The Continental Association … 111

Wartime Proclamations … 127

The Declaration of Independence … 135

Articles of Confederation … 151

Beginning in 1765, the British government, which was heavily in debt, had tried to tax the American colonies to help pay the bills. The taxes met with increasing resistance until finally, in December 1773, Bostonians dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor. This episode became known as the Boston Tea Party. In 1774, the British government passed the Intolerable Acts to punish Boston for the tea party. The Intolerable Acts closed the Port of Boston, gave the British-appointed governor of Massachusetts complete control of town meetings, ordered that British officials who committed major crimes in the colonies would be tried in Great Britain, and required that the colonists house British soldiers in dwellings belonging to private citizens.

Before the passage of the Intolerable Acts, the colonies had gone their separate ways and there had...