Historical Research Library

Discover the people, events, and key documents that shaped the Founding Era. 

Singers and dancers focused on Chris Jackson playing George Washington

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Paul Revere, "The Bloody Massacre in King-Street, March 5, 1770," Boston, 1770 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Boston Massacre, 1770

A “massacre” of civilians in Boston by British troops fueled colonial resentment of British rule

Event
Bostonian’s Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring and Feathering

Boston Tea Party, 1773

Colonial tax protest in which American patriots dumped British tea into Boston Harbor

Event
"First Continental Congress," by Allyn Cox, 1974 (Architect of the Capitol)

First Continental Congress, 1774

A gathering of American colonial delegates in Philadelphia to address grievances against British rule and advocate for colonial rights

Event
“Bloody Butchery by the British Troops,” broadside by Ezekiel Russell, 1775 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Battles of Lexington and Concord, 1775

The first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War in 1775—marked by confrontations between colonial militia and British troops

Event
Washington at Valley Forge, F. Heppenheimer, 1853 (Library of Congress)

Winter at Valley Forge, 1777–1778

The Continental Army faced extreme hardships at Valley Forge during the harsh winter of 1777–1778—strengthening their resilience and unity

Event
James S. Baillie, Surrender of Cornwallis, 1845 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

Battle of Yorktown, 1781

A decisive victory of American and French forces that led to British surrender and American independence

Event
Daniel Shays and Job Shattuck, 1787, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Shays’ Rebellion, 1786

An armed uprising by indebted Massachusetts farmers protesting economic injustice and demanding debt relief

Event
Washington at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, by Junius Brutus Stearns, 1856 (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Creative Commons CC-BY-NC.)

Constitutional Convention, 1787

Delegates meet in Philadelphia to address weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, resulting in a new form of government 

Event
“Washington Reviewing the Western Army at Fort Cumberland, Maryland,” attributed to Frederick Kemmelmeyer, 1795 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Whiskey Rebellion, 1794

Pennsylvania farmers violently resisted a federal whiskey tax—illustrating the tensions between frontiersmen and the new government’s authority

Event