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Navigation Acts
These acts required that only English ships (including the ships of its colonies) be used for trade within the British empire. -
Proclamation of 1763
This proclamation declared that no colonial settlement could be established west of the Appalachian Mountains. -
Sugar Act
This act imposed a tax on all sugar imported into the American colonies. -
Stamp Act
This act placed the first direct tax on the colonies. it required the use of tax stamps on all legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards and certain business agreements. -
Stamp Act Congress
The delegates from nine of the thirteen colonies, prepared a declaration of rights and grievances against the new British actions, which was sent to King George III. This action marked the first time that a majority of the colonies joined together to oppose a British law. As a result of the colonists' grievances, the British Parliamen repealed the Stamp Act. -
Boston Tea Party
Colonists dressed as Mohawk Indians and dumped almost 350 chests of British tea into the Boston Harbor as a gesture of tax protest. -
Coercive Acts
Also called the Intolerable Acts. In response to the Boston Tea Party, the acts closed the harbor and placed the government of Boston under direct British control. -
First Continental Congress
Congress held at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. The Congress decided that the colonies should send a petition of grievances to King George III. The decided to continue the boycott of British goods and to require that each colony start an army. -
Lexington and Concord
British soldiers, called Redcoats, fought with colonial citizen-soldiers, called Minutemen, in the towns of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. These were the first battles of the American Revolution. (Battle of Concord- shot heard round the world) -
Second Continental Congress
The Congress gathered in Pennsylvania and immediately assumed the powers of a central government. One of its main actions was to establish an army. Colonial citizen-soldeirs had gathered around Boston, and the congress declared them an army. It named George Washington the army's commander in chief. -
Resolution of Independence
The Resolution of Independence was introduced by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia to the Second Continental Congress, and adopted July 2, 1776. It was not a legally binding document. It was, however, one of the first necessary steps to establish the legitimacy of a new nation in the eyes of foreign governments. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson made the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson had John Adams and Benjamin Franklin revise it. The condemnation of slavery was eliminated. On July 4, 1776 the document was adopted. On July 19, the modified draft became the "unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America."