-
Albany Plan of Union
This was Benjamin Franklin's plan for uniting the colonies in response to French attacks on the frontier. The colonies rejected the plan because it gave too much power to an assembly made up of representatives from all thirteen colonies. -
French and Indian War
It started as a struggle between the French and British over lands in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. By 1756, several other European countries became involved. Great Britain won the war in 1763 and gained complete control of the eastern third of the continent. -
George III becomes king of Great Britain
He had different ideas about how the colonies should be governed. -
Stamp Act
It imposed the first direct tax on the colonists. It required them to pay a tax on legal documents, pamphlets, newspapers, and even dice and playing cards. Parliament also passed laws regulating colonial trade in ways that benefited Great Britain but not the colonies. -
Stamp Act Congress
The first meeting in New York organized by the colonies to protest King George's actions. Delegates to the Congress sent a petition to the king, arguing that only colonial legislatures could impose direct taxes such as the Stamp Tax. -
Boston Tea Party
A group of colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor. -
Coercive Acts
In retaliation to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive acts, which the colonists called the Intolerable Acts. One of these acts closed Boston Harbor. Another of the Coercive Acts withdrew the right of the Massachusetts colony to govern itself. -
Committees of Correspondence
These organizations were urging resistance to the British. These committees consisted of colonists who wanted to keep in touch with one another as events unfolded. Samuel Adams established the first committee in Boston. The idea spread quickly, and within a few months, Massachusetts alone had more than 80 such committees. Virginia and other colonies soon joined in this communication network. Two prominent members of the Virginia committee of correspondence were Thomas Jefferson and P. Henry -
First Continental Congress
The Intolerable acts prompted Virginia and Massachusetts to call a general meeting of the colonies. Delegates from all the colonies except Georgia met in Philadelphia. Key colonial leaders such as Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee, and George Washington attended. They debated what to do about the relationship with Great Britain. They imposed an embargo on britain and agreed not to use British goods. They also proposed a meeting the following year. -
Lexington and Concord
British Redcoats clashed with colonial minutemen and Lexingtona and Concord in Massachusetts. This skirmish was the first battle of the Revolutionary War. -
Second Continental Congress
Within three weeks of the battle at Lexington and Concord, delegates from all thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia and immediately assumed the powers of a central government. It chose John Hancock of Massachusetts as president. It served as the acting government of the colonies throughout the war. It purchased supplies, negotiated treaties, and rallied support for the colonists' cause. -
Resolution of Independence
More than a year after fighting had begun in the colonies, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declared independence. Lee introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." -
Declaration of Independence
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman prepared the written declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote the draft, and on June 28 the committee submitted the edited draft to Congress. On July 2, 1776, the Congress approved Lee's resolution, and the colonies officially broke with Great Britain. After debate and editing, the Congress approved the final draft of the Declaration.
