The American Revolution

A man called  Dr. Joseph Warren learned of the British plans and sent Paul Revere to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Paul Revere promised to warn them when the British soldiers were approaching. Since he wasn't sure that he would be able to get out of Boston with the message, he made plans to alert people by putting lanterns in the Old North Church . He would light one lantern if the British were coming by land, and two lanterns if the British were coming by sea.

On  April 18th, the British troops were coming across the Boston Harbor to start their war at Lexington. Paul Revere hung two lanterns in the church. Then Paul Revere, William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott ran to warn the colonists that the British were coming.

Paul Revere rode to Lexington and alerted Samual Adams and John Hancock. By the time the British soldiers reached Lexington, Samual Adams and John Hancock had escaped.

As the colonists were warned about the approaching of the British army , they gathered farmers and soliders which were called the minutemen beacuse they were trained to get their guns ready in a matter of minutes.
As the British Soldiers reached Lexingtonm the 75 armed Minutemen were expecting them ready to fire, the an unknown shot was the first to be heard and this began a massive shooting among the British and the Colonists.

As a result of this war Paul Revere was captured by the British and 49 Patriots died and 39 others were hurt.

George Wahington was born in Westmoreland County, Va., on Feb. 22, 1732.
He was the eldest son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington, who were prosperous Virginia gentry of English descent.
 George spent his early years on the family estate on Pope's Creek along the Potomac River. His early education included the study of such subjects as mathematics, surveying, the classics, and "rules of civility." His father died in 1743, and then George went to live with his half brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon, Lawrence's plantation on the Potomac. Lawrence, who became something of a substitute father for his brother, had married into the Fairfax family, prominent and influential Virginians who helped launch George's career. An early ambition to go to sea had been effectively discouraged by George's mother; instead, he turned to surveying, securing (1748) an appointment to survey Lord Fairfax's lands in the Shenandoah Valley. He helped lay out the Virginia town of Belhaven (now Alexandria) in 1749 and was appointed surveyor for Culpeper County. George accompanied his brother to Barbados in an effort to cure Lawrence of tuberculosis, but Lawrence died in 1752, soon after the brothers returned. George ultimately inherited the Mount Vernon estate.

News of the fighting spread quickly, and Gage soon found himself besieged in Boston by an irregular but large force, which quickly dug itself in. Meanwhile, Gage was waiting for reinforcements. On 26 May they arrived, led by three major-generals who were to play an important part in the war - William Howe, Henry Clinton and John Burgoyne.

Encouraged by his reinforcements, Gage decided to strengthen his position by capturing key hills that overlooked Boston on its island, and threatened the harbour. The Americans learnt of this plan, and fortified Breed's Hill on the Charlestown peninsular north of the harbour. The resulting battle of Bunker Hill (17 June 1775) was a disaster for the British. Although they did manage to capture the American positions, it was at the cost of half of their force killed or wounded.

Bunker Hill effectively knocked the main British army out of the war for the next year. For nine months it remained in Boston, now commanded by Howe, who failed to appreciate the weakness of the American forces facing him.

The british Government gets new ways to generate funds from the colonies claiming the defense they gave them.
Approved on April 5, 1764 the Sugar Act placed a tax of three pennies per gallon of mollases and some other goods imported from Britain.
This new law make the colonies economy go down in a bad way and now their Economy was suffering a hard ecomical crisis.


The approval of the Sugar Act led to protests from the colonists because they thought that the new taxes being inforced on them were taxes without representation because they had no legal representation so they denied themselves to pay for them.

The economic situation in America worsten throught the year with the application of new laws like the Cuarrency Act. This law prohibited the colonies from printing paper money. These forced British merchants to call in their debts.

The colonists were upset with a new law ;The Quartering Act which required colonial citizens to house and feed British troops, and then the American colonies began to boycott British Goods.

In December 16/1773, a group of men calling themselves the "Sons of Liberty" went to the Boston Harbor. The men were dressed as Mohawk Indians. They boarded three British ships, the Beaver, the Eleanor and the Dartmouth, and dumped forty-five tons of tea into the Boston Harbor.

When the colonists refused the Townshend Acts from the Government and refused to pay taxes on imported goods. The solution they found was that they should make a boycott on British goods except tea.


Few people realize that when the tea went overboard in Boston Tea Party on December 16/1773, the War for Independence was actually beginning, because the boston tea party was a rebellion against British goods and the tea that was like the most important good that British exported, the tea helped England in a good way but it left the colonists poor beacuse of the big amount of taxes.

Samuel was born in Boston in 1722. He was the cousin of John Adams. When he was young, his father wanted him to be a minister. Samuel went to work in a counting house, but he was not good at adding and he spent too much time talking to other people about politics. Later the people in Boston elected him to be a tax collector, but he didn't like taking money from people.
Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry were two of the first people to argue for independence. Sam wrote letters about independence and sent them to newspapers and leaders around the country. Samuel signed all the letters with different names so that the people who read the papers would think all of Boston wanted independence from England.
Sam convinced many young men that independence would be good for America. Paul Revere, John Adams and John Hancock were some of the men who agreed with Sam's ideas. These three men became more well-known than Sam, even though his ideas helped shape their thoughts on independence.
When the Stamp Act of 1765 ordered the colonists to buy stamps from England, Samuel started a protest. He told the mob what to do. In 1766, the Stamp Act stopped. Samuel said this after the Stamp Act: "If our trade be taxed, why not our lands, or produce. . . in short, everything we possess? They tax us without having legal representation." Another thing that started the Revolution was the Boston Tea Party that Samuel also helped plan.
Samuel Adams signed the Declaration of Independence.

The colonists called the Boston Port Act,Quartering Act,Administration of Justice Act, Quebec Act and Mass Government Act Intolerable acts.

Impartial Administration of Justice Act, which allowed the royal governor of a colony to move trials to other colonies or even to England if he feared that juries in those colonies wouldn't judge a case fairly
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
Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until the price of the dumped tea was recovered, moved the capital of Massachusetts to Salem, and made Marblehead the official port of entry for the Massachusetts colony.
Quartering Act, which allowed royal troops to stay in houses or empty buildings if barracks were not available
Quebec Act, which granted civil government and religious freedom to Catholics living in Quebec.
These Acts were the harshest so far of all the Acts passed by Parliament. The closing of Boston's port alone would cost the colony (and the American colonies as a whole) a lot of money. The Regulating Act was aimed at curtailing revolutionary activities. The Quartering Act angered colonists who didn't want soldiers (especially Redcoats) in their houses. And the Quebec Act was a direct insult to Americans, who had been denied the same sorts of rights that the Quebec residents now got.