-
Proclamation of 1763
This royal proclamation, issued on October 7, 1763, closed down colonial expansion westward beyond Appalachia. It was the first measure to affect all thirteen colonies. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act reduced the rate of tax on molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon, while Grenville took measures that the duty is strictly enforced. -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act of 1765 required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. If the barracks were too small to house all the soldiers, then localities were to accommodate the soldiers in local inns, livery stables, alehouses, victualling houses, and the houses of sellers of wine. -
Stamp Act
The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards. -
Townshend Act
The Townshend Act imposed duties on British china, glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea imported to the colonies. However, these policies prompted colonists to take action by boycotting British goods -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a "patriot" mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. Several colonists were killed and this led to a campaign by speech-writers to rouse the ire of the citizenry. -
Tea Act
The act granted the company the right to ship its tea directly to the colonies without first landing it in England, and to commission agents who would have the sole right to sell tea in the colonies. -
Intolerable Act
The Coercive Acts, known in America as the Intolerable Acts, were passed by the British Parliament in 1774 as punishment for the destruction wrought during the Boston Tea Party, a violent reaction to the British tea tax of 1773. ... At this point, the British made the fateful decision to tax the American colonies. -
First Continental Congress
On September 5, 1774, delegates from each of the 13 colonies except for Georgia (which was fighting a Native American uprising and was dependent on the British for military supplies) met in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to Parliament's Coercive Acts. -
Declaration Of Independence
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress, states the reasons the British colonies of North America sought independence in July of 1776. ... The King interfered with the colonists' right to self-government and for a fair judicial system.
