Growth of the American Revolution: 1766-1775

by Bernhard Knollenberg, Bernard W. Sheehan

Overview

In the fall of 2002, Liberty Fund published noted historian Bernhard Knollenberg’s Origin of the American Revolution. Now Liberty Fund proudly announces the publication of the second volume of Knollenberg’s masterwork on the American Revolution.

Knollenberg describes Growth of the American Revolution as “. . . an Account of the Change in the Minds and Hearts of a Majority of the People of the Thirteen Colonies Who Rebelled against Great Britain in 1775, together with a description of the Provocative Conduct of the British Parliament and Government Accounting for this Change and the Colonists’ Responses to the said Conduct.”

Continuing the work Knollenberg began in the first book, Growth of the American Revolution covers the period from the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 to the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord in 1775. Taken together, these volumes present a cogent and authoritative history from an objective and scholarly point of view.

Bernhard Knollenberg practiced law for twenty-two years in New York City before leaving to direct the Yale UniversityLibrary in 1938. He was the senior deputy administrator of the United States Lend-Lease Administration in Washington, D.C., and later a Division Deputy in the O.S.S., during World War II. Thereafter, he dedicated his time to historical research and writing about the American Revolution. He is also the author of Washington and the Revolution; Pioneering Sketches of the Upper Whitewater Valley: Quaker Stronghold of the West; and Franklin, Jonathan Williams, and William Pitt. Bernhard Knollenberg died in 1973.

Bernard W. Sheehan is Professor emeritus of history at Indiana Universityand past editor of the Indiana Magazine of History.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865974166
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/02/2003
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	675
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Foreword by Bernard W. Sheehan ix
Acknowledgements xix
Chronology: 1766–1775 xxi
Introduction xxxvii

1.The Rockingham Ministry and the Stamp Act 1
2.Repeal of the Stamp Act and Passage of the Declaratory Act 10
3.Colonial Grievances Remaining after the Repeal of the Stamp Act 17
4.The Chatham Ministry and Its Inherited Colonial Problems 27
5.The Townshend Act Duties of 1767 38
6.The Farmer’s Letters 45
7.Protests, Non-Importation Agreements, and Hillsborough’s Provocative Letters 53
8.The American Customs Board and the Liberty Riot 63
9.The Treason Resolution: Proposed Revision of the Townshend Act 70
10.Revision of the Townshend Act and Dilution of Non-Importation 75
11.British Troops at Boston and the “Boston Massacre” 81
12.The Gaspee Affair and the Judges’ Salary Controversy 91
13.The Tea Act of 1773 101
14.Colonial Opposition to the Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party 107
15.The Boston Port Act and British Troops to Boston 117
16.Proposals for a Tighter Rein on Massachusetts 125
17.The Massachusetts Petition of 1773 and Its Consequences 130
18.The Massachusetts Regulating and Administration of Justice Acts 136
19.The Quebec Act 141
20.Calls for a General Congress and Instructions to the Delegates 148
21.Unifying and Divisive Elements in the Congress 156
22.The Continental Congress: First Steps 163
23.Statement of Grievances and Approval of the Suffolk Resolves 173
24.The Association and the Memorial to the Colonists 180
25.Petition to the King and Other State Papers of the Congress 187
26.Developments in Massachusetts: May–September, 1774 196
27.The British Government and the Colonies: June, 1774–April, 1775 204
28.The Colonial Response to the Congress 212
29.Massachusetts Prepares for War: October, 1774–April, 1775 218
30.Gage’s Military Activities While Awaiting Orders from England 225
31.Dartmouth’s Letter Galvanizes Gage into Action 230
32.The Day of Lexington and Concord: April 19, 1775 234

Appendixes
Introduction
(1) Irritants before 1765 241
(2) Colonial Tories and Whigs 244
Chapter 1
George III and Establishment of the Rockingham Ministry 251
Chapter 2
The Act of 1696 and the Declaratory Act of 1766 254
Chapter 3
(1) The Act of 1663 and Colonial Admiralty Courts 257
(2) The Free Port Act of 1766 261
Chapter 5
General Writs of Assistance 263
Chapter 7
Project for Anglican-Bishops in the Colonies 269
Chapter 9
The Admiralty Court at Halifax and Its Successors 276
Chapter 10
Uneven Observance of the Non-Importation Agreements 278
Chapter 11
(1) Impressment and the Case of Michael Corbet 280
(2) Clashes between Civilians and British Troops in New York 282
Chapter 13
The Refund of Duty on Tea 284
Chapter 14
Was the Dartmouth Ordered to Enter Port? 286
Chapter 20
(1) Election of Delegates from Pennsylvania 289
(2) New York Politics and the New York Delegation to the Congress 291
(3) Members of the First Continental Congress 299
(4) Samuel Adams’ Conduct as Collector of Taxes 302
Chapter 22
Galloway’s Plan of Union 307
Chapter 23
(1) Grievances against the Crown 309
(2) The Suffolk County Resolves 312
Chapter 26
The Solemn League and Covenant 314
Chapter 27
(1) Who Furnished the Information about Proceedings of the Congress? 316
(2) Peace Negotiations of Benjamin Franklin 318
Chapter 28
New York and the Continental Congress: 1775 323
Chapter 29
Colonial Whigs and Negro Slavery: 1765–1775 327
Chapter 32
April 19th: The Conflict of Evidence 331

Notes 339
Bibliography 559
Index 601

Editorial Reviews

This is the second half of a work dedicated to demonstrating the idea that the foundations of the American Republic had been progressively developing from early in the eighteenth century. The late Knollenberg (at various times a lawyer, government bureaucrat, and amateur historian) argues that economic, ideological, and political institutions had developed before 1774 and that these institutions slowly wrested authority from the British.

Reference & Research Book News
February 2004



Very strongly recommended for academic and community library American History collections, Growth of the American Revolution: 1766–1775 by Bernhard Knollenberg (Professor Emeritus of History, Indiana University) is an impressively in-depth and informative study of American revolutionary history from the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 to the outbreak of violence at Lexington and Concord in 1775. Delineating key events and incorporating a discussion of the historiography, Growth of the American Revolution: 1766–1775 is an expansive and scholarly work so heavily researched that the extensive notes to the chapters take up almost as many pages as the chapters themselves.

The Bookwatch
December 2003

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