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Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that happened on March 5, 1770, between a patriot mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a protest set at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. A mob organized by the Sons of Liberty raided three ships and threw all of the tea they were carrying into Boston Harbor. Parliament responded to the colonies by holding the First Continental Congress.
People of English descent, but men of Irish, Scottish, French, Portuguese, and African ancestry were documented to have also participated. -
Passage of the Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts in the American colonies were a series of 4 laws passed by the British Parliament to punish the colony of Massachusetts Bay for the Boston Tea Party. Parliament's intolerable policies sowed the seeds of American rebellion and led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775. -
Creation of the Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was the governing body by which the American colonial governments coordinated their resistance to British rule during the first 2 years of the American Revolution.
Patrick Henry, George Washington, John and Sam Adams, John Jay, and John Dickinson were apart of this. -
Paul Revere's Ride
Paul Revere's ride was to race to Concord to warn Patriots Sam Adams and John Hancock the British troops - 700 of them - were marching to Concord to arrest them. four men and one woman made late night rides, alerting the early Americans of what dangers lay ahead. They were Paul Revere, Samuel Prescott, Israel Bissell, William Dawes, and Sybil Ludington. -
Battles of Lexington and Concord
Massachusetts colonists defied British authority, outnumbered and outfought the Redcoats. The British marched into Lexington and Concord intending to suppress the possibility of rebellion by seizing weapons from the colonists. Instead their actions sparked the first battle of the Revolutionary War. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775.
The British woke to find the Americans had control of the high ground above Boston Harbor and would be able to fire on their ships. General Thomas Gage and General William Howe launched an assault on the hill during the afternoon of the 17th. -
Creation of the Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was designed for multiple audiences: the King, the colonists, and the world. Its goals were to rally the troops, win foreign allies, and to announce the creation of a new country.
John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson took part of this. -
Battle of Saratoga
The battle of Saratoga took place on the fields of upstate New York, nine miles south of the town of Saratoga. In accordance with British plans, General John Burgoyne was attempting to invade New England from Canada with the goal of Isolating New England from the rest of the United States. The American defeat the superior British army lifted patriot morale, furthered the hope of independence, and helped to secure the foreign support needed to win the war. -
Treaty of Paris
Franklin insisted on British recognition of American independence and refused to consider a peace separate from France. Spanish, French, British, and American representatives signed a provisional peace treaty on January 20, 1783. The formal agreement was signed on September 3, 1783.