The Road To Revolution

Sons (and daughters) of Liberty

Jan 1, 1765

The Sons of Liberty was a political group made up of American patriots that originated in the pre-independence North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists from the usurpations by the British government after 1766.

The Stamp Act [Tax/Violation of Rights]

Mar 22, 1765

The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. The Stamp Act, however, was viewed as a direct attempt by England to raise money in the colonies without the approval of the colonial legislatures. NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!

Stamp Act Congress [Violation of Rights]

Oct 19, 1765

The Stamp Act Congress was a meeting on October 19, 1765 in New York City of representatives from among the Thirteen Colonies. They discussed and acted upon the Stamp Act recently passed by the governing Parliament of Great Britain overseas, which did not include any representatives from the colonies. Meeting in the building that would become Federal Hall, the Congress consisted of delegates from 9 of the 13 colonies.

Townshend Acts

Jan 1, 1767

The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed beginning in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain relating to the British colonies in North America. The acts are named for Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who proposed the program.

Boston Massacre

Mar 5, 1770

The Boston Massacre, called the Boston Riot by the English, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British redcoats killed five civilian men. British troops had been stationed in Boston since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment.

Tea Act

May 10, 1773

The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Its objective was to undercut the price of tea smuggled into Britain's North American colonies in preference to that of the British East India Company, and thereby convince the colonists to accept Parliament's right of taxation.

Boston Tea Party

Dec 16, 1773

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea coming into the colonies. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor.

The Intolerable Acts [Violation of Rights]

Jan 1, 1774

The Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts are names used to describe a series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Britain's colonies in North America. The acts triggered outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies that later became the United States, and were important developments in the growth of the American Revolution.

Quartering Acts [Violation of Rights}

Jun 2, 1774

These Quartering Acts were used by the British forces in the American colonies to ensure that British soldiers had adequate housing and provisions. These acts were amendments to the Mutiny Act, which had to be renewed annually by Parliament.

First Continental Congress [Violation of Rights]

Sep 5, 1774

The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts (also known as Intolerable Acts by the Colonial Americans) by the British Parliament. The Intolerable Acts had punished Boston for the Boston Tea Party.

Lexington and Concord

Apr 19, 1775

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America.