Causes of the American Revolution 2

BOSTON MASSACRE 1770

- Clash between colonists & British soldiers in Boston

- British troops fired on crowd and five colonist died

- Crispus Attucks – first killed

COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE 1772

- A system used by the Sons of Liberty to circulate colonist grievances (complaints) against Britain

- Committees of correspondence sprang up throughout the colonies

TEA ACT 1773

- Passed by Parliament to save the East Indian Company

- This law placed a tax on tea and hurt colonial tea merchants

BOSTON TEA PARTY 1773 - Organized by Sam Adams and the

Sons of Liberty to protest the Tea Act

- Colonist dressed as Indians and dumped British tea into Boston Harbor

SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK – TEA PARTY

INTOLERABLE ACTS 1774 - New British laws to

punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party

- Closed Boston Harbor until MA colonist paid for the ruined tea

- Took away certain rights of the MA colonist

- Also called the Coercive Acts

FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 1774 - 55 delegates from all the colonies except

Georgia were sent to Philadelphia to establish a political body to represent American interest and challenge British control

- Passed a resolution to boycott British goods, Cease British trade, and form militias

- Sent Olive Branch Petition to King George III asking him to treat colonist as British citizens with equal rights – he rejects this

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD - British troops marched from Boston to Concord

Massachusetts to take weapons stored there by the militia

- Paul Revere and William Dawes rode to Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming

- By the time the British reached Lexington, the Minutemen were waiting and firing began

- No one knows who fired the first shots of the American Revolution – “ the shot heard round the world”

- This marks the first battles of the American Revolution!

PAUL REVERE’S RIDE

SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK – SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD