Below is the drawing we made together in class of the events leading up to the American Revolution. Click on different images to learn more about those events.
First: The British Government introduced The Stamp Act partially to pay the costs of the French and Indian War (or what they called The Seven Years War.)
Second: Some Americans, who called themselves Patriots, reacted to this tax by attacking the tax collectors. Less violent Patriots staged protests in the streets.
Third: The British react by sending more soldiers, and by passing The Quartering Act in 1765 to force Americans to pay for the soldiers as they took over their towns. This mean that British soldiers often found quarters in Americans' homes.
Fourth: Americans respond by holding The Stamp Act Congress in 1765. The members of this Congress, Loyalists and Patriots, wrote a letter to King George III, declaring their reasons for protesting The Stamp Act. George III seemed to listen to their complaints. He rescinded the tax.
Fifth: But, he instituted more taxes with the Townsend Acts in 1767 -- taxing glass, lead, paint, paper and tea. And, he sent more soldiers to enforce the collection of those taxes.
Sixth: Americans respond to these new taxes with riots and civil disobedience. In Boston, on March 5, 1770, a quarrel with a British soldier standing guard on the Customs House turned into the Boston Massacre, with 5 Patriots dead. Click here to read accounts from various witnesses to the massacre that day.
Seventh: The British recall the Townsend Acts but insist that all Americans buy their tea only from the British East India Tea Company (owned by the King). And, they increase the price of that tea so that it is the same price it was when it was taxed. Americans in several colonies rebel by throwing the tea into the harbor rather than drinking it. The most famous episode of this is in Boston, at the famous Boston Tea Party, where Patriots there dressed as Mohawk Indians and threw 342 chests of tea overboard into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.
Eighth: The British were furious. They imposed Martial Law on Boston, which meant they shut down the American government and put in their own Governor -- a soldier named General Thomas Gage. Then they closed off Boston from all outside trade. Boston was sealed off until the people of Boston paid for the ruined tea (and learned to behave themselves!).
Historian in Residence © 2007 Mary Anne Christy |