1. Committee of Correspondence
Samuel Adams formed a committee of correspondence, a group that regularly wrote letters and pamphlets reporting to other colonies on events in Massachusetts.

2. Committees of Correspondence related news about Intolerable Acts to other colonies. Since Boston Harbor was closed Boston needed food and other colonies helped out.

3. First Continental Congress
Delegates from 12 colonies gathered in Philadelphia.
All Colonies represented except Georgia

4. First Continental Congress
Agreed to boycott all British goods and to stop exporting goods to Britain until Intolerable Acts were repealed.

5. First Continental Congress
Urged each colony to set up a militia, which is an army of citizens who serve as soldiers in an emergency.
Agreed to meet again the next year.

6. Shot Heard ‘round the World

7. Shot Heard ‘round the World

8. Minutemen

9. Minutemen
Volunteer members of Mass.militia who kept their muskets at hand and were prepared to fight at a moment’s notice

10. General Thomas Gage

11. General Thomas Gage British commander
Scouted out towns near Boston looking for arms
Found arms in Concord 18 miles from Boston

12. April 18, 1775
700 British troops quietly leave Boston to seize the colonial arms.
Gage wanted to capture Sam Adams and John Hancock, important leaders in the Sons of Liberty. Gage found out that they were hiding out at a house in Lexington.

13. Paul Revere’s Famous Ride
Two lamps hung in Old North Church by Robert Newman (British coming by sea)

14. Paul Revere (sea route), William Dawes (land route), and Dr
Paul Revere (sea route), William Dawes (land route), and Dr. Samuel Prescott (was in Lexington) had to warn Adams, Hancock, the minutemen and Sons of Liberty members that the British “regulars” were coming.

16. Battles of Lexington and Concord
April 18-19, 1775 4

17. On to Concord… The three men get arrested by the British…
Prescott was the only rider to reach Concord.

18. April 19 - Lexington…. 100 militiamen under Captain Parker
British outnumbered the militia and ordered them to go home. Some men begin to go home.
Captain Parker wanted the minutemen to not back down. He said, “Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

19. Suddenly a shot rang out - no one knows which side fired
Shot heard round the world - first shot fired in battle and started the American Revolution.
Eventually, this shot led to a new nation

20. Battle of Lexington
Result of brief battle – 8 colonists died

21. British Push on to Concord
British found no arms and began to march back towards Boston.
Bridge outside of Concord British see 300 minutemen prepared to fight.
British were forced to retreat - lost 73 men and 200 soldiers were wounded or missing.

22. Fighting Begins in the North

23. Lexington and Concord
News spreads quickly
10,000-15,000 militia rushed towards Boston