Topic: Britain

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Lieutenant-Governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth

This letter from Lt. Governor Cadwallader Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth reports on events in the colonies after Parliament’s passage of the Coercive Acts. Colden anticipates the passage of...
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Lord Cornwallis

This is a British engraving of General Charles Cornwallis in which he is portrayed as a victorious leader of British forces in America. On Oct. 19, 1781, Cornwallis suffered a...
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Lord North to George III

In this letter, British prime minister Lord North suggested changes in the king’s response to the increasingly rebellious “inhabitants of the Colonies.” Colonists, Lord North declared, were subjects of the...
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Magna Britannia: Her Colonies Reduc’d

This 1767 political cartoon warns Britain of the costs of enforcing its new taxation policies in North America. The cut up body suggests that the empire will be torn apart....
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Magna Carta

In 1215, King John’s Magna Carta–or Great Charter–recognized the property rights of Englishmen and the authority of local county courts. John also pledged to seek the “common counsel of the...
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Map of British Empire in America

Englishman Henry Popple produced this colorful map of the British Empire in 1733. The shapes of certain land masses and the locations of some places are inaccurate, but the map...
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Map of London

The German mapmaker George Seutter made this colorful map of London in 1750. At the time, London was the largest city in Europe, the capital of Great Britain, and the...
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Molasses Act

Parliament passed the Molasses Act in 1733 in order to encourage North American British colonists to buy sugar products, such as molasses and rum, from other British colonies. The law...
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New England Restraining Act

The New England Restraining Act was passed by Parliament in order to punish the colonies for their boycott of British goods. The law prohibited the New England colonies from trading...
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New Hampshire Gazette

In 1765, the New Hampshire Gazette was one of roughly two dozen newspapers in British colonial America. From Nova Scotia to the West Indies, these newspapers kept colonists up-to-date on...