Road to Revolution
This direct British tax on legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards in 1765 united the colonies in protest.
What is the Stamp Act?
His 47-page pamphlet Common Sense convinced thousands of ordinary colonists to support total independence from Britain.
Who is Thomas Paine?
The "shot heard 'round the world" was fired at this twin engagement, marking the official start of the military conflict.
What is the Battle of Lexington and Concord?
Adopted on July 4, 1776, this document officially severed political ties between the 13 colonies and Great Britain.
What is the Declaration of Independence?
British policy of letting the colonies govern themselves and ignore trade laws, which ended abruptly after the French and Indian War.
What is salutary neglect?
This Enlightenment philosopher heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson's writing of the Declaration of Independence with his ideas on natural rights.
Who is John Locke?
This 1777 battle in New York is considered the turning point of the war because it convinced France to sign an alliance with the Americans.
What is the Battle of Saratoga?
This 1783 treaty officially ended the war and recognized the United States as an independent nation stretching west to the Mississippi River.
What is the Treaty of Paris?
This 1770 confrontation resulted in British soldiers firing into an angry colonial crowd, killing five colonists, including Crispus Attucks.
What is the Boston Massacre?
This fiery Virginia politician famously declared, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" during a speech rallying the colony to war.
Who is Patrick Henry?
Washington’s army survived a brutal winter of disease, starvation, and strict military training by Prussian Baron von Steuben here in 1777–1778.
What is Valley Forge?
This 1774 declaration by the First Continental Congress stated that Parliament had the right to regulate trade, but strongly condemned Britain's taxation and punitive measures since 1763.
What is the Declaration of Rights and Grievances? (Accept: Declaration of Rights)
Passed by Parliament to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, these laws closed Boston Harbor and suspended town meetings.
What are the Intolerable Acts? (Accept: Coercive Acts)
This network of radical activists, organized by Samuel Adams, used intimidation and protests to resist British tax policies.
Who are the Sons of Liberty?
British General Cornwallis surrendered his entire army at this final major battle of the war after being trapped by American forces and the French navy.
What is the Battle of Yorktown?
This 1766 British statute explicitly asserted Parliament's full power and authority to bind the American colonies in laws and taxes "in all cases whatsoever."
What is the Declaratory Act?
This British decree banned colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to avoid conflicts with Native Americans.
What is the Proclamation of 1763?
This group of colonial women organized successful boycotts of British goods by spinning their own cloth and making herbal teas.
Who are the Daughters of Liberty?
General Washington famously crossed the icy Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 to launch a surprise attack on Hessian forces at this battle.
What is the Battle of Trenton?
These local political networks were established throughout the colonies to share information, coordinate resistance, and unify anti-British sentiment.
What are the Committees of Correspondence?