# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
History: American Revolutionary War Timeline

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the events of the American Revolutionary War Timeline in US history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about Patriots and Loyalists during the Revolutionary War. One side wanted independence while the other wanted to remain part of Britain.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA October 19, 1781 - In a stunning reversal of fortune that may signal the end of fighting in the American colonies, Charles Lord Cornwallis today signed orders surrendering his British Army to a combined French and American force outside the Virginia tobacco port of Yorktown. Cornwallis' second-in-command, Charles O'Hara, attempted to deliver Cornwallis's sword to French general, Comte de Rochambeau. But Rochambeau directed O'Hara to American General George Washington, who coolly steered the British officer to Washington's own second in command, Major General Benjamin Lincoln.

Thus ended a three-week old siege which had begun with the miraculous convergence of French and American forces on the Chesapeake Bay. With just a brief window of opportunity to pin Cornwallis in Virginia, Washington and Rochambeau raced southward from New York to link up with the French fleet under Admiral Comte de Grasse in Chesapeake Bay. They arrived just in time to corner the British, who were anticipating relief that never came from either General Henry Clinton or the British fleet.

Off shore, the French fleet effectively blocked aid from Cornwallis. On shore, the incessant shelling of the French and American guns made life miserable for the British troops.

When a British officer finally appeared with a white flag on the parapet surrounding Yorktown, the French and American guns fell quiet. The Continental forces let go a momentous cheer until Washington ordered it silenced. "Let history huzzah for you," he was heard to shout.

Cornwallis' surrender ended a disastrous southern campaign for the British army. Britain's strategy-an attempt to incorporate loyalist support with British efforts-had begun with high hopes and a victory in Charleston, South Carolina just a year and a half before. But the plan backfired as loyalist and Patriot forces in the south fought a series of savage fights that left both sides bloodied, but only the Patriots unbowed.

Cornwallis limped into Virginia in late summer trailed by a force led by the The Marquis de Lafayette, long a supporter of American efforts both as a soldier in this country, and as an advocate for the cause in France.

As Cornwallis' 8,000 man force became prisoners-of-war, the British band played the The World Turned Upside Down, a tune that underscored the strange turn of events which had brought defeat at the hands of the provincial forces of America, to the most powerful country in Europe.

As the " world war" engendered by the American Revolution continues to plague British foreign policy, it looks more and more likely that King George and Parliament will cut its losses in the colonies and begin a withdrawal of troops.

After six and half years of fighting, the war may be finally over.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LIBERTY! . Chronicle of the Revolution . Yorktown 1781 | PBS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA October 19, 1781 - In a stunning reversal of fortune that may signal the end of fighting in the American colonies, Charles Lord Cornwallis today signed orders surrendering his British Army to a combined French and American force outside the Virginia tobacco port of Yorktown.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The surrender of General Burgoyne's British Army to the American Colonists on 17th October 1777, bringing France and Spain into the war
The next battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Monmouth To the American Revolutionary War index
Battle: Saratoga

War: American Revolutionary War

Date of the Battle of Saratoga: 17 th October 1777

Place of the Battle of Saratoga: Saratoga on the Hudson River in New York State.

Combatants at the Battle of Saratoga: British and German troops against the Americans.

Generals at the Battle of Saratoga: Major General John Burgoyne commanded the British and German force. Major General Horatio Gates and Brigadier Benedict Arnold commanded the American army.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Saratoga: The British force comprised some 5,000 British, Brunswickers, Canadians and Indians. By the time of the surrender the American force was around 12,000 to 14,000 militia and troops.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Saratoga: The British wore red coats, with bearskin caps for the grenadiers, tricorne hats for the battalion companies and caps for the light infantry.

The German infantry wore blue coats and retained the Prussian style grenadier mitre cap with brass front plate.

The Americans dressed as best they could. Increasingly as the war progressed regular infantry regiments of the Continental Army wore blue or brown uniform coats, but the militia continued in rough clothing.

The British and German troops were armed with muskets and bayonets. The Americans carried muskets, largely without bayonets. Virginia and Pennsylvania regiments, particularly Morgan's men and other men of the woods carried long, small calibre, rifled weapons. cannons, mostly of small calibre.

Winner of the Battle of Saratoga: The Americans forced the surrender of Burgoyne's force.

British Regiments at the Battle of Saratoga:
The senior officers were Major General William Phillips, Baron Riedesel, Brigadier Simon Fraser and Brigadier Hamilton.

Major Lord Balcarres commanded the light companies of the regiments of foot.

Major Acland commanded the grenadier companies of the same regiments.
The battalion companies of the 9 th, 20 th, 21 st, 24 th, 29 th, 31 st, 47 th, 53 rd and 62 nd Foot.
Breyman's Jägers, Riedesel's Regiment, Specht's Regiment, Rhetz's Regiment and Captain Pausch's Hesse Hanau Company of artillery
Indians and Canadians.

The American Army at the Battle of Saratoga:
Right Wing:
Under the personal command of General Horatio Gates:
Brigadier Glover's Continental Brigade, Colonel Nixon's Continental Regiment and Brigadier Paterson's Continental Brigade

Centre:
Brigadier Learned's Continental Brigade, Bailey's Massachusetts Regiment, Jackson's Massachusetts Regiment, Wesson's Massachusetts Regiment and Livingston's New York Regiment

Left Wing:
Commanded by Major General Benedict Arnold
Brigadier Poor's Brigade, Cilley's 1st New Hampshire Regiment, Hale's 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, Scammell's 3rd New Hampshire Regiment, Van Cortlandt's New York Regiment, Livingston's New York Regiment, Connecticut Militia, Morgan's Riflemen and Dearborn's Light Infantry

Background to the Battle of Saratoga: Over the winter of 1776/7, the British Government in London devised a plan to send a strong army down the Lake Champlain route from Canada into the heart of the rebellious American Colonies, isolating New England.

The British Governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, with his experience of campaigning in North America, would have been a sound appointment for this command, particularly after his determined and resourceful defence of Canada in 1775 and 1776. Instead, Lord Germaine, the minister in London with direct control of the British war policy, persuaded King George III to appoint Major-General John Burgoyne, Carleton's subordinate during 1776, as commander-in-chief of the expedition from Canada. Burgoyne took the precaution of returning to London during the winter to lobby for the command.

Strong reinforcements of British and Brunswick regiments of foot and artillery were sent to Canada. Germaine's instructions to Burgoyne were to take the best of these regiments down Lake Champlain, capture Fort Ticonderoga, advance to the Hudson River and progress south.

Lord Germaine's and Burgoyne's expectations were that a second British force under Major General Clinton would move north, up the Hudson River from New York, and meet Burgoyne, but no proper orders were sent to General Howe, commanding the British forces in New York, to ensure that he complied with this expectation. General Howe, the British commander-in-chief in the central colonies had his own plans to invade Pennsylvania and take Philadelphia.

Burgoyne's army set off from the St Lawrence River down Lake Champlain at the end of June 1777, reaching Fort Ticonderoga on 1 st July 1777. The American commander abandoned the fort (see the Battle of Ticonderoga 1777) as the British and Brunswickers arrived.

The British Colonel St Leger advanced down the Mohawk River from Lake Erie with a British force in a diversionary raid.

On 10 th July 1777, Burgoyne's force reached Skenesboro, at the southern end of Lake Champlain, where it concentrated on clearing the road to the North for supplies and to the South for the advance. The forested country, crossed by primitive tracks rather than roads, was difficult for an army having to move quantities of supplies and artillery.

General Schuyler, the American commander, withdrew to Stillwater, thirty miles north of Albany, Burgoyne's primary target. The American authorities made determined efforts to raise the New England militia and to implement a scorched earth policy in the path of the British advance.

To obtain additional supplies and horses for his Brunswick dragoon regiment, Burgoyne sent the German, Colonel Baum, with 500 men on a raid to Bennington, New Hampshire. Simultaneously Burgoyne moved his army down the Hudson River to Saratoga, where he built a substantial fortified camp.

Baum's force was attacked by American militia and overwhelmed. A relieving force commanded by Colonel Breymann was repelled with some loss (see the Battle of Bennington).

St Leger found that difficulties with his Indian allies and the vigorous resistance of Brigadier Benedict Arnold forced him to abandon his advance down the Mohawk River.

Burgoyne was in a perilous position. The presence of his army was arousing the local militia in substantial numbers. He was short of food. Germaine's imperative orders to march south restrained Burgoyne from remaining where he was, from retreating northwards or from diverting to the East.

It took Burgoyne until 13 th September 1777 to assemble sufficient supplies, dragged through the forests down rudimentary roads, to enable his army to continue the advance south.

On 19 th September 1777, Burgoyne's army approached the fortified American camp on the west bank of the Hudson River at Bemis Heights.

The British force advanced on the American army, now commanded by the ex-British officer, Major-General Horatio Gates, in three columns, one by the river under the German officer, Colonel Riedesel, the main force in the centre commanded by Burgoyne himself, and the third, commanded by Brigadier Simon Fraser, making a wide outflanking detour to the American left. The aim of the British was to take the unfortified hill to the West of the American positions on Bemis Heights.

Arnold pressed Gates to leave his entrenchments and attack the British but he was reluctant to take what he saw as the risk of moving out of his fortified camp.

Burgoyne deployed his battalions for the attack; the 9th, 21st, 62nd and 20th Foot. Fraser came up on the right, with the Grenadiers, Light Companies and the 24th Foot, towards the heights on the American left, and Riedesel began his approach along the riverbank. This phase of the battle was known as the Battle of Freeman's Farm and was hard fought, leaving the British in occupation of the ground at nightfall.

Account of the Battle of Saratoga: The next day, 20 th September 1777, several of Burgoyne's senior offices urged him to renew the attack on the American positions. It is suggested that if he had done so he would have taken advantage of the disarray into which the previous day's hard fighting had thrown Gates's army. Although initially tempted by the proposal, Burgoyne finally rejected it and remained in his camp by the Hudson River.

On the same day, Burgoyne received word that the Americans had captured one of his supply flotillas on Lake George. He was tempted to abandon the whole enterprise and withdraw to Fort Ticonderoga, but information that Major-General Clinton was advancing to meet him, up the Hudson River from New York, caused Burgoyne to remain in his camp.

By 7 th October 1777, despite considerable success in the southern reaches, Clinton had not made any real progress up the Hudson River. Burgoyne determined to launch the delayed attack on the American positions on Bemis Heights. By this time, Gates had been considerably reinforced and his army comprised some 12,000 men against around 4,000 British and Germans.

Burgoyne described the operation as a reconnaissance in strength, designed to see if he could occupy the hill to the West of the American fortifications on Bemis Heights.

The American piquets sent word that the British had advanced and were forming up in a wheat field near the old Freeman's Farm battlefield. Morgan's riflemen were committed to the attack, quickly supported by the other regiments of Arnold's division. The Americans far outnumbered the British "reconnaissance" party and the British Grenadiers and Light Companies were pressed back.

At a critical moment in the fighting, Brigadier Simon Fraser was mortally wounded by one of Morgan's riflemen. Arnold spurred the Americans to continue the attack and was himself severely wounded. The British and Hessian troops began to give way and, after the redoubt held by Colonel Breyman and his regiment was taken, Burgoyne withdrew the force to his fortified camp above the Hudson River.

The next day, 8 th October 1777, Burgoyne withdrew his army up the river to the camp they had built at Saratoga. The American army followed and enveloped the British positions. Burgoyne let the last opportunities to retreat north to Ticonderoga go by, hoping that Clinton's army would come up the Hudson River from the South to his relief. A major difficulty in the campaign was communication between the two British forces. Almost all the messengers attempting the journey between Burgoyne and Clinton were caught and hanged by the Americans.

Burgoyne awaited news of Clinton's advance until 17th October 1777, when he was forced to sign the convention by which his troops surrendered to Gates, who had by then between 18,000 and 20,000 men.

Casualties at the Battle of Saratoga: Of the 7,000 British and Germans who marched from Canada only 3,500 were fit for duty at the surrender.

Follow-up to the Battle of Saratoga: The consequences of Burgoyne's surrender were catastrophic for Britain. France entered the war on the side of the American colonists in 1778, followed by Spain in 1779, and the American effort in the war was galvanized.
Anecdotes and Traditions from the Battle of Saratoga:

It is said that Benedict Arnold pointed out Brigadier Simon Fraser as a prominent mounted British officer to Daniel Morgan and ordered him to have one of his riflemen shoot him. Morgan reluctantly ordered Timothy Murphy to shoot Fraser which he did.

General Burgoyne was known to the British troops as 'Gentleman Johnnie'. Burgoyne made his name in the Seven Years War in Portugal commanding a regiment of light dragoons.

Major Lord Balcarres, the commander of the British Light Infantry at the Battle of Freeman Farm and the Battle of Saratoga, after the American Revolutionary War met Benedict Arnold in England. Balcarres snubbed Arnold for being a traitor to the American cause by deserting to the British and the two men fought a duel. Neither was injured.

General Burgoyne was so confident of his success in attacking down the Lake Champlain route that he bet Charles James Fox £10 that he would return to London victorious within the year. In later life, General Burgoyne became a successful play-write with 'The Maid of the Oaks' and 'The Heiress'. He wrote the libretto for the opera 'The Lord of the Manor'.

With the loss of the Battle of Saratoga, General Burgoyne insisted that he would not 'surrender' to the Americans. He would only enter into a 'Convention'. General Horatio Gates agreed. By the terms of the convention the British officers were permitted to return to Britain, but could not take any further part in the war. The soldiers were interned by the Americans. General Washington repudiated the terms of the Convention when he was informed and the British soldiers became prisoners of war. The British continued to act as if the Convention was in force. The British regiments held by the Americans were counted as part of the British active army. Soldiers from these regiments who escaped from American captivity were labelled by the British authorities as deserters!

Major General Horatio Gates: Gates was an English officer who served in North America, commanding one of the Independent Companies from New York in General Braddock's ill-fortuned attempt to capture Fort DuQuesne in 1755, and becoming a friend of George Washington. After the French and Indian War, Gates married an American and bought an estate in Virginia. On the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Gates' experience in military administration with the British Army and Washington's influence ensured him the appointment of Adjutant General of the Continental Army. Gates sought a field command and was appointed to command the American army at Fort Ticonderoga in 1776. With the withdrawal to Canada of the British force in the autumn of 1776, Gates joined Washington in New Jersey. Gates lobbied hard to be given command of the American field army in place of Washington, but Washington's successes at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton confirmed his position and Gates returned to the Hudson to resist the advance of Burgoyne and there received Burgoyne's capitulation. Following this success, Gates again plotted to acquire the command in chief of the American army from George Washington, but was unsuccessful. In 1780 Gates was appointed to command the American forces in North Carolina and was soundly defeated by the British under General Cornwallis at the Battle of Camden. Gates was replaced in command by General Nathaniel Green and finished the war on Washington's staff. Gates retired to Manhattan with his second wife.

References for the Battle of Saratoga:
History of the British Army by Sir John Fortescue

The War of the Revolution by Christopher Ward

The American Revolution by Brendan Morrissey

Saratoga by Richard Ketchum
The previous battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Germantown The next battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Monmouth To the American Revolutionary War index

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
captain pausch’s hesse hanau company of artillery

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
major general benedict arnold brigadier poor’s brigade

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The surrender of General Burgoyne's British Army to the American Colonists on 17th October 1777, bringing France and Spain into the war The next battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Monmouth To the American Revolutionary War index Battle: Saratoga War: American Revolutionary War Date of the Battle of Saratoga: 17 th October 1777 Place of the Battle of Saratoga: Saratoga on the Hudson River in New York State.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
George Washington. Without the victory at Saratoga, American forces would likely not have received critical assistance from the French, and faith in the war effort would have been weakened. But the victory of General Horatio Gates at Saratoga also led to a serious but ultimately unsuccessful effort to replace Washington with Gates as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

The battle of Saratoga took place on the fields of upstate New York, nine miles south of the town of Saratoga. In accordance with British plans, General John Burgoyne was attempting to invade New England from Canada with the goal of isolating New England from the rest of the United States. Burgoyne had under his command an army of 7,200 troops with which he hoped to establish British dominance throughout the state of New York. Opposing Burgoyne was General Horatio Gates with a force of 9,000 soldiers, later joined by 2,000 additional troops. The ensuing battle was divided into two encounters, the first on September 19 and the second on October 7.

The first on September 19, 1777, also known as the Battle of Freeman's Farm, took place when the British attacked the Benedict Arnold anticipated the British maneuver, however, a significant contingent of American forces had been placed between the British and the main body of the American army. While the British managed in the end to overrun the Americans, their losses were significant. Almost 600 British soldiers were killed or wounded, which was roughly twice the American losses.1

2

Following the American victory, morale among American troops was high. With Burgoyne's surrender of his entire army to Gates, the Americans scored a decisive victory that finally persuaded the French to sign a treaty allying with the United States against Britain, France's traditional enemy. The entrance of France into the war, along with its financial and military support, in particular its navy, was in the end crucial to Washington's victory at the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781, which effectively ended the war. But the French were not alone in supporting the Americans following the Battle of Saratoga. The Spanish and later the Dutch provided support as well, eager to seize the opportunity to weaken their British rival.

In the aftermath of his victory at Saratoga, General Gates enjoyed widespread popular support and some campaigned behind the scenes to have him replace Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. In an episode that became known as the " Conway Cabal," Gates's supporters began to conspire against Washington, but their plot was discovered when a drunken officer, Colonel James Wilkinson, stated publicly that General Thomas Conway had praised Gates as the savior of the Revolution while at the same time disparaging Washington. Specifically, Conway had said that "Heaven has been determined to save your Country; or a weak General and bad Counsellors would have ruined it."

It was only through the premature discovery of this plot and the strong backing of key figures in both the army and Congress that Washington was able to maintain his command. The Conway Cabal had taken Washington by surprise, but in the aftermath of its failure it was Gates who found himself in the weaker position. He apologized to Washington, who retained his command for the remainder of the war and, supported by French forces on land and sea, received the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781.

Troy Smith
George Mason University
Notes:
1. Douglas R. Cubbison, Burgoyne and the Saratoga Campaign: His Papers (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2012), 109-115; Jim Lacey and Williamson Murray, Moment of Battle: The Twenty Clashes That Changed the World. (New York: Bantam Books, 2013), 216-22.

2. Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 391, 427.

3. Lacey and Murray, Moment of Battle,224.

4. John E. Ferling, The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon (New York. Bloomsbury Press, 2009), 137.

5. Ibid., 149.

6. "From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 4 January 1778," Founders Online, National Archives, Source: this is an Early Access document from The Papers of George Washington.

7. Ferling. Ascent of George Washington, 160. See also "To George Washington from Major General Horatio Gates, 8 December 1777," Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0525, ver. 2014-02-12). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 12, 26 October 1777?-?25 December 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. and David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002, pp. 576-577.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Battle of Saratoga, fought in two stages on September 19 and October 7, 1777, proved to be a turning point in the American struggle for independence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
George Washington's iconic victory on 26th December 1776 over Colonel Rahl's Hessian troops after crossing the frozen Delaware River; the battle that re-invigorated the American Revolution
The next battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Princeton To the American Revolutionary War index
Battle: Trenton

War: American Revolution

Date of the Battle of Trenton: 26th December 1776

Place of the Battle of Trenton: Trenton, New Jersey, on the Delaware River in the United States of America

Combatants at the Battle of Trenton: Americans against Hessians and British troops

Generals at the Battle of Trenton: General George Washington against the Hessian Colonel Rahl.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Trenton:
2,400 American troops with 18 guns against 1,400 Hessians with 6 light guns. A troop of the British 16th Light Dragoons left Trenton at the onset of the fighting.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Trenton: The two regiments of British light dragoons that served in America, the 16th and 17th, wore red coats and leather crested helmets.

The Hessian infantry wore blue coats and retained the Prussian style grenadier mitre cap with brass front plate.

The Americans dressed as best they could. Increasingly as the war progressed regular infantry regiments of the Continental Army wore blue uniform coats, but the militia continued in rough clothing.

Both sides were armed with muskets, bayonets and cannon, mostly of small calibre. The Pennsylvania regiments and other men of the woods carried long, small calibre, rifled weapons.

Hessian Troops at the Battle of Trenton: The British Government was unable to recruit sufficient British troops to fight the American Revolutionary War. There was considerable sympathy in Britain for the cause of the American Colonists and many considered the American Revolutionary War to be a proxy civil war between the privileged British establishment and the ordinary British citizen.

To make up the shortfall in troops, the British Government turned to its resort from previous wars of paying subsidies to German princelings to provide the troops it needed. The primary source of German troops was Hesse-Kassel, hence the frequent use of ' Hessians' to describe any German troops in British pay in the Revolutionary War.

The deployment of German troops provided the Americans with a useful propaganda tool.

In fact, the Hessian troops were largely well-disciplined, and often better behaved than British troops. Many settled in the United States once the war was over.

Winner at the Battle of Trenton: The battle was a resounding actual and moral victory for Washington and his American troops.

Account of the Battle of Trenton:
After being driven out of New York by the British and forced to retreat to the West bank of the Delaware during the late summer of 1776, the American cause was at a low ebb. In the harsh winter, Washington was faced with the annual crisis of the expiry of the Continental Army's period of enlistment. He resolved to attack the Hessian position at Trenton at the extreme southern end of the over-extended British line along the Delaware, before his army dispersed.

Washington's plan was to cross the Delaware River at three points; the first by a force commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Cadwallader, with a Rhode Island regiment, some Pennsylvanians, Delaware militia and two guns; a second force under Brigadier Ewing of militia; and the third commanded by himself, which would cross the river above Trenton and attack the Hessian garrison in the town. Washington had, as his subordinates, Major Generals Nathaniel Greene and John Sullivan.

In his force, Washington led some 2,400 men from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

Washington's force paraded in the afternoon of 25 th December 1776 and set off for the Delaware River, where they embarked in a flotilla of the characteristic Delaware River boats.

It was a cold, dark night and the river was running with flowing ice. At about 11pm, a heavy snow and sleet storm broke. Washington's force did not reach the east bank until around 3am on 26 th December 1776. His soldiers were badly clothed and many did not have shoes.

After landing in New Jersey, Washington's men marched to Trenton, some of the men leaving traces of blood on the snow.

The German garrison comprised the regiments of Rahl, Knyphausen and Lossberg, with Hessian jaegers and a troop of the British 16th Light Dragoons.

The Hessian commander, Colonel Rahl, had been ordered to construct defence works around the town, but had not troubled to do so. On the night before the attack, Rahl was at dinner when he was brought information that the Americans were approaching. He ignored the message which was found in his pocket after his death.

The main American force under Washington entered Trenton from the north-west. Sullivan marched around the town and attacked from the south. The rest of the American force took a position to the north-east cutting off the Hessians' retreat.

The Hessians attempted to form in the town, but were under artillery fire and attack from front and rear. The Americans occupied the houses and shot down the German gunners and foot soldiers in the streets.

Colonel Rahl was fatally wounded. His troops retreated to an orchard in the south-east of the town, where they surrendered.

Ewing and Cadwallader failed to make the river crossing and took no part in the attack.

Casualties at the Battle of Trenton: The Americans suffered 4 wounded casualties. It is said that in addition 2 American soldiers froze to death. The Hessians suffered 20 killed and around 100 wounded. 1,000 were captured.

Captain William Washington and Lieutenant James Monroe were wounded in the battle, the only American officer casualties.

Follow-up to the Battle of Trenton: After the Battle of Trenton, the captured Hessian troops were paraded through the streets of Philadelphia.

The effect of the battle of Trenton was out of all proportion to the numbers involved and the casualties. The American effort across the colonies was galvanized and the psychological dominance achieved by the British in the preceding year was overturned.

The British commander-in-chief Lieutenant General William Howe was stunned to hear that a strong German contingent had been surprised in such a manner and put up so little resistance.

Washington's constant problem was to maintain the enthusiasm of his army for the war, particularly with the system of one year recruitment, and Trenton proved a much-needed encouragement.
Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of Trenton:

Washington's army crossing the Delaware in the freezing conditions before the Battle of Trenton, on the night of 25 th December 1776, has become an important national image for the United States as shown in Emmanuel Leutze's picture.

Present at the battle were: two other future presidents, James Madison and James Monroe, the future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall and Aaron Burr. One of the American artillery sections was commanded by Captain Alexander Hamilton.

References for the Battle of Trenton:
History of the British Army by Sir John Fortescue

The War of the Revolution by Christopher Ward

The American Revolution by Brendan Morrissey
The previous battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Fort Washington The next battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Princeton To the American Revolutionary War index

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
chief justice of the supreme court john marshall

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
George Washington's iconic victory on 26th December 1776 over Colonel Rahl's Hessian troops after crossing the frozen Delaware River; the battle that re-invigorated the American Revolution The next battle of the American Revolutionary War is the Battle of Princeton To the American Revolutionary War index Battle: Trenton War: American Revolution

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Britain and the Imperial Crises

Throughout most of colonial history, the British Crown was the only political institution that united the American colonies. The Imperial Crises of the 1760s and 1770s, found England saddled with crippling debt, incurred in large part by wars such as the French and Indian War.

The British government responded by increasing taxes on the American colonists, which drove the colonies toward greater unity. Americans throughout the 13 colonies united in opposition to the new system of imperial taxation initiated by the British government in 1765.

The Stamp Act of that year-the first direct, internal tax imposed on the colonists by the British Parliament-inspired concerted resistance within the colonies. Nine colonial assemblies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress, an extralegal convention that met to coordinate the colonies' response to the new tax. Although the Stamp Act Congress was short-lived, it hinted at the enhanced unity among the colonies that would soon follow.

Did you know? Almost every significant political figure of the American Revolution served in the Continental Congress, including Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Patrick Henry and George Washington.

Colonial opposition effectively killed the Stamp Act and brought about its repeal in 1766. The British government did not abandon its claim to the authority to pass laws for the colonies, however, and would make repeated attempts to exert its power over them in the years to follow.

Taxation Without Representation

In response to the violence of the Boston Massacre of 1770 and new taxes like the Tea Act of 1773, a group of frustrated colonists protested taxation without representation by dumping 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor on the night of December 16, 1773 - an event known to history as Boston Tea Party.

Colonists continued to coordinate their resistance to new imperial measures, but between 1766 until 1774, they did so primarily through committees of correspondence, which exchanged ideas and information, rather than through a united political body.

The First Continental Congress

On September 5, 1774, delegates from each of the 13 colonies-except Georgia, which was fighting a Native American uprising and was dependent on the British for military supplies-met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to the Intolerable Acts (or Coercive Acts) recently passed by the British Parliament.

The delegates included a number of future luminaries, such as future presidents John Adams of Massachusetts and George Washington of Virginia, and future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and diplomat John Jay of New York. The Congress was structured with emphasis on the equality of participants, and to promote free debate.

After much discussion, the Congress issued a Declaration of Rights, affirming its loyalty to the British Crown but disputing the British Parliament's right to tax it without representation in the parliament. The Congress also passed the Articles of Association, which called on the colonies to stop importing goods from the British Isles beginning on December 1, 1774, if the Intolerable Acts were not repealed.

Should Britain fail to redress the colonists' grievances in a timely manner, the Congress declared, then it would reconvene on May 10, 1775, and the colonies would cease to export goods to Britain on September 10, 1775. After proclaiming these measures, the First Continental Congress disbanded on October 26, 1774.

Second Continental Congress

As promised, Congress reconvened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia as the Second Continental Congress on May 10, 1775-and by then the American Revolution had already begun.

The British army in Boston had met with armed resistance on the morning of April 19, 1775, when it marched out to the towns of Lexington and Concord to seize a cache of weapons held by colonial Patriots who had ceased to recognize the authority of the royal government of Massachusetts.

The colonists drove the British expedition back to Boston and laid siege to the town. The Revolutionary War had begun.

Fighting for Reconciliation

Although the Congress professed its abiding loyalty to the British Crown, it also took steps to preserve its rights by dint of arms. On June 14, 1775, a month after it reconvened, it created a united colonial fighting force, the Continental Army. The next day, it named George Washington as the new army's commander in chief.

The following month, the Continental Congress issued its "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms," penned by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, a veteran of the First Congress whose "Letters from a Farmer of Pennsylvania" (1767) had helped arouse opposition to earlier imperial measures, and by a newcomer from Virginia, Thomas Jefferson.

In an effort to avoid a full-scale war, Congress coupled this declaration with the Olive Branch Petition, a personal appeal to Britain's King George III, asking him to help the colonists resolve their differences with Britain. The king dismissed the petition out of hand.

Common Sense, Divided Loyalties

For over a year, the Continental Congress supervised a war against a country to which it proclaimed its loyalty. In fact, both the Congress and the people it represented were divided on the question of independence even after a year of open warfare against Great Britain.

Early in 1776, a number of factors began to strengthen the call for separation. In his stirring pamphlet " Common Sense," published in January of that year, the British immigrant Thomas Paine laid out a convincing argument in favor of independence.

At the same time, many Americans came to realize that their military might not be capable of defeating the British Empire on its own. Independence would allow it to form alliances with Britain's powerful rivals-and France was at the forefront of everyone's mind. Meanwhile, the war itself evoked hostility toward Britain among the citizenry, paving the way for independence.

Declaration of Independence

In the spring of 1776, the provisional colonial governments began to send new instructions to their congressional delegates, obliquely or directly allowing them to vote for independence. The provisional government of Virginia went further: It instructed its delegation to submit a proposal for independence before Congress.

On June 7, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee complied with his instructions. Congress postponed a final vote on the proposal until July 1, but appointed a committee to draft a provisional declaration of independence for use should the proposal pass.

The committee consisted of five men, including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. But the declaration was primarily the work of one man, Thomas Jefferson, who penned an eloquent defense of the natural rights of all people, of which, he charged, Parliament and the king had tried to deprive the American nation.

The Continental Congress made several revisions to Jefferson's draft, removing, among other things, an attack on the institution of slavery; but on July 4, 1776, the Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence.

Waging the War

The Declaration of Independence allowed Congress to seek alliances with foreign countries, and the fledgling U.S. formed its most important alliance early in 1778 with France, without the support of which America might well have lost the Revolutionary War.

If the Franco-American alliance was one of Congress's greatest successes, funding and supplying the war were among its worst failures. Lacking a pre-existing infrastructure, Congress struggled throughout the war to provide the Continental Army with adequate supplies and provisions.

Exacerbating the problem, Congress had no mechanism to collect taxes to pay for the war; instead, it relied on contributions from the states, which generally directed whatever revenue they raised toward their own needs. As a result, the paper money issued by Congress quickly came to be regarded as worthless.

The Articles of Confederation

Congress's inability to raise revenue would bedevil it for its entire existence, even after it created a constitution, known as the Articles of Confederation, to define its powers. Drafted and adopted by the Congress in 1777 but not ratified until 1781, it effectively established the United States as a collection of 13 sovereign states, each of which had an equal voice in Congress (which became officially known as the Congress of the Confederation) regardless of population.

Under the Articles, congressional decisions were made based on a state-by-state vote, and the Congress had little ability to enforce its decisions. The Articles of Confederation would prove incapable of governing the new nation in a time of peace, but they did not seriously undermine the war effort, both because the war was effectively winding down before the Articles took effect, and because Congress ceded many executive war powers to General Washington.

Treaty of Paris

Congress's final triumph came in 1783 when it negotiated the Treaty of Paris, officially ending the Revolutionary War. The Congressional delegates Franklin, Jay and Adams secured a favorable peace for the U.S. that included not only the recognition of independence, but also claim to almost all of the territory south of Canada and east of the Mississippi River.

On November 25, 1783, the last British troops evacuated New York City. The Revolutionary War was over and Congress had helped to see the country through.

However, the Articles of Confederation proved an imperfect instrument for a nation at peace with the world. The years immediately following the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783 presented the young American nation with a series of difficulties that Congress could not adequately remedy: dire financial straits, interstate rivalries and domestic insurrection.

Legacy of the Continental Congress

A movement developed for constitutional reform, culminating in the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. The delegates at the convention decided to scrap the Articles of Confederation completely and create a new system of government.

In 1789, the new U.S. Constitution went into effect and the Continental Congress adjourned forever and was replaced by the U.S. Congress. Although the Continental Congress did not function well in a time of peace, it had steered the nation through one of its worst crises, declared its independence and helped to win a war to secure that independence.
READ MORE: What Did the Three Continental Congresses Do?
Sources

Continental Congress, 1774-1781. U.S. Department of State. Office of the Historian.
First Continental Congress. George Washington's Mount Vernon.
The Continental Congress. PBS: American Experience.
Continental and Confederation Congresses. U.S. House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives.
The Second Continental Congress and the Declaration of Independence. National Park Service.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Continental Congress: First, Second & Definition - HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Throughout most of colonial history, the British Crown was the only political institution that united the American colonies. The Imperial Crises of the 1760s and 1770s, found England saddled with crippling debt, incurred in large part by wars such as the French and Indian War.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The American Revolutionary War: Keeping Independence

Part 1: The American Independent Spirit

The American Revolutionary War did not begin with the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" (the battles of Lexington and Concord ). It had its roots in the very first settlements in North America.

From the beginning, the American colonists were used to doing things their own way. Yes, they came from Great Britain, but Great Britain was a great many miles away. When problems arose, the people in America fixed those problems themselves, rather than waiting for Britain to tell them what to do.

This practice wasn't always popular with the British government.

) did fight It is worth noting that American soldiers (including a young George Washington French and Indian War with British soldiers in the . But the American soldiers were fighting to protect their homes and families from soldiers they viewed as troublesome Frenchmen and Native Americans.

And when the British-American side won that war, the Americans got to go back to their way of life as they knew it, with one important difference: The British government was very much in debt.

Britain's George Grenville , who was in charge of the Treasury, decided that the American people should pay a large part of the money Great Britain owed to its banks and to other countries that had given it money to buy weapons and to otherwise fight the French and Indian War. The American people had no say in this matter, and they were angry because of that and because the new taxes were very high.

Some examples of these were the (1764) and the (1765), both of which taxed two things that the American people used every day (sugar and paper). These taxes proved very unpopular in America, and the people there made a lot of noise about unfair taxes. They even called a Stamp Act Congress and made a formal statement of protest to Great Britain.

The British government did away with the Stamp tax the next year, but the damage was done. The American people had been able to voice their concerns and get a tax removed. But they had also learned how difficult it was to do this. The whole experience reminded them that they didn't have anyone from America sitting in the British government.

, disguised as Native Americans, dumped 342 whole crates of British tea into Boston harbor on December 16, 1773. The tea tax was part of a wider series of taxes and other restrictive measures known as the Another troublesome tax was the Tea Act , which told Americans that they could buy tea from only one company, the British East India Company. No matter how high the price, the Americans had to pay it if they wanted tea. This was an outrage, the American people claimed. The result was the Boston Tea Party , in which members of the Sons of Liberty Townshend Acts, most of which didn't last very long.

Boston was a hotbed of revolutionary feelings already. In 1770, at what Americans had come to call the Boston Massacre , unarmed Americans were shot and killed by armed British troops. And Boston would be the target of one of the Intolerable Acts (1774) later on: The Boston Port Act closed the port of Boston until the price of the dumped tea was recovered.

In addition, the Massachusetts Bay Regulating Act made all law officers subject to appointment by the royal governor and banned all town meetings that didn't have approval of the royal governor.

If Americans wanted to meet and discuss the terrible things the British government was doing to them, they would have to meet in secret. And meet in secret they did.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The American Revolutionary War: Keeping Independence Part 1: The American Independent Spirit

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The American Revolutionary War: Keeping Independence Part 1: The American Independent Spirit The American Revolutionary War did not begin with the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" (the battles of Lexington and Concord ). It had its roots in the very first settlements in North America.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mr. Nussbaum History Revolutionary War - Causes Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
11/13 - Teachers - Subscribe to MrN 365 and use the coupon code "snow" for 20 percent off the annual price of $49! Get access to all of my activities plus much, much more! https://mrn365.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the American Revolution including causes, battles fought, timeline, Boston Massacre, Stamp Act, Continental Congress, important people, daily life, and fun facts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Tea Act was an Act of Great Britain’s Parliament to impose a tax on tea and reduce the massive tea surplus of the British East India Company in London, a company in financial trouble. The Tea Act was part of a group of taxes imposed on the colonies by Britain called The Townsend Acts. When the T…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The definition and purpose of the 1773 Tea Act and the cry of "No taxation without representation!"

The Tea Act imposed no new taxes

It gave a tea monopoly in the American colonies to the British East India Company

The Tea Act allowed the East India company to sell its large tea surplus below the prices charged by colonial competitors

Map of the Thirteen Colonies

The Tea Act of 1773
Of all the Townshend duties (taxes) only the import tax on tea was left. Not surprisingly, the American colonists continued to boycott tea. As a result of the boycotts, the East India Company had literally tons of tea in its London warehouses and was on the verge of bankruptcy. By 1772 the East India Company had 18 million pounds of unsold tea in warehouses and 1.3 million pounds of debt.

Tea Act of 1773 - The East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company of investors that was formed initially for pursuing the spice trade with the East Indies including India, Pakistan and other countries in South east Asia. But it was the trade in tea with China that was the most viable in the 18th century. Tea accounted for more than 60% of the Company's total trade in the late 1700's. Customs duty on tea was providing 10% of the British government's annual revenues.

The Provisions of the Tea Act of 1773
The provisions of the Tea Act of 1773 were as follows:

The new provisions in the Tea Act allowed tea to be shipped in East India Company ships directly from China to the American colonies, thus avoiding the tax on goods first sent to England, as required by previous legislation

The Tea Act also made the provision for a duty (tax) of 3 pence per pound to be collected on tea delivered to America

This new import tax of 3 pence was considerably less than the previous one in which 12 pence (1 shilling) per pound on tea sent via Britain

The American colonists would therefore get their tea cheaper than the people of Britain

The tea was to be marketed in America by special consignees (receivers of shipments) who were to be selected by the East India Company

The tea consignees were to be based in four centers in the colonies:

Boston

New York

Philadelphia

Charleston

Effect of the Tea Act of 1773 on the Colonists
The effect of the Tea Act on the American colonists would be as follows:

Merchants who had been acting as the middlemen in legally importing tea stood to lose their business to the the East India Company agents

Merchants dealing with the illegal Dutch tea trade would be undercut by the Company's lowered prices and also stood to lose their business

The Tea Act directly impacted shop keepers who would only be allowed to purchase tea from merchants selected by the East India Company and their monopoly

Only ships owned by the East India Company could carry tea, the American ships engaging in the tea trade would be redundant

Favoritism - Consignees who were to receive the tea and arrange for its local resale were generally favorites of the local governor. The Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, was a part-owner of the business hired by the East India Company to receive tea shipped to Boston. He was disliked by the Boston patriots with whom he had clashed during the Boston Massacre of 1770

Reaction of the Colonists to the Tea Act of 1773
The reaction of the American colonists to the Tea Act came as a shock to the British. Buying the tea would mean that the colonists had accepted paying the British import tax. The American colonists had not forgotten their outrage at the Stamp Act of 1765 and the efforts made to gain the political victory in having the hated act repealed.

Since the Colonies were not represented in Parliament, they saw the Tea Act as unconstitutional

Their cry of "No taxation without representation!" had not been forgotten.

The seeds of revolution had been sewn in the minds of many of the American colonists. The , and the Daughters of Liberty, had experienced a relatively calm period since the repeal of the Stamp Act and the Sons of Liberty Boston Massacre of 1770. The Tea Act stirred up all of the old feelings of resentment towards the British

Tea Act of 1773 - Action by the Colonists
The American colonists in the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston had time to consider the implications and impact of the Tea Act before the ships laden with tea arrived in their harbors. They had time to plan their responses and what action they could take against the Tea Act:

The press became more active in its political discussions

Circulars and handbills were printed and distributed

The Sons of Liberty organised public demonstration against the British government

Public meetings were held - everyone got to hear about the Tea Act resulting in strong Anti-British attitudes

Americans decided they would continue to boycott tea from the British

A public meeting was held in Philadelphia and there was agreement that anyone who aided in "unloading, receiving, or vending" the tea was an enemy to his country

The colonists agreed that the Consignees, who were supposed to receive the tea, should "resign their appointment"

The Sons of Liberty reorganized and owners and occupants of stores were warned against harboring the tea, and all who bought, sold or handled it, were threatened as enemies to the country

Colonists resolved to prevent the landing and sale of the teas - they wanted the tea to be sent back to England

The scene was set for confrontations when the ships laden with tea arrived at the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. The scene was set for the Boston Tea Party...
The Tea Act led to the Boston Tea Party
Tea Act

Meaning and Definition of the Tea Act

History of the Tea Act of 1773

Fast Facts and info about Tea Act timeline

The Tea Act article is a great history resource for kids

Social Studies Homework help for kids on the Tea Act of 1773

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The definition and purpose of the 1773 Tea Act and the cry of "No taxation without representation!"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The American Revolution for Kids - The Tea Act, Boston Tea Party - Road to Revolution for Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For Kids: During Colonial times, what do you think was the favorite drink of the colonists? If you guessed tea you would be right. Just like the people in England, the colonists loved to drink tea. The British Parliament decided to use this knowledge to gain money for the crown.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The definition and purpose of the 1765 Stamp Act and the cry of "No taxation without representation!"

Definition of the Stamp Act
The Meaning and Definition of the Stamp Act: The Stamp Act of 1765 was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain during the reign of King George III during the ministry of George Grenville (Lord Grenville).

The Stamp Act was passed on February 17, approved by the House of Lords on March 8th, and received Royal Assent on 22 March 1765. The Stamp Act took effect on November 1, 1765.

It was designed to raise revenue from the American Colonies by a duty (tax) in the form of a stamp required on all newspapers and legal or commercial documents.

The Stamp Act was first direct tax to be levied on the American colonies. It was the first serious attempt to assert governmental authority over the 13 colonies. For fast facts refer to the article on the Facts about the Stamp Tax.

Images of Stamp Act Stamps - One Penny Stamp

What was the Stamp Act?
The Stamp Act required various items such as licenses, documents, diplomas and nearly every paper item to be printed on stamped or embossed paper in the American colonies. This meant that the American colonists were obliged to pay a fee on almost every piece of paper used for legal documents. The colonists were obliged to pay extra for things that were used on a daily basis, such as newspapers. Basically anything printed on paper, except books, was taxed. The people who created public documents had to pay a tax on blank paper and then officials would place a stamp as proof of payment. The British Parliament granted colonists the right to select American tax collectors for the job. The people who were most effected by the Stamp Act were lawyers, ministers, printers and merchants. These colonists were men of wealth and standing in the community and some of the most influential people in society.

Stamp Act Documents

Legal Documents

Certificates (including Marriage)

Newspapers

Diplomas

Publications in Foreign Tongues

Stamp Act Documents

All of the above documents and items had to carry a tax stamp.

In April 1763, George Grenville (Lord Grenville) became the British Prime Minister. Although the French and Indian War (aka the Seven Years War 1755-1763) was a victory for the British they were left with a massive war debt. Before the French and Indian War the British national debt was only 72 million pounds. By the end of the French and Indian War the debt had escalated to almost 130 million pounds. British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Grenville, needed to find ways of reducing the war debt, but the further taxation of English citizens in Britain created a serious threat of revolt. The defeat of France had removed the political threat posed by the French, and the British, under Lord Grenville, were sufficiently confident to tighten their control over the American colonies. His policy was to raise revenue by taxing the American colonists, rather than taxing the British. The various policies and taxes that he had already imposed on the American colonists included the Stamp Act of 1765 - Background Information
Reversal of Salutary Neglect and the Sugar Act. The Stamp Act was just one of the taxes Britain intended to impose on the colonies...

Raise revenue to pay clear the War Debt incurred during the French Indian Wars (Seven Years War)

Raise revenue to pay for the military presence in the American colonies to enforce the new taxes

Divert new taxes and duties from Britain to the American colonies

Assert British governmental authority over the American colonies

Re-enforce the polices of previous Acts in relation to duties, taxes and currency - refer to Revolutionary Timeline and Colonial, Continental and Revolutionary Currency

Implement new taxes on paper documents

Images of Stamp Act Stamps showing that the Stamp Tax had been paid

Value of Stamp Tax Document Description

£10

Attorney Licenses

2s..6d

Land grants under 200 - 320 acres and an additional 2s..6d for every additional 320 acres

There were some other items that were subject to the Stamp Act of 1765:

Any publications in foreign tongues had to pay twice the normal rates

The apprenticeship system was also subject to the Stamp Tax. Indenture contracts were taxed at the rate of 6d on every £1

Dice were the only non-paper items listed under the 1765 Stamp Act - Stamp impressions were made on the dice as proof that the Stamp Tax had been paid

As the Stamp Tax applied to both playing cards and dice this can be viewed as an indirect tax on gambling

Newspaper posting of the
Stamp Act

The Stamp Act Stamps showed that the appropriate tax had been paid in British currency (see the images of the stamps). The Stamp Act Stamps had to be paid with 'hard currency' and not in paper money, which was the most common form of payment in the colonies. The American colonies suffered a constant shortage of 'hard currency' (silver and gold). There were no gold or silver mines in the colonies. Silver and gold coins (hard currency) could only be obtained through trade as regulated by Great Britain as trade with any other countries was banned by the British - see the Payment for Stamp Act Stamps - Gold or Silver
Currency Act of 1764.

Stamp Act 1765 - Penalties, Fines and Forfeitures
There were various penalties, fine and forfeitures for anyone who had a part in printing or offering for sale unstamped matter subject to tax. The fine was 40s up to £10. Every pack of cards or pair of dice sold unstamped there was a fine of £10.And should an unstamped newspaper or pamphlet fail to state the name and address of the publisher, the seller faced a further penalty of £20 for each offence.

Stamp Act 1765 - Counterfeited Documents - Death
The Stamp Act of 1765 was really severe on anyone involved in the counterfeit of documents. The wording of the Stamp Act says it all:

"...counterfeit mark or impression thereon, knowing such mark or impression to be counterfeited; then every person so offending shall be adjudged a felon, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony without the benefit of clergy..."

The fines and penalties for anyone offending the Stamp Act were harsh and these penalties caused even more consternation as any cases were heard by the Admiralty Courts. The Admiralty Courts had been originally instituted to try violations of the law on the high seas - refer to the No Trial by Jury for anyone who offended the Stamp Act 1765
Navigation Acts. The British had used the Admiralty Courts in America to try individuals believed to be evading duties or smuggling. There was no trial by jury in the Admiralty Courts. Cases were decided by judges rather than juries.

The Stamp Act of 1765 was seen as detrimental to Colonial America and sewed the seeds of dissension and rebellion in the colonies. The colonists outrage and violent reaction to the Stamp Act came as a great surprise to the British government. The British believed they had a right to enforce their trade policies and taxes as the Mother Country. And the colonists had become accustomed, to a limited degree, to the British regulation of trade and taxes. So what was the The Colonists Reaction to the Stamp Act of 1765
difference between the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act, why was the reaction to the Stamp Act so strong, what was the significance of the Stamp Act?

The previous policies and taxes had only applied to specific types of trade and commerce in the different areas of the American colonies

The taxes levied by the Stamp Act were not to regulate commerce and trade, but to directly grasp money out of colonists

The Stamp Act effected all of the colonists

The colonies believed that the Stamp Act was a deliberate attempt to undercut their commercial strength and their independence

The tax was introduced by a direct order from Britain without approval of the colonial legislature

The Stamp Act was the first direct tax, a tax on domestically produced and consumed items, that Parliament ever levied upon the colonists

The colonists viewed the British regulation of trade as legal but the British imposition of internal taxes on the colonies, was perceived to be illegal

The act was to be enforced by stamp agents, with penalties for violating the act to be imposed by vice-admiralty courts, which sat without juries

The colonists believed in their rights to trial by jury

The Stamp Act united the colonists in New England, the Middle and the Southern colonies and stirred a storm of protest in the New World

The Stamp Act led to the first concerted effort by the American colonists to resist the British Parliament and the authority of Great Britain

The high taxes on lawyers and college students were designed to limit the growth of a professional class in the American colonies

The Stamp Act was viewed by the American colonists as a means of censorship, or a "knowledge tax," on the rights of the colonists to write and read freely

The opposition to the Act was led by the most influential segments of colonial society. These men were most affected by the Act and included lawyers, clergymen, journalists, publishers, land owners, ship builders and merchants

The Act led to the doctrine of 'consent by the governed'

The Stamp Act of 1765 led to the creation of resistance groups such as the Sons of Liberty

The Stamp Act crisis led the colonists to perceive themselves as American rather than British

Protesting against the Stamp Act
Steps had to be taken before full scale rebellion broke out in the colonies. Concerned parties were agitating for the Repeal of the Stamp Act. Benjamin Franklin, who was the colonial agent for Pennsylvania, spoke before the House of Commons in early 1766 about the Stamp Act. He clearly stated that any attempt to enforce the Stamp Act by the use of troops might bring on rebellion and called for the repeal of the Act. Arguments against the Stamp Act were distributed from assembly to assembly in the form of "circulars" and Patrick Henry introduced seven resolutions against the Stamp Act in the Virginia House of Burgesses. The Repeal of the Stamp Act is approved by the House of Commons in February 1766. The repeal of the Stamp Act was then approved by the House of Lords in May 1766. The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act because boycotts were damaging British trade but at the same time they used the Declaratory Act to save face. The declaration stated that Parliament's authority was the same in America as in Britain and asserted Parliament's authority to pass laws that were binding on the American colonies - the passage of the The Repeal of the Stamp Act
Declaratory Act was the beginning of more trouble...

Stamp Act - British Laws and Taxes
Discover interesting facts and information about the Taxes in the 13 Colonies, including the Stamp Act, which was imposed on the colonists of Colonial America by the British government via parliament. The Stamp Act was one of a series of taxes that divided Great Britain and its colonies in America. Despite the threat of rebellion and the intensity of the protests against the Stamp Act in the American colonies additional acts were passed in the British parliament which were deemed to be detrimental to the colonies. The Stamp Act led to outrage, anger, resentment, dissension and ultimately revolution in Colonial America - the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.
Taxes in the Colonies - The Declaration of Independence
Stamp Act

Meaning and Definition of the Stamp Act

History of the Stamp Act of 1765

Fast Facts and info about Stamp Act timeline

The Stamp Act article is a great history resource for kids

Social Studies Homework help for kids on the Stamp Act of 1765

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The definition and purpose of the 1765 Stamp Act and the cry of "No taxation without representation!" Definition of the Stamp Act The Meaning and Definition of the Stamp Act: The Stamp Act of 1765 was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain during the reign of King George III during the ministry of George Grenville (Lord Grenville).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The act, which imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and looking to its North American colonies as a revenue source.

Arguing that only their own representative assemblies could tax them, the colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional, and they resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning. Parliament passed the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765 and repealed it in 1766, but issued a Declaratory Act at the same time to reaffirm its authority to pass any colonial legislation it saw fit. The issues of taxation and representation raised by the Stamp Act strained relations with the colonies to the point that, 10 years later, the colonists rose in armed rebellion against the British.

Why The Stamp Act Was Passed

British Parliament passed the Stamp Act to help replenish their finances after the costly Seven Years' War with France. Part of the revenue from the Stamp Act would be used to maintain several regiments of British soldiers in North America to maintain peace between Native Americans and the colonists. Moreover, since colonial juries had proven notoriously reluctant to find smugglers guilty of their crimes, violators of the Stamp Act could be tried and convicted without juries in the vice-admiralty courts.

Raising Revenue

The Seven Years' War (1756-63) ended the long rivalry between France and Britain for control of North America, leaving Britain in possession of Canada and France without a footing on the continent. Victory in the war, however, had saddled the British Empire with a tremendous debt. Since the war benefited the American colonists (who had suffered 80 years of intermittent warfare with their French neighbors) as much as anyone else in the British Empire, the British government decided that those colonists should shoulder part of the war's cost.

Britain had long regulated colonial trade through a system of restrictions and duties on imports and exports. In the first half of the 18th century, however, British enforcement of this system had been lax. Starting with the Sugar Act of 1764, which imposed new duties on sugar and other goods, the British government began to tighten its reins on the colonies. Shortly thereafter, George Grenville (1712-70), the British first lord of the treasury and prime minister, proposed the Stamp Act; Parliament passed the act without debate in 1765.

Stamp Act opponent Patrick Henry is known for his "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech, delivered before a meeting of Virginia's colonial leaders in 1775 in an effort to mobilize a militia against a possible attack by the British. He later served as Virginia's governor (1776-79, 1784-86).

Instead of levying a duty on trade goods, the Stamp Act imposed a direct tax on the colonists. Specifically, the act required that, starting in the fall of 1765, legal documents and printed materials must bear a tax stamp provided by commissioned distributors who would collect the tax in exchange for the stamp. The law applied to wills, deeds, newspapers, pamphlets and even playing cards and dice.

The Roots of Colonial Resistance

Coming in the midst of economic hardship in the colonies, the Stamp Act aroused vehement resistance. Although most colonists continued to accept Parliament's authority to regulate their trade, they insisted that only their representative assemblies could levy direct, internal taxes, such as the one imposed by the Stamp Act. They rejected the British government's argument that all British subjects enjoyed virtual representation in Parliament, even if they could not vote for members of Parliament.

The colonists also took exception with the provision denying offenders trials by jury. A vocal minority hinted at dark designs behind the Stamp Act. These radical voices warned that the tax was part of a gradual plot to deprive the colonists of their freedoms and to enslave them beneath a tyrannical regime. Playing off traditional fears of peacetime armies, they wondered aloud why Parliament saw fit to garrison troops in North America only after the threat from the French had been removed. These concerns provided an ideological basis that intensified colonial resistance.

Colonists React to the Stamp Act

Parliament pushed forward with the Stamp Act in spite of the colonists' objections. Colonial resistance to the act mounted slowly at first, but gained momentum as the planned date of its implementation drew near. In Virginia, Patrick Henry (1736-99), whose fiery orations against British tyranny would soon make him famous, submitted a series of resolutions to his colony's assembly, the House of Burgesses. These resolutions denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies and called on the colonists to resist the Stamp Act.

Newspapers throughout the colonies reprinted the resolutions, spreading their radical message to a broad audience. The resolutions provided the tenor for the proclamations of the Stamp Act Congress, an extralegal convention composed of delegates from nine colonies that met in October 1765. The Stamp Act Congress wrote petitions to the king affirming both their loyalty and the conviction that only the colonial assemblies had the constitutional authority to tax the colonists.

While the Congress and the colonial assemblies passed resolutions and issued petitions against the Stamp Act, the colonists took matters into their own hands. The most famous popular resistance took place in Boston, where opponents of the Stamp Act, calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, enlisted the rabble of Boston in opposition to the new law. This mob paraded through the streets with an effigy of Andrew Oliver, Boston's stamp distributor, which they hanged from the Liberty Tree and beheaded before ransacking Oliver's home. Oliver agreed to resign his commission as stamp distributor.

Similar events transpired in other colonial towns, as crowds mobbed the stamp distributors and threatened their physical well-being and their property. By the beginning of 1766, most of the stamp distributors had resigned their commissions, many of them under duress. Mobs in seaport towns turned away ships carrying the stamp papers from England without allowing them to discharge their cargoes. Determined colonial resistance made it impossible for the British government to bring the Stamp Act into effect. In 1766, Parliament repealed it.

The Stamp Act's Legacy

The end of the Stamp Act did not end Parliament's conviction that it had the authority to impose taxes on the colonists. The British government coupled the repeal of the Stamp Act with the Declaratory Act, a reaffirmation of its power to pass any laws over the colonists that it saw fit. However, the colonists held firm to their view that Parliament could not tax them. The issues raised by the Stamp Act festered for 10 years before giving rise to the Revolutionary War and, ultimately, American independence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The issues raised by the Stamp Act festered for 10 years before giving rise to the Revolutionary War and, ultimately, American independence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1765, British Parliament passed the Stamp Act to raise revenues by taxing American colonists. The colonists were not pleased.

The Stamp Act was enacted in 1765 by British Parliament. It imposed a direct tax on all printed material in the North American colonies.

The most politically active segments of colonial society-printers, publishers, and lawyers-were the most negatively affected by the act.

The Stamp Act intensified colonial hostility toward the British and was a pivotal development on the road to the American Revolution.

The Seven Years' War and British debt

Between 1754 and 1763, Britain and France-and their respective allies-fought the Seven Years' War. Though the war was triggered by competing colonial claims to the Ohio territory of North America, the European allies of both Britain and France quickly became involved and the scope of the war widened dramatically to include every European great power except the Ottoman Empire.

The Seven Years' War was a world war that ended with France surrendering all claims to Canada and to territories east of the Mississippi River and Spain ceding Florida to Britain. Although the Treaty of Paris -signed in 1763 formally concluding hostilities-was favorable to Britain, much blood and treasure had been sacrificed in waging the war. After its termination, Britain sought to ease its financial difficulties by taxing the North American colonies.

The Stamp Act

The first measure undertaken for this purpose in the colonies was the Stamp Act. In March 1765, British Prime Minister George Grenville authored the act, which required that all newspapers and documents-including official court documents-in the North American colonies be printed on stamped paper from London. Additionally, the stamped paper had to be purchased in British hard currency, which was much more rare than the abundant colonial paper currency.

The only opposition to the act in Parliament came from William Pitt, Grenville's brother-in-law turned political rival. Pitt challenged Parliament's right to tax the colonists. The British Constitution prohibited the taxation of British subjects without their consent, which was provided through representation in Parliament. Though the British had imposed restrictions and duties on colonial trade, the passage of the Stamp Act was the first time they had sought to tax the colonists for the explicit purpose of raising revenue.

Prelude to revolution

The Stamp Act was greeted with widespread and unconcealed hostility in the colonies. Unfortunately for Parliament, the segments of colonial society that were most detrimentally affected by the act-newspaper printers, students, attorneys, and judges-were also among the most politically active. They mobilized popular opposition to the act, which frequently took the form of street protests that sometimes turned violent. Newspapers ominously predicted the demise of the journalistic profession.

While townspeople rioted, colonial assemblies debated. Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin were among the most influential voices arguing that since the American colonies were not represented in the British Parliament, that body had no right to tax them. The slogan "No taxation without representation!" arose from colonial opposition to the Stamp Act and proved enduring. The British countered with the theory of virtual representation, which held that members of Parliament were obligated to defend the interests of British subjects and colonists alike.

In October 1765, delegates from the colonies convened in New York City at the Stamp Act Congress, where they drew up formal petitions to the British Parliament and to King George III to repeal the act. It was the first unified colonial response to British policy and it provided the British a taste of what would come soon thereafter.

The British had been receiving reports of mob violence in the colonies, and Prime Minister Grenville had been replaced by Lord Rockingham, who proved more sympathetic than his predecessor to the colonists' demands.

What do you think?

What does the phrase "no taxation without representation" mean? Is it still relevant today?

Explain the theory of virtual representation in your own words. Was it valid?

Why did the colonists react so vehemently to the passage of the Stamp Act? How important do you think the Stamp Act was in the eventual outbreak of the American Revolution?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Uproar over the Stamp Act (article) | Khan Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1765, British Parliament passed the Stamp Act to raise revenues by taxing American colonists. The colonists were not pleased. The Stamp Act was enacted in 1765 by British Parliament. It imposed a direct tax on all printed material in the North American colonies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The history of the American flag dates back to the American Revolution, when the United States was fighting for independence from Great Britain. In 1775, the Continental Congress created a new army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief. It also created a new flag for the army to use, which was known as the Continental Colors.

The Continental Colors consisted of 13 horizontal stripes of red and white, with a blue field in the upper left corner that featured the British Union Jack in the canton. However, as the Revolutionary War progressed, many colonists became increasingly anti-British and wanted a new flag that represented their newfound independence.

In June 1777, the Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution, which stated that the flag of the United States would consist of 13 stripes of alternating red and white, and 13 white stars on a blue field. The stars represented the 13 colonies that had declared independence from Great Britain.

The design of the flag has changed over time, but the basic elements of the 13 stripes and 50 stars have remained the same. The number of stars on the flag increased as more states were added to the Union, with the last change taking place in 1960 when Hawaii became the 50th state.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Flag - History - Veterans Flag Depot

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The history of the American flag dates back to the American Revolution, when the United States was fighting for independence from Great Britain. In 1775, the Continental Congress created a new army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief. It also created a new flag for the army to use, which was known as the Continental Colors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Table of Contents

1. Betsy Ross: An Early American Life

2. The Story of the Betsy Ross Flag

3. Betsy Ross: Later Life, Work and Children

4. Betsy Ross: A Legacy Unfurled

Perhaps the best-known figure from the American Revolutionary era who wasn't a president, general or statesman, Betsy Ross (1752-1836) became a patriotic icon in the late 19th century when stories surfaced that she had sewn the first "stars and stripes" U.S. flag in 1776. Though that story is likely apocryphal, Ross is known to have sewn flags during the Revolutionary War.
READ MORE: Did Betsy Ross Really Make the First American Flag?
Betsy Ross: An Early American Life

Elizabeth Griscom was born on January 1, 1752, in Gloucester City, New Jersey. She was the eighth of 17 children. Her parents, Rebecca James Griscom and Samuel Griscom were both Quakers. The daughter of generations of craftsman (her father was a house carpenter), young Betsy attended a Quaker school and was then apprenticed to William Webster, an upholsterer. In Webster's workshop she learned to sew mattresses, chair covers and window blinds.

Did you know? An 1871 pamphlet enthusiastically not only credited Betsy Ross for designing the first U.S. flag, but for coming up with the name "United States of America" and writing a hymn that was the basis for the French anthem "La Marseillaise." (There is no evidence to support either of those claims.)

In 1773, at age 21, Betsy crossed the river to New Jersey to elope with John Ross, a fellow apprentice of Webster's and the son of an Episcopal rector-a double act of defiance that got her expelled from the Quaker church. The Rosses started their own upholstery shop, and John joined the militia. He died after barely two years of marriage. Though family legend would attribute John's death to a gunpowder explosion, illness is a more likely culprit.

The Story of the Betsy Ross Flag

In the summer of 1776 (or possibly 1777) Betsy Ross, newly widowed, is said to have received a visit from General George Washington regarding a design for a flag for the new nation. Washington and the Continental Congress had come up with the basic layout, but, according to legend, Betsy allegedly finalized the design, arguing for stars with five points (Washington had suggested six) because the cloth could be folded and cut out with a single snip.

The tale of Washington's visit to Ross was first made public in 1870, nearly a century later, by Betsy Ross's grandson. However, the flag's design was not fixed until later than 1776 or 1777. Charles Wilson Peale's 1779 painting of George Washington following the 1777 Battle of Princeton features a flag with six-pointed stars.

Betsy Ross was making flags around that time-a receipt shows that the Pennsylvania State Navy Board paid her 15 pounds for sewing ship's standards. But similar receipts exist for Philadelphia seamstresses Margaret Manning (from as early as 1775), Cornelia Bridges (1776) and Rebecca Young, whose daughter Mary Pickersgill would sew the mammoth flag that later inspired Francis Scott Key to write " The Star-Spangled Banner."

Betsy Ross: Later Life, Work and Children

In June 1777, Betsy married Joseph Ashburn, a sailor, with whom she had two daughters. In 1782 Ashburn was apprehended while working as a privateer in the West Indies and died in a British prison. A year later, Betsy married John Claypoole, a man who had grown up with her in Philadelphia's Quaker community and had been imprisoned in England with Ashburn. A few months after their wedding, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Revolutionary War. They went on to have five daughters.

Over the next decades, Betsy Claypoole and her daughters sewed upholstery and made flags, banners and standards for the new nation. In 1810 she made six 18-by-24-foot garrison flags to be sent to New Orleans; the next year she made 27 flags for the Indian Department. She spent her last decade in quiet retirement, her vision failing, and died in 1836, at age 84.

Betsy Ross: A Legacy Unfurled

The records of the U.S. flag's origins are fragmentary in part because at the time Americans were indifferent to flags as national relics. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written in 1812 but did not become popular until the 1840s. As the 1876 U.S. Centennial approached, enthusiasm for the flag increased.

It was in that environment, in 1870, that Betsy Claypoole's grandson William Canby presented the family tale to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. At the time several claims on the first flag were surfacing, ranging from other Philadelphia seamstresses to a New Hampshire quilting bee said to have fashioned the banner out of cut-up gowns.

Most such stories, however wishfully sourced, expressed a national desire for symbols of female Revolutionary patriotism, of women materially supporting their fighting men and (just perhaps) showing George Washington a better way to make a star.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Betsy Ross (1752-1836) became a patriotic icon in the late 19th century when stories surfaced that she had sewn the first "stars and stripes" U.S. flag in 1776. Though that story is likely apocryphal, Ross is known to have sewn flags during the Revolutionary War.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Sugar Act of 1764 Facts, Details, Definition, Effects

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Also Known As: The Sugar Act is also called the American Act of 1764, the American Revenue Act, and the Plantation Act. Date Introduced: On March 9, 1764, the provisions of the Sugar Act were introduced to the House of Commons. Introduced By: Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury George Grenville proposed the Sugar Act.

# data[].attributes.body
The Sugar Act

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Sugar Act, also known as the American Revenue Act of 1764, was one of a series of causes leading up to the American Revolutionary War. The British government passed a series of acts over the course of thirty years or so that made the American colonists increasingly angry. The Molasses Act, the Sugar Act, the Currency Act, the Stamp Act and others caused the Americans to believe that Parliament intended to use them for profit only and not recognize their rights as British citizens. All of these events together led the colonists to revolt and form the United States of America. You can learn more about the history of the Sugar Act below.

Background of the Sugar Act of 1764

The Sugar Act of 1764, also known as the American Revenue Act or the American Duties Act, was a modification of the already existing Molasses Act which was passed in 1733 and renewed every five years afterwards. The Molasses Act was hated by the colonists because it placed a tax of six pence per gallon on molasses imported from any country outside the British Empire. Had this act ever been enforced it would have created havoc in the colonial economy because the distilling of rum, which is created from molasses, was one of the largest industries in the colonies.

The molasses tax was never fully enforced though and the colonists smuggled in foreign molasses anyway. You can read more about the Molasses Act here. The Sugar Act changed all this. The immediate cause for the change was the French and Indian War, which is also called The Seven Years War by the British. The British government racked up a huge debt during the war to protect the colonies from the encroaching French army and their Indian allies. In addition, the government of Prime Minister John Stuart, the Earl of Bute, decided to place ten thousand British troops in the colonies for their further defense. It cost an estimated 200,000 pounds to support them each year.

Creation of the Sugar Act

The Sugar Act was enacted on April 5, 1764, in order to help reduce the staggering national debt incurred during the French and Indian War and to help pay for the continued presence of British troops in the colonies to defend from any further attacks. The two main thrusts of the Act were to actually collect the taxes that had been in place, but skirted around for so long, and to force the colonists to trade with Britain and her colonies instead of foreign powers, in an effort to boost the ailing British economy.

In April 1763, George Grenville succeeded Lord Bute as Prime Minister and he set about creating a policy to reduce the national debt. Before the French and Indian War, which lasted from 1756 - 1763, the British national debt was only 72,000,000 pounds. By January 1763, the debt had skyrocketed to almost 130,000,000 pounds.

After the French and Indian War, Britain posted 10,000 soldiers in the colonies to protect them from further incursions by Indians or other foreign powers. Lord Grenville's Sugar Act sought to get the colonists to contribute to the costs of this defense, a proposition that wasn't necessarily disagreeable to the colonists, but it was the way in which he went about it that caused them great consternation. The colonists did not mind being taxed by their own elected colonial legislatures, but Parliament was taxing them and they had no representatives in Parliament. This is the origin of the revolutionary battle cry,taxation without representation.

The Sugar Act marked the first time Parliament tried to directly tax the colonists. It was generally considered fair on both sides of the ocean for Parliament to regulate trade within the British Empire. Duties on imported goods were paid by shippers and were not a direct tax on consumption. The Sugar Act, however, was viewed as a direct tax on the consumption of many popular items including sugar, wine, textiles, tropical foods, silk and numerous other items, and had, as its stated purpose, the purpose of raising revenue for the Crown. This intent is stated clearly in the preamble of the Sugar Act:

"It is expedient that new provisions and regulations should be established for improving the revenue of this Kingdom... and... it is just and necessary that a revenue should be raised... for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same."

You can read the entire Sugar Act text here.

This angered the colonists because it seemed that Parliament wanted to use them for its own good. It may seem reasonable to expect that the colonists would be partly responsible for the expenses of their own defense. The colonists were not opposed to this. However, Parliament placed this tax directly on them, which violated the British political principle that taxes could only be levied if they were agreed upon by the common people through their elected representatives. The colonists had no elected representatives in Parliament and had been taxed only by their own colonial legislatures for over a hundred years. Thus the root of the conflict was whether or not Parliament had the right to tax the colonists.

In addition to the right of taxation question, colonists were angered and alarmed because the newly enforced taxes caused great economic hardship by raising the prices of many common goods, reducing foreign markets to which they could export their goods and creating burdensome trade regulations.

Provisions of the Sugar Act

The Sugar Act consisted of several main priorities. It sought to enforce the collection of the molasses and sugar taxes. This greatly angered the colonists because they had become accustomed to decades of evading this tax and, even though the Sugar Act actually lowered the tax to three pence per gallon from six, they still didn't want to pay any tax on it. Colonists were used to paying only a penny and a half per gallon bribe to customs agents to allow them to smuggle in untaxed molasses. So the tax, though lower, was still more expensive than smuggling.

The British Navy was given strict orders to enforce collection of the tax and to capture and prosecute anyone trying to evade it. Smugglers found it much harder to evade the authorities and, since a large part of the colonial economy was built on smuggled molasses, the colonial economy fell into a shambles. The widespread smuggling of molasses actually continued until 1766 when the tax was lowered to 1 penny per gallon, lower than the cost of bribing customs officials.

The Sugar Act also created a new and stringent system for importers and exporters to comply with. They had to follow a strict set of guidelines in their shipping procedures and written records, which made shipping much more difficult. The British were trying to get control over the shipping industry and reduce smuggling in order to increase the tax revenue. If captains didn't adhere completely with these complicated regulations, even in the smallest technicality, they risked having their entire cargo confiscated.

The Sugar Act also created a new system for the trial of those accused of evading the law and the taxes it created. In the past, colonists had been tried by a jury of their peers, as is done today, if they were accused of violating the law. The Act called for any such violators to be tried in the Admiralty Court in Nova Scotia. This was hundreds of miles away from the colonists and removed the possibility of being tried by their peers.

The British did this specifically to end jury trials because local juries were almost always sympathetic with smugglers and hardly ever convicted them. The system was also stacked against the accused colonist because it awarded the judge 5% of the worth of the cargo if the defendant was found guilty. Finally, colonists had to actually pay their own expense to travel hundreds of miles to Nova Scotia to defend themselves!

Parliament wanted to collect the tax to reduce the national debt, but also to boost the British economy. The reasoning was that colonists would buy more British produced molasses and sugar products because foreign made molasses and sugar products would become more expensive, but in fact, the Sugar Act had the opposite effect and ended up hurting the British economy.

The Sugar Act was implemented at a time of economic depression in the colonies. Much of the colonial economy during the previous decade had revolved around supplying British troops with food and supplies during the French and Indian War. Now that the war was over, many merchants found themselves struggling financially. The Act made the problem worse by restricting trade with foreign markets. Colonial agricultural goods such as lumber, fish, cheese and flour were sold to French West Indian islands such as Martinique, Guadalupe and Santo Domingo (Haiti) and to the Azores, Canary Islands and Madeira (in Portugal). These items were purchased with money gained from the sale of molasses, other sugar products and wines.

The tax on molasses and wine from countries outside the British empire made them so expensive that colonists could no longer purchase them from these islands. This caused the islands to have less money with which to buy colonial agricultural and other products, causing a widespread economic depression. Of course this made the colonists extremely angry with Parliament because the price of common goods such as sugar, molasses and wine skyrocketed and colonial exports plummeted. In addition, Parliament hurt British manufacturers as well because the colonists now had less money with which to buy British made goods!

Parliament intended to boost the British economy by making foreign produced goods more expensive, which would cause the colonists to buy more British made goods and produce. The Sugar Act also required that many items be shipped through British ports. Parliament reasoned that shippers would be more likely to buy British made products if they were required to pass through British ports. In actuality, all of this hurt the British economy and caused widespread economic difficulties by decimating the colonies' number one industry - the production of rum, reducing the colonists ability to sell their own produce to foreign markets and reducing the amount of money the colonists had to purchase British made goods.

Colonial Response to the Sugar Act

The passage of the Sugar Act marked the first organizing of colonists and public protests against the British Parliament. There were sporadic outbursts of violence against the authorities, especially in New York and Rhode Island. Certain leaders began to arise who were outspoken in their criticism of parliament, especially Samuel Adams and James Otis of Boston. They led the way in organizing a boycott of British luxury items by many merchants in Boston. 50 merchants joined the boycott. A movement also began, especially in New York and Boston, to encourage manufacturing within the colonies themselves. Colonists felt that if they made their own goods, especially goods made from cloth such as linens, clothing, hats, etc., they would not be so dependent on British made goods.

The Boston Town Meeting, the ruling council of the city, discussed the Sugar Act and the impending and issued a letter to its representatives in the Massachusetts Colonial Legislature, instructing them to affirm and defend their rights as British citizens, which, they believed, were being infringed upon by Parliament. Samuel Adams was appointed by the town meeting to draft the letter to the legislature. This letter helped cement him as a leader in the protests against Great Britain. The letter marks the first time that a political body in the colonies declared that Parliament could not constitutionally tax the colonists. You can read the letter here, Instructions to Boston's Representatives, May 28, 1764.

Another rising leader to challenge Parliament's authority was lawyer James Otis of Boston. Otis published "Rights of the Colonies Asserted and Proved", a pamphlet which argued that Parliament had no legal right to tax the colonists. This was one of the first published and widely circulated colonial papers challenging Parliament. You can read Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved here.

In all, eleven provincial legislatures eventually sent formal complaints about the Sugar Act and the forthcoming Stamp Act to Parliament, eloquently stating their belief that Parliament did not have the authority to directly tax them.

You can read the formal complaints from New York, Massachusetts and Virginia here:

These complaints were mild compared to the fury that would arise with the soon to be enacted Stamp Act, but the anger caused by the Molasses Act, the Sugar Act and the Currency Act resulted in the widespread rebellion that occurred at the imposition of the the following year.

The Sugar Act was finally repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Revenue Act of 1766, which reduced the tax on imported molasses to one penny per gallon, whether British or foreign made. This occurred around the same time that the Stamp Act was repealed.

Here is a detailed list of the purposes, provisions and results of the Sugar Act:

Purposes of the Sugar Act

To help cover the expenses of posting British soldiers in North America for the colonies' defense.

To help reduce the British national debt, which had skyrocketed during the French and Indian War, which had been fought to protect the colonists.

To reduce the huge smuggling trade and increase tax revenue for the Crown.

Provisions of the Sugar Act

New taxes were imposed on sugar, wines, textiles, including cambric and calico, pimento, silk, tropical fruits, dyes and coffee. Molasses was taxed as well, but the rate was cut in half from the previous Molasses Act.

Collection of the taxes was to be strictly enforced. Lord Grenville ordered the British Navy to strictly enforce the new tax and shipping regulations.

Many items, including lumber could only be exported to Great Britain.

Captains were required to make detailed lists of their cargo, which were subject to verification by customs officials. No cargo could be unloaded until the lists were verified.

Anyone accused of violating the Sugar Act was to be tried in the Vice Admiralty Court in Nova Scotia, far away from local juries who were sympathetic to local smugglers.

Judges were given 5% of the cargo's worth if they found the accused person guilty.

Defendants were required to prove their innocence if accused of violating the Sugar Act, instead of being presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Many items, including iron, whalebone, lumber and furs could be exported to foreign countries if they passed through a British port first. Parliament reasoned that this would cause shippers to be more likely to buy British goods to take back with them to the colonies.

Results of the Sugar Act

The enforcement of the molasses tax caused an immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies, the largest industry in the colonies at the time.

Enforcement of the molasses tax exacerbated the already existing economic depression. Trade with the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands and the French West Indian islands of Martinique, Guadalupe and Santo Domingo, which we call Haiti today, was greatly reduced because colonists were taxed too heavily to purchase molasses and other products from these islands. This caused these islands to be able to purchase fewer colonial goods such as cheese, lumber, flour and other agricultural products, depressing the economic activity of all sides.

British manufacturers were hurt because the colonists had less money with which to buy British made products.

Trade with foreign powers had been the main source of hard currency in the colonies. The Sugar Act reduced this trade so much that the stability of colonial currencies was threatened and the colonies had less hard currency with which to purchase British made goods.

Colonists protested in various places. There were sporadic outbursts of violence against the British authorities. Boston merchants, led by Samuel Adams and James Otis, agreed to stop purchasing British made luxury products. Movements began in Boston and New York to encourage manufacturing within the colonies in order to reduce dependence on British made goods. These men and others began to rise to the forefront as opposition leaders against the acts of the British government.

New smuggling industries were created where none had existed before. For example, colonists began to smuggle imported wine from Madeira, Portugal, an item which was not taxed before.

You can read the entire text of the Sugar Act here.

This article is one of a chronological series of articles that explain the causes of the Revolutionary War. Follow the links to read about the preceding and following events leading up to the American Revolution.
Revolutionary War Causes Revolutionary War and Beyond Home
© 2008 - 2022 Revolutionary-War-and-Beyond.com Dan & Jax Bubis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Sugar Act, also known as the American Revenue Act of 1764, was one of a series of causes leading up to the American Revolutionary War. The British government passed a series of acts over the course of thirty years or so that made the American colonists increasingly angry.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For Kids: When something becomes intolerable that means it is so bad you will no longer put up with it and you will put a stop to it.

The Intolerable Acts: In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament refused an offer from some colonial leaders to pay for the tea that had been dumped into Boston Harbor. Instead, Parliament passed a group of new harsh laws to punish the Massachusetts colony. These laws were so harsh the colonists called them the Intolerable Acts.

One law allowed Britain to house troops whenever and wherever they wanted.

One law closed Boston harbor for all trade until the tea dumped overboard was paid for in full.

One law banned the Committees of Correspondence.

In response, other colonies sent supplies to Boston. And the Committees of Correspondence called a meeting of all colonies to decide what to do about the problems with Britain.

The First Continental Congress Meets. Representatives from all colonies except Georgia met in Philadelphia. They voted to stop all trade with Britain until the Intolerable Acts were repealed. Georgia did not attend because they were having an Indian uprising to handle.

Parliament's response: When Parliament heard about the boycott, instead of repealing the Intolerable Acts, they passed more laws adding more limits on colonial trade. They also sent more British soldiers to the colonies.

Militia & Minutemen: In response to the colonists formed militias, groups of armed men. Colonial towns also created bands of Minutemen - men who could be ready to fight at a minute's notice to assist the militia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Road to Revolution for Kids - The Intolerable Acts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For Kids: When something becomes intolerable that means it is so bad you will no longer put up with it and you will put a stop to it. The Intolerable Acts: In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament refused an offer from some colonial leaders to pay for the tea that had been dumped into Boston Harbor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Access Kids Discover’s award-winning library of Science, Social Studies, and High-Interest Nonfiction on any device, for one low price. Perfect for Grades 3-8. Educator, School, and District Options. Single Sign-on with Google and Clever. Interactive Content. Assessments and Lesson-Planing Tools.

# data[].attributes.body
The Boston Tea Party

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the Boston Tea Party major event in the American Revolutionary War.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The three ships that participated in the B.T.P. were named the Dartmouth, Eleanor and the Beaver.

Dartmouth - Captain Hall, carried 114 chests of tea; arrived on Sunday, November 28th

Eleanor - Captain Coffin, carried 114 chests of tea; arrived on Thursday, December 2nd

Beaver - Captain Bruce, carried 112 chests of tea, docked on Wednesday, December 15th

Apparently the Beaver was delayed for medical reasons. A case of smallpox broke out on the ship and it was quarantined in the outer harbor for two weeks.

There was also a fourth ship sent to Boston, the William. It was due to come in but the vessel was damaged by a storm and had to come ashore at Cape Cod with salvable payload but the ship was totally lost.

Sometimes the tea party ships are mistakenly called British. In fact only the tea belonged to East India Tea Company but the ships themselves were American. Nantucket was home port to two ships that were involved in the Boston Tea Party, the Beaver and the Dartmouth. The ships were owned by the Rotch family whose offices were located at the foot of Main Street in the brick building now called The Pacific Club.

Francis Rotch the son of the owner, Joseph Rotch was caught in between the Patriots who did not allow the ships to unload and the Governor Hutchinson who did not permit the ships to go back to Britain. Likely not without the Governor's pull, the customs officers rushed the necessary paperwork for the import of the tea, after which the ship could not legally set sail for England with the tea still on board.

An armed guard of patriots was posted at the wharf to prevent the tea coming ashore, while a naval blockade of the harbor prevented the ships from leaving. As a result the owner of the ships risked them being confiscated by the navy or even sunk.

Mr. Rotch tried to negotiate but was not successful. In this situation perhaps even the patriots were sympathetic. This may explain the fact that the "Mohawks" who attacked the ship did not damage the ships themselves, only the tea. The ships' crews later stated that nothing had been damaged or destroyed except the tea - and the protesters swept the decks clean afterwards

History of Dartmouth

HMS Dartmouth specifications W: 9.84 (3m). L: 79 (24m). Hull: wood. Built: <1773.

Dartmouth was the first tea party ship and has been stationed in the harbor for a while and it is therefore the most known. Even though the ship made history for carrying tea it was built for a different purpose – offshore whaling. Its story begins in Bedford Village, MA where many residents were whalers and shipbuilders.

Around 1780, William Rotch, Jr., a Nantucket Quaker moved to Bedford Village. Rotch was a third-generation whaling merchant and banker. He immediately decided to use his capital to develop the whale fishery. Rotch gave whaling a substantial impetus, and it continued to be New Bedford's chief industry for more than a hundred years. Rotch was the owner of the first ship to be launched in Bedford Village, the Dartmouth, built in 1767. Her initial voyage was to London with a cargo of whale oil. After Dartmouth New Bedford's ship building industry started to grow and attracted many leading ship builders including George Claghorn.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The three ships that participated in the B.T.P. were named the Dartmouth, Eleanor and the Beaver. Dartmouth - Captain Hall, carried 114 chests of tea; arrived on Sunday, November 28th Eleanor - Captain Coffin, carried 114 chests of tea; arrived on Thursday, December 2nd Beaver - Captain Bruce, carried 112 chests of tea, docked on Wednesday, December 15th Apparently the Beaver was delayed for medical reasons.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In Boston, a group of colonists board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor in protest of the Tea Act of 1773.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"The Boston Tea Party." Relive the revolt against "taxation without representation," in which colonists, dressed as Mohawk Indians, threw a fortune in tea into Boston's Harbor.

# data[].attributes.body
The Boston Massacre

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On March 5, 1770 an angry altercation between British soldiers and American colonists inflamed passions that would eventually lead to revolution.

Boston, Massachusetts was a hotbed of radical revolutionary thought and activity leading up to 1770.

In March 1770, British soldiers stationed in Boston opened fire on a crowd, killing five townspeople and infuriating locals.

What became known as the Boston Massacre intensified anti-British sentiment and proved a pivotal event leading up to the American Revolution.

Boston, cradle of revolution

Even before the event that went down in history as the Boston Massacre, Boston, Massachusetts was a center of radical revolutionary ideas and sentiment. The colonists had endured years of conflict with British officials, and the number of people living in poverty and/or unemployed was growing in the city. With so many idle young men competing for work, there was bound to be trouble as British rule became more onerous.

After the Seven Years' War had drained Britain's coffers, the royal government imposed tighter controls over its North American colonies in order to raise revenues. When customs officials complained about the difficulties of collecting from disobedient colonists, Britain sent troops to impose order. The arrival of British soldiers in October 1768 heightened tensions in a city already on the edge of an uprising.

Over the next two years, Boston existed in a state of virtual British military occupation-one out of three men in the city was a Redcoat, a common nickname for British soldiers due to the color of their uniforms. Radical townspeople and idle young men harassed the soldiers, leading to numerous skirmishes and scuffles.

The Boston Massacre

In March 1770, British officials ordered the removal of all occupants of the Boston Manufactory House-a halfway house for people living in poverty, those who were ill, and those who were homeless-so that a regiment of British soldiers could be garrisoned there. The Manufactory House's homeless occupants put up a resistance, and the British backed down, but other confrontations ensued.

On March 5th, one such confrontation turned violent. As a mob of angry townspeople encircled a British sentry shouting insults and throwing rocks and sticks, nervous Redcoats opened fire into the crowd, killing five Bostonians and wounding several others. One of the victims was Crispus Attucks, a free sailor of African and Native American descent who has gone down in history as the first casualty of the American Revolution.

Local newspapers eulogized Attucks and the others as martyrs to British tyranny. Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, two of Boston's most influential revolutionaries, proved adept propagandists. Revere is known for producing the most famous depiction of the incident-though in reality he merely copied the original engraving by young Boston-area artist Henry Pelham. The image was published in the Boston Gazette and circulated widely, stoking the flames of anti-British anger and revolutionary righteousness. Pro-British Loyalists promoted an alternate narrative, accusing agitators in the crowd of deliberately provoking the incident. Nevertheless, the radical narrative proved far more influential.

The colonists did not want to give the British a pretext for retaliation, and so preparations were made to ensure a fair trial. A young lawyer named John Adams, despite his commitment to the revolutionary cause, agreed to defend the Redcoats, all but two of whom were acquitted.

Even though British troops were recalled from Boston, the incident inflamed hostilities and intensified revolutionary sentiment among the colonists. For the revolutionaries, the so-called massacre demonstrated the corrupting influence of standing armies and the tyranny of the British. It was a major signpost on the road to revolution; indeed, John Adams later claimed that the "foundation of American independence was laid" that fateful day of March 5, 1770.

What do you think?

Why do you think the incident in March 1770 happened in Boston and not somewhere else?

In your opinion, was the Boston Massacre truly a massacre? Who do you think was at fault for the incident?

How important was the Boston Massacre in the events leading up to the American Revolution?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Boston Massacre (article) | Khan Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Access Kids Discover’s award-winning library of Science, Social Studies, and High-Interest Nonfiction on any device, for one low price. Perfect for Grades 3-8. Educator, School, and District Options. Single Sign-on with Google and Clever. Interactive Content. Assessments and Lesson-Planing Tools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Why Did the Boston Massacre Happen?

Tensions ran high in Boston in early 1770. More than 2,000 British soldiers occupied the city of 16,000 colonists and tried to enforce Britain's tax laws, like the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts. American colonists rebelled against the taxes they found repressive, rallying around the cry, "no taxation without representation."

Skirmishes between colonists and soldiers-and between patriot colonists and colonists loyal to Britain (loyalists)-were increasingly common. To protest taxes, patriots often vandalized stores selling British goods and intimidated store merchants and their customers.

On February 22, a mob of patriots attacked a known loyalist's store. Customs officer Ebenezer Richardson lived near the store and tried to break up the rock-pelting crowd by firing his gun through the window of his home. His gunfire struck and killed an 11-year-old boy named Christopher Seider and further enraged the patriots.

Several days later, a fight broke out between local workers and British soldiers. It ended without serious bloodshed but helped set the stage for the bloody incident yet to come.

Violence Erupts between Colonists and Soldiers

On the frigid, snowy evening of March 5, 1770, Private Hugh White was the only soldier guarding the King's money stored inside the Custom House on King Street. It wasn't long before angry colonists joined him and insulted him and threatened violence.

At some point, White fought back and struck a colonist with his bayonet. In retaliation, the colonists pelted him with snowballs, ice and stones. Bells started ringing throughout the town-usually a warning of fire-sending a mass of male colonists into the streets. As the assault on White continued, he eventually fell and called for reinforcements.

In response to White's plea and fearing mass riots and the loss of the King's money, Captain Thomas Preston arrived on the scene with several soldiers and took up a defensive position in front of the Custom House.

Worried that bloodshed was inevitable, some colonists reportedly pleaded with the soldiers to hold their fire as others dared them to shoot. Preston later reported a colonist told him the protestors planned to "carry off [White] from his post and probably murder him."

The violence escalated, and the colonists struck the soldiers with clubs and sticks. Reports differ of exactly what happened next, but after someone supposedly said the word "fire," a soldier fired his gun, although it's unclear if the discharge was intentional.

Once the first shot rang out, other soldiers opened fire, killing five colonists-including Crispus Attucks, a local dockworker of mixed racial heritage-and wounding six. Among the other casualties of the Boston Massacre was Samuel Gray, a rope maker who was left with a hole the size of a fist in his head. Sailor James Caldwell was hit twice before dying, and Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were mortally wounded.

Boston Massacre Fueled Anti-British Views

Within hours, Preston and his soldiers were arrested and jailed and the propaganda machine was in full force on both sides of the conflict.

Preston wrote his version of the events from his jail cell for publication, while Sons of Liberty leaders such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams incited colonists to keep fighting the British. As tensions rose, British troops retreated from Boston to Fort William.

Paul Revere encouraged anti-British attitudes by etching a now-famous engraving depicting British soldiers callously murdering American colonists. It showed the British as the instigators though the colonists had started the fight.

It also portrayed the soldiers as vicious men and the colonists as gentlemen. It was later determined that Revere had copied his engraving from one made by Boston artist Henry Pelham.

John Adams Defends the British

It took seven months to arraign Preston and the other soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre and bring them to trial. Ironically, it was American colonist, lawyer and future President of the United States John Adams who defended them.

Adams was no fan of the British but wanted Preston and his men to receive a fair trial. After all, the death penalty was at stake and the colonists didn't want the British to have an excuse to even the score. Certain that impartial jurors were nonexistent in Boston, Adams convinced the judge to seat a jury of non-Bostonians.

During Preston's trial, Adams argued that confusion that night was rampant. Eyewitnesses presented contradictory evidence on whether Preston had ordered his men to fire on the colonists.

But after witness Richard Palmes testified that, "...After the Gun went off I heard the word 'fire!' The Captain and I stood in front about half between the breech and muzzle of the Guns. I don't know who gave the word to fire," Adams argued that reasonable doubt existed; Preston was found not guilty.

The remaining soldiers claimed self-defense and were all found not guilty of murder. Two of them-Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy-were found guilty of manslaughter and were branded on the thumbs as first offenders per English law.

To Adams' and the jury's credit, the British soldiers received a fair trial despite the vitriol felt towards them and their country.

Aftermath of the Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre had a major impact on relations between Britain and the American colonists. It further incensed colonists already weary of British rule and unfair taxation and roused them to fight for independence.

Yet perhaps Preston said it best when he wrote about the conflict and said, "None of them was a hero. The victims were troublemakers who got more than they deserved. The soldiers were professionals...who shouldn't have panicked. The whole thing shouldn't have happened."

Over the next five years, the colonists continued their rebellion and staged the Boston Tea Party, formed the First Continental Congress and defended their militia arsenal at Concord against the redcoats, effectively launching the American Revolution. Today, the city of Boston has a Boston Massacre site marker at the intersection of Congress Street and State Street, a few yards from where the first shots were fired.

Sources

After the Boston Massacre. John Adams Historical Society.
Boston Massacre Trial. National Park Service: National Historical Park of Massachusetts.
Paul Revere's Engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
The Boston Massacre. Bostonian Society Old State House.
The Boston "Massacre." H.S.I. Historical Scene Investigation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Boston Massacre: Causes, Date & Facts - HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tensions ran high in Boston in early 1770. More than 2,000 British soldiers occupied the city of 16,000 colonists and tried to enforce Britain's tax laws, like the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts. American colonists rebelled against the taxes they found repressive, rallying around the cry, "no taxation without representation."

# data[].attributes.body
NEWSELA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

# data[].attributes.body
Boston masscre

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Liberty's Kids 106 - The Shot Heard 'Round the World

# data[].attributes.body
The American Revolution

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Access Kids Discover’s award-winning library of Science, Social Studies, and High-Interest Nonfiction on any device, for one low price. Perfect for Grades 3-8. Educator, School, and District Options. Single Sign-on with Google and Clever. Interactive Content. Assessments and Lesson-Planing Tools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Access Kids Discover’s award-winning library of Science, Social Studies, and High-Interest Nonfiction on any device, for one low price. Perfect for Grades 3-8. Educator, School, and District Options. Single Sign-on with Google and Clever. Interactive Content. Assessments and Lesson-Planing Tools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1774 and 1775, the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety employed Paul Revere as an express rider to carry news, messages, and copies of important documents as far away as New York and Philadelphia.

On the evening of April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren summoned Paul Revere and gave him the task of riding to Lexington, Massachusetts, with the news that British soldiers stationed in Boston were about to march into the countryside northwest of the town. According to Warren, these troops planned to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two leaders of the Sons of Liberty, who were staying at a house in Lexington. It was thought they would then continue on to the town of Concord, to capture or destroy military stores - gunpowder, ammunition, and several cannon - that had been stockpiled there. In fact, the British troops had no orders to arrest anyone - Dr. Warren's intelligence on this point was faulty - but they were very much on a major mission out of Boston. Revere contacted an unidentified friend (probably Robert Newman, the sexton of Christ Church in Boston's North End) and instructed him to hold two lit lanterns in the tower of Christ Church (now called the Old North Church) as a signal to fellow Sons of Liberty across the Charles River in case Revere was unable to leave town.

The two lanterns were a predetermined signal stating that the British troops planned to row "by sea" across the Charles River to Cambridge, rather than march "by land" out Boston Neck.

Revere then stopped by his own house to pick up his boots and overcoat, and proceeded the short distance to Boston's North End waterfront. There two friends rowed him across the river to Charlestown. Slipping past the British warship HMS Somerset in the darkness, Revere landed safely. After informing Colonel Conant and other local Sons of Liberty about recent events in Boston and verifying that they had seen his signals in the North Church tower, Revere borrowed a horse from John Larkin, a Charlestown merchant and a patriot sympathizer. While there, a member of the Committee of Safety named Richard Devens warned Revere that there were a number of British patrols in the area who might try to intercept him.

At about eleven o'clock Revere set off on horseback. After narrowly avoiding capture just outside of Charlestown, Revere changed his planned route and rode through Medford, where he alarmed Isaac Hall, the captain of the local militia, informing him of the British movements. He then alarmed almost all the houses from Medford, through Menotomy (today's Arlington) - carefully avoiding the Royall Mansion whose property he rode through (Isaac Royall was a well-known Loyalist) - and arrived in Lexington sometime after midnight.

In Lexington, as he approached the house where Adams and Hancock were staying, Sergeant Monroe, acting as a guard outside the house, requested that he not make so much noise. "Noise!" cried Revere, "You'll have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming out!" According to tradition, John Hancock, who was still awake, heard Revere's voice and said "Come in, Revere! We're not afraid of you". He entered the house and delivered his message.

About half past twelve, William Dawes, who had traveled the longer land route out of Boston Neck, arrived in Lexington carrying the same message as Revere. After both men "refreshed themselves" (i.e. had something to eat and drink), they decided to continue on to Concord, Massachusetts, to verify that the military stores were properly dispersed and hidden away. A short distance outside of Lexington, they were overtaken by Dr. Samuel Prescott, who they determined was a fellow "high Son of Liberty." A short time later, a British patrol intercepted all three men. Prescott and Dawes escaped; Revere was held for some time, questioned, and let go. Before he was released, however, his horse was confiscated to replace the tired mount of a British sergeant. Left alone on the road, Revere returned to Lexington on foot in time to witness the latter part of the battle on Lexington Green.

This story comes from several accounts written by Paul Revere after his Midnight Ride. To see one of them in his own handwriting, with a transcription, visit "Revere's Own Words." To find all the answers to your Midnight Ride questions, see our Frequently Asked Questions page.

For more information and an interactive map experience, view our Midnight Ride Map. You can also "Recreate the Ride" on your own!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1774 and 1775, the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety employed Paul Revere as an express rider to carry news, messages, and copies of important documents as far away as New York and Philadelphia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Midnight Ride of Paul Revere | What Really Happened? | Boston Discovery Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Longfellow captures the courage of American heroes- but lots of facts are wrong. Read the poem and learn the real story!