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Period: to
causes of the revolution
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The Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was passed by the English Parliament to offset the war debt brought on by the French and Indian War and to help pay for the expenses of running the colonies and newly acquired territories. This act increases the importance of imported sugar and other items such as textiles, coffee, wines and indigo (dye). It doubles the importance of foreign goods reshipped from England to the colonies. It also forbids the import of foreign rum and French wines. -
The Currency Act
The Currency Act prohibits the colonists from issuing any legal tender or paper money. This act threatens to destabilize the entire colonial economy of both the industrial North and agricultural South, uniting the colonists against it. -
The Quartering Act
The Quartering Act requires colonists to house British troops and supply them with food. -
sons Of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty, an underground organization aginst the Stamp Act. It is formed in a number of colonial towns. The members use violence and intimidation to eventually force all of the British stamp agents to resign. They also stop many American merchants from ordering British trade goods. -
Resolution Of Stamp act
The Stamp Act Congress convenes in New York City, with representatives from nine of the colonies. The Congress prepares a resolution to be sent to King George III and the English Parliament. The petition requests the repeal of the Stamp Act and the Acts of 1764. The petition asserts that only colonial legislatures can tax colonial residents and that taxation without representation violates the colonists' basic civil rights. -
Repeal of stamp act
News of the repeal of the Stamp Act results in celebrations in the colonies and a relaxation of the boycott of imported English trade goods. -
Colonies Self Rule
A Boston town meeting assembles, called by Sam Adams. During the meeting, a 21 member committee of correspondence is appointed to communicate with other towns and colonies. A few weeks later, the town meeting endorses three radical proclamations asserting the rights of the colonies to self-rule. -
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston. Some of the demonstrators who where disguised as American Indians, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor, ruining the tea. The British government responded harshly and escalated into the American Revolution -
Intercolonial Congress
May 17-23, The colonists in Providence, New York and Philadelphia begin calling for an intercolonial congress to overcome the Coercive Acts and discuss a common course of action against the British. -
Coercive Act
Massachusetts Governor Gage is ordered to enforce the Coercive Acts and suppress open rebellion among the colonists by all necessary force.
