event.

Effective 1770

The impact of British enforcement continues have a negative impact on the colonial economy, unable to trade with Dutch West Indies. Shipping value falls another 25%, Port income falls another 20%.  The colonial finish goods industry(i.e craft sector) starts to show signs of weakness and lost about 25% of their value per center.

1771 Economic Situation

The repeal of the majority of the Townshends Acts save for the Tea Act, allows the colonial economy to recover(craft centers are now providing full value). However the British crackdown on smuggling and tax on tea still has impact on Colonial ports, they only produce a value of 50% moving forward.

[Ottoman]

March 5,1770

Boston Massacre, happens like rl

Deaths 5
Injured 6


March 7, 1770

Yorktown riot

In Yorktown, Virginia

British Royal Navy sailors leading a impressment gang face hostility colonial townspeople , who very resistance to the attempts to recruit their sailors into the service of the royal navy.  In total, only four men were impressed, and were being held prisoner in the town square, before being taken to the ship. A angry mob descends upon the group of Royal Navy sailors and Marines with cubs to free their kinsmen from impressment.

The Royal Marines in panic fire into the mob, killing 3 and injuring 6. The Royal Navy group was force to withdraw after forcing the mob to back off.

However news of these two events is spreading like wildfire throughout the colonies.....

OOC: Basing the Yorktown incident off this rl event in Britain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easton_Massacre

Having acted contrary to standing orders, the Governors of Massachusetts and Virginia remand the officers and noncommissioned officers involved in both incidents over to civilian authorities for indictment and criminal trial.   The British government approves the decisions but also waits to see if the men involved receive fair and just trials.  

Meanwhile however Parliament rejects colonial requests for a repeal of the Treason Act as well as calls for lifting of the tax on tea, noting that authority is fully with Parliament on these matters and in the case of the Treason Act, tradition and precedent as well.  

November 1770

Trials in Boston and Yorktown occur to deal with aftermath of the Boston/Yorktown incidents. In Boston, the leading lawyer defending the British soldiers was John Adams and in Yorktown it was James Madison.

For Boston,

The jury agreed with Adams' arguments and acquitted six of the soldiers after 2½ hours of deliberation. Two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter because there was overwhelming evidence that they had fired directly into the crowd. The jury's decisions suggest that they believed that the soldiers had felt threatened by the crowd but should have delayed firing. The convicted soldiers were granted reduced sentences by pleading benefit of clergy, which reduced their punishment from a death sentence to branding of the thumb in open court.


For Yorktown

The jury agreed with Madison' arguments and acquitted six of the sailors after 2½ hours of deliberation. Four of the Royal Marines were found guilty of manslaughter because there was overwhelming evidence that they had fired directly into the crowd. The jury's decisions suggest that they believed that the soldiers had felt threatened by the crowd but should have delayed firing. The convicted soldiers were granted reduced sentences by pleading benefit of clergy, which reduced their punishment from a death sentence to branding of the thumb in open court.

[Galveston Bay]

December 1770
Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, Secretary of State for the Colonies and a hard liner on the power of the British Parliament over Colonial affairs, takes ill and dies of influenza in London.

He is replaced by William Nassau de Zuylesten, 4th Earl of Rochford, a hard working and accomplished diplomat who had been Foreign Secretary for the Northern Department.  His record of loyalty and service and practicality is seen as a good fit by Lord North.   Rochford is also given authority to work closely with George Townshend, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to continue efforts to improve the Irish economy and solidify British control to prevent a recurrence of previous troubles.

The King and Lord North emphasize that both of them are to find a solution that insures the Americans and Irish are useful and loyal members of the Realm, to keep the peace, and to make sure that in the event of war Ireland and the American colonies are assets, not liabilities.

The news of the outcome of the trials in America is a welcome relief to moderates in Parliament who see this as helpful in the extreme. As a concession, the Royal Navy is ordered to cease impressment of Colonial sailors in their home ports and home waters.

[Galveston Bay]

In Britain now at war with the traditional Franco-Spanish coalition, word that the North Americans are supporting the war (financially and with military forces), and agreement seems to be reached in New York City results in considerable political support.

The Navigation Acts are amended so that Free Trade is extended to all British, Irish, and British Colonial shipping in that all ships flying the British, Irish (and when it is designed) the North American flag are considered British merchant ships for all purposes under the Navigation Acts. In addition, for the duration of this war, Dutch and Portuguese ships are considered exempt from Navigation Act sanction.

Word from Parliament that the proposals out of Ireland and North America will be passed into law once formerly presented (when the Americans figure out what their Parliament is going to look like). However, to buy passage, Parliament is forced to agree to repealing some of the taxes enacted this year (back to peacetime taxes in 1773)

[Galveston Bay]

The peaceful and productive resolution and creation of the Dominion of North America as a coequal part of the Kingdom of Britain, Ireland and North America leads to honors lists.

Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams are all awarded (in absentia) the Knight of the Bath (making them Sir Benjamin, Sir James and Sir John). Franklin is cited for his many great accomplishments over his life so far, while Madison and Adams are specifically cited for their courage in the face of community pressure in doing their duty to provide a robust defense to their clients from the Yorktown and Boston Massacres.

A new Order of Knighthood is created, the Order of St Micheal and St George for Americans and Irish officials, diplomats and civilians whose works justify honors.

Thomas Jefferson is the first award of this new knighthood.

On the honors list is the promotion of William Nassau de Zuylesten, from Earl to Marques of Rochford. His work as Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs in resolving the tensions in Ireland and North America is specifically cited.

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