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A discourse concerning unlimited submission and non-resistance to the higher powers : with some reflections on the resistance made to King Charles I
Document: Let us now trace the apostle’s reasoning in favor of submission to the higher powers, a little more particularly and exactly. For by this…
The Proclamation of 1763
Author: King George III Date:1763 Annotation: In 1773, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) published a brief history of the British government’s actions during the preceding decade. Its…
Sugar Act
Date: 1764 Annotation: To maintain the army and repay war debts, Parliament decided to impose charges on colonial trade. It passed the Sugar Act, imposed…
Currency Act of 1764
Date:1764 Annotation: The Currency Act prohibited colonial governments from issuing paper money and required all taxes and debts to British merchants to be paid in British…
Quartering Act
Date:1765 Annotation: Parliament approved the Quartering Act, requiring colonial governments to put up British soldiers in unoccupied buildings and provide them with candles, bedding, and beverages….
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law
Annotation: This dissertation, written by John Adams, included one of the first arguments to make informed citizens become a check for government. Document: “Ignorance and inconsideration are…
Stamp Act
Date:1765 Annotation: To increase revenues to pay the cost of militarily defending the colonies, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which required a tax stamp on legal…
The Stamp Act Crisis
Author: Archibald Hinschelwood Date:1765 Annotation: Eleven years before the Declaration of Independence, a crisis took place that defined the issue that would help provoke…
The Continental Congress’ Declaration of Rights and Grievances
Date:1765 Annotation: The Continental Congress’ Declaration of Rights and Grievances. Document: We have several times promised to treat our readers with a correct copy of this venerable…
Resolutions on the Stamp Act
Date:1765 Annotation: Resolutions on the Stamp Act, Massachusetts Assembly Document: WHEREAS the just rights of his majesty’s subjects of this province, derived to them from the British…
Benjamin Franklin and the Stamp Act Crisis
Author: Benjamin Franklin Date:1766 Annotation: His is one of the most remarkable success stories in American history. The eighteenth child of a Boston candlemaker…
Examination of Dr. Benjamin Franklin in the House of Commons
Date:1766 Annotation: Examination of Dr. Benjamin Franklin In the House of Commons in 1766. Document: Q. What is your name, and place of abode? — Franklin, of…
Declaratory Act
Date:1766 Annotation: The Declaratory Act of 1766stated that the British Parliament’s taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. Document: An act for the…
Townshend Act
Date:1767 Annotation: Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, imposed new duties on imports of glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea to the colonies. The Townshend Acts…
Bostonians Protest the Townshend Acts
Author: John Hancock Date:1768 Annotation: Based in part on Benjamin Franklin’s arguments before Parliament, Charles Townshend (1725-1767), the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, believed…
James Otis Describes the Situation in the American Colonies in 1769
Author: John Easson Date:1769 Annotation: In this selection, James Otis (1725-1783), one of the early leaders in the colonists’ struggle for independence, informs Catharine…
North Carolina Regulators
Date:1769 Annotation: The North Carolina Regulators was a popular movement in the 1760s that challenged the colonial government, the powerful landowners, and the officials that dominated…
Accusations that the British Are Plotting to Deprive Americans of their Liberties
Author: Charles Thomson Date:1769 Annotation: Born in Ulster, Charles Thomson (1729-1824) came to Philadelphia as a young schoolmaster. During the 1765 Stamp Act Crisis,…
Account of the Boston Massacre
Date:1770 Annotation: On March 5, 1770, a 16-year-old barber’s apprentice named Edward Garrick insulted Hugh White, a soldier of the 29th Regiment on sentry duty in…
A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston
Date:1770 Annotation: An anonymous account of the Boston Massacre on the evening of March 5, 1770. Document: It may be a proper introduction to this narrative, briefly…
The Boston Massacre
Author: Deacon John Tudor Date:1770 Annotation: By the beginning of 1770 there were four thousand British soldiers in Boston, a seaport with only 15,000…
Account of the Boston Massacre
Date:1770 Annotation: The leader of the British 29th regiment, Preston was defended by John Adams for his role in the massacre and was acquitted of all…
Captain Thomas Preston’s account of the Boston Massacre
Author: Thomas Preston Date:1770 Annotation: Captain Thomas Preston’s account of the Boston Massacre. Document: It is [a] matter of too great notoriety to need any proofs…
John Dickinson Identifies the Colonial Cause with Virtue and the British with Corruption
Author: John Dickinson Date:1770 Annotation: The escalating conflict with Britain after 1763 forced the colonists to define their identity as well as the nature…
Benjamin Franklin Grows Increasingly Alienated from the British Empire
Author: Benjamin Franklin Date:1770 Annotation: As late as 1775, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was convinced that the issues dividing Britain and the colonies were “a…
The Regulators
Author: Richard H. Lee Date:1771 Annotation: Even as tension between the colonies and Britain was rising, disputes among colonists continued. In western North Carolina,…
Samuel Adams Describes the Situation in Massachusetts in 1772
Author: Samuel Adams Date:1772 Annotation: As one of the chief organizers of protests against the imperial policies adopted by Britain after the Seven Years…
Boston Tea Party
Author: George Robert Twelve Hewes Date:1773 Annotation: George Robert Twelve Hewes, a Boston shoemaker who later fought in the Revolution as a common soldier and…
Tea Act
Date:1773 Annotation: Parliament passed the Tea Act that authorized the East India Company to bypass American wholesalers and sell tea directly to American distributors. Cutting out…
John Adams Describes Escalating Tensions in Massachusetts
Author: John Adams Date:1773 Annotation: In this letter, John Adams (1735-1826) describes the escalating tensions in Massachusetts during the winter and early spring of…
John Adams Describes the Situation in Boston Five Days Prior to the Boston Tea Party
Author: John Adams Date:1773 Annotation: The Townshend duties were a dismal failure. Only 21,000 pound sterling in new duties were collected, while sales of…
The Boston Tea Party
Author: John Easson Date:1773 Annotation: A Bostonian named John Andrews (1764-1845) offered the following account of the Tea Party. “A general muster was assembled,…
A Summary View of the Rights of British America
Author: Thomas Jefferson Date:1774 Annotation: Two years before the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), then 31, distributed an essay to the delegates at…
Administration of Justice Act
Date:1774 Annotation: The Administration of Justice Act of 1774 Document: An act for the impartial administration of justice in the cases of persons questioned for any acts…
An Appeal to the Inhabitants of Quebec
Date:1774 Annotation: The Continental Congress in 1774 made an address to the Inhabitants of Quebec. This address encouraged inhabitants to resist English threats that went against…
Boston Port Act
Date:1774 Annotation: Parliament passed the Boston Port Act in hopes to regain control of an unruly Massachusetts. The act closed the ports in Boston until the…
Massachusetts Government Act
Date:1774 Annotation: The Massachusetts Government Act put the election of most government officials under the control of the Crown, basically removing the Massachusetts charter of government….
Leading Bostonians War about the British Threat to the Colonists Liberties
Author: George Read Date:1774 Annotation: Britain responded to the Boston Tea Party with outrage. Convinced that rebels in Boston had to be taught a…
Quartering Act of 1774
Date:1774 Annotation: Established June 2, 1774, the Quartering Act of 1774 was similar to the Quartering Act of 1765. This act allowed troops to be quartered…
The Continental Congress Expresses Fear that British Policies Will Reduce the Colonists to Slavery
Date:1774 Annotation: Leaders of the patriot cause repeatedly argued that imperial policies would literally make the colonists slaves of the British. As the historian Bernard…
A False Report of a British Attack on Boston
Author: Caesar Rodney Date:1774 Annotation: A signer of the Declaration of Independence from Delaware, Caesar Rodney (1728-1784) served as a major general in the…
Quebec Act
Date:1774 Annotation: The Quebec Act enlarged French Quebec to cover the area as far west as the Mississippi River and as far south as the Ohio…
Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
Date:1774 Annotation: Declaration and Resolves of the Continental Congress Document: Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British parliament, claiming a power, of right, to…
The Continental Congress Implores King George III to Intercede on the Colonists’ Behalf
Date:1774 Annotation: Many members of the Continental Congress blamed the imperial crisis on the acts of malevolent ministers and implored King George to intercede with…
John Adams Describes the Colonists’ Grievances
Author: John Adams Date:1774 Annotation: In the following letter, in which he describes the grievances he feels threaten to reduce the colonists to political…
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
Author: Patrick Henry Date:1775 Annotation: A speech made by Patrick Henry to the Virginia House of Burgesses in order to raise support for the American…
How Britain Was Inflaming American Opinion
Author: Ezra Stiles Date:1775 Annotation: Ezra Stiles (1727-1795), a future president of Yale College, was serving as pastor in Newport at the time he…
The Battles of Lexington and Concord
Author: Isaac Merrill Date:1775 Annotation: In February 1775, Parliament declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. This declaration permitted soldiers to shoot…
Thomas Gage’s 1775 Offer of Amnesty
Author: Thomas Gage and Laurence Fishburne Date:1775 Annotation: In British eyes, the Revolution was the work of a small group demagogues and radicals who…
The Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms
Author: Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson Date:1775 Annotation: This was prepared by the Second Continental Congress to clarify why the British colonies had taken up…
Olive Branch Petition
Date:1775 Annotation: Two copies of this petition were sent to King George in hopes of settling amicably. But, King George would not accept the petition which…
Royal Proclamation of Rebellion
Date:1775 Annotation: This is a royal proclamation issued by George III, responding to increasing hostilities in the American colonies. Document: A Proclamation, by The King, for Suppressing…
Mercy Otis Warren Describes Conditions in the Colonies in 1775
Author: Mercy Otis Warren Date:1775 Annotation: In May 1775, shortly after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia….
John Adams Proposes a Plan for a New State Government with Three Branches
Author: John Adams Date:1775 Annotation: By the end of 1775, compromise between Britain and its colonies was becoming a less viable option. Richard Henry…
Letter from Gen. George Washington to John Hancock, President of Congress
Author: George Washington Date:1775 Annotation: In this letter to Congress, Washington recounted information that he had heard from a sailor: that British Gen. William Howe…
Adam Smith Criticizes the British Colonial System
Author: Adam Smith Date:1776 Annotation: In his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, the Scottish economist…
Declaring Independence
Author: Thomas Jefferson Date:1776 Annotation: More than a year past between the outbreak of fighting at the battles of Lexington and Concord and the…
Original Rough Draught of the Declaration of Independence
Annotation: Image shows the first page of the original four page “first draught” of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. This early draft, which…
Common Sense
Author: Thomas Paine Date:1776 Annotation: John Adams called him “the first man of the Revolution.” Teddy Roosevelt called him a “filthy little atheist.” His name…
The Resolutions and Recommendations of Congress
Date:1776 Annotation: The Resolutions and Recommendations of Congress. Document: Continental Congress May 10-15, 1776 Friday, May 10, 1776 A letter of the 7, from General Washington, and…
Fragment of the First Draft of the Declaration of Independence
Annotation: This is the only surviving fragment of the earliest draft of the Declaration of Independence. This fragment demonstrates that Jefferson heavily edited his first draft…
Richard H. Lee Defends his Call for American Independence
Author: Richard H. Lee Date:1776 Annotation: Richard Lee (1732-1794), writing to a fellow Virginian, calls for American independence, a goal suddenly and effectively popularized…
John Hancock Recounts British Hostilities Against the Colonists
Author: John Hancock Date:1776 Annotation: In a message to patriots in Maryland, John Hancock (1737-1793), the President of the Continental Congress, recounts British hostilities…
Lee Resolution for Independence
Author: Richard H. Lee Date:1776 Annotation: The Lee Resolution prompted by Richard Henry Lee was put forth June 7, 1776. Three parts of the resolution…
Virginia Constitution
Author: George Mason Date:1776 Annotation: The Virginia Constitution, written by George Mason, is significant in that it was the first constitutions dividing the government into…
Virginia Declaration of Rights
Date:1776 Annotation: Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted unanimously June 12, 1776 at the Virginia Convention of Delegates. Drafted by Mr. George Mason. Document: I That all men…
The Declaration of Independence
Date:1776 Annotation: During the Spring of 1776, as the historian Pauline Maier has shown, colonies, localities, and groups of ordinary Americans–including New York mechanics, Pennsylvania…
Quakers Address the Problem of Slavery
Date:1776 Annotation: “How is it,” the English essayist Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) asked at the start of the Revolution, “that we hear the loudest yelps for…
Town Meeting Resolution
Date:1776 Annotation: Town Meeting Resolution, Concord, Massachusetts, 1776 Document: At a meeting of the Inhabitents of the Town of Concord being free and twenty one years of…
John Jay’s 1776 Appeal to the Inhabitants of New York
Author: John Jay Date:1776 Annotation: Toward the end of 1776, when John Jay (1745-1829) made this appeal to the inhabitants of New York, a…
The American Crisis
Author: Thomas Paine Date:1776 Annotation: Thomas Paine wrote this collection of articles to represent his support for the independence of America and also to describe…
Blaming Wartime Inflation on Loyalists
Author: Josiah Bartlett Date:1777 Annotation: The Continental Congress faced serious problems financing the Revolution. Lacking the power to tax, Congress made assessments of the…
The Impact of the Revolution on the Homefront
Author: Lucy Knox Date: 1777 Annotation: Wartime conditions thrust new responsibilities upon American women. With many husbands absent, women assumed heightened responsibilities for managing family…
George Washington Reports on the Status of the War to Congress
Author: George Washington Date:1777 Annotation: At first glance, George Washington (1732-1799) might seem to be an unlikely choice to lead the Continental Army. His…
George Washington Describes the Continental Army’s Needs
Author: George Washington Date:1777 Annotation: In May 1777, Washington had an army of only about 10,000 men, of whom fewer than 7,400 were present…
A Glimpse of San Antonio in 1778
Author: Juan Agustin Morfi Date:1778 Annotation: In 1777 and 1778, a Franciscan father, Juan Agustín Morfi, traveled into northern New Spain, and offered the following…
Treaty of Alliance with France
Date:1778 Annotation: The Treaty of Alliance was a formal treaty with France that established cooperation against Great Britain. In this treaty, France officially recognized the United…
Sir Henry Clinton’s 1778 Manifesto and Proclamation
Author: Henry Clinton Date:1778 Annotation: In May 1778, General Henry Clinton (1738-1795) became commander of chief of British forces. He replaced William Howe (1729-1814),…
The War in the South
Author: Henry Laurens Date:1780 Annotation: France’s entry into the Revolution in 1778 altered the entire nature of the conflict. No longer was the Revolution…
The Articles of Confederation
Author: Edmund Pendleton Date:1780 Annotation: In 1781, the 13 original states ratified the first United States constitution, the Articles of Confederation. The Articles served…
Benedict Arnold’s Treason
Author: Edmund Pendleton Date:1780 Annotation: Toward the end of 1780, morale within the Continental Army reached a low point. Troop strength fell to just…
Thomas Jefferson Describes the Revolutionary War in the South
Author: Thomas Jefferson Date:1780 Annotation: Few Americans realize that much of the Revolution’s bitterest fighting took place in the South. To replace the army…
The War in the South: Lord Cornwallis’s 1781 Proclamation
Author: Charles Cornwallis Date:1781 Annotation: British policy in the South was based on several miscalculations. Britain had decided to concentrate its military efforts in…
George Mason Describes the State of the Revolutionary War in 1781
Author: George Mason Date:1781 Annotation: In October 1780, Major General Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) replaced Horatio Gates as commander of the American army in the…
An Assessment of the American Army’s Prospects a Month Before the Battle of Yorktown
Author: Edmund Pendleton Date:1781 Annotation: Convinced that he could not suppress the rebellion in the Carolinas, Lord Cornwallis retreated to Virginia in 1781. Sir…
The Peace Negotiations with Britain
Author: Edmund Pendleton Date:1782 Annotation: Although Americans often treat their history in isolation from other countries’, in fact foreign events have played a shaping…
Treaty of Paris
Annotation: On September 3, 1783–Two years after the Revolutionary War–The United States of America was officially considered a free nation by Great Britain. Delegates from America…
African Americans and the Revolution
Author: Peter Kiteridge Date:1806 Annotation: African American soldiers served with valor at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. In November 1775, however, Congress…