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The Sugar Act
April 5, 1764, Parliament passed a modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act. Required to pay a tax of six pence per gallon on the importation of foreign molasses. The enforced tax on molasses caused the almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies. -
The Currency Act
The colonies suffered a constant shortage of currency with which to conduct trade. Many of the colonies felt no alternative to printing their own paper money in the form of Bills of Credit. The notes were issued by land banks, or loan offices, which based the value of mortgaged land. -
The Stamp Act
George Grenville rose in Parliament to offer the fifty-five resolutions of his Stamp Bill. The Stamp Act was Parliament's first serious attempt to assert governmental authority over the colonies.Arguing that only their own representative assemblies could tax them, the colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional, and they resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning. -
The Quartering Act
That for and during the continuance of this act, and no longer, it shall and may be lawful to and for the constables, tithingmen, magistrates, and other civil officers of villages, towns, townships, cities, districts, and other places, within his Majesty's dominions in America, and in their default or absence, for any one justice of the peace inhabiting in or near any such village, township, city, district or place, and for no others; and such constables. -
The Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions
Patrick Henry, who was a new member to the House of Burgesses undertook a radical move against the authority of Parliament. Resolved, that by two royal charters, granted by King James I, the colonists aforesaid are declared entitled to all liberties, privileges, and immunities of denizens and natural subjects to all intents and purposes as if they had been abiding and born within the Realm of England. -
The Declaratory Act
An acr for the better securing the dependency of his Majesty's dominions in America upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain. Whereas several of the houses of representatives in his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America, have of late, against law, claimed to themselves, or to the general assemblies of the same, the sole and exclusive right of imposing duties and taxes upon his Majesty's subjects in the said colonies and plantations -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. The presence of British troops in the city of Boston was increasingly unwelcome. The riot began when about 50 citizens attacked a British sentinel. A British officer, Captain Thomas Preston, called in additional soldiers, and these too were attacked, so the soldiers fired into the mob, killing 3 on the spot (a black sailor named Crispus Attucks, ropemaker Sam. -
The Tea Act
It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. Cargoes of tea filled the harbor, and the British ship's crews were stalled in Boston looking for work and often finding trouble. This situation led to the Boston Tea Party. -
Paul Revere Ride
He did not come from the same social class as the aforementioned patriots. As a silversmith, he was a man of humbler means, but his attitudes about Britain were anything but humble. His famous midnight ride that warned of the advancing British troops was only one of his revolutionary actions. He was also an illustrator, whose image of the Boston Massacre became iconic. -
Minutemen
Although the terms militia and minutemen are sometimes used interchangeably today, in the 18th century there was a decided difference between the two. Militia were men in arms formed to protect their towns from foreign invasion and ravages of war. Minutemen were a small hand-picked elite force which were required to be highly mobile and able to assemble quickly. Minutemen were a small hand-picked elite force which were required to be highly mobile and able to assemble quickly. -
George Washington
He was the commander in cheif. He was much more than the Commander in Chief though. He was the one necessary person, whose calm, unswerving, determined sense of patriotic duty to country, and ability put real backbone into the Revolution and kept it from collapsing or merging into a civil conflict, under the hardships and unexpected privations encountered during the eight years of war. -
Bunker Hill Battle
A detail of American troops acting under orders from Artemas Ward moved out of their camp, carrying picks, shovels, and guns. They entrenched themselves on a rise located on Charleston Peninsula overlooking Boston. Their destination: Bunker Hill. From this hill, the rebels could bombard the town and British ships in Boston Harbor. But Ward's men misunderstood his orders. They went to Breed's Hill by mistake and entrenched themselves there closer to the British position. -
Paoli Massacre
The British were camped at Tredyffrin in preparation of crossing the Schuylkill River and attacking Philadelphia. Lord Howe, however, got word that Wayne was lurking in ambush. Howe changed his plans. He would instead try to ambush Wayne at his camp in Paoli. Just after midnight on September 21, the British led by Lord Grey launched a devastating strike into Wayne's unprepared American camp. Grey had ordered his men to remove the flints from their rifles before the attack began. -
The Ariticle of Confederation
Whereas the Delegates of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, did, on the 15th day of November, in the Year of Our Lord One thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy seven, and in the Second Year of the Independence of America, agree to certain articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of New-hampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhodeisland and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, SC. -
U.S. Constitution
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
