1763 to 1770

• Resulted from French-

Indian War

• England was in debt

• George III and Parliament

decided to tax colonists

• Almost all printed material was taxed

•George III often used poor

judgement when dealing

with Am. Colonies• He suffered from a rare

disease called Porphyria that

causes many mental

problems

• Many American colonists

hated him

•Colonial Americans had no representatives

In Parliament

•They argued that they could not be taxed

unless they had a voice in the government

•From this came the phrase “no taxation

without representation”

•Tax collectors were sometimes beaten, hung,

or tarred and feathered

Patrick Henry

• Was an outspoken critic of the Stamp Act

• Delivered a famous speech in 1775 where he

said “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

• Britain repealed the Stamp Tax

• However, they still insisted that they had the right to tax the colonies

• Parliament passed the Declaratory Act

• This law allowed Britain to tax the colonies whenever it needed to.

Boston Tea Party

• 1773- Sons of Liberty have enough and

dump hundreds of chests of tea into

Boston Harbor.

• They intentionally do not harm anyone and

are dressed up as Mohawk Indians.

Intolerable/Coercive Act-

• closed the port of Boston as punishment

for the Bos. Tea Party.

• April 1775- Redcoats sent to seize Rebel

ammo. and weapons in Concord

• About 70 American men stood up to 1,000

Redcoats on Lexington common

• Someone fired the “shot heard round the

world” and both sides opened fire

• Eight minutemen were killed

• Redcoats found very little ammo at

Concord

• News of the skirmish spread quickly;

hundreds of local men began shooting at

Redcoats from behind cover

• Redcoats retreated to Boston and many

were killed on the way

Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

• During Lexington and Concord.

• Old North church- In Boston- Lanterns-

had 1 if by land, 2 if by sea.

• Revere rode out with several others to

warn the citizens that the Redcoats were

coming.

• He spread the word but was captured.

• First large scale battle of the war

• Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill overlooked Boston

• Americans held high ground; Redcoats attacked up the slopes

• Americans lost the battle (ran out of ammo.) but Redcoats took 1,000 casualties. Britain regained control of Boston

Colonel Prescott- “Don’t fire till you see the whites of their

eyes!”

• Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold capture the

British fort on Lake Champlain

• Allen’s men were known as the Green

Mountain Boys from Connecticut

• Many large cannon were captured by

Patriots, became crucial later in the war

• Benedict Arnold began the war as a

Patriot, became a traitor later

Continental Congress

• 1774- 12 of 13 colonies sent men to form

C.C.

• First truly American form of Government

• John Jay, John Adams, Patrick Henry,

George Washington all attended

• People began to see themselves as

Americans, not as Virginians, etc.