Valleydale High School - Conquest Yearbook (Charlotte, NC)

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cedures and voting rights. Patrick Henry jumped to his feet, saying, Let free men be represented by numbers alone . . . there are no distinctions HERE . . . I am not a Virginian, I am an Ameri- can. The Congress put forth a set of resolutions similar to Massachusetts' Suffolk Resolves, stating colonial rights to life, liberty and property, the rights to free assembly and exclusive power to determine taxation and internal policy. Thirteen acts of Parliament were declared illegal. Eco- nomic boycotts were to be brought against England, until such time of their repeal. All future imports from England were to cease! During the winter months of 1774, tension ran high in Boston. More and more of King Georgels troops arrived. As cold weather also arrived, it became impractical for the troops to quarter on the Commons. General Thomas Gage,the British Commander, tried ' to hire labor to build huts, but to no avail. Unemployment was high, the British wages good but few Bostonians responded with any spirit of cooperativeness. Keeping up the troops' morale was difficult. so marches were made across the bay to the interior. On one such march, American arms and powder were confiscated by the British at Cambridge and Charlestowng the reaction to these forays was the organization of the Com- mittee ofSafety. . John Hancock, a wealthy merchant and shipper, was selected to head the group. The Committee was given the power to call out the militia - of the entire colony if necessary f at any sign of at they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are

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Military power will never awe a sensible American tamely to surrender his liberty. Samuel Adams 1768 In 1773, the British Parliament again blundered, but for the last time. To assist the financially troubled East India Company, England gave it an exclusive monopoly on tea imports to the colonies. This sanctioned monopoly, combined with the tea tax still in effect, fanned the flames of revolt. As ships arrived, the patriots held tea partiesf' In Boston, Sam Adams organized 150 men, disguised as Indians, to dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor in protest of the tax. 2' Independence Hall - Philadelphia This act was repeated in other colonial ports and was, according to the British, the most wanton and unprovoked insult offered to a civil power . . . recorded in history. King George III knew what had to be done: s'Suppress the revolt with troops, do not negotiate, make America obeyf, The line had been drawn and the flames assumed the proportions of an inferno. In the fall of 1774, delegates from every colony journeyed to Philadelphia to form the First Continental Congress. The time had finally arrived to display some unity of purpose. Philadelphia, a booming city of 30,000, greeted her visitors with the jubilant sound of pealing church bells. After much arguing and heated debate on pro- tion 1--We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,

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distress. Each unit of men had a few who were subject to instant call. They were designated Minutemen, The Committee set about pro- curing arms and provisions for up to l5,000 militiamen, choosing Concord as a suitable depot because of its distance from the British troops in Boston. The spring of 1775 brought British retaliation with new acts forbidding the colonies to trade :E anywhere except with England or the British West Indies. New England fishing boats were I l forbidden to fish the North Atlantic waters. Xi' General Gage now faced the difficult task of Y enforcing these new acts of Parliament while K Im at the same time trying to pacify the Massachu- X setts colony e an obviously impossible task. The t X concern of the Committee of Safety was soon E -of f ff? - l L WV , V :sax f Al X 39 all :Q I X i, ill' rf! 'QT57 i ' 1 T .. -e . ,uf 7 X K 'ii ggi?-:'6ixml' E f :E-il' f f ,W ,ff , if ff . e if M 'ii 01:02 Eau Sl I 1 'li' ll -1511.315 f ' -L-x7 - :.:I:? '+ J and the pursuit of Happiness - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted