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Writs of Assistance
One of the first instance of British interference with the affairs of colonists. These were authorized search warrants issued by the Court of Exchequer, allowing customs officials to enter any suspicious ship or building and search for smuggled goods. -
Proclamation of 1763
Line of demarcation drawn up in the aftermath of the French and Indian War, which was meant to restrict the expansion of the colonies, in order to prevent further conflicts with the Native Americans. However, the colonists largely ignored this rule, and kept settling on the frontier regardless. -
Sugar Act of 1764
This act was designed in part to rid of the illegal sugar trade between the continental colonies and the French and Spanish West Indies and to raise money to finance French and Indian War debt. -
Stamp Act of 1765
This was a tax on most printed documents, newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, deeds, wills, licenses, etc. This infuriated the colonists as they argued that Parliament wasn’t allowed to pass internal taxes on the colonies. The Stamp Act was repealed but the Declaratory Act quickly followed. -
Quartering Act of 1765
This act required that colonists house and provide for British troops, with no prior warning or compensation. This grievance eventually led to the formation of a constitutional amendment. -
Stamp Act Congress
This was the first congress held in the American Colonies, called together to decided what would be done about the Stamp Act. They eventually managed to convince Parliament to repeal it, but in return, the Declaratory Act was passed. -
Declaratory Act of 1766
This act accompanied the repealment of the Stamp Act and expressed Parliament’s equal authority over its legislative power in the colonies as in England. This angered some colonists as it allowed Parliament to pass laws without colonial consent, but it was largely forgotten in the celebration over the repeal of the Stamp Act. -
Townshend Acts of 1767
Parliamentary Acts first proposed by Charles Townshend, imposing further taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea. Lord North eventually repealed the Townshend Act (excluding the Tea Tax) in 1670 in an effort to please the colonies. However, his efforts ultimately proved fruitless, as the Boston Massacre rescinded whatever good feelings he had managed to draw up among them. -
Boston Massacre
A crowd of dockworkers known as “Liberty Boys” began pelting various items at the Boston customs house. Captain Thomas Preston lined up several British troops, a small skirmish broke out and 5 colonialists were killed. This was a major source of Anti-British propaganda. -
Tea Act of 1773
This act was an effort to bail out the almost bankrupt Dutch East India Company by exempting it from tea taxes in the colonies. This angered influential colonial merchants and colonists responded by boycotting tea. -
Boston Tea Party
After failing to turn back Dutch East Indian cargo ships in the Boston bay, three companies of fifty men each dressed as Mohawks, boarded the ships and dumped the tea into the harbor. After refusing to pay for the damage, England adopted a policy of coercion on the Massachusetts colony. -
Coercive Acts
The Coercive Acts were Parliament’s response to a disobedient Massachusetts (as exhibited by the Boston Tea Party). The Acts closed the port of Boston, limited Massachusetts governmental power, and made British officials immune from trial in the Massachusetts colony. This lead to the establishment of the Committee of Correspondence and First Continental Congress in effort to repeal the British measures. -
Quebec Act of 1774
The act expanded the Quebec Province, and granted greater religious freedoms to Catholics. This favoritism for France and for Catholics made colonists uneasy, and many thought that their freedoms were in danger, or were already being restricted. Because of its proximity to the Coercive Acts, and the recent war with France, colonists were critical of the act. -
First Continental Congress
A legislative body which included delegates from every colony except Georgia. It made several major decisions, including a rejection of a union under Britain, an endorsement of a statement of colonial grievances, legitimizing a sort of economic warfare against Britain and organizing a militia. The continental congress also decided they that would reform the next spring. -
Second Continental Congress
This was the second formation of the Continental Congress. The body oversaw the growing military organization in the colonies, and adopted the Declaration of Independence. -
Olive Branch Petition
This document was one of the final efforts to repair relations between the colonies and Britain. It maintained that the allegiance of the colonies to Britain, and asked King George III to help resolve the issues. -
Battles of Lexington/Concord
A secretive British military force under General Thomas Gage set out to take the colonial militia’s supplies at Concord and capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock who were hiding in Lexington. However, the colonists knew of the plan due to surveyors Paul Revere and William Dawes, and moved the locations of these supplies. In Lexington, the first shots of the American Revolutionary War were fired. -
Declaration of Independence
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, this document enumerated the colonies’ grievances, and asserted that the thirteen colonies were the states of one independent nation.
