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The Events Leading Up to the Revolutionary War
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Sugar Act
The purpose of the Sugar Act was to discourage smuggling, bribery, and other illegalities that prevented the Navigation Acts from being proiftable. This Act revised duties on sugar, coffee, tea, wine, and other imports, which lead to several assemblies protesting these taxation. -
Connecticut Assembly Declaration
"NO LAW CAN BE MADE OR ABROGATED WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE BY THEIR REPRESENTATIVES." -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act put tax on printed documents (deeds, newspapers, marriage licenses, playing cards, dice etc.) issued only on special stamped paper purchased from stamp distributor, which led to riots in cities and forced stamp distributors to resign. -
Quartering Act
Required the colonists to house soldiers in barracks, taverns, and vacant buildings and to provide the army with firewood, candles, and beer, among other items. Many Americans regarded this as more taxation without representation, and in New York, at least, colonists refused to pay. -
Stamp Act Congress
Convened in New York City, the nine colonies had their delegates draft petitions to the king and Parliament that restated the colonists' belief "that no taxes should be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representative." The congress studiously avoided any mention of independence or disloyalty to the crown. -
Townshend Revenue Acts
These Acts put new duties on glass, lead, paper, paints, tea; customs collections tightened in America, which led to the nonimportation of British goods, the protest from assemblies, and the newspapers attacking British policy. -
Boston Massacre
The details of this incident are obscure, but it appears that as the mob grew and became more threatening, the soldiers panicked. In the confusion, the troops fired, leaving five Americans dead. The event was made bigger than reality because of propaganda, -
Samuel Adams
He observed that the British intended to use the tea revenue to pay judicial salaries, thus freeing the judges from dependence on the assembly. He developed a structure of political cooperation completely independent of royal government. -
Committee of Correspondence
This committee was formed to communicate grievances to villagers throughtout Maddachusetts, he received broad support. -
Tea Act
Parliament gives East India Company the right to sell tea directly to Americans, and some duties on tea are reduced. This sparks portests against favoritism shown to monopolistic company as well as the monumental Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
A group of men ddisguised as Mohawk Indians boarded the ships and pitched 340 chests of tea worth 10,000 pounds over the side. -
Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts)
These Acts: Closed port of Boston, restructured Massachusetts government, restricted town meetings, and quartered troops in Boston. These Acts were a result of the Boston Tea Party and caused boycotts of British goods. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies (Georgia was not present) that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts by the British Parliament. The Congress met briefly to consider options, including an economic boycott of British trade; rights and grievances; and petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances.
