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Declaration of Rights and Grievances
A document created by the Stamp Act Congress, declaring that taxes imposed on British colonists without their formal consent were unconstitutional. The Acts were designed specifically to punish the colony of Massachusetts for defying British policies; specifically, for the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. After officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. -
The Declaration of Independence
announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, to be ready when congress voted on independence. -
First Continental Congress
was a convention of delegates from twelve British North American colonies that met on Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament.The Congress was attended by 56 members appointed by the legislatures of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies, the exception being the Province of Georgia, which did not send delegates. -
Revolutionary War Begins
Began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers. The war was the result of the political American Revolution. Colonists galvanized around the position that the Stamp Act of 1765, imposed by Parliament of Great Britain, was unconstitutional. The British Parliament insisted it had the right to tax colonists. -
2nd Continental Congress meets
The Second Continental Congress me all through the Revolutionary War. They made decisions when and where to attack the British and how to protect themselves. They issued paper money and set up a system where the government would borrow money from their citizens and pay it back with interest. They even created a postal system and the first American Navy was formed.The main problem the Continental Congress had was how to finance the cost of the war. This took a lot of time and they tried different -
Articles of Confederation
Articles of Confederation, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that legally established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. The Articles provided domestic and international legitimacy for the Continental Congress to direct the American Revolutionary War, conduct diplomacy with Europe and deal with territorial issues and Indian relations. -
Revolutionary War Ends
The British agreed to American Independence and made a preliminary accord with America. In January of '83 they signed the preliminary peace treaty, with France and Spain, On April 14th, the Governor of New Jersey issued a Proclamation that ended formal hostilities. The British were still in New York City. -
Constitutional Congress
The place: the State House in Philadelphia, the same location where the Declaration of Independence had been signed 11 years earlier. For four months, 55 delegates from the several states met to frame a Constitution for a federal republic that would last into "remote futurity." This is the story of the delegates to that convention and the framing of the federal Constitution. The Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, -
Final Draft of the Contitutional
Members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution. Two days earlier, when a final vote was called, Edmund Randolph called for another convention to carefully review the Constitution as it stood. This motion, supported by George Mason and Elbridge Gerry, was voted down and the Constitution was adopted.
