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Proclamation of 1763
Britain told the colonist that they could not settle west of the Appalachian mountains because they did not want to fight with the Native Americans Colonist Reaction: Colonists and land speculators petitioned Parliament, which resulted in the boundary line being moved back. -
Sugar Act
Law passed by the British Parliament setting taxes on molasses and sugar imported by the colonies Colonist Reaction: They boycotted English products, and this earned the attention of Great Britain by hurting them financially. -
Quartering Act
Required the colonials to provide food, lodging, and supplies for the British troops in the colonies. Colonist Reaction: disputed the legality of this act because it seemed to violate the Bill of Rights of 1689 -
Stamp Act
an act passed by the British Parliament in 1756 that raised revenue from the American colonies by a tax in the form of a stamp required on all newspapers and legal or commercial documents Colonist Reaction: British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Years' War. It required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various papers, documents, and playing cards. -
Repeal of Stamp Act
After months of protest, and an appeal by Benjamin Franklin before the British House of Commons, Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act in March 1766. However, the same day, Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts, asserting that the British government had free and total legislative power over the colonies. Colonist Reaction: Happy that the appeal went through. -
Townshend Act
Duty on glass, paper, paint, and tea to pay royal salaries; met with smuggling Colonist Reaction: The Townshend Acts were actually a series of taxes and laws imposed upon the colonists. The first, the Townshend Revenue Act, placed a tax on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea. Other bills included in the Townshend Acts contributed to the colonists' angry reaction. -
Boston Massacre
The first bloodshed of the American Revolution, as British guards at the Boston Customs House opened fire on a crowd killing five Americans Colonist Reaction: After the Boston Massacre, colonists were largely outraged at what they saw as a vicious attack on unarmed civilians. Supporters of the Patriot movement were quick to capitalize on this, and they released engravings and written accounts of the incident designed to portray the British soldiers in the most negative light possible. -
Tea Act
this allowed the British East India Company to bypass tea merchants and sell directly to colonists Colonist reaction: The colonists had never accepted the constitutionality of the duty on tea, and the Tea Act rekindled their opposition to it. Their resistance culminated in the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, in which colonists boarded East India Company ships and dumped their loads of tea overboard. -
Intolerable Act
Parliament passed these in response to the Boston Tea party to punish Massachusetts—shut down Boston harbor, forbid town meetings, tried customs officials in Britain or Canada, and reinstated the Quartering Act Colonist Reaction: Drove the colonists to call the First Continental Congress in 1774 and band together to form a collective resistance against British oppression. -
Lexington and Concord
The first shots fired in the Revolutionary War, on April 19, 1775, near Boston; approximately 100 minutemen and 250 British soldiers were killed Colonist Reaction: While the colonists lost many minutemen, the Battles of Lexington and Concord were considered a major military victory and displayed to the British and King George III that unjust behavior would not be tolerated in America. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
First major battle of the Revolution. It showed that the Americans could hold their own, but the British were also not easy to defeat. Ultimately, the Americans were forced to withdraw after running out of ammunition, however, the British suffered more deaths. Colonist Reaction: The inexperienced colonial forces inflicted significant casualties against the enemy, and the battle provided them with an important confidence boost. -
Second Continental Congress
They organized the continental Army, called on the colonies to send troops, selected George Washington to lead the army, and appointed the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence Colonist Reaction: It recruited an Army. -
Daughters of Liberty
This organization supported the boycott of British goods. They urged Americans to wear homemade fabrics and produce other goods that were previously available only from Britain. They believed that way, the American colonies would become economically independent. -
First Continental Congress
The assembly of colonial delegates from every colony except Georgia that met in 1774 in Philadelphia to oppose the Intolerable Acts. -
Paul Revere's Ride
This ride was famous for going from Lexington to concord to alert the colonists the British were coming