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Proclomation of 1763
Official announcement from the British government that ended all settlement west of Appalachian Mountains. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was passed in 1764. The British placed a tax on sugar, wine, and other important things. The British did this because they wanted more money; the British wanted this money to help provide more security for the colonies. -
Currency Act
The Currency Act was passed by the British Parliament on September 1, 1764 as part of Prime Minister George Grenville's plan, along with the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act, to reduce the British national debt, pay the costs of having 10,000 troops stationed in the American colonies and rev up the British economy. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. -
Quatering Act
AN ACT to amend and render more effectual, in his Majesty's dominions in America, an act passed in this present session of parliament, intituled, An act for punishing mutiny and desertion, and for the better payment of the army and their quarters. -
Writs of Assistance
Writs of assistance were court orders that authorized customs officers to conduct general (non-specific) searches of premises for contraband. The exact nature of the materials being sought did not have to be detailed, nor did their locations. -
Stamp Act taken away
In 1760, King George II of England dies, and his grandson King George III takes over. Then, on March 22nd, 1765, British Parliment passed the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act puts small taxes on items such as newspapers, legal documents, decks of cards, lead, or any other published item. The money from the taxes was given to the troops by the Appalacian Mountains. -
Declartory Act
AN ACT for the better securing the dependency of his Majesty's dominions in America upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain. -
Townshend Act
Taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea were applied with the design of raising £40,000 a year for the administration of the colonies. The result was the resurrection of colonial hostilities created by the Stamp Act. -
Townshend Acts Repealed; Tax on tea kept
On this fateful day in 1770, the British government moves to mollify outraged colonists by repealing most of the clauses of the hated Townshend Act. Initially passed on June 29, 1767, the Townshend Act constituted an attempt by the British government to consolidate fiscal and political power over the American colonies by placing import taxes on many of the British products bought by Americans, including lead, paper, paint, glass and tea. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were laws that were really punishments that King George III put on the colonies. He did this to the Colonists because he wanted to punish them for dumping tea into the harbor at the Boston Tea Party. -
Boston Tea Party
In 1770, American protests led to Parliament's repeal of the Townshend duties — except for the duty on tea retained by the British as a matter of principle. The colonists demonstrated their displeasure with the remaining tax by drinking smuggled tea. The effectiveness of American resistance was shown in the precipitous decline in tea sales in the colonies — a drop of 70 percent over three years. -
Lexington and Concord
The Battle of Lexington and Concord was made up of two battles that began on April 18th, 1775. British troops were sent to Concord to capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams, but both men had been warned about the British attack. The night of April 18th, Paul Revere rode through Concord warning everybody about the British attack. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress brought together representatives from each of the colonies, except Georgia, to discuss their response to the British, "Intolerable Acts".
