Document chronology Introduction: Three Congresses, Anglo-American constitutionalism, and British imperialism and monarchy : in search of a new/old approach to understanding American Revolutionary-Era history Act I: The Stamp Act crisis, 1764-1766. New York petitions opposing the Sugar, Currency, and Stamp Acts, October 18, 1764 ; A Massachusetts protest against the Sugar Act, November 3, 1764 ; Virginia petitions to the King and Parliament, December 18, 1764 ; Colonial resolves opposing the Stamp Act, June-December 1765 ; Statements of the Stamp Act Congress, October 1765 ; Statements of the Sons of Liberty, December 1765-March 1766 ; Benjamin Franklin defends the Colonies before Parliament, February 1766 ; Parliament's immediate resolution of the imperial crisis, March 1766 Act II: Response to the Coercive Acts, 1774. Massachusetts opposition to the Declaratory Act and the Coercive Acts, September 1774 ; A design for unifying the Colonies within the Empire, September 1774 ; Colonial boycotts of British goods, September-October 1774 ; Congress defends itself to metropolitan Britons and Continental Colonists, October 21, 1774 ; A statement of principles and complaints, October 1774 ; Messages to other British Colonies, October 1774 ; Congress pleads with George III, October 1774 Act III: The fighting begins, 1775. Congress justifies itself to Canadian and American Colonists, May 1775 ; Political recommendations for Massachusetts and religious recommendations for the Colonies, June 1775 ; Congress plans for war, July 1775 ; Congress issues a final plea for peace, July 1775 ; Congress appeals to Britons, July 8, 1775 ; Congress appeals to Native Americans, July 13, 1775 ; Congress appeals to the Irish, July 28, 1775 ; Congress rejects Parliament's peace overtures, July 1775 ; Plans for new Colonial governments, November-December 1775 ; Congress responds to the King's charge of insurgency, December 1775
Act IV: Toward independence, 1776. The state of affairs in America before and after Paine, January 1776 ; Congressional moderates' unpublished last defense of empire and reconciliation, February 1776 ; American and British calls for fasting, March and October 1776 ; Congress and Parliament declare a trade war : the Colonies' first step toward independence, March 1776 ; Congress intensifies the trade war : a bolder step toward independence, April 1776 ; More plans for new Colonial governments : almost independence, May 1776 ; Prelude to the declaration and independence, June 1776 ; Independence is declared, July 1776
Act V: New nations, 1776-1777. First draft of a plan for a national government : the four principal issues of concern, July 1776 ; A meager offer of peace from the King, July 1776 ; The Howe Peace Commission, September 1776 ; Difficulties in overseeing the Continental Army : states versus congressional authorities, February 1777 ; Debating state sovereignty and a bicameral national legislature : Thomas Burke's amendments to the Articles of Confederation, May 1777 ; Testing the extent of popular sovereignty : Congress limits the reach of the Declaration's rights claims, June 1777 ; Congress' first "national" day of thanksgiving and its support for ordering Bibles, September and November 1777 ; Another inadequate and unsuccessful British effort at reconciliation, November 1777 ; Finalizing the Articles of Confederation and resolving the four principal issues of concern, November 1777 ; Continuing difficulties in overseeing the Continental Army, December 1777
Appendix: Four additional documents, informative but off-stage. Benjamin Franklin, Articles of Confederation, July 21, 1775 ; The Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson's notes, July 1-4, 1776 ; Ratified text of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, March 1, 1781 ; Royal instructions to the Carlisle Peace Commission, April 12, 1778.
