On May 10, 1775, the members of the Second Continental Congress met at the State House. There were new people like: John Hancoc, Thomas Jefferson, and and Benjamin Franklin.
The Second Continental Congress meeting started with the battle of Lexington and Concord. The New England militia were still encamped outside of Boston trying to drive the British out of Boston. The Second Continental Congress established the militia as the Continental Army to represent the thirteen states. They also elected George Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

Representatives from each colony, except Georgia, met in Philadelphia. The representatives gathered to discuss their response to the British Intolerable Acts. They met to discuss their relationship with Britain, and how to assert their rights with the British government. They wanted to appear as united colonies in their reply to Britain. The purpose of the First Continental Congress was not to seek independence from Britain.

The congress wanted three objectives: to compose a statement of colonial rights, to identify British parliaments violation of those rights, and to provide a plan that would convince Britain to restore those rights. And the members they agree to boycott British. And they said they would met again if the British did not change.

British dicided to punish colonies by blocking the colony access to the North Atlantic fishing area.

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When the British repealed the Townsend Act they removed all taxes and duties on goods, except for tea. This became the focal point of the colonists anger. The British East India Company had controlled all tea trading between India and the British colonies. As a result of the tea tax, the colonies refused to buy the British tea. So they import tea from Holland. And this affect the the British East India Compan.

The British government needed to stop these. So in May 1773 they made the Tea Act. The Tea Act allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the colonists, by passing the colonial wholesale merchants. This allowed the company to sell their tea cheaper than the colonial merchants who were selling import tea from Holland.

The colonist were again angry because they revive the issue of taxation without representation, They didnt wanted to pay the tea and they didnt wanted to be unload but the Governor of Massachusetts said that the tea had to be unloaded and colonist mus pay. :s

On December 16, 1773, a group of men calling themselves the Sons of Liberty went to the Boston Harbor. The men were dressed as Mohawk Indians. They boarded three British ships and dumped forty-five tons of tea into the Boston Harbor.

Customs ships continued to patrol the sea off the coast of America. They would regularly stop merchant ships to examine their cargo looking for illegal goods, and enforcing British customs and taxation laws. The Gaspee was a British Royal Navy ship assigned to customs duty.

The Gaspee was chasing a merchant ship believed to be smuggling goods. On June 9, 1772.The next night, a group of men boarded the Gaspee. They were led by John Brown, a wealthy merchant from Providence. They wounded the lieutenant who was commanding the ship, and set the ship on fire.

The British wanted to know the responsables for this act and they made an investigation also the offer a reward but no one came forward so they never found the people that commit this. The British pay the governors' salary, rather than being paid by the colonies. By doing this they thought they would eliminate the colonies ability to control the governor.

In 1767, the British passed new taxes on glass, paper, teas, paints and other goods shipped to the colonies from Britain. Prime Minister Charles Townsend wanted to raise money to cover the cost for defending the colonies, and pay the salaries of governors and judges in the colonies. These were known as the Townsend Acts.

The colonists reacted by refusing to buy British goods. The colonists argued that they shouldn't be taxed since they had no representation in the British government. The colonists rallied behind the phrase, "No Taxation without Representation." Again Britain was forced to remove the taxes, all except for the tax on tea.

The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains

While England found governing its colonies in America difficult, it also found it expensive. Britain had recently fought the ,French and Indian war which gave it control of Canada and much of the land east of the Mississippi. The war was very expensive for England, and it now needed more money to maintain soldiers in all these areas. In 1764, the British government decided to tax the colonists to pay a share of the costs.

The British taxed all sugar bought from the French or Spanish. The British then created the ,Stamp act requiring all newspapers and legal documents to carry a stamp purchased from the British. These taxes angered the colonists and they managed to force the British to eliminate the Stamp Act and to reduce the taxes on sugar.

When England colonized America it had no master plan on how the colonies would be governed. Some colonies governed themselves. Other colonies were governed by the King's officials. The King insisted on his right to create laws governing the colonies. British parliament also created laws that governed the colonies.

The British passed laws that were in the best interest of England, not the colonies. For example, they passed the Navigation Act which restricted colonists from competing with British businesses. They also prevented colonists from selling their goods to countries other than Britain, even if the country was willing to pay a higher price than the British. Britain made it difficult for the colonies to trade with the French and the Spanish.

The colonies resented British control. The colonies created their own laws, and ignored the British laws they did not like. This created considerable tension between Britain and the colonies.