1. What were King George's new taxes? What was their three-fold purpose?
2. Why were all the taxes repealed except the one on tea? In what way did the King try to entrap the Americans?
3. Tell about the bitter struggle over landing the tea.
4. Can you form mental pictures of the following: The throng of excited men in and about the Old South Church, awaiting the return of Benjamin Rotch; and the party of "Mohawks" on their way down Milk Street to the harbor?
5. What was the great work of Samuel Adams? What do you admire in his character? Compare him with Patrick Henry. Have you definite pictures of the personal appearance of these men?
Paul Revere and the Battle of Concord and Lexington
After the "Boston Tea Party," affairs became more serious than ever in Massachusetts. As a punishment to the rebellious colonists for daring to oppose their royal master, the English authorities closed the port of Boston to all trade, and made General Gage military governor of Massachusetts.
One of the first acts of the new Governor was to dismiss the Colonial Assembly, thus depriving the people of their right to make laws, and subjecting them wholly to the will of the King. The colonists felt this to be an outrage upon free government, and immediately organized a new governing body which they called a Provincial Congress. With John Hancock as its president and Samuel Adams as its leading spirit, this congress began at once to make rapid preparations for war. It called for an army of 20,000 men who were to be ready, at a minute's notice, to march to any point of danger. These first soldiers of the Revolution, thus hastily mustered, were called "minute-men."
Meanwhile General Gage, who was in command of 3,000 British troops in Boston, had received orders from England to seize John Hancock and Samuel Adams as traitors. General Gage knew that Hancock and Adams were staying for a while with a friend in Lexington. He had learned also through his spies that the minute-men had collected some cannon and military stores in Concord, eighteen miles from Boston. The British General planned, therefore, to send a body of troops to arrest the two leaders at Lexington, and then to push on and destroy the stores at Concord.