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Sugar Acts
Indirect tax (out of sight = out of mind)
Duties on molasses and sugar -
Stamp Act
Tax on all paper products Official stamp/seal on all paper items (proof tax was paid) -
Townshend act
Taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea
Searched for smuggled goods -
Boston Massacre
- Crowd gathers and hassles soldier, throwing snowballs and shouting insults.
- More troops arrive, colonists get more and more angry
- “Fire if you dare!”
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Tea Act
Passed in 1773 and allowed British East India Company (BEIC) to sell tea directly to colonists
Lower Prices than colonist merchant prices
Tax Tea cheaper than smuggled tea
Less smuggling = more tax money -
Boston Tea Party
Members of the Son's of Liberty dump over 340 chests of tea into Boston Harbor -
Intolerable Acts
Passed to punish Boston for Tea Party
Boston Harbor Closed until tea paid for
Massachusetts Charter cancelled
Royal officials had trial in Britain -
Quartering act
Quartering Act required colonists to house soldiers
“If a soldier comes knocking at the door….
you’re sleeping on the floor”
Large amount of land given to Quebec
General Thomas Gage became new governor of MA -
First Continental Congress meets
- All colonists but Georgia have representatives
- Voted to send a " statement of grievances"
- Voted boycott all British trade
- Patrick Henry - VA rep. urged colonists to unite against Britain
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1,000's of Redcoats in Boston
General Gage brings thousands of British soldiers to Boston with more on the way -
Midnight ride of Paul Pevere
Paul Revere rides to warn the sons of liberty in Lexington and concord the the "British are coming ... The British are coming... -
Battles of Lexington & Concord
Battle of Lexington-
- 1st battle of American Revolutionary War
- "shot heard around the world " Ralph Waldo Emerson
- British Victory
Battle of concord
- Americans stop the British and force them back to retreat back to Boston
-American victory -
Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
Benedict Arnold & Ethan Allen capture the fort
Get all supplies in the fort including cannons
AMERICAN Victory -
The Second Continental Congress Meets
- Print $$$
- Set up post office
- Created Continental Army led by George Washington
- Sent Olive Branch asking king to protect their rights
- King hires 30,000 Hessian Soldiers in response
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Battle of Bunker Hill
Fought on Breed's Hill
"Don't Fire until you see the whites of there eyes" - William Prescott
BRITISH Victory (American ran out of ammunition) British learn defeating Americans would NOT be easy -
Washington arrives on outskirts of Boston with the Continental Troops
- Realizes men are disorganized & need discipline
- Needs weapons
-
Declaratory Act
Parliament declares it has power to make laws for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever”
Parliament passes this to save face -
"Common Sense" published by Thomas Paine
- Pamphlet inspires more colonists to become patriots
- "Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for Separation. The blood for the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART" - Thomas Paine, Common Sense
-
British Surrender Boston
- Washington believes his army is ready &weapons arrive
- Washington puts cannons on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston
- BRITISH retreat - AMERICAN Victory
-
Second Continentital congress meets again
- Debate on declaring Independence
- Thomas Jefferson is the primary author of the document
-
Second continental congress votes for independence
- All 13 colonies vote YES on declaring independence
-
The declaration of independence is signed
