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Proclamation of 1763
Britian issued the Proclamation of 1763 to avoid further wars with Native Americans. It banned colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. This angered many colonists and was widely ignored, so it proved impossible to enforce. -
Boston Massacre
An angry crowd of workers and sailors shouted and threw rocks and snowballs at a small group of soldiers. The soldiers fired upon the group which killed five and wounded six. -
Battle of Alamance
Under the assumption that the Regulators would rise again, Governor Tryon gathered miltia from across the Coastal Plain. At Alamance Creek, he ordered the Regulators to disperse, but they refused so Tryon ordered his soldiers to fire. 20 Regulators were killed and at least 150 were wounded. -
Boston Tea Party
A large group of colonists dressed up as Native Americans boarded the tea ships in Boston Harbor. Threw 342 cases of tea into the harbor in 3 hours and destroyed 90,000 pounds of tea which was worth thousands of dollars. -
"The Shot Heard Round The World"
General Thomas Gage, the new governor of Massachusetts, found out that minutemen (citizen soldiers who could be ready to fight at a minute's notice) were storing arms. Gage sent 700 troops to seize the arms in Concord, but in Lexington,77 minutemen were waiting for the British. Suddenly a shot rang out and nobody knows who shot it but it was the first shot of the American Revolution. -
Second Continental Congress
A group including Thomas Jefferson (a lawyer from Virginia), John Hancock (a merchant from Boston), and Benjamin Franklin met in Philadelphia. A group of delegates from New England wanted to declare independence, but nearly all delegates felt that they should prepare for war, so they formed an army. The Congress chose George Washington as the commander of the Continental army. They also took steps to pay for its army by printing paper money. -
Battle of Bunker Hill
British General William Howe attacked the Americans, which had very little ammunition, straight up the hill, but the Americans opened fire on the British when they were only 150 feet away. The first and second Britsh attacks failed, but the third succeeded because the Americans ran out of ammunition. -
Battle of Saratoga
Burgoyne had a plan for the British to move south to capture the forts on Lake Champlain, Lake George, and upper Hudson River in New York. General Gates of the Americans blocked th Britsh with 6,000 men, so the Britsih surrendered.
