-
Treaty of Paris
The French and Indian War is officially brought to a close. Britain's national debt had doubled as a result of the war - changing the political, economic, and social landscape of the American colonies. -
Period: to
Road to the American Revolution
-
Proclamation of 1763
The proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. The King and his council presented the proclamation as a measure to calm the fears of the Indians, who felt that the colonists would drive them from their lands as they expanded westward. Many in the colonies felt that the object was to pen them in along the Atlantic seaboard where they would be easier to regulate. -
The Sugar Act
The Sugar Act took measures that the duty be strictly enforced on sugar and molasses while also listing more foreign goods to be taxed including sugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento, cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the export of lumber and iron. The situation disrupted the colonial economy by reducing the markets to which the colonies could sell, and the amount of currency available to them for the purchase of British manufactured goods. -
The Stamp Act
The act required the use of stamped paper for legal documents, diplomas, almanacs, broadsides, newspapers and playing cards. This was the first time American colonists were faced with a direct, internal tax from the British government, and the effects of the Stamp Act were to unite some of the most powerful elements of colonial society — lawyers, clergymen, journalists and businessmen. Opposition came in a variety of forms from oppositional writings to outright riots. -
The Townshend Revenue Act
Taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea were applied with the design of raising £40,000 a year for the administration of the colonies. The result was the resurrection of the colonial hostilities created by the Stamp Act. British trade soon dried up and the powerful merchants of Britain once again interceded on behalf of the colonies. -
The Boston Massacre
The presence of British troops in the city of Boston was increasingly unwelcome. The riot began when about 50 colonists attacked a British sentinel by throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks. A British officer, Captain Thomas Preston, called in additional soldiers, and these too were attacked, so the soldiers fired into the mob, killing 3 on the spot and wounding 8 others. This event led directly to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry. -
The Tea Act
The act allowed tea to be shipped from the East India Company directly from India to the American colonies, thus avoiding a tax if the commodity were first sent to England as required by previous legislation. Colonial shop owners objected to the new practice of using only selected merchants to sell the tea; many would be excluded from this trade in favor of a new monopoly. Public anger induced many of the appointed tea agents to resign their positions before the tea arrived. -
Boston Tea Party
Three British ships carrying tea entered the Boston Harbor, but before the tax could be collected, Bostonians took action. Radical townspeople stormed the ships and tossed 342 chests of tea into the water. Disguised as Native Americans, the offenders could not be identified. The damage in modern American dollars exceeded three quarters of a million dollars. Not a single British East India Company chest of tea bound for the 13 colonies reached its destination. -
First Continental Congress
The first Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, with the representatives elected by the people, by the colonial legislatures, or by the committees of correspondence of the respective colonies. The objectives of the body were not entirely clear but, with such leadership as was found there, a core set of tasks was carried out. It was agreeable to all that the King and Parliament must be made to understand the grievances of the colonies. -
"Give me liberty or give me death!"
A famous quotation attributed to a speech made by Patrick Henry at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, and is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the Virginia House of Burgesses to pass a resolution delivering the Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War. Among the delegates to the convention were future US Presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. -
Shot Heard 'Round the World
Regiments of British soldiers quartered in Boston were activated and sent to Lexington, where they were to capture top Colonial leaders and then head to Concord, where they would seize gunpowder. Word spread and militias prepared to confront the British and help their neighbors in Lexington and Concord. When 240 British soldiers arrived in Lexington, they found about 70 minutemen formed on the Lexington Green awaiting them. Suddenly a shot was fired and the Revolutionary War had begun.
