While victorious, the British had to spend a lot of money to defeat the French in the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years War). To pay back the debts they accumulated, the British were forced to raise taxes on all British citizens, including those in the colonies.

The Stamp Act angered the colonists because, according to the colonial charters, Britain was not allowed to tax them directly; the colonies had to approve new taxes themselves. The fact that the items being taxed were part of daily life (including things like contracts, deeds, and newspapers) meant that the tax was intended to be unavoidable.

“Taxation without representation” became a unifying cry for the American colonists in the early stages of rebellion against Great Britain. The colonists were upset that they were not being given the same representation in Parliament as their fellow Englishmen in Europe. Despite this lack of a political voice, the colonists were still being subjected to new British laws and taxes that, they felt, were both unfair and unfairly imposed.

The Sons of Liberty protested British taxes like the Stamp Act by coordinating boycotts of British goods, intimidating tax collectors, and conducting public displays (like the burning of effigies and the publication of anti-British articles in colonial newspapers). While “Sons of Liberty” organizations sprung up across the 13 colonies, the Bostonian group was one of the most active.

The American Colonies Act of 1766 is more commonly known as the Declaratory Act. The passage of this Act accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act of 1765. The British wanted to make it clear to the colonies that, while their fight against the Stamp Act may have been successful, the “taxation without representation” argument would no longer work. The Declaratory Act stated that the British were in control of colonial law “in all cases whatsoever.”

After being verbally harassed, pelted with rocks and ice, and cornered, Captain Preston and his men opened fire on an angry mob of colonists, resulting in the event that became known as the Boston Massacre. Paul Revere’s engraving of the event spread throughout the colonies, helping to build support for a rebellion. It should be noted that his engraving showed a very biased and inaccurate version of the events, and it has been described as the most effective piece of war propaganda in American history.

John Adams, though an advocate for colonial rights, defended Captain Preston and his men against the murder charges they faced for their actions in the Boston Massacre. He was successful in getting all but two of the soldiers acquitted of their charges.

The Committees of Correspondence provided a much needed means to keep the early colonial rebellion focused, unified, and organized across colonial borders.

The British East India Tea Company held large amounts of tea in their London warehouses, but they were struggling to remain solvent. The Tea Act allowed them to ship this tea to the colonies without paying export taxes in Britain. However, the tea was still subject to a tax in the colonies as part of the Townshend Acts, which were very unpopular among the colonists.

The British were so outraged by the Boston Tea Party that they passed a series of four laws designed to punish the colonies. The Boston Port Act and Massachusetts Bay Regulating Act were designed to punish the unruly Bostonian colonists politically and economically. The remaining two laws, the Quebec Act and Quartering Act, served to reinforce the power of Parliament and the King over the American colonies.

Colonists were required to provide British soldiers with housing and food. This was another Act that angered the American colonists, especially when there was no justification given for the continually increasing number of British troops coming to the colonies during a time of peace.

The efforts of the Daughters of Liberty helped make the boycotts more feasible. There were taxed products like textiles that colonists could not afford to go without. The Daughters of liberty wove their own fabrics and ran their own small shops to help replace the dependence upon taxed British goods.

In response to the Intolerable Acts, the First Continental Congress called for a boycott of British goods and sent a petition of protest to King George III. The 56 delegates agreed to return for a second congress if their boycotts and petition did not bring about the change they were hoping for.

Georgia was worried that their safety depended upon maintaining a positive relationship with Britain. With New Spain to the south and pockets of Native Americans throughout the region, Georgia relied upon the protection of the British army to keep the colonial borders secure.

Paine’s pamphlet made a case for American independence based on a combination of political, economic, military, and ethical reasons. Hundreds of thousands of copies were sold, and it helped influence American colonists to take action against British rule.

Henry’s address to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775 was the final speech of the evening and called for the colonists to wake up to the inevitability of war with Great Britain. Revolutionary leaders (and future presidents) George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both in attendance for the landmark speech.

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