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1 Navigation Acts
This act forbade the New World colonies from trading with countries other than England. -
3 French and Indian War
The French and Indian war was a period where colonists were simultaneously fighting the French, who were claiming land north of the colonies, and Native Americans, who were fighting for their land. The war began in 1754 and ended in 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. -
37 Francis Marion
Francis Marion, also known as Swamp Fox, was a soldier in the French and Indian War. With the outbreak of war in 1775, Francis Marion became more famous in the Patriot cause. He was elected in the South Carolina Provincial Congress, the governing body of the colony following the collapse of royal authority. He also fought in a number of the early battles in the South, again under Moultrie, including the clash at Fort Sullivan in February 1776. -
5 Proclamation of 1763
To cease fighting after the French and Indian War, Britain declared a halt to westward expansion in the Americas. In the Proclamation of 1763, King George III declared the Appalachian mountains as a temporary boundary in the west. This infuriated investors who’d already purchased land west of the border which was now ignored by Britain. -
44 Committees of Correspondence
Sam Adams founded the Committees of Correspondence in Boston. Each committee got in touch with other towns. Its members shared opinions and information about new British laws and ways to challenge them. -
13 Sons of Liberty
Colonists formed a secret society called the Sons of Liberty to protest the Stamp Act. Samuel Adams organized the group in Boston. This group used violence to frighten tax collectors. -
7 Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was passed to raise British funds. This Act placed a tax on most printed materials in the colonies.All printed materials had to have an official British stamp. This law affected most people in the colonies which convinced them to revolt. Parliament interfered with colonial politics by directly taxing colonies without colonial consent. Anger towards England caused Sam Adams to create the Sons of Liberty, who held organized protests and burned objects representing taxes. -
8 Declaratory Act
In March of 1766, Parliament repealed the stamp act. On the same day it was repealed, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act.
This act stated that England had the right to make decisions and tax the colonies in all cases. This made Colonists feel resentment toward English Parliament because they knew other tax laws would soon be put in place. -
30 Benjamin Franklin
The British Parliament’s passage of the Stamp Act in March 1765 imposed a highly unpopular tax on all printed materials for commercial and legal use in the American colonies. Franklin’s passionate denunciation of the tax in testimony before Parliament contributed to the Stamp Act’s repeal in 1766. -
4 Townshend Acts
In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend acts to avoid problems caused by the stamp act. The colonists wouldn’t tolerate taxes paid or levied in the colonies. The new taxes would be paid on imported goods at the port of entry. Basic items such as glass, tea, paper, and lead. Colonists believed only leaders in the colonies could tax them which caused them to boycott British goods. This movement caused women to form the daughters of liberty to make colonies financially independent. -
16 Daughters of Liberty
The Daughters of Liberty were formed in 1767, following the creation of the Townshend Acts. These women supported the boycott of British goods by making their own supplies for use in the colonies. -
35 John Paul Jones
When sailing with the brig John in 1768, John Paul Jones was thrust in the position of commanding and sailing the ship after both its captain and first mate were taken by yellow fever. He safely brought the ship back and was rewarded for his bravery and seamanship with 10% of the ship’s cargo and became the owner of the ship and crew. -
41 Wentworth Cheswell
In 1768, 22-year-old Wentworth Cheswell was elected town constable. It was the first time an African-American was elected to public office. For all but one year of his life, Cheswell held public office including town selectman, assessor, scrivener, justice of the peace and auditor. -
10 Green Mountain Boys
The Green Mountain Boys were a group of a few hundred Colonial patriots in the early years of the American that were created in 1770. British government gave their land to New York settlers. They fought against early British policies and captured Fort Ticonderoga with the help of Ethan Allen, their leader. -
20 Boston Massacre
The massacre happened when colonists began insulting British soldiers and calling them names. The soldiers panicked as the crowd of people became larger, and fired into the crowd.5 people in total were wounded and killed in the event. The arrested soldiers were defended by John Adams. -
21 Crispus Attucks
Crispus Attucks was the first to fall during the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. In 1888, the Crispus Attucks monument was unveiled in Boston Common. -
9 Tea Act
The British East India Company offered Parliament a solution to smuggling of tea. The company had a large amount of tea but wasn’t allowed to directly sell it to colonists. Cheaper tea would encourage colonists to stop smuggling which would result in money towards English taxes. Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, which allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly to colonists. Many merchants worried the British East India Company’s cheap tea would put them out of business. -
25 Sam Adams
On the night of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. This resulted in the passage of the punitive Coercive Acts in 1774 and pushed the two sides closer to war. -
18 Boston Tea Party
This was a protest against the Tea Act. On the night of December 16, 1773, men that disguised as Native Americans boarded tea ships in Boston harbor in December 16, 1773. The men destroyed many chests of tea and threw them into the harbor. British officials were angered about this incident. They wanted to punish the colonists who did this. Some colonial leaders offered to pay for the tea if Parliament repealed the Tea Act, but Britain declined. This decision caused Americans to rebel. -
2 Quartering acts
The Quartering Act was one of the six Intolerable acts. It required colonists to provide room in their houses for British soldiers. -
6 Quebec Act
The Quebec Act was the fifth of six Intolerable Act. The act gave a large amount of land to the colony of Quebec. -
11 Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)
After the Boston Tea party, King George III and Lord North, the British Prime Minister, were furious when the news came. Along with Parliament, they decided to punish Boston. During the spring of 1774 they passed the Coercive Acts. Colonists called these laws the Intolerable Acts. The acts had six main effects. -
28 John Adams
In June 1774, John Adams was elected a delegate to the First Continental Congress. The move came in the last moments of the Massachusetts General Court's session. To enforce the Coercive Acts, British General Thomas Gage replaced Thomas Hutchinson as governor, vetoed Adams and twelve other members of the General Court and adjourned it to Salem, a safe loyalist area. But, before he did, Adams and four others were elected to be delegates to the Congress. -
46 First Continental Congress
As a response to the crisis against England, all the colonies except Georgia sent representatives to a meeting in 1774. This meeting, known as the First Continental Congress, was a gathering of colonial leaders to discuss the situation against Britain. They met in Philadelphia, where the leaders were locked in weeks of debate. Some believed that violence was unavoidable. On the other hand, some delegates had strict orders to seek peace. Their main goal was to voice their concerns. -
12 Ethan Allan
In 1775, Allen and the Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British in a joint effort with Colonel Benedict Arnold, who had been commissioned by Massachusetts and Connecticut to stage an attack to prevent British forces from marching on Boston. -
22 Patrick Henry
He gave his famous Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death speech to the Virginia Assembly in 1775. Henry served a crucial role in the overthrow of the royally appointed Virginia leadership and was elected governor multiple times. Although he opposed the formation of the U.S. Constitution as a threat to the liberties of the people and the rights of the states, his criticisms helped bring about the amendments that became the bill of rights. -
43 William Dawes
On the night of April 18, 1775, William Dawes raced on horseback from Boston to warn residents that the British regulars were on the march toward Lexington and Concord. -
36 The Continental Army
The Continental Army was established by second continental congress in 1775. This began with the Massachusetts militia and soon expanded to fighters from all of the colonies. George Washington was nominated to lead them in the fight against the British. -
40 Paul Revere
On the evening of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere was summoned by Dr. Joseph Warren of Boston and given the task of riding to Lexington, Massachusetts, with the news that regular troops were about to march into the countryside northwest of Boston. According to Warren, these troops planned to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were staying at a house in Lexington, and probably continue on to the town of Concord, to capture or destroy military stores. -
47 Second Continental Congress
In May 1775, delegates from 12 colonies met in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. This group of delegates of the colonies was far from unified, but represented the first attempt at a Republican government in the colonies. This group accomplished many things to fight the British including establishing an army and changing colonial government. -
38 Lexington and Concord
At dawn, British troops arrived near Lexington for the first battle of the Revolution. The battle began with a shot heard round the world, which no one knows who fired. The battle ended quickly with many of the seventy American minutemen wounded or dead. Only one British soldier was wounded so the British continued on. -
29 Battle of Bunker Hill
The colonial forces in Boston dug in at Breed's hill, forcing redcoats to cross Boston Harbor. The 2,400 British soldiers advanced while the Continental Army of 1,600 waited. The Continental Army fought conservatively, yet ran out of supplies and had to retreat. The British won, sacrificing many fighters in the process. -
17 Olive Branch Petition
As combat began, the Second Continental Congress wrote the Olive Branch Petition. This was a final plea for peace from the colonies. It was signed by all representatives on July 5th, 1775. King George refused to read it and decided to punish the colonies through battle. -
19 Nathan Hale
General George Washington asks for a volunteer for an extremely dangerous mission: to gather intelligence behind enemy lines before the coming Battle of Harlem Heights. Captain Nathan Hale of the 19th Regiment of the Continental Army stepped forward and subsequently become one of the first known American spies of the Revolutionary War. -
26 Haym Solomon
In September 1776, he was arrested as a spy. The British pardoned him, but only after requiring him to spend 18 months on a British boat as an interpreter for Hessian soldiers – German troops employed by the British. Salomon used his position to help prisoners of the British escape and encouraged the Hessians to desert the war effort. -
32 George Washington
Patriot General George Washington crosses the Delaware River with 5,400 troops, hoping to surprise a Hessian force celebrating Christmas at their winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey. The unconventional attack came after several months of substantial defeats for Washington’s army that had resulted in the loss of New York City and other strategic points in the region. -
34 Thomas Jefferson
At the Second Continental Congress during the summer of 1776, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia was charged with drafting a formal statement justifying the 13 North American colonies’ break with Great Britain. A member of a five-man committee that also included John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson drew up a draft and included Franklin’s and Adams’ corrections. -
45 Thomas Paine
On this day in 1776, writer Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries. -
23 Common Sense
Common Sense was a 47-page pamphlet that was distributed in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776. Common Sense was written by Thomas Paine who argued that citizens should have the right to make laws and not a monarch. Paine explains that the government system has become out of control and the colonies should break free of England. -
42 Declaration of Independence
This document, written by Thomas Jefferson, officially announced the colonists' goal of separation from Britain. Jefferson begins by explaining people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The document explains the reasons for the colonists' decision. Jefferson ends with the right to break free of Britain. It was signed and approved by representatives of the Continental Congress on July fourth, 1776 -
24 Battle of Saratoga
The battle fought in New York that resulted in a major defeat of the British. This is considered the Patriots’ greatest victory up to that point in the war. The battle began on September 19th and ended October 7th. Winning this battle largely helped the morale of the dilapidated Continental Army. -
33 Valley Forge
In December 1777, Washington's 12,000 men settled at Valley Forge. Here, the men fought the brutal winter of 1777–78. They lacked basic protections against the snow. In spite of the general’s requests for supplies, funding conflicts kept supplies from coming. As winter began, soldier built shelters that offered little protection against the weather. 2,000 soldiers died of disease and malnutrition, yet the survivors kept on fighting. -
48 Bernando De Galvez
Declared war on Great Britain, creating an alliance with the Americans. -
14 Benedict Arnold
During the American Revolution, the discovery of General Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British was shocking. -
15 James Armistead
Armistead enlisted in the Revolutionary War under General Lafayette. Working as a spy, Armistead gained the trust of General Cornwallis and Benedict Arnold, providing information that allowed American forces to prevail at the Battle of Yorktown. -
27 Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown was the last major battle of the American Revolution. The Continental Army had weakened the British army and had already taken 80000 prisoners. General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington. Prime Minister Lord North received word of the British surrender in November and he declared, “It is all over!” -
31 John Jay
John Jay became U.S. minister to Spain and signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783 which that ended the Revolutionary War. -
39 Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris formally ended the Revolutionary War. The details of the treaty took two years of negotiation. The treaty covered the official borders of the colonies. Britain accepted their independence and let the colonies expand and trade westward.
