June 27, 2021 – The United States of America will soon celebrate 245 years as a sovereign nation. On July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. The vote to adopt the founding document took place in the Assembly Room at the Pennsylvania State House. The document stated 27 grievances, called Facts, colonists had against British rule. Those grievances formed the justification for American colonists to declare America would no longer be subject to British rule. It was not an impulsive action. Tensions between King George III and the British Parliament against American rebel Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies had been brewing for years.

One of the best ways to summarize the events that led to the American Revolution (1775-1783) is to study a timeline of key events. What follows are 13 highlights from the years 1765 to 1776. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the British Empire was very powerful and ruled land around the world. As a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, King George III led the monarchy but worked closely with British Parliament to govern the American colonies. Colonists in America grew angry at being governed from England without any voice (representation).

TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS

1. 1765: British Parliament passed the Stamp Act. All official documents used in the American colonies had to have a stamp purchased from the British. Colonists were upset they did not have input into the vote by the British Parliament to impose the tax.

2. 1766: The Stamp Act was repealed but the British Parliament retained authority over the American colonies.

3. 1767: British Parliament levied new taxes on many goods from Britain, including tea. American colonists began boycotting British goods.

4. 1769: Worried about rebels in the American colonies, British Parliament put the Treason Act of 1543 back into effect.

5. 1770: When colonists protested British troops being sent to Boston, British soldiers opened fire and civilians were killed. This event became known as the Boston Massacre. British Parliament ended all taxes except on tea.

6. 1772: To communicate with rebel Patriots in all Thirteen Colonies, Samuel Adams from Boston set up “Committees of Correspondence.” It can be thought of as the first social network!

7. 1773: To protect the British East India Company, a trading company, British Parliament waived export taxes but levied import taxes on tea delivered to the American colonies. On Dec. 16, 1773, Samuel Adams and others boarded three ships docked in Boston Harbor. They dumped an entire shipment of tea (about 45 tons) into the water. More than 100 people took part in the three-hour protest action. The event became known as the Boston Tea Party. Tensions with England were brewing but not tea!

8. 1774-1775: Outraged by the action, the British Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, also called the Intolerable Acts, which were four laws that placed severe restrictions on colonists in Massachusetts. The Boston port was closed until colonists paid for the tea dumped into the water. In addition, one law gave British troops the right to move into any citizen’s house without their permission. Colonists were angry and began assembling militias outside of Boston.

9. February 1775: British Parliament declared Massachusetts was in a “state of rebellion.” British troops were given the authority to arrest protest leaders.

10. April 19, 1775: After Paul Revere took his famous midnight ride to Lexington, Massachusetts to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams the British were coming to arrest them, the Revolutionary War began in Lexington and Concord with “shots heard around the world.” British soldiers were ordered to destroy ammunition and guns being stockpiled by the Patriots. There was not a written order to arrest Hancock and Adams but the Patriots believed that was another intention of the British troops, called redcoats.

11. June 17, 1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill took place in Boston. British redcoats won the battle but they suffered about 1,000 casualties (wounded and killed). The American Patriots proved they were willing to fiercely fight British rule. One of the most famous quotes from the Revolutionary War is linked to this battle although historians still debate its origins. The quote – “Don’t fire till you see the whites of their eyes” – was likely referring to the Americans not having enough gunpowder and being told to conserve it.

12. March 1776: The American Patriots were in control of all Thirteen Colonies. Thomas Jefferson, a member of Virginia’s Committee of Correspondence and the Continental Congress, was asked to draft a document declaring independence from British rule.He stayed in a home near the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia to write the draft.

13. July 4, 1776: The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in the Assembly Room at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia (now Independence Hall). A total of 56 men eventually signed the document. The first public reading of the doucment took place outside in the square in front of the State House. The document declared each colony was independent and able to pass and enact their own laws.

As president of the Continental Congress, John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. Just a little more than one year before, Hancock had been a key figure in the start of the Revolutionary War when British troops sought to disarm the Patriots at Lexinigton and Concord.

List of grievances (Facts) as stated in the Declaration of Independence (Note: “He” refers to King George III, the King of England from 1760-1820)

There were a total of 27 Facts listed. Below are 10 of the 27.

1. For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
2. For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
3. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
4. For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
5. For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
6. For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
7. For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
8. He [King George III] has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
9. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
10. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

For the full list of Facts, visit the National Archives.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Who was the King of England during the American Revolution?

2. Why were American colonists upset in 1765 when British Parliament passed the Stamp Act?

3. Why did Samuel Adams and others dump an entire shipment of tea into Boston Harbor in 1773?

4. What was Britain’s response to the colonists dumping tea in the harbor?

5. Why did Paul Revere take his midnight ride on April 18, 1775?

6. How many grievances were listed in the Declaration of Independence?

7. Where and by whom was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

8. How many men signed the Declaration of Independence?

9. What were the original Thirteen Colonies?

INQUIRY QUESTIONS

1. Why do you think some American colonists wanted to stay loyal to the British Empire?

2. Why was the American Revolution such a bold action for the American colonists to take?

3. Discuss the importance to the Founding Fathers creating a government “Of the People, By the People and For the People.”