-
Sugar Act
- Indirect tax (out of sight = out of mind)
- Duties on molasses and sugar
-
Stamp Act
• Taxes on all paper product
Official stamp/seal on all paper items (proof tax was paid)
• Legal documents
• Licenses
• Newspaper
• Pamphlets
• Playing cards • Purchased only with valuable silver coins
• If didn't purchase = fined or jailed Protested Stamp Act, feeling rights were violated -
Declaratory Act
• Parliament declares it has power to make laws for colonies 'in class whatsoever'
• Parliament passes this to save face -
Townshend Act
• Taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea
• Searched for smuggled goods
• Sons of Liberty start to do violent acts
- British soldiers arrive to protect tax collectors -
Boston Massacre
• Fights between troops and Bostonians were common
• March 5, 1770: soldiers strikes colonist
- Crowd gathers and hassles soldiers, throwing snowballs and shouting insults
- More troops arrive, colonists get more and more angry
- "Fire if you dare!"
• This became known as the Boston Massacre -
Tea Act
• Passed in 1773 and allowed British East India Company (BEIC) to sell tea directly to colonists
- Lower prices than colonists merchants prices
- Tax Tea cheaper than smuggled tea
- Less smuggling = more tax money • Colonial Merchants feared BEIC would put them out of business -
Boston Tea Party
• Members of Sons of Liberty dump over 340 chests of tea into Boston Harbor • 'Boston harbor is a teapot tonight!'
• Caused problems for loyalists/ Tories
- loyalists/Tory = a person in the colony who remains 'loyal' to the King & Great Britain -
Intolerable Act
• Passed to punish Boston for Tea Party
- Boston Harbor closed until tea paid for
- Massachusetts Charter cancelled
- Royal officials had trial in Britain
- Quartering Act required colonists house soldiers
• ' If a soldier comes knocking at the door... You're sleeping on the floor'
- Large amount of land given to Quebec
- General Thomas Gage became new governor of MA -
Quartering Act
- Quartering Act required colonists to house soldiers
- "If a soldier comes knocking at the door.... You're sleeping on the floor"
- Large amount of land given to Quebec
- General Thomas Gage became new governor of MA
-
Continental Congress meets
• All colonies but Georgia have representatives
• voted to send a "statement of grievances"
• Voted to Boycott all British trade
• Patrick Henry -- VA rep. urged colonists to unite against Britain -
1,000's of Redcoats in Boston
General Gage brings thousands of British soldiers to Boston with more on the way -
Midnight ride of Paul Revere
Paul Revere rides to warn the Sons of Liberty in Lexington and Concord that the "British are coming... The British are coming.." -
Battles of Lexington & Concord
Battle of Lexington-
- 1st battle of America Revolutionary War
- "shot heard around the world" -Ralph Waldo Emerson
- BRITISH Victory
Battle of Concord-
- Americans Stop British and force them to retreat back to Boston
- AMERICAN Victory -
Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
• Benedict Arnold & Ethan Allen capture the fort
• Get all supplies in the fort including cannons
• AMERICAN Victory -
Second Continental Congress meet
• print $$$
• set up post office
• created Continental Army led by George Washington
• sent Olive Branch asking King to protect their rights
- King hires 30,000 Hessians soldiers in response -
Battle of Bunker Hill
• Fought on Breed's Hill
• "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" - William Prescott
• BRITISH Victory (Americans ran out of ammunition) British learn defeating Americans would NOT be easy. -
Washington arrives on outskirts of Boston with Continental troops
• realizes men are disorganized & need
• discipline
• weapons -
"Common Sense" published by Thomas Paine
• pamphlet inspires more colonists to become patriots
• "Every thing that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries 'TIS TIME TO PART" - Thomas Paine, "Common Sense" -
British Surrender Boston
• Washington believes his army is ready & weapons arrive
• Washington puts cannons on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston
• BRITISH retreat - AMERICAN Victory -
Second Continental Congress votes for Independence
-
Second Continental Congress meets again
• debate on declaring independence
• Thomas Jefferson is the primary author of the document -
The Declaration of Independence is signed!