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treaty of paris
1763
Treaty of Paris signed
The colonists we exited about gaining independence. The US also ended persecution of loyalists and unblocked creditors from recovering debt as their part of the negotiation. -
Stamp Act
The tax was small, but the colonists were still angry because they felt the act imposed on their rights. The colonists may have also been happy due to the Stamp Act Resolves, Patrick Henry's speech emphasizing the colonists rights. -
Boston Massacre
Once the first shot rang out, other soldiers opened fire, killing five colonists–including Crispus Attucks, a local dockworker of mixed racial heritage–and wounding six. Among the other casualties of the Boston Massacre was Samuel Gray, a rope maker who was left with a hole the size of a fist in his head. Sailor James Caldwell was hit twice before dying, and Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were mortally wounded. -
the Boston tea party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest that occurred on December 16, 1773, at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldn’t take taxation and tyranny sitting down. -
The First Continental Congress
delegates from each of the 13 colonies met in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to Parliament’s Coercive Acts. The delegates included a number of future luminaries, such as future presidents John Adams (1735-1826) of Massachusetts and George Washington (1732-99) of Virginia, and future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and diplomat John Jay (1745-1829) of New York. -
Battles Of Lexington and Concord
At dawn on April 19, some 700 British troops arrived in Lexington and came upon 77 militiamen gathered on the town green.The heavily outnumbered militiamen had just been ordered by their commander to disperse when a shot rang out. -
Declaration of Independence
The Continental Congress reconvened on July 1, and the following day 12 of the 13 colonies adopted Lee’s resolution for independence. The process of consideration and revision of Jefferson’s declaration (including Adams’ and Franklin’s corrections) continued on July 3 and into the late morning of July 4, during which Congress deleted and revised some one-fifth of its text. The delegates made no changes to that key preamble, however, and the basic document remained Jefferson’s words.