What is the proper sequence of the following events?
Boston Tea Party
Stamp Act
French and Indian War
Declaration of Independence
Battles of Concord and Lexington
French and Indian War (1754-1763)
Stamp Act (1765)
Boston Tea Party (December 1773)
Battles of Concord and Lexington (April 1775)
Declaration of Independence (July 1776)
“It was now evening, and I immediately dressed myself in the costume of an Indian,
equipped with a small hatchet, which I and my associates denominated the
tomahawk, with which, and a club, after having painted my face and hands with coal
dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay that
contained the tea. When I first appeared in the street after being thus disguised, I fell
in with many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I was, and who fell in with
me and marched in order to the place of our destination.”
– George Robert Twelves Hewes
“This morning I see in the newspaper
(which by the way is almost the only
way I hear from our Colony) that
Portsmouth had appointed Messrs
Cutts, Sherburne and Long, to
represent that town in Provincial
Convention, and by the Instructions I
find the town is very much afraid of the
idea conveyed by the frightful word
Independence! This week a pamphlet
on that Subject was printed here, and
greedily bought up and read by all
ranks of people. I shall send you one of
them, which you will please to lend
round to the people; perhaps on
consideration there may not appear any
thing so terrible in that thought as they
might at first apprehend, if Britain
should force us to break off all
connections with her.”
Josiah Bartlett to John Langdon,
January 13, 1776
“Volumes were insufficient to describe the
horror, misery, and desolation awaiting the
people at large in the Syren form of American
independence. In short, I affirm that it would
be most excellent policy in those who wish
for true liberty, to submit by an advantageous
reconciliation to the authority of Great Britain
; " to accomplish in the long run, what they
cannot do by hypocrisy, fraud, and force in
the short one.'* Independence and slavery are
synonymous terms.”
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them
to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in
such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the
patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter
their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history
of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States.
To the Honorable Counsel & House of Representatives for the State of Massachusette Bay in General
Court assembled, Jan 13 1777 -The petition of A Great Number of Blackes detained in a State of Slavery in the Bowels of a free &
christian Country Humbly shuwith that your Petitioners Apprehend that Thay have in Common with all
other men a Natural and Unaliable Right to that freedom which the Grat Parent of the Unavese hath
Bestowed equalley on all menkind and which they have Never forfuted by Any Compact or Agreement
whatever -- but thay wher Unjustly Dragged by the hand of cruel Power from their Derest frinds and sum
of them Even torn from the Embraces of their tender Parents -- from A popolous Plasant And plentiful
cuntry And in Violation of Laws of Nature and off Nations And in defiance of all the tender feelings of
humanity Brough hear Either to Be sold Like Beast of Burthen & Like them Condemnd to Slavery for Life
-- among A People Profesing the [mild?] Religion of Jesus A people Not Insensible of the Secrets of
Rationable Being Nor without spirit to Resent the unjust endeavours of others to Reduce them to A state of
Bondage and Subjection your honouer Need not to be informed that A Life of Slavery Like that of your
Petioners Deprived of Every social Priviledge of Every thing Requiset to Render Life Tolable is far worse
then Nonexistance.
[In imita ]tion of [the] Lawdable Example of the Good People of these States your petiononers have Long
and Patiently waited the Evnt of petition after petition By them presented to the Legislative Body of this
state And cannot but with Grief Reflect that their Sucess hath ben but too similar they Cannot but express
their Astonisments that It has Never Bin Consirdered that Every Principle from which Amarica has Acted
in the Cours Of their unhappy Deficultes with Great Briton Pleads Stronger than A thousand arguments in
favowrs of Your petioners thay therfor humble Beseech your Honours to give this petion its due weight &
considerration and cause an act of the Legislatur to be past Wherby they may Be Restored to the
Enjoyments of that Which is the Naturel Right of all men and their Children who wher Born in this Land of
Liberty may not be heald as Slaves after they arive at the age of Twenty one years so may the Inhabitance
of thes StateNo longer chargeable with the inconsistancey of acting themselves the part which thay condem
and oppose in Others Be prospered in their present Glorious Struggle for Liberty and have those Blessing
to them &c.