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Sugar Act
a law passed by the British Parliament in 1764 raising duties on foreign refined sugar imported by the colonies so as to give British sugar growers in the West Indies a monopoly on the colonial market. -
Sugar Act Boycott
Colonists took action against the British in opposition to the Sugar Act. They boycotted English products, and this earned the attention of Great Britain by hurting them financially. -
Stamp Act
an act of the British Parliament in 1756 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. -
Quartering Act
a minimum of two Acts of British Parliament in the local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations or housing. -
Stamp Act Repealed
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. -
Townshend Act
the Townshend Acts imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea imported into the colonies -
Boston Massacre
a riot in Boston arising from the resentment of Boston colonists toward British troops quartered in the city, in which the troops fired on the mob and killed several people. -
Boston Tea Party
a raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor in which Boston colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor as a protest against British taxes on tea. -
Coercive Acts
a series of British measures passed in 1774 and designed to punish the Massachusetts colonists for the Boston Tea Party. -
First Continental Congress
a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. -
Lexington and Concord
first battle of the Revolutionary War. -
Second Continental Congress
a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia. Soon after warfare, declared the American Revolutionary War had begun.