TERRIBLE TAXES BUILD BAD FEELINGS T HE FIRST SHOTS OF the Revolutionary War were exchanged on April 19 1775 between British soldiers and Patriot Minutemen during the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts But the war had been building for 12 years In February 1763 British French and Spanish leaders signed the Treaty of Paris ending the French and Indian War 1756 63 The war had been costly and Great Britain felt that the American colonies should help pay off the debt in curred while fighting on their soil King George III urged Britain’s Parliament to impose taxes on the colonists who had no representa tion in the government One new law the Stamp Act of 1765 levied a tax on printed materials such as newspapers calendars marriage li censes pamphlets and playing cards So named for their immediate reaction to threats the Minutemen set out for battle straight from home
Angry Americans formed secret Sons of Liberty clubs throughout the colonies to oppose the Stamp Act Several colonial leaders were printers and newspaper publishers who showed their opposition by printing propaganda that ridiculed Great Britain and fired up Americans Soon women’s groups called Daughters of Liberty were formed Their members vowed not to marry any man who bought products made in Great Britain The British quickly rescinded the law in 1766 but other hated tax laws followed In opposition to a tax placed on tea in 1773 Sons of Liberty members disguised as American Indians boarded British ships and threw 340 chests of expensive English tea into Boston Harbor From that point on hostilities escalated British troops crossed the Atlantic to take control in Boston and colonial leaders met in Philadelphia to discuss a unified response to Britain’s actions Committees of Safety were formed throughout the colonies to orga nize militias and Patriot spies helped locate and steal British weapons and supplies On June 15 1775 George Washington was named com mander in chief of American troops Two days later a bloody battle at Bunker Hill in Boston marked the start of real fighting COVERT OPS CODING BY THE BOOK Benedict Arnold coded his messages to his British contact Major John André Each coded word in a message would be represented by three numbers separated by periods To decipher the code André used the book Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England The numbers referred to a page number line number and word num ber on that line in the book For example 288 9 9 meant page 288 line 9 word 9 and stood for west Here is one coded sentence from an Arnold letter and its hidden meaning I 149 8 7 10 8 22’d the 57 9 71 at 288 9 9 198 9 26 I have accepted the command at West Point 0909
10 CHAPTER ONE A PERFECT ENVIRONMENT for ESPIONAGE W HEN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR began the odds for an American victory were pretty slim The British army was manned by professional soldiers from Great Britain Redcoats and mercenaries brought in mostly from the German state of Hesse Hessians The American army consisted primarily of co lonial farmers laborers and craftsmen drafted into service The Americans had fewer soldiers fewer experienced military leaders fewer weapons and less money to finance the war So how did they win Major George Beckwith Britain’s top spy in America during the Revolution explained it this way George Washington did not really outfight the British he simply outspied us The war fought in the American colonies was a perfect environ ment for espionage First of all almost as many colonists opposed the Revolution as supported it John Adams a Boston lawyer and future United States president estimated that about one-third of the colonists favored independence one-third wanted to stay con nected to Great Britain and one-third were neutral So it was often easy to recruit someone with strong views to spy against the opposi tion Secondly most colonists whether Patriot or Tory spoke the
Revolutionary War soldiers were willing to follow George Washington’s every lead 1111
