Children's Stories in American History

by Henrietta Christian Wright

The Americans were quite willing to pay their share; but they said that since America was a part of the English possessions, American statesmen should be sent to the English Parliament to represent the colonies, and see that their interests were guarded; just as from all the different counties of England men were sent to Parliament to see that taxes were not distributed unjustly among the people there.

But George III. utterly refused to permit the colonists to send these representatives; and instead passed some very unjust laws, and laid taxes on many articles that had not been taxed before.

This aroused the indignation of the Americans, who refused to pay the taxes, and even attacked the English officers who tried to collect them. Meetings were held all over the country, and everywhere the same feeling was shown. In Boston, rather than pay the tax on a shipload of tea, the Bostonians, disguised as Indians, went on board the ship and threw the tea into the harbor. In New York an angry mob burned the effigy of the English Governor, and in every place women refused to buy English goods and said they would rather wear homespun than submit to such injustice.

This conduct only angered the king the more. He denied the right of America to resist his laws, and passed measures more irritating still.

The Americans began to wonder if he would force them into an open rebellion. The excitement grew stronger each day, and the king's authority was openly questioned. In large meetings the chief Americans discussed the vexed question, and decided that they had been right in resisting the king, and would continue to resist him until he repealed the unjust laws. Patrick Henry, a great orator of Virginia, made an address, in which he denounced George III. as a tyrant, and warned him against further exciting the indignation of the colonists. The king replied by calling the Americans traitors, and sending an armed force to frighten the rebels into submission.

Many of the wisest Englishmen tried to persuade King George to acknowledge the rights of the Americans in this matter; among them William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, who in an address to Parliament declared that he rejoiced that America had resisted. But they were unsuccessful, and things grew quickly worse.

The presence of English troops in America was the signal for more determined opposition. Companies of militia were formed in all the towns and villages, and the English saw that the Americans were preparing to defend themselves. In Boston, where the anger against the British soldiers was very great, and where some quarrels with them had already happened, the English general saw these preparations on every side. Among other things, he heard that the people had collected ammunition and provisions at Concord, a village some distance away, and he sent a party of soldiers to destroy these stores. As this party passed through Lexington, another village, on the way to Concord, on the morning of April 19, 1775, they found a company of farmers assembled on the village green, to keep them from going further. They fired upon these men, and the Americans fired in return, though they were obliged to give way. Several of the Americans were killed and wounded, and this was the first blood shed in the Revolution.

Two months later, on June 17th, as English troops were preparing to leave Boston, they found that breastworks had been made on Bunker Hill, behind which stood the Americans ready to resist them. The battle which followed showed the English that the Americans were much better soldiers than they had any idea of. They fought with the utmost skill and courage, and only withdrew when their powder and shot were quite exhausted; and although the English thus won the day, still the Americans were far from being disheartened.

But they really did not wish a long and hard war with England, and would have been very glad if the king had shown any signs of relenting; but he did not, and they determined to fight it out. An army of twenty thousand men was soon gathered around Boston; George Washington, one of the heroes of the French and Indian wars, was chosen commander-in-chief of the army, and war really began.

Several battles were fought; sometimes the English were successful and sometimes the Americans, and the end seemed as far off as ever.