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The Stamp Act
The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards. It was a direct tax imposed by the British government without the approval of the colonial legislatures and was payable in hard-to-obtain British sterling, rather than colonial currency. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a confrontation in Boston, in which nine British soldiers shot several of a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
The Intolerable Acts
The Coercive Acts, known as the Intolerable Acts in the American colonies, were a series of four laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. -
Common sense
Thomas Paine wrote "Common Sense" to explain to the colonists that they must fight for independence from Britain. He also explained what type of government the colonies should create for themselves.