In June 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which levied import duties on articles including tea, lead, glass, paint, and paper and established a Board of Customs Commissioners for America to be stationed in Boston. Bostonians protested the import duties by encouraging nonimportation and nonconsumption movements in the colonies. In February 1768, the customs commissioners asked Parliament to guarantee their safety as they carried out their duties in Boston. Troops began arriving in October of that year. Many Bostonians resented the presence of the standing army in their town, and patriot leaders made concerted efforts to feed the population's animosity toward the soldiers.
On 17 December 1773 a group of men dressed as Mohawk Indians dump 342 chests of East India Tea into Boston Harbor. Many people (both in England and America) consider Massachusetts to be the seat of dissent in Britain's North American colonies, and this event simply confirms that belief. In the spring of 1774, Parliament decides that chastising the residents of Boston and Massachusetts seems the obvious step towards pacifying all of the colonies.
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Irate over colonists' reaction to the Coercive Acts, King George III declares that Parliament must take a tougher stand against this "most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience to the law." Parliament overwhelmingly agrees: Massachusetts is in a state of rebellion, and several other colonies are aiding and abetting her insubordination.
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To prevent British soldiers from conducting further attacks on the countryside after the march to Lexington and Concord, 20,000 provincial militiamen encircle Boston in the spring of 1775. The Charlestown peninsula and Dorchester Heights, commanding both the city of Boston and Boston harbor, lie abandoned. Hoping to make the British "masters of these heights," General Gage, in conference with Major Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne, plans to seize the neglected positions before the colonists do so. News of Gage's intent filters across from Boston and down from New Hampshire on 15 June. Acting quickly on this intelligence, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety orders General Artemas Ward, commander of the colonial militia surrounding Boston, to race the British to the Charlestown peninsula, capture Bunker Hill, and then seize the Dorchester hills.
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The First Continental Congress adjourns on 26 October 1774, but delegates resolve to reconvene in May 1775 if Parliament does not address their grievances. Delegates return to their respective colonies and play a vital role in ensuring that Congress's mandates are implemented. In London, Parliamentary factions debate the merits of offering concessions to the colonies, although the British ministry takes no official notice of Congress's petitions and addresses. On 30 November 1774, "the die is cast" when King George III opens Parliament with a speech condemning Massachusetts and the Suffolk Resolves. It is clear that Congress will need to meet again
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The political discussions of the last many years have led the colonies to the ultimate debate on independence. The second Continental Congress continues to meet in Philadelphia in the spring and summer of 1776, its members daily confronted with the pressures of being the operating government of a set of colonies not yet divorced from their parent country, but already at war. Washington sends frequent reports and requests supplies and money to pay his soldiers. Meanwhile, the British Navy, largest in the world, sails straight for New York and threatens the revolutionary efforts as congressional members are locked in debate.
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News of the Coercive Acts arrives in the colonies in the spring of 1774. In response to the punitive measures outlined in the Boston Port Bill, Bostonians propose to cease all trade with Britain, as set forth in the Solemn League and Covenant. Haunted by the failure of earlier commercial resistance initiatives, the other twelve colonies (as well as most towns in Massachusetts) are wary of yielding to Boston's leadership. A colony-wide congress to discuss a united course of resistance emerges as a logical alternative. By July 1774, each of the American colonies (except Georgia, where elections are thwarted by the royal governor) has elected delegates to a "Grand Continental Congress."
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American colonists have much to celebrate in 1766. The Stamp Act has been repealed, and the Sons of Liberty have proven their ability to mobilize the colonies against Parliament. By 1767, celebration gives way to renewed concern. Charles Townshend becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer, and rumors of new tax measures are soon circulating in Britain and America.
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In 1760, twenty-two-year-old monarch George III ascended the throne of England. The war with France that had stretched on for years and encircled the globe finally ends in 1763. Colonists are proud of their role in defeating the French, but England is faced with a vast territory to safeguard and a soaring debt to service. The French have been banished from the mainland continent of North America, but another threat persists. In 1763, in order to avoid confrontations with Indian nations, the English ministry issues a proclamation forbidding settlement to the west of the Appalachian Mountains.
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What comprises a day in a single person’s life? What does it mean to have daily concerns; a family to care for; a successful business to run; to be civically engaged with an active social life; and to have friends who don’t all see eye to eye? Moreover, what does it mean to be that someone while living in Boston immediately before the American Revolution and during its commencement? These questions and more are answered in the writings of John Rowe, a wealthy merchant from England who lived most of his life in Boston witnessing, reading, and hearing about major events leading up to independence
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Colonial agents working in Britain express their concerns over the Stamp Act long before it is passed by Parliament on 1 March 1765. When news of the Act's official status reaches the American colonies in the spring, creative colonists begin planning an assortment of protest activities.
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In the days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, there is a stalemate between British and colonial forces while both sides regroup. The British regulars now stationed at Bunker Hill have a view of the colonial fortifications across the river, where 20,000 men assemble under Artemas Ward's command. Morale among some British soldiers is low after the battle, and shortages are beginning to make life difficult. Colonial supporters try to take advantage of the situation, distributing flyers in the British camps that berate the soldiers for shedding "The Blood of Your Fellow Subjects" and encouraging a shift in allegiance.
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George Grenville knows that the Sugar Act won't generate enough revenue in the colonies, and so he instructs his secretary in the Treasury, Thomas Whately, to draft legislation for a new tax. This duty will require that a wide range of legal and trade documents, as well as newspapers and even dice, carry official stamps. Whately makes inquiries about conditions in America, assuring his correspondents that he wants to devise a A Tax Not Too Burdensome.
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On 5 March 1770, Parliament rescinded the Townshend duties on four of the five commodities that had been taxed; the duty on tea remained in force. Outraged patriots sought to shore up sagging efforts to boycott tea by appealing to merchants (nonimportation) and the citizenry (nonconsumption). But people loved their tea, and their resolve weakened.
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