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We are US History students which are part of a project. The purpose of this project is to create a blog and post information about the things we learn in class. Our mission is to help other people with the information we're posting. Also we are helping us because this is a method to study and also to get a good grade in our class. The administrators of this blog are Edward. M, Antone. H, Maria. M, Ernesto. P. 

We hope you enjoy our blog and that it can provide you good information.  

The Boston Tea Party

During 1760-1770, many acts were created by the Parliament. Colonists began the boycott on English goods so that Parliament would repealed the Townshend Act. Parliament repealed all the taxes except the one on tea. England was in debt and they needed money, so the Parliament came up with an idea. They gave the East India Company the right to sell tea to the colonists. Parliament reduced the prices on tea for the colonists. However if the colonists bought their tea, the Parliament would have the right to tax them.

The colonists preferred to buy the smuggled Dutch tea (which cost more) rather than the English tea. They knew that if they bought English tea, Parliament would have the right to tax them. Since Parliament decided to continue with the plan, ships loaded with tea went to the American territory. During 1773, the tea was the major conflict in the American colonies. England was in debt after the Seven Years War, so they decided to leave the tax on tea.

On December 16 of 1773, three ships full of tea arrived in Boston. The Boston Patriots were going to attack the East India Company cargos. They decided to dressed us as Mohawk Indians. They were about 200 colonists. What they would do was to get inside the ships and dumped off their cargo. When they got in the ships, the began opening the crates full of tea and dumped them in the water. This in protest against the Parliament for putting taxes on them. Colonists thought that if they would dumped the tea and continued with the boycott, then the Parliament would leave them alone, but it only got worst. 

English Boycotted By Colonists

In June of 1767 the Parliament decided to cut off the land taxes imposed on the colonists. Charles Townshend decided to make the Townshend Act. This act stated that they would taxed the colonists. Then they would use the money collected from the Townshend Act to pay the salaries of the British soldiers that protected the colonies. This act created a tax on goods that colonists imported, like paper, glass, paints, and tea. The Townshend Act was very judged by the colonists. In October, the colonists decided to restart the boycott on English items.

In February, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts wrote a letter so that Parliament would stop taxation without representation. Adams's letter helped the colonists to continue opposing the English. This letter became very famous in the colonies. Colonies like New York, New Hampshire, and New Jersey decided to approve Samuel Adams's method of opposition. Colonists from all the English colonies began with the boycott. The reason of the boycott was that the Parliament would repealed the Townshend Act. Many collectors of taxes were killed by colonists!

When the Townshend Act was still active, lots of money was lost. Colonists were in need of goods, so they began buying smuggled things. Colonists preferred to buy smuggled things rather than English goods. All they wanted was that the Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts. With all the money lost and collectors of taxes killed, Parliament repealed the Townshend Act on everything except on tea in March of 1770. The Parliament left the act on tea to show the colonists that they were the authority in the colonies. In conclusion, Samuel Adams helped the colonists with the repealed of the Townshend Act.

The Boston Massacre

One of the major incidents that occurred during the American Revolution was the Boston Massacre. It was also called the "incident on King Street" by the British, it was the massacre of five colonial civilians and six injured civilians by British soldiers. The British soldiers responsible for this massacre were placed in Boston mainly to protect some British officials to enforce the Parliament's laws. The simple way of telling the what happened was that a group of soldiers fired at an angry mob formed by colonists. But it was not as simple as that.

It all began in the early 1700's when the British started enforcing laws, such as the Townshend act, and the King decided to send more redcoats for protection of the colonies. The soldiers knew the real reason was that the king wanted the colonists to obey. Soldiers were not happy in the New World, they were called "lobsterbacks" because of their redcoat uniforms, and also because they did not receive enough income from the British Government. The redcoats decided to work on the New World for a low wage so they could have some money. This are some of the reasons the tension between the soldiers and colonists formed and violence broke loose.

One night, a group of colonists got very drunk and they started to pelt a soldier with pieces of ice and snowballs. The soldier was later defended by a captain and ore soldiers, but the mob kept harassing them. Eventually one soldier felt so threatened he fired at the mob. More shots were fired afterwards and hence the massacre occurred. John Adams was able to defend the soldiers that were accused of manslaughter, except two who were punished by branding their thumbs which indicated they committed a crime. John Adams was then future president of the United States of America.

Stamp Act

The Stamp Act was the first attempt that the Parliament to assert governmental authority in all the colonies that the British owned. It was passed in March 22, 1765 by the Parliament. They put this act so that England could pay the debt they got from the Seven Years War. The money collected by the Stamp Act was used to pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier that were close with the Appalachian Mountains. Also, this new tax was imposed on the American colonists, that required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. From ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers to playing cards were taxed by the Parliament. The Stamp Act made a lot of conflict in those times.

The actual cost of the Stamp Act was relatively small. What really offend the colonists was the standard it seemed to set. In the past years, the taxes on colonial trade were used to measure commerce, not to raise money. However, the Stamp Act was viewed as an attempt by England to raise money in the colonies without the approval of the colonial legislatures. Few colonists believed the idea that they could do anything more than grumble and buy stamps. But suddenly Virginia House of Burgesses adopted Patrick Henry's Stamp Act Resolves. These resolves declared that Americans possessed the same right as the English.

There were more things declared in Patrick Henry's Stamp Act Resolves. It stated that they should be taxed only by their own representatives. Another one was that Virginians should pay no taxes except those voted by the Virginia House of Burgesses. And the last conflict declared was that anyone who supported the right of Parliament to tax Virginians should be consider an enemy of the colony. The House of Burgesses defeated most of Henry's radical ideas, but 4 of them were adopted. In conclusion, the Patrick Henry's Resolves helped a lot the colonists to protest against the British and make them repealed the Stamp Act in 1766.