Road to Revolution

Navigation Act

1660

• When people started to promote and follow self sufficiency and lead by themselves showing navigation
• Restricted Colonial trade to England
• This happening was making a decrease in foreign imported things/goods

Sugar Act

Apr 5, 1764

• The sugar act was an act of cutting the supply from higher to lower on molasses
• Cut molasses form 6 to 3 pence per gallon
• Sugar act (aka) Plantation act

Stamp Act

Mar 18, 1766

• This would come onto direct tax on the British colonies
• All things printed material would be printed onto stamp paper, produced as a stamp
• Direct tax on things such as newspaper, pamphlets and even documents

Townshend Acts

Jun 29, 1767

• Taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea
• Searched for smuggled goods
• Sons of Liberty start to do violent acts
• British soldiers arrive to protect tax collectors

Tea Act ( Not a tax )

May 10, 1773

• Passed in 1773 and allowed British East India Company (BEIC) to sell tea directly to colonists
• Lower prices than colonists merchant prices
• Tax tea cheaper than smuggled tea
• Less smuggling = More tax money
• Colonial Merchants feared BEIC would put them out of business

Boston Tea Party

Dec 16, 1773

• Members of Sons of Liberty dump over 340 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor
• "Boston Harbor is a teapot tonight!"
• Caused problems for loyalists/Tories
• Loyalists/Tory = A person in the colony who remains "Loyal" to the King & Great Britain

Quartering Act

1774

• "When a soldier knocks on your door...you're sleeping on the floor"
• Soldiers would raid you of your own home and tell you where you need to go as if they lived there themselves

Intolerable Acts

Mar 31, 1774

• Passed to punish Boston for the Tea Party.
• Boston Harbor closed until tea paid for
• Massachusetts Charter cancelled
• Royal officials had a trial in Britain
• 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 the new Governor of MA

Continental Congress Meets

Sep 5, 1774

• All colonies but Georgia have representatives
• Voted to send a "Statement of grievances"
• Voted to Boycott all British Trade
• Patrick Henry - VA rep. urged colonists to unite against Britain.

1000's of Redcoats in Boston

Apr 1, 1775

General Gage brings thousands of British soldiers to Boston with more on the way

Midnight ride of Paul Revere

Apr 18, 1775

Paul Revere rides to warn the Sons of Liberty in Lexington and Concord that "The British are coming...The British are coming!"

Battles of Lexington and Concord

Apr 19, 1775

• 1st battle of American Revolutionary War
• "Shot heard round the world" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
• BRITISH victory BATTLE OF CONCORD ~
• Americans stop the British and force them to retreat back to Boston.

Capture of Fort Ticonderoga

May 10, 1775

• Benedict Arnold & Ethan Allen capture the fort
• Get all the supplies in the fort including cannons
• AMERICAN victory

Second Continental Congress Meet

May 10, 1775

• Printed $$$
• Set up post office
• Created Continental Army led by George Washington
• Sent Olive Branch asking the King to protect their rights
  • King hires 30,000 Hessian Soldiers in response

Battle of Bunker Hill

Jun 16, 1775

• Fought on Breed's Hill
• "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes"- William Prescott
• BRITISH victory (Americans ran out of ammunition) British learn defeating Americans would NOT be easy.

Washington arrives on the outskirts of Boston with Continental troops

Jul 15, 1775

• Realizes men are disorganized & need discipline
• Needs weapons

"Common Sense" published by Thomas Paine

Jan 10, 1776

• Pamphlet inspires more colonists to become Patriots
• "Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation, the blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART" - Thomas Paine, common sense

British surrender Boston

Mar 17, 1776

• Washington believes his army is ready & weapons arrive
• Washington puts cannons on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston
• BRITISH retreat - AMERICAN victory

Second Continental Congress meet again

Jun 15, 1776

• Debate on declaring independence
• Thomas Jefferson is the primary author of the document

Second Continental Congress vote for Independence

Jul 2, 1776

• Paine says they should part from each other as an alliance
• Inglis says that they shall not part from each other and not vote for Independence so they could fight together and not as one of their mankind

The Declaration of Independence is signed !

Jul 4, 1776

• Second Continental Congress vote and decide Independence is what they shall vote and what got the most votes. The Declaration of Independence is then signed.