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1st Continental Congress
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The First
Continental Congress met to discuss their concerns over Parliament's dissolutions
of the New York (for refusing to pay to quarter troops), Massachusetts (for the
Boston Tea Party), and Virginia Assemblies. The First Continental Congress
rejected the plan for a unified colonial government, stated grievances against
the crown called the Declaration of Rights, resolved to prepare militias, and
created the Continental Association to enforce a new non-importation agreement
through Committees of Vigilence. In response, in February, 1775, Parliament
declared the colonies to be in rebellion.
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Intolerable Acts
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Coercive Acts
/ Intolerable Acts / Repressive Acts-All of these names refer to the same acts,
passed in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party, and which included the
Boston Port Act, which shut down Boston Harbor; the Massachusetts Government
Act, which disbanded the Boston Assembly (but it soon reinstated itself); the
Quartering Act, which required the colony to provide provisions for British
soldiers; and the Administration of Justice Act, which removed the power of
colonial courts to arrest royal officers
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Coercive Acts
|
Coercive Acts
/ Intolerable Acts / Repressive Acts-All of these names refer to the same acts,
passed in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party, and which included the
Boston Port Act, which shut down Boston Harbor; the Massachusetts Government
Act, which disbanded the Boston Assembly (but it soon reinstated itself); the
Quartering Act, which required the colony to provide provisions for British
soldiers; and the Administration of Justice Act, which removed the power of
colonial courts to arrest royal officers
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Lexington and Concord
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April 19,
1774
General Gage, stationed in Boston, was ordered by King George III to
arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The British marched on Lexington, where
they believed the colonials had a cache of weapons. The colonial militias,
warned beforehand by Paul Revere and William Dawes, attempted to block the
progress of the troops and were fired on by the British at Lexington. The
British continued to Concord, where they believed Adams and Hancock were
hiding, and they were again attacked by the colonial militia. As the British
retreated to Boston, the colonials continued to shoot at them from behind cover
on the sides of the road. This was the start of the Revolutionary War.
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Conciliatory Proposition
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In 1775, Parliament sought middle ground with the American
colonies and proposed instead of being taxed directly by Parliament, the
colonists would tax themselves at Parliament’s demand, and hoped this would
splinter the united opposition against British taxation laws (it was too late
as the first shots at Lexington and Concord had already been fired).
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John Hancock
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Early “rebel” leader in the United States who was sought
after by the British; he forced the British soldiers to march out to Lexington
and Concord to search him out and helped ignite the Revolutionary War.
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