Page 145 - American Stories, A History of the United States

The boycott was a masterful political innovation. Never before had a resistance
5.1 movement organized itself so centrally around ordinary consumers’ market decisions.
The colonists depended on British imports—cloth, metal goods, and ceramics. Each
year they imported more consumer goods than they could afford. In this charged atmo-
5.2 sphere, one in which ordinary people talked constantly of conspiracy and corruption,
it is not surprising that Americans of different classes and backgrounds advocated a
radical change in buying habits. Private acts suddenly became part of the public sphere.

5.3 Personal excess threatened to contaminate the political community. This logic explains
the power of an appeal made in a Boston newspaper: “Save your money and you can
save your country.” In 1765 the boycott had little effect on the sale of British goods in
America. By 1773, however, it had seriously reduced the flow of British commerce,
5.4
especially the trade for tea. (See Map 5.1).
The boycotts mobilized colonial women. They could not vote or hold civil office,
but such legal discrimination did not mean that women were not part of the broader
political culture. Since wives and mothers spent their days involved with household
chores, they assumed special responsibility to reform consumption, root out luxury,
and promote frugality. Indeed, in this realm they possessed real power; they monitored
the ideological commitment of the entire family. Throughout the colonies, women
altered styles of dress, made homespun cloth, and shunned imported items on which
Parliament had placed a tax.
On March 18, 1766, the House of Commons voted 275 to 167 to rescind the Stamp
Act. Lest this retreat be interpreted as weakness, Parliament simultaneously passed

Read the Document Benjamin Franklin, Testimony Against the Stamp Act (1766)

MAINE
(part of Mass.)
GREAT
BRITAIN
Lumber EUROPE
FRANCE
Skins
N.H.
NORTH
Lake Ontario Beef Cattle AMERICA Tobacco, Skins, Indigo, Naval Stores SPAIN
Lake Huron
N.Y. Sheep Boston Cod PORTUGAL
Hogs MASS. Boston
Newport Manufactures
Lake Erie Beef Cattle CONN. Newport Philadelphia Rice, Meat, Rum, Grain
Whales
New York
Skins R.I. Norfolk Manufactures, Wine
PA. N.J. New York Charles
Town
Fruit, Hardwood
Lumber Philadelphia
Beef MD. Wheat ATLANTIC Sugar, Molasses, Manufactures AFRICA
Proclamation Line of 1763 Skins VA. Hemp Corn OCEAN Cuba Slaves Sugar, Molasses, Flour, Meat, Lumber Hispaniola ATLANTIC
Cattle
DEL.
OCEAN
Hogs
Wheat
Beef Cattle
Naval Norfolk Jamaica Rum
WEST INDIES
Stores Caribbean Sea
Beef Cattle
Skins Lumber
N.C. Slaves, Gold, Pepper
Hogs
Naval Wheat and corn
Lumber Stores
Beef Cattle Tobacco
S.C. Naval
Stores Rice and indigo
Beef Cattle
Fishing
Charles Town
GA. SOUTH
Savannah Ironworks AMERICA
Corn
Shipbuilding
0 100 200 miles
0 100 200 kilometers Rum distilleries
maP 5.1 Colonial PRoduCTs and TRadE Although the American colonists produced many
agricultural staples that were valuable to britain, they were dependent on british manufactures such as cloth, metal
goods, and ceramics.
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