05-03 Fighting Begins.doc
Name: _________________________
Period:_______
Date: ____________
The Fighting Begins
Parliament passes the Tea Act (1773): The British East India Company sold tea to merchants in the
colonies who then sold it to consumers. But the British East India Company was going bankrupt so
Parliament allowed it to sell tea directly to the colonists who would have to pay the tea tax.
Why did this anger the colonists? ______________________________________________________.
Why did it anger the tea merchants? ____________________________________________________.
How did the Daughters of Liberty help? _________________________________________________.
Boston Tea Party (1773): England tried to unload a cargo of tea in Boston and the Sons of Liberty
responded by dressing up as Mohawk Indians and dumping the tea in Boston harbor.
Why did they dress like Indians? ______________________________________________________.
Intolerable Acts (1774):
Britain wanted to punish the colonists of Massachusetts and passed four laws:
1. The port of Boston was shut down.
2. Massachusetts colonists could only hold town meetings once a year.
3. British officials charged with crimes would stand trial in England, not the colonies.
4. Quartering Act: Colonists could be forced to house British soldiers in their homes.
Why were these Acts called “intolerable”? ______________________________________________
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Other colonies support Boston: The committees of correspondence spread news of the Intolerable Acts
to other colonies. Other colonies helped by shipping food to Boston. They also called a meeting of
representatives in Philadelphia in 1774. All of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates to the First
Continental Congress. The delegates agreed to support Massachusetts. They agreed to boycott all
British goods and to stop exporting goods to Britain until the Intolerable Acts were repealed. They also
urged each colony to set up a militia which is _____________________________________________.
Why were these decisions difficult? _____________________________________________________
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Lexington and Concord (1775): In Massachusetts the citizens who volunteered for the militia were
known as ___________________________ because they were prepared to fight at a minute’s notice.
When the British commander heard that minutemen had a store of arms in Concord, a village near
Boston, he planned a surprise attack. The Sons of Liberty were watching though and hung lanterns to
alert the minutemen. Paul Revere helped pass the word to neighboring villages.
The minutemen in Lexington were ready but when they saw how vastly outnumbered they were, they
started to leave. A shot rang out—no one is quite sure who fired first—and several minutemen were
killed.
The British pushed on to Concord but were pushed back at a narrow bridge. As they retreated to
Boston, the British were picked off by sharpshooters hiding behind trees and rocks. The British lost 73
men and 200 were wounded.
Why was this called “the shot heard ‘round the world”? ______________________________________
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