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The first comprehensive slave code
The House of Burgesses passed its first comprehensive slave code. Earlier laws had already guaranteed that the children of enslaved women would be born slaves, conversion to Christianity would not lead to freedom, and owners could not free their slaves unless they transported them out of the colony. Slave owners could not be convicted of murder for killing a slave; conversely, any black Virginian who struck a white colonist would be severely whipped. -The American Yawp -
The Stono Rebellion
A group of about eighty slaves set out for Spanish Florida under a banner that read “Liberty!,” burning plantations and killing at least twenty white settlers as they marched. The local militia defeated the rebels in battle, captured and executed many of the slaves, and sold others to the sugar plantations of the West Indies. Though the rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful, it was a violent reminder that slaves would fight for freedom. -The American Yawp -
The Sugar Act
Beginning with the Sugar Act and continuing with the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, Parliament levied taxes on sugar, paper, lead, glass, and tea, all products that contributed to colonists’ sense of gentility. In response, patriots organized nonimportation agreements and reverted to domestic products. Homespun cloth became a political statement. -The American Yawp -
The Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts created new customs duties on common items, like lead, glass, paint, and tea, instead of direct taxes. The acts also created and strengthened formal mechanisms to enforce compliance. These acts increased the presence of the British government. Unsurprisingly, colonists resisted. -The American Yawp -
The Boston Massacre
Britain sent regiments to Boston in 1768 to help enforce the new acts and quell the resistance. One evening in 1770, a crowd gathered outside the Custom House and began hurling insults, snowballs, and perhaps more at the sentry. A small number of soldiers came to the sentry’s aid and the crowd grew increasingly hostile until the soldiers fired. Five Bostonians were died in the event. News of the Boston Massacre spread quickly through the new resistance communication networks. -The American Yawp -
Boston Tea Party
Angered by the Tea Act of 1773, dozens of men disguised as Mohawk Indians made their way to the Boston wharf where tea was being held on merchant ships. In less than four hours, the men emptied every chest of tea on board three ships into the sea. -
The Declaration of Rights and Grievances
Elite delegates from every colony but Georgia issued a number of documents, including a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.” This document repeated the arguments that colonists had been making since 1765: colonists retained all the rights of native Britons, including the right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives as well as the right to a trial by jury. -The American Yawp -
The start of the Revolutionary War
Because Americans rebelled, and later spurred on by the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Britain felt the need to suppress America's rebellion by force, which eventually resulted in war. -
The Declaration of Independence signed
Congress met in Philidelphia to sign the Declaration of independence. The document was a culmination of both a decade of popular resistance to imperial reform and decades more of long-term developments that saw both sides develop incompatible understandings of the British Empire and the colonies’ place within it. The Congress approved the document on July 4, 1776. However, it was one thing to declare independence; it was quite another to win it on the battlefield. -The American Yawp -
The end of the Revolutionary War
The war ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. -
George Washington elected president
George Washington, the first American President, is unanimously voted into office by the senate. -
Eli Whitney invents cotton gin
This simple invention led to the cotton boom and increased need for slavery on the newer and bigger cotton plantations that profited from the sudden increase in demand.