Graphic Decade
of 
1770s 
| Graphic Decade
of |
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| 1770s |
| 1770 Boston Massacre: Brisitsh troops fire on mob in Boston; five citizens killed. Townshend Acts repealed; tax on tea imported into N. America is kept. |
1771 |
| 1772 Boston Assembly demands right of colonies, threatens secession. Samuel Adams forms Committees of Corresppondence in Mass. for action against Great Britain |
1773 Virginia House of Burgesses appoints Provincial Committee of Correspondence. Boston Tea Party: protest aginst tea duty |
| 1774 Brit. House of Commons refuses Massachusetts petition to remove Thomas Hutchinson as governor-general. Coercive acts against Massachusetts include closing of port of Boston. Quebec Act, to secure Canada's loyalty to Great Britain, establishes Roman Catholicism in Canada. VA House of Burgesses decides to call Continental Congress; it meets at Philadelphia w/ representatives of all colonies except Georgia. Nonimportation of Brit goods to Amer colonies, decided upon by Continental Congress, comes into force. |
1775 American Revolution begins, ends 1783. Paul Revere's ride from Charleston to Lexington; def. of Brit. at Lexington; Americans conquer Ft. Ticonderoga, N.Y. and Crown Point; 2nd Continental Congress assembles at Philadelphia; G. Washington made commander-in-chielf of Amer. forces; Brit. victory at Bunker Hill; Amer. war aims stated in Philadelphia; Benedict Arnold's attack on Quebec fails. England hires 29,000 Ger. mercenaries for war in N. America. |
| 1776 Amer. Congress resolves suppression of authority of Brit. Crown; Washington forces British to abandon Boston; Amer. troops forced out of Canada; Virginia Convention instructs its delegates to Congress to propose independence; Virginia publishes its Bill of Rights; Congress carries Declaration of Independence; William Howe, commander-in-chief of Brit. army in America, takes New York and Rhode Island; Benedict Arnold def. at Lae Champlain; Congress retires to Baltimore; Ft Lee surrenders to British; Washington retreats to Penn. and def. Hessian troops at Trenton. |
1777 British def. at Princeton, N.J., and Bennington, Vt; Lafayette's Fr. volunteers arrive in America; Amer. forces def. at the Brandywine, Pa., and Germantown, Pa; British secure control of Delaware; Gen. Burgoyne loses two battles at Bemis Heights, N.Y., and capitulates to Americans at Saratoga, N.Y.; the Ger. General von Steuben arrives to become inspector-general of Amer. forces |
| 1778 American colonies sign treaties with France and Holland; reject British peace offer; Washington defeats British at Monmouth, N.J.; Fr. fleet arrives off Delaware; British capture Savannah, Ga. Indian massacres at Wyoming, Penn. and Cherry Valley, NY |
1779 British surrender to Americans at Vincennes, Indiana Spain declares war on England. A peace plan is approved by Congress which stipulates independence, complete British evacuation of America and free navigation on the Mississippi River. Off the coast of England, John Paul Jones fights a desperate battle with a British frigate. When the British demand his surrender, Jones responds, "I have not yet begun to fight!" Jones then captures the frigate before his own ship sinks. |
1770s
08/04/99 GRAPHIC HISTORY