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Treaty of Paris
This treaty ended the French & Indian War, ceding the formerly French-colonized North American lands to the British. The English colonists, however, were not allowed to use this land, and were taxed greatly to account for the war debt. This led to general resentment in the colonies. In addition, the war had weakened the British military, removing the sense of invincibility with which the Americans viewed England's forces. -
Stamp Act
This act, passed by Parliament as a way of paying back the debt from the French and Indian War, met with great resistance in the colonies. It required a tax to be paid on all printed goods, which were then stamped with a seal of legality. The Sons and Daughters of the Revolution combatted this Act through boycotts and non-importation agreements. The Act was repealed a year after its enactment, one of the first colonial victories against England, and inspired further acts of rebellion. -
Quartering Act
This law forced colonists to house and feed British troops. Intended to increase English control in the colonies, this Act caused a great deal of contention in the colonies, and later led to the 3rd amendment to the American Constitution. The colonists resented having to pay even more than they were already being taxed for to feed the instruments of their perceived oppression. -
Townshend Acts
These laws, passed in June and July of 1767, put in place taxes on several nonessential goods common in the colonies, including glass, paint, and tea. They replaced the repealed Stamp Act, and were used largely to fund British troops in the colonies. The Americans saw them as unacceptable, and they were repealed four years later. Taxes and limitations like these were one of the major arguments for the burgeoning rebel movement. -
The Boston Massacre
This clash between a contingent of British troops and a mob of colonists occured on a Boston street, and resulted in the deaths of five colonists, including one Crispis Attocks. It was used as a propaganda point by both the British and Americans. The Sons and Daughters of Liberty publicized it as an unwarranted attack by the English on colonial lives and rights, and the British pointed to the Americans as lawless rioters. -
Boston Tea Party
This protest by the Sons of Liberty, led, though he would never admit it, by Sam Adams, involved the members dressing as Mohawk Indians and dumping crates of imported tea over the side of an East India Company ship. This was meant to protest the recent increase in taxation on the colonies by the British, particularly the Tea Act, and was representative of the growing tensions in colonial America during 1773, which led to the future revolution. -
Coercive Acts
The first of these, the Boston Port Act, was passed on this day, and the other Acts (dubbed "Intolerable" by American Patriots), soon followed. They were intended to force the colonists into submission to British rule, and were meant specifically to counter the Boston Tea Party. The rising tensions and spread of dissident ideals in the colonies were triggered by these restricitive Acts, and led to even more dissent, most notably causing the formation of the First Continental Congress. -
Battles of Lexington & Concord
Called the first battles of the Revolutionary War, these clashes, occuring one directly after the other, occured when British troops were sent to seize arms and munitions in the colonies. The Patriotic militia in Lexington in Concord, after being alerted by the Sons of Liberty's spy network, hid their arms and arrayed themselves against the soldiers. The managed to fight off the English, incurring far fewer casualties, and marking the first American military victory of the coming war. -
Olive Branch Petition
This document, drafted by John Dickinson, was an attempt by the colonies to reconcile with the King of England. It called, specifically, for a ceasefire in Boston, the repealment of the Intolerable Acts, and the granting of clearly defined rights to the Americans. The radicals in the Continental Congress were angered by its being sent to the King, particularly when he mocked it and decided to "put the colonists in their place". -
"Common Sense" published
This pamphlet, written by Thomas Paine, a British man recently moved to America, stated that it was "common sense" to rebel. Roughly 75% of all American colonists either read the piece or had it read to them, and its message was therefore spread extremely quickly. This, coupled with other Patriot propaganda circulating the colonies, stirred up the already powerful feelings of resentment towards royal rule, and was particularly effective because of its being readable by people of any social class
