The effect of that revolution made more crit ical the underlying problem of the colonial situ ation, and gradually made conspicuous the issue whether in the colonies the legislative authority of Parliament was paramount. On the other hand, the revolution nad a beneficent effeet upon the colonies in terminating unrest and friction. which had characterized the administration of the later Stuarts. Even in Virginia the preva lent discontent had been given violent expression in Bacon's Rebellion (q.v.) in 1676, while in the Northern colonies the many contests over jurisdiction and rights and the arbitrary rule established by Andros (q.v.). who had been ap pointed Governor of all the colonies north of lati tude 41° N., developed a general disaffection among the people to the home Government and culminated in the seizure of Andros and the over throw of his administration (1680).
In 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, England, which had been importing slaves from Africa into its American and West Indian colonies, obtained a monopoly of the slave trade to Span ish America for thirty-three years, and as a re sult of this arrangement slavery was extended in, and to some extent forced upon, all the Ameri can colonies. See SLAVERY.
During much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was a general feeling of loyalty toward the mother country. The sons of the more wealthy colonists. especially in the South, were educated in England. English lit erature was widely read in the colonies; the col onies, though distinct, and differing in origin and character—Puritan in the East, largely Dutch Reformed in New York, Quaker in Penn sylvania. to a considerable extent Catholic in Maryland, and Anglican in Virginia—were yet united by language, blood, and institutions.
These influences toward harmony with the mother country served to obscure, to a consid erable degree, the recurrent disputes over char ter rights and trade privileges, which continued to prevail in the eighteenth century; and the ten dency to union among the several colonies was strengthened by the outbreak of the French and In dian War (q.v.). This was the last in the series of conflicts (see KING WILLIABE'R WAR; QUEEN ANNE'S WAR; and KING GEORGE'S WAR; also see CANADA) which resulted from the respective ter ritorial ambitions in North America of France and Great Britain, and left the latter in undis puted possession of Canada as well as of the territory lying between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. As a result of the termination of this long continued struggle with the French, which was followed by the Pontiac con spiracy of 1763 (see PONTIAC), the colo nies, which had naturally borne the brunt of the various conflicts in America, were relieved of much of their dependence upon the home Gov ernment, and were left freer than they had earlier been to look after what they conceived to be their rights and interests. On the other hand. the financial necessities resulting from that war led to measures by the home Government which aroused the colonists, strengthened their feelings of unity among themseives, and lessened their attachment to the English administration. Un der such circumstances, the basis of intereolonial unity gave force to the expressions and acts of the home Government, as when in 1761 the en forcement of the Navigation Acts by general search-warrants ( sec ASSISTANCE, WRITS OF) caused strong resentment against the home Gov ernment, especially in New England, where the Admiralty attempted to enforce the law, many vessels being seized, and the colonial trade with the West Indies being seriously affected. In
1765 the passing of an act of Parliament (see STAMP ACT) for collecting a colonial revenue by requiring the use of stamps not only upon many business papers and legal documents. but also upon certain articles of ordinary use, caused gen eral indignation. and led even to riots. Steps were promptly taken to unite against the com mon danger of an extension of the authority of Parliament ; the famous Stamp Act Congress. in which nine colonies were represented. met at New York in September, 1765. and issued a state ment of grievances and a declaration of rights. The stamps were destroyed or reshipped to Eng land, and popular societies, called 'Sons of Lib erty' (q.v.), were fo•mned in the chief towns. In 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed. to the general relief of the colonists; but the principle of colonial taxation by Parliament was reaffirmed, and in 1767 duties were levied on glass, paper, print ers' colors, and tea. This renewed attempt pro duced. in 176S, disturbances in where Governor Gage was furnished with a military force to preserve order and enforce the laws, and where thenceforth the relations between the House of Representatives and the royal Governor were especially strained, much hitter feeling among the people being caused by the so-called Boston massacre (q.v.) of March 5. 1770. In 1773 the dirties were repealed, excepting 3d. a pound on tea, when the matter resolved itself into a question of principle, and from North to South the people became determined that this tax should not be paid. In Boston a crowd, disguised as Indians. threw a cargo into the harbor (December 16. 1773). As a penalty for such acts, Parliament passed. in 1774, a series of punitive statutes, including the so-called Charter Act, by which the popular element in the provincial got eminent of Massachusetts was greatly reduced and by which the former independence and authority of town-meetings was strictly limited, and in cluding also the Boston Po•t Bill (q.v.), by which the chief town of New England was to be no longer a port of entry. Boston was reduced to great distress, but received the active sym pathy and encouragement of all the colonies, The people of Massachusetts. relying upon the theory that their charter partook of the nature of a compact which could he altered or abrogated only by the consent of themselves and of the King. denied the right of Parliament to pass statutes in any way modifying, their charter rights, and insisted that the course of the King and Parliament released the colonists from all obligations and reduced them, so far as govern ment was concerned, to a 'state of nature.' Thus, as early as the fall of 1774 the colonists began to o•gainize local government on the as sumption that administrative relations with England had been terminated, and that the au thority of the home Government had ceased. Under such circumstances it was inevitable that the Administration should undertake to apply a policy of repression, For further details of colonial history, see. besides the articles already referred to, the articles on the various States.