Lawrence Washington

Lawrence Washington was born in 1718 and died in 1752. He was a soldier and a very important landowner from Virginia. He was the older and beloved half-brother of George Washington, and the first to live in the Mount Vernon estate, which he named.

He married Anne Fairfax in July 1743. She was 15 and he was 25 years old when they got married. He was elected into the House of Burgesses in 1744 as a representative for the Fairfax County. He was one of the co-founders of the Ohio Company in VA. They created it with the intention of opening commerce into the Potomac River.

George Washington accompanied his half-brother Lawrence to the warm springs at Bath, which Lawrence visited frequently to improve his health. In 1751, they travelled together to Barbados hoping that its climate might further help Lawrence who was now very ill with tuberculosis. This was the only trip that George Washington ever took outside the confines of what was to become the United States of America. Upon the death of Lawrence's widow, George inherited his estate at Mount Vernon, which Lawrence had named in honour of British Admiral Edward Vernon, with whom Lawrence had served. Lawrence died of tuberculosis at his "Mount Vernon home, in July 1752. His widow remarried into the Lee family shortly thereafter, allowing 20-year old George to live at, and manage, the Mount Vernon plantation.

Second Continental Congress

As a succecion from the First Continental Congress and due to the skirmishes of the Battle of Lexington and Concord a Second Continental Congress was held again in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. This time there was a difference; Georgia assisted to it, so all 13 Colonies participated in it.

This meeting consisted to make peace, declare independance and make war preparations.

George Washington and The Revolution

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 and died on December 14, 1799. Among his biggest achievements: he served as the FIRST President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and as the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary war from 1775 to 1783.

People often refer to George Washington as the "Father of Our Country" for his significant role in the revolution and in the formation of the United States.

The year after his appointment as commander in-chied of the American revolutionary forces in 1175, he forced the British out of Boston, lost New York City, and crossed the Delaware River in New Jersey, defeating the surprised enemy units later that year.

Following the end of the war in 1783, King George III asked what Washington would do next and was told of rumors that he would return to his farm in Mount Vernon, and in response K G III said: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

He presided over the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the United States Constitution.

Washington became president of the United States in 1789 and established many of the characteristics or ways of the new government's executive department. He wanted to create a nation capable of surviving in a world torn by war between Britain and France. His unilateral Proclamation of Neutrality provided a basis for avoiding any involvement in foreign conflicts. He wanted to create a strong central government by funding the national debt, implementing an effective tax system, and creating a national bank.

Washington died in 1799. Henry Lee (an American Patriot and the 9th Governor of Virginia) delivered the funeral oration of Washington and he declared Washington "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

John Hancock

John Hancock

Born: January 23, 1737
Died: October 8, 1793

Important roles he played in history:

• Patriot
• President of Second Continental Congress
• Governor in Massachussetts
• President

Samuel Adams and The American Revolution.

As you know Samuel Adams played an important role in the American Revolution. he was born the 27 September ,1722. How did all started? When the british introduced the coercive acts, and had to do what those acts said, Samuel Adams got so mad that with the support of the "Boston Town Meetings" they boycott all British goods in Boston.  As you can see he was totally against the british. He was Known as "the Father of the American Revolution"

His cousin was John Adams, the second presidents of The United States. Samuel graduated from Harvard from a master of art degrees, when he failed on what he was doing he changed to politics. He was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. He also was the one who organized the committee of correspondence. Samuel Adams participated in the two continental congress and also signed the "United States Declaration of Independence" 

   If we love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
   greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us

   in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down
   and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon
   you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

                                                  —Samuel Adams

Boston Masacre

Boston Massacre the name that Samuel Adams imposed to the event occurred on March 5, 1777: in which British soldiers and some colonists fought against each other. It all started when colonists started throwing snowballs, sticks, and stones to the British officials. As a reaction from the British side, they started to shoot with their gunshots: they injured 11 colonists and killed 5 of them.


Samuel Adams

First Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress was a meeting held in Carpenters Hall, Philadelphia on September 5, 1776 with the Thirteen Colonies but Georgia. This was created due to the Intolerable Acts, the meetings’ purpose was to consider options and discuss British oppressions: they were seeking for freedom, liberty and independence from Britain.
As a result they declared that colonists had the same rights as Englishman.

No Taxation Without Representation!

The Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts are names used to describe a series of five laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Britain's colonies in North America. The acts triggered outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies that later became the United States, and were important developments in the growth of the American Revolution.

After the Seven Years’ War in 1763, relations between the Colonists and the British had worsened. The British were in a great debt, and so the Parliament decided to take a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies. They thought that this was the legitimate way of having the colonists pay for their part of maintaining the Empire.

The colonists argued that they wouldn’t pay taxes if they had no direct representation in the Parliament. This was expressed in their slogan: “No taxation without representation”. And then, after the Townshend Acts, the Colonists even began to think that the Parliament had no sovereignty at all over the Colonies. This events led to the American Revolution.

1. The Boston Port Act: the first of the acts that passed in response to the Boston Tea Party. This Act closed the port of Boston until the Colonists hay paid the destroyed tea to the East India Company.

2. The Massachusetts Government Act: this Act made the Colonies come under British control. Under the terms of the act, almost all positions in the colonial government were to be appointed by the governor or the king and it also limited the activities of the Town Meetings.

3. The Administration of Justice Act: this act allowed the governor to move trials of accused royal officials to another colony or even to Great Britain if he believed the official could not get a fair trial in Massachusetts. George Washington call this the “Murder Act” because he believed that it allowed British official to harass Americans and the escape justice.

4. The Quartering Act: this Act was applied to all of the colonies and it obligated the colonists to provide housing for British troops in America (in a more effective method). In a previous act, the colonies had been required to provide housing for the soldiers, but colonial legislatures had been uncooperative in doing so.

5. The Quebec Act: was a piece of legislation unrelated to the event in Boston, but it was passed around the same time that the other Acts were passed, making the colonists believe that it was part of the punishment. The act enlarged the southern boundaries of Canada and gave them the liberty to choose their faith.

who is John Adams????????????

This is a short biography of John Adams. John Adams was born in Braintree in October 30 of 1735. He was a very intelligent child and he won a scholarship to Harvard, where he became a lawyer and graduated when he was only 20 years old. His most celebrate case was when he defended the British soldiers that were accused for carrying out the Boston Massacre. In 1770 Adams was elected to the General Court of the Massachusetts. He nominated Washington to be commander of the armed forces. He went abroad for some time where he served as a diplomat. He had the opportunity to live in France and Netherlands. In Netherlands he gained loans for the United States. John Adams was elected Vice president of The United States. He is really important also because he was the second president of the United States in 1796. unfortunately he died in July 4 , 1826.

Boston Tea Party.

Maybe you have heard about the Boston Tea Party but we would like to inform you more about what happened back in 1773.

It all started with the French and Indian war. Since King George III and his government didn't have sufficient money to pay the cost of the war they decide to impose taxes on the American Colonies. The English imposed the American Colonies a lot of acts but they got really furious when they decided to tax tea and this is one of the things that fueled the American Revolution. So first the Parliament imposed the Townshend Act and the Colonists refused to follow it because they said they had no reason to pay when they had no representation in the Parliament. Then the parliament gave the East India Company a great monopoly since they allowed them to sell tea directly to the Colonies and this made tea cheaper but it still had taxes on it so the colonists refused to pay it even though it was far more cheap than the smuggled one.

One day in Boston, three ships of tea started a furiuos reaction among the colonists so the colonists decided that the three ships should leave the deck and that they wouldnt pay any more taxes. The Colonists sent someone to give the message, they took the message and they responded that they wouldn't leave if they didn't pay taxes. They got so mad that one day at evening some colonists dressed up like Native Americans, got in the ship and threw all the crates of tea into the ocean. They were dressed like this because they didnt want that Parliament to recognize them. This was called The Boston Tea Party.

Causes of the Revolution!

The American Revolution didn't happen from one day to another. No! Conflicts had been accumulating years before. It seemed like the British weren't listening so the Colonists decided to take action in their own hands.

The following table shows some of the major events that happened before the Revolution and that somehow contributed to its success.

1754—French and Indian War	1767—Colonist Respond with Boycott
1764—British Impose New Taxes	1768—British Troops Land in Boston
1765—Quartering Act	1770—Boston Massacre
1765—Stamp Tax Passed	1770—Townshend Act Repealed
1765—Sons of Liberty Formed	1772—Cutter Gaspee Burned
1765—Stamp Act Congress	1773—Boston Tea Party
1766—Stamp Tax Repealed	1774—Coercive Acts Imposed
1767—Townshend Acts Imposed	1774—First Continental Congress Meets

What is the American Revolution?

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free of the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America. They first rejected the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas without representation, and then expelled all royal officers. By 1774, each colony had established a Provincial Congress, or an equivalent governmental institution, to form individual self-governing states. Through representatives sent in 1775 to the Second Continental Congress, they joined together at first to defend their respective self-governance and manage the armed conflict against the British known as the American Revolutionary War.

In other words, and to make it easy to understand, the Colonists were sick of the British Parliament because they were levying taxes on them, and trying to impose themselves over them when they had no representation on the Parliament (Taxation without Representation). They started to boycott many of the British activities and after a lot of problems, they managed to kick the British out of their lives, leading in to what we call the American Revolution.