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Declaration of Rights
The Declaration of Rights and Grievances was a document created during the Committees of Correspondence saying that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional. This was especially directed at the Stamp Act, which required that documents, newspapers, and playing cards to be printed on special stamped and taxed paper. -
Boston Tea Party
Three hundred forty-two chests of tea that belonged to the British East India Company, were thrown to the sea from the Boston Harbor to protest againt taxation without representation and the monopoly of the East India Company. -
First Continental Congress Meets
The First Continental Congress included Patrick Henry, George Washington, John and Samuel Adams, John Jay, and John Dickinson. Meeting in secret , they rejected a plan for reconciling British authority with colonial freedom. Instead, it adopted a declaration of personal rights, including life, liberty, property, assembly, and trial by jury -
Constitutional Congress
A body of delegates who spoke and acted collectively for the people of the colony-states. The term most specifically refers to the bodies that met in 1774 and 1775–81 and respectively designated as the First Continental Congress. -
Revolutionary War Begins
The revolutionary war started because the 13 British colonies wanted to seperate from the Britsh. -
Second Continental Congress Meets
The second Congress moved slowly towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress acted as the national government of what became the United States. The Congress became known as the Congress of the Confederation. -
Declaration of Independence
A document that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of the 13 American British colonies from Great Britain. -
Articles of Confederation
The articles of confederation gave Congress the power to regulate foriegn affairs, war, and the postal service and to appoint military officers, control Indian affairs, borrow money, determine the value of coin, and issue bills of credit. But in reality, Congress didn't have the power to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops, and by the end of 1786 its effectiveness had broken down. -
Revolutionary War Ends
It effectively ended in October, 1781 in Yorktown, VA after George Washington forced General Cornwallis to surrender after the siege there. But the Revolutionary War didn't officially end until the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783. -
Final Draft of the Constitution
The fundamental law of the U.S. federal system of government and a landmark document of the Western world.
