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Stamp Act (Part 1)
-After the French and Indian War, Parliament had a lot of debts to pay, which resulted in the idea of making the colonists pay extra taxes when buying paper items. These included legal documents, licenses, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards. The Stamp Act was the first attempt of direct taxing toward the colonists. From this act, the Sons of Liberty was formed by Samuel Adams. This was a secret society in which started boycotting and using violence to intimidate tax collectors. -
Stamp Act (Part 2)
The Committees of Correspondence was also created during the Stamp Act. This was a committee created to help the colonies share information about resisting British laws. One of their main sayings was, "No taxation without representation." This was because the colonies felt that it was unfair to be taxed when there wasn't even any members in the Parliament representing the colonies. The Stamp Act was eventually repealed in 1766. -
Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress was an intercolonial conference which discusses about uniformed actions within the colonies. -
Townshend Acts
The townshend acts were laws that placed taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. The colonists hated these acts because it restricted their freedom even more than before. Therefore, they responded to it by once again boycotting British goods. Later, Samuel Adams even wrote a letter saying that the laws are violating the rights of the colonists. -
Boston Massacre
Tension between the British and colonists began to rise and finally reached to a point where everything simply coudn't be contained. It started with an argument between a British soldier and a colonist until one struck another. Then, small number of troops started coming and the number of angry colonists were increasing. Suddenly, the soldiers shot the colonists and five were dead. -
Tea Act
To reduce the tension, Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts, however, still kept the tax on the tea. The Tea Act allowed the British Each India Company to directly sell their tea to the colonists. This is because the company had a lot of tea to sell but couldn't sell it directly to the colonists. Therefore, once they could, they would be charging the tea at a cheap price. Cheap prices would hopefully lead to less smuggling which then means more tax money. -
Boston Tea Party
Three ships loaded with tea from the British East India Company arrived in Boston Harbor. The Sons of Liberty told them to leave but the government wouldn't allow them them to unless they pay their taxes. Therefore, on the night of December 16, 1773, the colonists dressed-up like Indians and snuck on to the three ships. They dumped over 340 chests of tea into the harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolderable Acts were a set of laws that were formed in resulrt to the Boston Tea Party. The acts included the closing of Boston Harbor until Boston paid for all the ruined tea, cancelling of Massachusett's charter, seding royal officials to Britain when being trialed, the development of the Quartering Act which requires the colonists to house British soldiers, and the development of the Quebec Act which gave a large amount of land to the Quebec colony. -
First Continental Congress
This was a gathering of colonial leaders who weren't really for the relationship between Great Britain and the colonies. Debatss of the congress went on for a couple of weeks due to disagreement among the different colonies. 10 resolutions were written and sent to King George III to debate upon. The goal of the First Continental Congress was to state the colonists' concerns and problems and ask the king to fix them. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord (Part 1)
At Lexington, around 70 minutemen waited for the British troops to pass through. This is where the saying, "shot hears 'round the world" came from. This battle lasted only for a couple of minutes. 8 miinutemen were wounded and 10 were dead. Only 1 British soldier, or Redcoat was injured from this. Even though Paul Revere (one who alerted colonists of the British troops coming) was arrested, word came to Concord about the British troops from another Patriot. -
Battle of Lexington and Concord (Part 2)
Therefore, most of the weapons were already hidden before the British troops came. When the British couldn't find the weapons, they became frustrated and starting setting houses on fire. The minutemen retaliated and eventually forced the British to retreat to Boston. -
Second Continental Congress
This was the first attempt at a Republican government in the colonies. Some delegates wanted war and some wanted peace. Eventually, they came to a conclusion and authorized the Massachusetts militia to become the Continental Army. This military force would soon go against Britain. -
Battle of Bunker Hill (Part 1)
Due to lack of supplies, Bostonian leaders sent Benedict Arnold and a force of 400 men to New York. Their goal was the capture the British fort there and take their large supply of weapons. They accomplishe this in the month of May. In June, the Patriots were waiting for the Redcoats to cross them. When they do, they would shoot and kill them. The British had to retreat two times. When they came back to fight for the third time, the Patriots had run out of ammunition and were forced to retreat. -
Battle of Bunker Hill (Part 2)
After the Battle of Bunker Hill, George Washington came to Boston to command the Continental Army. He was lacking heavy guns, which led to the Patriots to take them from the British fort once again. The Patriots were successful and brought back a large supply of heavy guns. -
Olive Branch Petition
As Washington prepared for war, the Congress signed the Olive Branch Petition as a final attempt to find peace. King George, however, refused to read it. -
Common Sense
This was a 47 paged pamphlet that was distributed in Philadelphia. It was published anonymously, however, it was later announced that Thomas Paine was the author. He argued that kings and queens should not make laws. This pamphlet eventually sold 500,000 copies. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence formally announced the colonies’ independence from Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson, the main author of this document, stated that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” of the colonists should not be taken advantage of too.
