AMERICAN REVOLUTION PERSUADERS

American Revolution Persuaders by Jeremy Jones

Many events helped cause the American Revolution. It was a terrible war between the colonies of America and the country of England. The three most important events that led up to, and caused it, were the Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, and The Stamp Act.

The Boston Massacre was an encounter on March 5, 1770, that was five years before the American Revolution between British troops and a group of citizens of Boston that were then in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. British troops were quartered in the city to discourage demonstrations againserican Revolution between British troopt the Townshend Acts, a tax on imports to the colonies. As a result of constant harassment by the citizens, a squad of British soldiers that had been struck by snow and ice balls with rocks inside thrown during a demonstration, fired into the crowd, killing five men. The eight soldiers and their commanding officer were tried for murder and were defended by John Adams, later president of the United States, and Josiah Quincy. Two of the soldiers were declared guilty of manslaughter, and the others, including the officer, were acquitted. The incident was skillfully exploited by the American patriot Samuel Adams to create anti-British sentiment in the colonies. After the incident the patriots of Massachusetts Bay were more and more agitated by the soldiers. They weren't going to take much more.

The, so-called, Boston Tea Party was an event that took place December 16, 1773, by a group of Boston citizens to protest the British tax on tea imported to the colonies. Although most provisions of the Townshend Acts were repealed by Parliament, the duty on tea was retained to demonstrate the power of Parliament to tax the colonies. The citizens of Boston would not permit the unloading of three British ships that arrived in Boston in November 1773 with 342 chests of tea. The royal governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, however, would not allow the tea ships to return to England until the duty had been paid. On the evening of December 16, a group of Bostonians, instigated by the American patriot Samuel Adams and disguised as Indians, boarded the vessels and emptied the tea into Boston Harbor. When the government of Boston refused to pay for the tea, the British closed the port. The acts by the British with the tea provoked Bostonians. Because of this they were pushed too far. After what happened with the Boston Massacre, the Patriots wanted something that could push them over the edge to start the Revolution and with the taxes this moved them a few steps closer. This should have taught the British a lesson, but it didn't.

The Stamp Act was an act introduced by the British prime minister George Grenville and passed by the British Parliament in 1765 as a means of raising revenue in the American colonies. It required all legal documents, licenses, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards to carry a tax stamp. The act extended to the colonies the system of stamp duties then employed in Great Britain and was intended to raise money to lower the cost of maintaining the military defenses of the colonies. Passed without debate, it aroused widespread opposition among the colonists, who argued that because they were not represented in Parliament, they could not legally be taxed without their consent. The Stamp Act was the last straw. It was the one that pushed the colonies over the edge.

Although The Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, and Stamp Act were only three events that helped cause The American Revolution, they were major. Without them there might not have been a Revolution. Let's hope nothing like The American Revolution never happens again, and no country puts stupid taxes on any other country.