Timeline 1763-1774

By Madeleine

  • Proclamation of 1763

    This was created to reserve western territory between the Allegheny Mountains, Florida, the Mississippi River, and Quebec for use by Native Americans. They also tried to sweep the Colonists away from the western border. That didn't exactly work.

  • Sugar Act

    This was replacement for the Molasses Act of 1733. It was aimed to end the smuggling of sugar illegally into the colonies and tax imported sugars. They enforced this act energetically.

  • Currency Act

    It was enacted to "to prevent paper bills of credit hereafter issued in any of His Majesty's colonies from being made legal tender." The colonies were constantly short of hard currency, and this act added another problem to the colonial economy.

  • Stamp Act

    This act required all broadsides, newspapers, pamphlets, leases, licenses, and any other document to have a revenue stamp.
    This act aroused a lot of anger and hostility of the most powerful groups in the colonies. The Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766.

  • Quartering Act

    This act required the colonies to provide royal troops with, the necessities, like water, food and barracks.

  • Declaratory Act

    This act made all laws made by the Parliament binding in all the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." Hostility grew in the colonies.

  • Townshend Act

    The Townshend Acts were based on the fact that taxes on goods imported by the colonies were allowed, but internal taxes, like the Stamp Act, were not. They were made to raise money to support colonial officials and maintain the British army in America.
    All the Townshend Acts were repealed except the one of tea in 1770.

  • Boston Massacre

    Hostility between citizens and British soldiers again flared into violence. What began as snowballing of British soldiers turned into a mob attack. Someone gave the order to fire. They ended up killing three people.

  • "Committee of Correspondence"

    Samuel Adams induced the Boston town meeting to select a "Committee of Correspondence" to state the rights of colonists. It opposed British decision to pay the salaries of judges from custom revenues; they feared judges would no longer be dependent on the legislature and no longer be accountable to it. Started in Massachusetts Colony, and they used it to inform other colonists of what was going on.

  • The Boston Tea Party

    Men disguised as Mohawk Natives, led by Samuel Adams boarded three British ships lying at anchor and dumped their tea into the Boston harbor. They feared colonists would actually purchase the tea and pay the tax. (The governor of Massachusetts kept the boats their and was going to force them to drink the tea.)

  • Intolerable/Coercive Acts

    This was Parliament's response to the Boston Tea Party. The first, the Boston Port Bill, closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. The point was to prevent Boston from having access to the sea which meant economic disaster. Other enactments restricted local authority and banned most town meetings held without the governor’s consent. Instead of subduing and isolating Massachusetts, as Parliament intended, these acts rallied its sister colonies to its aid.

  • Quakers Petition

    Many of those opposed to British encroachment on American rights but favored compromise as the proper solution. This group included Crown-appointed officers, Quakers, and members of other religious sects opposed to the use of violence, numerous merchants (In middle colonies), and some unhappy southerns.
    But George III had no intention of making concessions. In September 1774, scorning a petition by Philadelphia Quakers, he wrote, “The die is now cast, the Colonies must either submit or triumph.”

  • The Quebec Act

    This act passed nearly at the same time, it extended boundaries of the province of Quebec south to the Ohio River. Previous French practice, it provided for trials without jury, did not establish a representative assembly and gave the Catholic Church semi-established status.

  • First Continental Congress

    At the suggestion of the Virginia House of Burgesses, colonial representatives met in Philadelphia "to consult upon the present unhappy state of the Colonies." Delegates were chosen by provincial congresses or popular convent. . Only Georgia failed to send a delegate. The total number was 55. The resolutions affirmed the right of the colonists to "life, liberty and property," and the right of provincial legislatures to set "all cases of taxation and internal polity." (Organized to protest Intol)