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The Founding of Georgia
Georgia was founded to create a buffer between the southern colonies and the Spanish in Florida. James Oglethorpe first initiated the establishment of Georgia as a place for indebted prisoners from London. It became one of the states with the most plantations during the 19th century. -
The Stamp Act
Great Britain was left with large sums of debt after the Seven Years War. Seeing taxation as a potential revenue source, the first internal tax they imposed upon the American colonies was the Stamp Act. This tax, issued March 22, effected every printed sheet of paper. It was strongly protested by the colonists, and Parliament repealed it in 1766. Alongside repealing the tax, however, they also made the Declaratory Act, which reasserted Parliaments dominance as the colony’s ruling authority. -
End of the French and Indian War
It concluded with the Treaty of Paris, which was signed between the British, French, and Spanish. From France, Great Britain gained possession of Canada and all French land east of the Mississippi. Florida was also added to the British Empire from the Spanish. This established the dominance of British presence in the New World and on the oceans. -
the Townshend Act
These established tax on various imported supplies including paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea. While Parliament still wanted the income to help ease Britain's debt, they also intended to use the revenue to pay the governors' and judges' salaries in the colonies in order to keep them loyal. Although these items were taxed specifically because Parliament thought they would be hard for the colonists to manufacture, the colonists began boycotting these items. -
The Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre has become one of the most infamous events leading up to the American Revolution. Because Boston was occupied with over two thousand British soldiers who enforced the despised tax laws, tensions ran high. This conflict began when colonists started taunting and threatening a soldier who was protecting a stash of the King’s money. It eventually ended with five dead and six injured colonists, and this bloody conflict only strengthened the Americans’ anti-British sentiments. -
The Tea Act
This act exempted the British East India Company from paying duties on the tea they sold and at much lower prices. This was necessary because the company was having a harder and harder time selling tea in the colonies, which were usually major consumers of their tea. The colonists were smuggling in tea from other sources in protest of the Townshend Acts. This left the company with loads of tea and a financial crisis, which Parliament hoped to fix with the Tea Act. -
The Boston Tea Party
Every tax had been repealed except for the one on tea. The Tea Act enabled the East India Company’s tea to be much cheaper than any other tea for the colonies, but the colonists still refused to buy it because they did not want to even acknowledge the right that Parliament had to tax them. They prevented the tea ships from docking, but the ships remained in the Boston harbor. In response, the Sons of Liberty dumped 342 chests of tea overboard, thereby preventing any sales or payment of duty. -
The First Continental Congress
United by their common sense of injustice against the British laws imposed upon them, the thirteen colonies rallied together and sent representatives to discuss the Coercive Acts, which were Parliament’s response to the colonists’ retaliation. This gathering was the first Continental Congress, and they composed a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.” This argued for all of their rights as British citizens. They also wrote the “Continental Association,” which banned all trade with Britain. -
The Coercive/Intolerable Acts
Because Boston was considered to be in open rebellion to the British, they banned all trade in its harbor and completely took over the local government with British officials. Also, it was lawed that any royal officer accused of a crime would go to courts in Britain instead of local ones. Finally, they made it illegal for any colonist to refuse a British soldier residence in their home. The rest of the colonies saw this as a threat to their own freedom and united to help Massachusetts. -
Beginning of the American Revolution
The true fighting began when British soldiers began marching towards Lexington and Concord in April with the intent of seizing the local militia’s supplies and weapons. The minutemen rallied to stop them, and the first shots were fired at the Lexington Green. Groups of local militia continued to gather themselves as fighting escalated, Committees of Correspondence helped organize war efforts, and groups like the Sons of Liberty worked to find out the British’s plans and sabotage them. -
The Declaration of Independence
The thirteen colonies made the collective decision to declare independence from Britain. Five men, primarily Thomas Jefferson, drafted the Declaration of Independence, which was officially adopted on July 4. It stated the purposes and reasons behind the colonies’ rebellion against British dominance. Although not all colonists intended to completely dissolve all ties with Great Britain, it became the first time that a nation of people had united to claim their rights to their own government. -
The Battle of Saratoga
This battle took place in New York, and the colonial forces managed to surround and come out victorious over the British forces led by General John Burgoyne. It proved to be a pivotal moment because the American victory led Spain, France, and the Netherlands to support the colonies’ cause. -
The Articles of Confederation
This was a document that established the earliest form of the U.S. government and was the predecessor of the U.S. Constitution. It gave very little power to a national government, but many viewed it as simply a temporary solution until they could face the larger issues of federal authority and western land claims. -
Conclusion of the American Revolution
After French forces under Rochambeau and colonial troops led by Washington forced the British General Cornwallis to surrender his entire army in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, the colonies had essentially won. The main body of British soldiers still resided in New York and had forces stationed around Charleston and Savannah for the next two years, but the United States’ independence was formally recognized on September 3, 1783 through the Treaty of Paris. -
The U.S. Constitution
This document created the foundation of the American government. It established certain natural rights for every citizen, a centralized federal government with more power, and foundational laws. It also created the three branches of government: judicial, legislative, and executive. It was signed on September 17 at the Constitutional Convention. -
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George Washington's Presidency
George Washington was unanimously elected as president. He was reelected in 1793 and eventually stepped down from his public position in the government after serving the second term. During his time of service, he approved the first national bank, created a presidential cabinet, and selected the U.S.’s first chief justice of the Supreme Court. -
Invention of the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, which enables farmers to profit greatly from cotton crops. It revives the dying institution of slavery in the South. -
The Whiskey Rebellion
This rebellion, which protested a tax on whiskey, was an early test of the young country’s government. Western farmers in particular, who sold their grain to alcohol distilleries, violently protested the tax because it most effected them and smaller businesses. Officials who enforced the tax were faced with malicious threats and attacks. The violence began in 1791, and it was only resolved when President Washington dispatched soldiers to subdue the conflict.
