Individual Rights

Acting on Paul Revere's warning the day prior, four hundred New Hampshire patriots, led by John Langdon, moved preemptively to capture the arms that the British had planned to seize. A prominent New Hampshire paper at the time said the capture was both “prudent” and “proper.” They also reminded their readers of the ancient Carthagians who consented to “deliver up all their Arms to the Romans” ...

Paul Revere took his first ride (Months before his famous horseback ride into American history on April 18, 1775) on the icy Boston Post Road to warn the citizens of New Hampshire of a potential British troop landing with the express purpose that they were going to be seizing firearms, cannons and gunpowder at Fort William and Mary. Had the British been more aggressive and the weather less ...

The first session of the Continental Congress opened the beginning of September in the year 1774 with prayer in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia. Threatened by the most powerful monarch in the world, Britain’s King George III, America’s founding fathers heard Rev. Jacob Duché begin by reading Psalm 35, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer’s “Psalter” for that day Sept. 7, 1774: “Plead my cause, Oh, Lord, with ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbGDKitNf04 On September 5, 1774, every colony but Georgia sent representatives to what is now called the First Continental Congress. They met in secret because they did not want the British to know that the colonies were uniting. At first there were 44 delegates who met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. Twelve other delegates reported late. Some of those who came were George Washington, Patrick Henry, ...

Governor Thomas Gage, British general over Massachusetts, directed the Redcoats to begin  warrant-less searches for arms and ammunition. According to the Boston Gazette, of all General Gage’s offenses, “what most irritated the People” was “seizing their Arms and Ammunition". (Source) ...

The British became concerned that Massachusetts towns had been withdrawing their gunpowder from the powder houses, so before dawn on September 1, 1774, 260 Redcoats acting on General Gage‘s order sailed up the Mystic River and seized hundreds of barrels of powder from the Charlestown powder house (next to the present site of Tufts University, in what is now Somerville). The only powder that was left ...

The Quebec Act was passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on June 22, 1774. The Quebec Act was designed to extend the boundaries of Quebec and guaranteed religious freedom to Catholic Canadians. The Quebec Act was considered one of the Intolerable Acts, a series of oppressive British Laws passed by the Parliament of Great Britain 1774. Four of the acts were specifically aimed at punishing the ...

The purpose of the Quartering Act of 1774 of the Intolerable Acts was to extend the provisions of the previous 1765 Quartering Act giving the governor, rather than the assembly, the authority to enforce arrangements to ensure that the colonists supplied billeting for the troops. The 1765 Quartering Act had required colonial governments to absorb the costs associated with quartering British troops which included food, shelter, ...

The Massachusetts Government Act was passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on May 20, 1774. The Massachusetts Government Act revoked the colony's 1691 charter effectively ended the constitution of Massachusetts and  and restricted the number of town meetings that a community might hold and prohibited the election of town officials. The Massachusetts Government Act: Put an end to the constitution of Massachusetts Only one town meeting ...

When news of the first measures that came to be known as the Coercive Acts reached New York City, the Sons of Liberty sprang to action, calling a large public meeting in Fraunces Tavern. Moderates within the city, fearing that this radical group would take things too far by imposing an embargo that would cripple the finances of local merchants, schemed to coopt the proceedings. Radicals ...