1. Proclamation of 1763
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designed to maintain peace between the colonists and Native Americans,
this law angered settlers who hoped to buy western lands
2. Sugar Act and Stamp Act (1764/1765)
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Parliament passed these two acts creating taxes to help pay debt from French
and Indian War
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Sugar Act. This law placed a tax on sugar, molasses, and other products
shipped to the colonies.
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Stamp Act, a law that required all documents to carry an official stamp
showing that a tax had been paid.
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These taxes angered the colonists who saw them as an attack on their
political rights
“No Taxation without Representation”
3. Quartering Act (March, 1765)
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a law that required colonists to house all British soldiers.
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The colonists feared that Parliament intended to use the troops to control
their movements and restrict their freedom.
Stamp Act Congress (1765)
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Delegates from the colonies met to organize resistance
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Colonists boycotted British products and the acts were repealed
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Other forms of protest: Sons of Liberty, Committees of Correspondence, riots,
tar & feathering of officials, etc.
Townshend Acts (1767)
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Britain still needed money, so they placed taxes on several imports to the
colonies such as glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea.
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also allowed British officers to issue writs of assistance to enter homes and
businesses to search for smuggled or illegal goods.
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There was immediate protest throughout the colonies; Parliament had once
again passed a tax without their consent.
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In response to the Townshend Acts, another boycott was organized.
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more people became politically active
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Fearing disorder in the colonies, British officials called for more troops.
Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770)
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a group of colonists surrounded some soldiers in front of the Customs House.
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the two groups began trading insults, shouting at each other and throwing
things
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As the crowd grew larger, the soldiers began to fear for their safety.
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Thinking they were about to be attacked, the soldiers fired into the crowd.
Five people were killed.
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In the weeks that followed, the colonies were flooded with anti-British
propaganda in newspapers, pamphlets, and political posters.
Tea Act (1773)
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Colonists were boycotting tea from Britain and were drinking smuggled tea
from Holland…many British tea companies lost money in America.
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To save British tea merchants, Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773.
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This law gave the East India Company the exclusive right to sell tea in the
colonies and it also lowered the price of tea.
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Colonists were angered by the Tea Act because Parliament was interfering in
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the economy of the colonies by restricting colonists from acting as shippers
and merchants of the valuable product.
(*American colonists saw this law as yet another means of "taxation without representation" because
it meant that they couldn't buy tea from anyone else, including other colonial merchants, without
spending a lot more money…in essence forcing them to buy the “taxed tea” from Great Britain)
Boston Tea Party (Dec. 16, 1773)

Protests against the Tea Act took place throughout the colonies.
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Night of December 16, 1773, a group of men disguised as Native
Americans boarded three tea ships docked in Boston harbor. They destroyed
342 chests of tea by throwing them into the harbor.
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British officials were angered and wanted to punish the culprits.
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Some colonial leaders offered to pay for the tea if Parliament agreed to repeal
the Tea Act, but Britain would not compromise. This decision pushed many
Americans into open rebellion.
Intolerable Acts (or Coercive Acts) 1774

a series of laws meant to punish the Massachusetts colony and to clamp down on
resistance in other colonies.

The British = Coercive Acts; the colonists = Intolerable Acts.
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These acts were a direct attack on colonists’ traditional rights and liberties
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To enforce the acts, Parliament appointed General Thomas Gage governor
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Other colonies immediately offered Massachusetts their support. They
sent food and money to Boston.
First Continental Congress (Sept. 1774)

Meeting of delegates from all of the colonies (except Georgia) met in
Philadelphia to talk about what to do about the Intolerable Acts.
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They decided they must force the British to repeal the acts by cutting off all
trade between England and the colonies until the Acts were repealed.
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They also decided that all colonies should start training militia
Revere’s Midnight Ride (April 18, 1775)
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Parliament continued to increase restrictions on colonial trade and sent more
British troops to the colonies.
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By the end of 1774, some colonists were preparing to fight.
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On April 18, 1775, the British commander in Boston sent soldiers to Concord
to find guns and powder. They were also ordered to arrest Samuel Adams
and John Hancock, who were in Lexington

On the night of April 18th, Paul Revere (and others) made his famous
midnight ride from Boston to Lexington, Massachusetts to warn the citizens
that the British army was on its way. (Revere was captured before he could
complete the ride).
Lexington / Concord (April 19, 1775)
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On the morning of April 19th, 1775, the Battle of Lexington took place.
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The first shot fired was later known as “The shot heard ‘round the World”
due to the impact of the war that followed.
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On the same day, British troops marched on toward Concord where they
engaged the militia.
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Lexington and Concord were the first Battles of the Revolutionary War.
2nd Continental Congress (May 10, 1775)

Delegates met in Philadelphia and decided they would serve as America’s
government during the war as well as create a continental army.

George Washington was chosen as commanding general.
Ticonderoga (May 10, 1775)

Americans attacked Britain’s Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain.
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Led by Ethan Allen, backwoods fighters known as the Green Mountain Boys
captured the fort and its large supply of artillery (cannon and large guns)
which were used later to drive the British out of Boston (Siege of Boston).
Battle of Bunker Hill (June, 1775)

British General Howe marched over 2,000 of his soldiers across the bay from
Boston and set fire to Charlestown.
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The American militia was waiting atop Bunker Hill.
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The British charged the hill repeatedly until they won, but at a great loss,
with over 1,000 killed or wounded.
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Even though they lost, the colonial militia held its own against the powerful
British army.
Olive Branch Petition (July 1775)
 Moderates in Congress drafted the Olive Branch Petition and sent it to
London.
 This document asked the king to restore harmony between Britain and the
colonies. (Some members opposed the petition, but they signed it anyway)

The king rejected the petition, however, and announced new measures to
punish the colonies.
“Common Sense”

Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet called “Common Sense” which helped
convince many Americans to fight for independence.

Paine states that all should have rights, including the right to vote.

Paine argued many points on the economic benefits to being free from Britain
and on why America should separate from Britain and fight for
independence.
( FYI = here are some of Paine's Arguments against British rule)
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It was ridiculous for an island to rule a continent.
America was not a "British nation"; it was composed of influences and peoples from all of
Europe.
Even if Britain was the "mother country" of America, that made her actions all the more
horrendous, for no mother would harm her children so brutally.
Being a part of Britain would drag America into unnecessary European wars, and keep it
from the international commerce at which America excelled.
The distance between the two nations made governing the colonies from England unwieldy.
If some wrong were to be petitioned to Parliament, it would take a year before the colonies
received a response.
The New World was discovered shortly after the Reformation. The Puritans believed that
God wanted to give them a safe haven from the persecution of British rule.
Britain ruled the colonies for its own benefit, and did not consider the best interests of the
colonists in governing them. )
Declaration of Independence

Congress appointed a committee to draft a declaration of independence.

The group chose Thomas Jefferson from Virginia to write it because he was
an excellent writer.

On July 4, 1776, Congress adopted the Dec. of Ind., declaring their
independence from Great Britain.
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Now they had to win their freedom on the battlefield.
People and Vocab to know….
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Paul Revere
General Gage
General Howe
King George III
John Adams
Sam Adams
John Hancock
Ben Franklin
Thomas Paine
Committees of Correspondence
Sons of Liberty
Writs of assistance