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In time many colonists came to agree with Henry. They became known as Patriots —colonists who chose to fight for independence from Great Britain.

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This meeting, known as the First Continental Congress , was a gathering of colonial leaders who were deeply troubled about the relationship between Great Britain and its colonies in America.

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Lord North, the new British prime minister, was furious when he heard the news. Parliament decided to punish Boston. In the spring of 1774 it passed the Coercive Acts. Colonists called these laws the Intolerable Acts. The acts had several effects.

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captains waited in the harbor. On the night of December 16, 1773, colonists disguised as Native Americans sneaked onto the three tea-filled ships and dumped over 340 tea chests into Boston Harbor. This event became known as the Boston Tea Pa r t y . Soon the streets echoed with shouts of “Boston harbor is a teapot tonight!”

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Parliament agreed and passed the Tea A c t in 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonists. Many colo-nial merchants and smugglers feared that the British East India Company’s cheap tea would put them out of business.

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They used it as propaganda—a story giving only one side in an argument—against the British. Colonists called the shootings the Boston Massacre .

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a writer in the Massachusetts colony, disagreed with the new tax. She began writing plays that accused British leaders of being greedy.

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At a Boston town meeting in May 1764, local leader

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Adams helped found the Committees of Correspondence . Each commit -tee got in touch with other towns and colonies. Its members shared ideas and information about the new British laws and ways to challenge them.

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This act required colonists to pay for an official stamp, or seal, when they bought paper items. The tax had to be paid on legal documents, licenses, news-papers, pamphlets, and even playing cards. Colonists who refused to buy stamps could be fined or sent to jail.