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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
Featured Documents offers a clear and concise summary about the purpose and history of the Magna CartaThe Magna Carta was the first document forced on a king of England by his subjects with the objective of limiting the king's power. The Magna Carta was signed by King John of England and many of his barons, at Runnymead near Windsor Castle. The document prevented the king from taking property, arbitrarily taxing people unless approved by a council, or being put on trial without a jury. The picture is a depiction of King John signing the document. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact, which was signed on board the Mayflower before they explored the New World, was North America's first written framework of governmental structure. The document was created in an attempt to prevent mutiny onboard the ship and establish their new authority in the New World. -
Petition of Rights
The Petition of Rights was a petition sent to Charles I by the English Parliment. Their goal was to receive civil liberties, such as: No taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament, No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown, No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizens houses, and Martial law may not be used in time of peace. Sir Edward Coke ended up initiating the document. -
English Bill of Rights #2
Additionally, monarchs were not allowed ot prevent Protestants from bearing arms, create a standing army, impose fines or punishments on citizens without a trial, or impose cruel and unusual punishments or extravagent bail. -
English Bill of Rights
The English Bill of Rights, along with the Magna Carta, was another document that limited the power of the English monarchs, written as an act of Parliament. King and Queen William and Mary of Orange signed the document as a condition of their rule. Although religious freeedom of those not Protestant was fairly limited, the Bill of Rights gave many rights to the English people, such as monarchs being unable to establish their own court or make themselves a judge. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, was a proposal to place the British colonies under a more centralized government. Unfortunately, the plan was nevver carried out. Benjamin Franklin created the cartoon, Join or Die, in association with the suggested meeting. The cartoon depicts a segmented snake, with each section representing a colony, The idea behind the cartoon is likely that if you did not attend the proposed meeting, you were an enemy. -
King George III Takes Power #2
The colonists were outraged by this, and this lead to a very strained and tension filled relationship between the colonists and Great Britain. -
King George III Takes Power
The French and Indian war was a conflict between Britain and the colonies against the French, in an attempt to gain new land in America. Both the British and the French armies were assisted by Native Americans; the French by the Huron, and the British and the colonists by the Iroquois. Since people in Britain were already being heavily taxed, King George decided that the British colonists should pay for the war that
he had initiated. -
French and Indian War (1756-1763)
The French and Indian War was a conflict between the French and the British both wanted exclusive rights to economically beneficial Ohio River Valley. Some of the French leaders were Marquis Duquesne and Marquis de Montcalm, while Edward Braddock, William Pitt, and George Washington lead the British. -
French and Indian War #2
While the British suffered major defeat in battles at Fort Dusquesne and the Battle of Monongahela, they eventually won in 1763 when the French surrendered. Since the British people were already under heavy taxes, King George began to place heavy taxes on the American Colonists, which led to a very strained and high tension relationship between the colonies and Great Britain. The picture depicts the French victory at the Battle of Carillon. -
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act imposed heavy taxes on the American colonists to help pay for the French and Indian War. Any paper product that the colonists used was placed under the tax. The colonial leaders reacted very strongly to this, since the colonists were also British citizens and the tax was imposed without the consent of colonial legislature. Throughout the colonies, acts of defiance occured that showed the colonists displeasure at being treated like lesser citizens. -
Boston Massacre #2
The picture, which is an engraving by Paul Revere, depicts the event as percieved from the colonists' perspective, and was spread around as anti-British propaganda. -
Boston Massacre
Tensions between colonists and British were running high due to the Townshend Acts imposing ridiculous taxes on common products that the colonists needed imported. One March afternoon a crowd of Bostonians gathered around 5 British soldiers, jeering at them and harassing them. Someone from the crowd threw a snowball and hit one of the soldiers,
who then became enraged and fired into the crowd, killing 5 colonists. -
Boston Tea Party
In response to a new burdensome tax imposed on imported tea, the political group Sons of Liberty organized a seizure of chests of tea from the importing ships and threw them into the harbor. In response, British Parliament banned commerce from Boston Harbor, and British General Thomas Gage was appointed governor of Massachusetts. The picture is a lithograph depicting the revolting colonists raiding the tea boats and unloading the tea into the harbor. -
First Continental Congress
First Continental CongressThe first Continental Congress had served as a governemnt for the 13 colonies and later on the United States.The congress was made up of delegates that formed together as a reaction to the coercive acts. Some major personalities involved were Joseph Galloway, John Adams, Samuel Adams, George Washington, and William Hooper. The task to be carried out was that the congress wanted to have combined authority to Britian. The meeting was held at Carpenter's Hall. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were passed by King George III to punish the colonies for the Boston Tea party. The provisions of the Intolerable acts were the Boston Port Bill, the Quartering Act, the Administration of Justice Act, Massechusetts Government was no longer self goverened (Boston), and the Quebec Act. -
Lexington and Concord
On this day in time, British troops were to capture General Sam Adams of Lexington and John Hancock of Concord where they would seize gunpowder. However, word got out about the plan and they sent out men on horseback, such as Paul Revere, to warn the countryside that the British troops were coming. This whole conflict was the start of the Revolutionary war. -
Second Continental Congress
The second Continental Congress was a group of people who were to relive the first Congress of mere grievences and help make otther decisions. The meetings took place in Independence Hall. Some major decisions made by them were to have a continental army and to have the Olive Branch Petition. George Washington and John Adams were both major colonial leaders, along with Thomas Jefferson who wrote the rough draft of the Declaration of Independece in spring of 1776. -
Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence VIDEODuring the Revolutionary War, independence from Britian kept increasing. The delegates of the Continental Congress were faced with a decision on how to go about handling it. Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, and Ban Franklin were 3 of the 5 men involved in making the decision. The goal of the Declaration was to have a formal, written statement of the goals and tasks for the colonies. On July 4, 1774, The Declaration of Independence was officially adopted by the United States of America. -
Articles of Confederation
Throughout the years of 1781-1787, the Continental Congress continued to meet. Individual states were holding most of the power and they thoguht they needed to have clearly written rules about the organization of that. John Hanson was the first president under the articles. -
The Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was am official end to the Revolutionary War. It was signed by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay. Britain agreed to remove all of its troops from the new nation. The treaty set new borders for the US, including the land from the Great Lakes to Florida on the south, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. Britian finally recognized the US constitution and saw the US as an independent nation, -
Start of the Constitutional Convention
The original goal of the meeting was to revise the Articles of Confederation. However, that idea was quickly discarded. At the suggestion of James Madison, they had a meeting in Annapolis, MD. Only 12 delegates were there but they decided to turn their attention away from completely changinfg the Ariticles of Confederation and wanted to completely change the form of government, with a new U.S. Constitution at the end. The competing forms of government were the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan.
