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The Currency Act of 1751
Restricted colonies from making paper money and establishing banks. It was a reminder to colonists of how little parliament thought of their rights. -
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Albany Congress
A meeting of representatives from seven colonies to discuss treaties with the Native Americans and defenses against French. -
The Sugar Act
The luxurious things Colonists bought from British were taxed. Colonists were angered and sent letters to parliament. They also boycotted the fine items like silk and wine. The British soon got rid of this act but replaced it with the Stamp Act -
The Currency Act of 1764
This was an extension of the first currency act. It meant that the British could control colonial money and what they did with it. Instead of making actual money they used "bills of credit". Colonists were extremely upset. They petitioned against the act. -
The Quartering Act
Colonists were forced to pay for British soldiers to stay at hotels and they also had to feed them. The Colonists thought this act was illegal according to their Bill of Rights and the British couldn't get them to pay. -
The Stamp Act
Taxes were imposed on paper and stamps guaranteed they had been paid. Colonists reacted with boycotts and riots. The British would prosecute those who violated the act. -
The Declaratory Act
British declared their right to tax the colonies as the taxed Great Britain. This threatened the colonies ability to rule themselves. -
The Townshend Acts
Taxes were put on imports (paint, glass, tea etc.) The colonial reaction to this was to boycott British products. Soon the British repelled these acts, too. -
The Boston Massacre
Five colonists were killed by British Regulars. After a lot of tension between the British and the colonies this was the outcome. The colonists blamed the British completely as depicted in Paul Revere's engraving of the event. This also united the colonies. The British troops had to evacuate Boston. -
The Tea Act
This act was created to raise money for the East India Company. The colonists had begun drinking Dutch tea after the earlier tax on tea so the company's profits were hurt. This new act gave the East India Company the right to ship directly to the colonies and took away the job of colonial merchants. The colonists were so angered they continued their tea boycott and some partook in the Boston Tea Party. -
The Boston Tea Party
The "Sons of Liberty" threw boxes of tea over the side of the East India company's ship. This was in response to the Tea Act. The British responded with the Coercive Acts AKA the Intolerable Acts. -
The Boston Port Act
This was a response to the Boston Tea Party. This act closed the ports of Boston until the tea that was destroyed in the Boston Tea Party was paid for and the king was payed for the lost taxes. Other colonies were upset because they thought the same thing might happen to them. -
The Quebec Act
This act was good for the Canadians but not the thirteen colonies. The borders of the Canadian province, Quebec, were extended into what colonists had claimed as their territory. Religious freedom was also given to the French-Canadians. This angered the colonists who were largely Protestants and they consider it to be one of the Intolerable Acts. -
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The First Continental Congress
Representatives from twelve colonies met to discuss their mistreatment by British. They decided to right the Declaration of Resolves and declare a boycott of British products. They also planned The Second Continental Congress. -
The Edenton Tea Party
Fifty-one women formed an alliance against "taxation without representation". They signed an agreement. The British were shocked by the organized women's protest because it was one of the first, but they ridiculed the women. The colonists praised them for their patriotism. -
Paul Revere's Ride
Paul Revere and a few others heard that the British were heading towards Cambridge and Lexington and Concord. They had planned what to do if the British were detected. Upon seeing the signal, Revere rode through the countryside of Boston spreading the alarm. The British captured Revere and his accomplices. -
"Shot Heard 'Round the World"
British were to 'secretly' destroy colonial supplies but the colonists found out and saved the supplies. But they still had to face the British army. At Lexington the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired. The colonists were outnumbered and disorganized but they managed to cut the British off later at Concord and they retreated. By the next year the two were fighting a full scale war. -
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The Second Continental Congress
The delegates from the colonies met together again as conditions worsened. Not all of them wanted to secede from Great Britain so they wrote the "Olive Branch Petition" and sent it to the king to ask for peace between the two. The king refused and instead sent in mercenaries during the summer of 1775. This made the colonist upset and less than a year they asked for independence. Congress met periodically over the course of the war. -
Publishing of 'Common Sense'
Thomas Paine wrote and published this 47-page pamphlet arguing for American independence. It was written to unite the colonists under the same idea that Americans should be free from British rule. The pamphlet attacked the king of England. Colonists grew more patriotic as an effect of this. -
The Declaration of Independence
When the the colonists met on July first 1776 a majority voted for independence from Britain so they used Thomas Jefferson's draft of "A Summary View of the Rights of British America". With some revision they adopted the document on July fourth. After this the King of Britain declared the colonies to be in rebellion. -
The Articles of Confederation
An agreement among the thirteen colonies that acted as a constitution. It was introduced in 1777 but didn't get ratified by all the colonies until 1781. It was weak and soon the colonies realized that.
