Topic: Britain
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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...
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New York Assembly Dissolved
This 1776 proclamation from the royal governor of New York sent the colony’s legislators home and shut down the legislature. As conflict between the colonies and Great Britain intensified, representatives...
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Notes of Proceedings in the Continental Congress
In this document, Thomas Jefferson recalls how the Continental Congress decided to declare independence and discusses why certain passages were deleted from his draft of the document. Some delegates demanded...
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Objections to Taxation
Soame Jenyns, a member of Parliament, wrote this pamphlet, The Objections to the Taxation of our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain, in 1765. Jenyns defended Parliament’s right...
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Petition to the King
This document is the so-called “Olive Branch” petition sent by the Second Continental Congress to George III. In July 1775, certain delegates insisted that the colonists make a final effort...
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Present State of the British Empire
In 1772, the Englishman Arthur Young argued that Great Britain, its American colonies, and Ireland together made up one powerful and prosperous nation. In his essay, Young wrote of the...
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Quartering Act
The Quartering Act of 1774 compelled colonists to provide housing accommodations for British troops. If barracks were not available, barns, taverns, and unoccupied public buildings (but not private homes) were...
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Quartering Act
The Quartering Act of 1765 was a law passed by Parliament that required colonists to provide housing accommodations for British troops, even during peacetime. Although the act did not force...
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Rights of the Colonists
The radical leader Samuel Adams wrote this declaration of colonial rights in 1772. Adams said that people got their rights from “God and nature” and that government existed mainly to...
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