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Sugar act-1764
-indirect tax(out of sight = out of mind)
-duties on molasses and sugar -
Stamp act-1765
Tax on all paper product
Official stamp/seal
On all paper items(proof tax was paid)
Legal documents
Licenses
Newspapers
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-1766
Parliament declares it power to make laws for the colonies “in all case whatever”
Parliament passes this to save face -
Townshend act-1767
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 soldier, throwing snowballs and shouting insults
More troops arrive, the colonists get more and more angry. -
Tea act -1773
Passed in 1773 and allowed british east india company (BEIC) to sell tea directly to colonist
-lower prices than colonist merchant prices
-tax tea cheaper than smuggled tea
-Less smuggling = more tax money
Colonial mertancts feared BEIC would put them out of business -
Boston Tea Party
Members of sons of liberty dump over 340 chest of tea into boston harbor Boston harbor is a teapot tonight!
Cause problems for loyalists / tories
-loyalist /tory =a person in the colonie who remains loyal to the king and Great Britain. -
Intolerable acts-1774
Passed to punish boston for tea party
-boston harbor closed until tea paid for
-massachusetts charter canceled
-royal officials had trial in britain -
Quartering act-1774
Required colonist to house soldiers
If a soldier comes knocking at the door …. Your 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 colonist to unite against Britain
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Washington arrives on the outskirts of Boston with Continental troops.
Realizes men are disorganized & need discipline.
Need weapons. -
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 American Revolutionary War
- “shot heard round the world” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
-BRITISH Victory Battle of Concord
-American Stop the British and force them to retreat back to Boston. -
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 a post office.
Created continental Army led by George Washington.
Sent Olive Branch asking the King to protect their rights.
-King hires 30,000 Hessian’s 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 (american ran out of ammunition) British learn defeating Americans would not be easy. -
“Common sense” published by Thomas Paine
Pamphlet inspires more colonist to become patriots
“Everything 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. -
The British surrendered Boston.
Washington believes his army is ready & weapons arrive.
Washington puts cannons on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston.
BRITISH retreat - AMERICAN Victory -
Second continental congress meet again.
Debate on declaring independence.
Thomas Jefferson is the primary author of the document. -
Second continental congress votes for independence.
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The Declaration of Independence is signed.