Start date: December 16, 1773
End date: October 19, 1774
Timeline
- December 16, 1773
At Boston, men disguised as Mohawks board three ships and throw the East India Company's tea into the harbor, rather than let it be landed and the tea duty paid. Tea ships are also turned away or their cargoes stored at New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston.
- January 29, 1774
In London, Dr. Benjamin Franklin is publicly berated before the Privy Council over the Hutchinson letters, and is dismissed as deputy postmaster general for America. News takes six to ten weeks to cross the Atlantic.
- March 31, 1774
In London, the King assents to the Boston Port Act: the port of Boston is to be shut from June 1 until the town pays for the tea. News takes six to ten weeks to cross.
- May 10, 1774
News of the Boston Port Act reaches Boston. Over the following weeks it spreads by post and ship to the other colonies.
- May 13, 1774
General Thomas Gage arrives at Boston as the new governor of Massachusetts and commander of the King's troops in America.
- May 20, 1774
In London, the King assents to the Massachusetts Government Act (reshaping that province's charter and limiting town meetings) and the Administration of Justice Act (allowing officials accused of capital crimes to be tried elsewhere). News takes six to ten weeks to cross.
- May 24, 1774
In Williamsburg, the Virginia House of Burgesses, hearing of the Port Act, sets apart June 1 as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.
- May 26, 1774
Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, dissolves the House of Burgesses over the fast resolve.
- May 27, 1774
The former burgesses meet at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, recommend a boycott of East India Company goods, and propose a general congress of the colonies.
- June 1, 1774
The Boston Port Act takes effect; Boston harbor is closed. Fast days for Boston are kept in Virginia and elsewhere.
- June 2, 1774
In London, the King assents to a new Quartering Act. News takes six to ten weeks to cross.
- June 22, 1774
In London, the King assents to the Quebec Act, which extends that province's bounds into the Ohio country and confirms the Roman Catholic Church there. News takes six to ten weeks to cross.
- August 1, 1774
The first Virginia Convention meets at Williamsburg, adopts an association against importing British goods, and chooses delegates to the general congress.
- September 1, 1774
General Gage's soldiers remove gunpowder from the provincial powder house near Boston; a false rumor that Boston has been fired upon sends thousands of New England militia marching.
- September 5, 1774
The general congress of the colonies, called the Continental Congress, meets at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph of Virginia is chosen president.
- September 17, 1774
Congress endorses the Suffolk Resolves of Massachusetts, which urge resistance to the new acts.
- October 10, 1774
At Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha meets the Ohio, Virginia militia defeat the Shawnee under Cornstalk, in the war Lord Dunmore has led on the frontier.
Prevailing mood
Most colonists still think of themselves as loyal subjects of King George III and as Englishmen with English rights. Their quarrel is with Parliament and "the Ministry" of Lord North, which they believe has been misled by enemies of liberty, not with the King himself. Almost no one speaks openly of independence, and those who hint at it are thought reckless.
There are loyal and cautious voices too. Some gentlemen and officeholders think the Bostonians went too far, that the tea should be paid for, and that crowds and committees are a kind of mob rule. Anglican clergy, royal officials, and many merchants are uneasy.
Until May 10, 1774: The destruction of the tea divides opinion. Many admire Boston's resolve against the tea duty; many others, even friends of liberty, think it rash to destroy private property. Everyone waits to learn how Parliament will answer.
From May 10, 1774: Parliament's answer has come: Boston's port is to be shut until the tea is paid for. The punishment of Boston has done what the tea could not: it has made the cause of one town the cause of the continent. Many who thought the Bostonians rash now fear that if Parliament can shut one port, it can shut any. Sympathy runs high, and so does anxiety. Towns and counties pass resolves, call for days of fasting and prayer, and collect provisions for the poor of Boston. Merchants worry about lost trade and debts to British houses; planters worry about tobacco prices and their own debts; ministers preach on the sins of the people and the hand of Providence.
Live questions
These are open questions. Your character does not know the answers and may be anxious, hopeful, or divided about them.
- Will the King intervene to protect his American subjects from Parliament?
- Will there be bloodshed in Massachusetts? Most hope Providence will avert a civil war.
Until May 10, 1774:
- How will Parliament answer the destruction of the tea? Should Boston pay for it?
From May 10, 1774:
- Will Boston submit and pay for the tea, or hold out? Should other colonies send it food and money?
- Should the colonies stop importing British goods? Stop exporting, even tobacco and wheat, and ruin themselves to make Britain relent?
- Should there be a general congress of the colonies? What will it do, and will its measures be obeyed?
- Are the people's committees a lawful defense of liberty or a step toward disorder?
From August 1, 1774:
- On the frontier: will Lord Dunmore's campaign against the Shawnee succeed, and who will govern and settle the western lands?
Money, prices, news, and vocabulary
- Money: pounds, shillings, and pence (12 pence to the shilling, 20 shillings to the pound). Each colony has its own currency, worth less than pounds sterling, and the rate of exchange varies from colony to colony and year to year. Spanish silver dollars (pieces of eight) and gold pistoles circulate widely, and prices are often reckoned in them. Coin is scarce; much trade runs on credit, notes, and accounts at the store.
- Time: people tell time by the clock where there is one, by the sun, and by the meals: breakfast in the morning, dinner (the main meal) in the early or middle afternoon, and supper in the evening.
- News: weekly newspapers, read aloud in taverns and passed from hand to hand: the Virginia Gazette (two rival papers of that name are printed at Williamsburg), the Pennsylvania Gazette and Pennsylvania Journal, the Boston Gazette, and Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, which favors the government's side. Also letters from friends and merchants, ship captains' reports, sermons, broadsides, and the talk at church, court day, and the tavern.
- Political words: the friends of liberty; the Ministry; Lord North; the Bostonians; Committee of Correspondence; nonimportation; the Sons of Liberty; "Tory" as an insult for the government's friends, and "Whig" for its opponents. Do not use the later historians' names "Coercive Acts" or "Intolerable Acts"; people name each bill or speak of "the late acts."
From May 10, 1774:
- New words this year: the Port Bill; the late acts of Parliament; a general congress.
From September 5, 1774:
- The general congress now meeting at Philadelphia is called the Continental Congress.