Henry Pelham, The Boston Massacre

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What is the proper sequence of the following
events? Boston Tea Party Stamp Act French and
Indian War Declaration of Independence Battles of
Concord and Lexington
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French and Indian War (1754-1763) Stamp Act
(1765) Boston Tea Party (December 1773) Battles
of Concord and Lexington (April
1775) Declaration of Independence (July 1776)
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It was now evening, and I immediately dressed
myself in the costume of an Indian, equipped with
a small hatchet, which I and my associates
denominated the tomahawk, with which, and a club,
after having painted my face and hands with coal
dust in the shop of a blacksmith, I repaired to
Griffin's wharf, where the ships lay that
contained the tea. When I first appeared in the
street after being thus disguised, I fell in with
many who were dressed, equipped and painted as I
was, and who fell in with me and marched in order
to the place of our destination. George
Robert Twelves Hewes
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This morning I see in the newspaper (which by
the way is almost the only way I hear from our
Colony) that Portsmouth had appointed Messrs
Cutts, Sherburne and Long, to represent that town
in Provincial Convention, and by the Instructions
I find the town is very much afraid of the idea
conveyed by the frightful word Independence! This
week a pamphlet on that Subject was printed here,
and greedily bought up and read by all ranks of
people. I shall send you one of them, which you
will please to lend round to the people perhaps
on consideration there may not appear any thing
so terrible in that thought as they might at
first apprehend, if Britain should force us to
break off all connections with her. Josiah
Bartlett to John Langdon, January 13, 1776
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Volumes were insufficient to describe the
horror, misery, and desolation awaiting the
people at large in the Syren form of American
independence. In short, I affirm that it would be
most excellent policy in those who wish for true
liberty, to submit by an advantageous
reconciliation to the authority of Great Britain
" to accomplish in the long run, what they
cannot do by hypocrisy, fraud, and force in the
short one.' Independence and slavery are
synonymous terms.
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IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776The unanimous
Declaration of the thirteen united States of
America When in the Course of human events it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with
another and to assume among the powers of the
earth, the separate and equal station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation. We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the
governed, That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes and accordingly all
experience hath shewn that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such
Government, and to provide new Guards for their
future security. Such has been the patient
sufferance of these Colonies and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their
former Systems of Government. The history of the
present King of Great Britain is a history of
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in
direct object the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States.
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To the Honorable Counsel House of
Representatives for the State of Massachusette
Bay in General Court assembled, Jan 13 1777
-- The petition of A Great Number of Blackes
detained in a State of Slavery in the Bowels of a
free christian Country Humbly shuwith that your
Petitioners Apprehend that Thay have in Common
with all other men a Natural and Unaliable Right
to that freedom which the Grat Parent of the
Unavese hath Bestowed equalley on all menkind and
which they have Never forfuted by Any Compact or
Agreement whatever -- but thay wher Unjustly
Dragged by the hand of cruel Power from their
Derest frinds and sum of them Even torn from the
Embraces of their tender Parents -- from A
popolous Plasant And plentiful cuntry And in
Violation of Laws of Nature and off Nations And
in defiance of all the tender feelings of
humanity Brough hear Either to Be sold Like Beast
of Burthen Like them Condemnd to Slavery for
Life -- among A People Profesing the mild?
Religion of Jesus A people Not Insensible of the
Secrets of Rationable Being Nor without spirit to
Resent the unjust endeavours of others to Reduce
them to A state of Bondage and Subjection your
honouer Need not to be informed that A Life of
Slavery Like that of your Petioners Deprived of
Every social Priviledge of Every thing Requiset
to Render Life Tolable is far worse then
Nonexistance. In imita tion of the Lawdable
Example of the Good People of these States your
petiononers have Long and Patiently waited the
Evnt of petition after petition By them presented
to the Legislative Body of this state And cannot
but with Grief Reflect that their Sucess hath ben
but too similar they Cannot but express their
Astonisments that It has Never Bin Consirdered
that Every Principle from which Amarica has Acted
in the Cours Of their unhappy Deficultes with
Great Briton Pleads Stronger than A thousand
arguments in favowrs of Your petioners thay
therfor humble Beseech your Honours to give this
petion its due weight considerration and cause
an act of the Legislatur to be past Wherby they
may Be Restored to the Enjoyments of that Which
is the Naturel Right of all men and their
Children who wher Born in this Land of Liberty
may not be heald as Slaves after they arive at
the age of Twenty one years so may the
Inhabitance of thes StateNo longer chargeable
with the inconsistancey of acting themselves the
part which thay condem and oppose in Others Be
prospered in their present Glorious Struggle for
Liberty and have those Blessing to them c.