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French and Indian War
In the 1750s, Britain and France had colonies in North America. The British wanted to settle in the Ohio River Valley and to trade with the Native Americans who lived there. The French built forts to protect their trade with the Indians. In 1754, George Washington led an army against the French. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was an extension of the Molasses Act (1733), which was set to expire in 1763. The Sugar Act was proposed by Prime Minister George Grenville. -
Currency Act
The Currency Act is the name of several acts of Parliament that regulated paper money issued by the colonies of America. The Purpose of the Currency Act of 1764 was to extend the provisions of the Currency Act of 1751 (New England Currency Act) and control the printing and use of colonial paper money (Bills of Credit). -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was one of these new measures and was passed on March 24, 1765. The British sent an additional 40,000 soldiers to the colonies in 1765 to protect the borders of the colonies and also to help to collect taxes from the colonists, it was a British show of force. -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act outlined the locations and conditions in which British soldiers are to find room and board in the American colonies. The Quartering Act of required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. -
Sons and Daughters of Liberty
Like other secret clubs at the time, the Sons of Liberty had many rituals. They had secret code words, medals, and symbols. Originally formed in response to the Stamp Act, their activities were far more than ceremonial. -
Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress or First Congress of the American Colonies was a meeting held between October 7 and 25, 1765 in New York City, consisting of representatives from some of the British colonies in North America; it was the first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified protest against new British taxation. -
Townshend Acts
Was originated by Charles Townshend and passed by the English Parliament shortly after the repeal of the Stamp Act. They were designed to collect revenue from the colonists in America by putting customs duties on imports of glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. -
Non-importation Resolutions
The Virginia Association was a series of non-importation agreements adopted by Virginians in 1769 as a way of speeding economic recovery and opposing the Townshend Acts. Drafted by George Mason and passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses in May 1769, the Virginia Association was a way for Virginians to stand united against continued British taxation and trade control. The Virginia Association served as the framework and precursor to the larger more powerful Continental Association. -
Boston Massacre
The Massacre was the 1770, pre-Revolutionary incident growing out of the anger against the British troops sent to Boston to maintain order and to enforce the Townshend Acts. The troops, constantly tormented by irresponsible gangs, but finally on Mar. 5, 1770, they fired into a rioting crowd and killed five men: three on the spot, two of wounds later. The funeral of the victims was the occasion for a great patriot demonstration. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act was passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773 and granted the British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies. Also the tax on tea had existed since the passing of the 1767 Townshend Revenue Act. -
Proclamation Line of 1763
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America following the end of the French and Indian Wars with the Peace of Paris which concluded the Seven Years' War in 1763. -
Committees of Correspondence
The Committees of Correspondence rallied colonial opposition against British policy and established a political union among the Thirteen Colonies. This was a letter from Samuel Adams to James Warren. -
Boston Tea Party
An engraving of American colonists dressed as Native Americans throwing 342 trunks of the cargo that was on the British tea ships into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. The Boston Tea Party was a violent protest by American colonists against King George III's rule in America. -
Intolerable (Coercive) Acts
The Coercive Acts, known in America as the Intolerable Acts, were passed by the British Parliament in 1774 as punishment for the destruction wrought during the Boston Tea Party, a violent reaction to the British tea tax of 1773. -
First Continental Congress
On September 5, 1774, delegates from each of the 13 colonies except for Georgia (which was fighting a Native-American uprising and was dependent on the British for military supplies) met in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to Parliament's Coercive Acts. -
Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. -
Second Continental Congress
On May 10, 1775, what became known as the Second Continental Congress was called into session as the British stormed Boston in an attempt to arrest the patriots that publicly voiced their grievances against the crown. -
Declaration of Indepdnece
The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress that states the reasons the British colonies of North America sought independence in July of 1776.
