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Enlightenment
It was an intellectual and cultural movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized reason, over superstition and science over blind faith. Enlightenment produced many books, essays, inventions, scientific discoveries, laws, wars and revolutions. -
Stamp Act of 1765
The Stamp Act of 1765 was ratified by the British parliament under King George III. It imposed a tax on all papers and official documents in the American colonies, but not in England. -
Townshend Act of 1767
Townshend Act of 1767 helped pay the expenses involved in governing the American colonies. The Parliament passed the Townshend Acts which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. In response to new taxes, the colonies again decided to discourage the purchase of British imports. -
Boston Tea Party
Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16 1773, it was mostly a raid that took place in the Boston Harbor which American colonists dumped shiploads of tea into the water to protest a British tax on tea. -
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were a group of instigators and provocateurs in colonial America who used an extreme form of civil disobedience threats, and in some cases actual violence. They did this to intimidate loyalists and make the British government mad. -
Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)
The Coercive Acts of 1774, known as the Intolerable Acts in the American colonies, were a series of 4 laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 17, 1775, New England soldiers faced the British army for the first time in a pitched battle. Mostly known as "The Battle of Bunker Hill," bloody fighting took place throughout a hilly landscape of fenced pastures that were situated across the Charles River from Boston. -
Battle of Yorktown
Outnumbered and outfought during a 3 week siege in which they had great losses, British troops surrendered to the Continental Army and their French allies. The last major land battle of the American Revolution led to negotiations for peace with the British and the signing of the Treaty of Paris. -
Constitution is ratified
The founders set the terms for ratifying the Constitution. They passed the state legislatures, because their members would be reluctant to give up power to a national government. Instead they called for special ratifying conventions in each state. -
3/5 Compromise
The 3/5 Compromise was reached among state delegates during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It determined that three out of every five slaves was counted when determining a state's total population for legislative representation and with taxes. -
Great Compromise
The so called Great Compromise provided a dual system of congressional representation. In the House of Representatives each state would be assigned a number of seats in proportion to its population. -
Bill of Rights adopted
The Bill of Rights adopted spells out Americans rights in relation to their government, it guarantees civil rights and liberties to the individual like... freedom of speech, press, and religion. It sets rules for due process of law and reserves all powers not delegated to the Federal Government to the people or the States.