When John Paul visited his brother in Virginia, America was not much
like what it is now. Most of the country was an unexplored wilderness,
and there was no United States as we know it to-day.
Some large settlements, known as colonies, had been made in that part of
the country which lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Alleghany
Mountains.
Most of the people who lived in these colonies were English, and their
governors were appointed by the king of England.
Each governor, with the help of a few men whom he chose from the people,
would make laws for the colony.
Not all the laws were made in this way. Sometimes the king, without
caring for the wishes of the colonists, would make laws to suit himself.
Up to this time the people had been obedient and loyal to their king.
But when George the Third came to the throne of England, he caused the
people a great deal of trouble.
He sent orders to the governors that the colonists should trade with no
other country than his own.
All their goods should be bought in England, and, to pay for them, they
must send to the same country all the corn, cotton, and tobacco which
they had to sell. The colonists wished to build factories and weave
their own cloth, but the king would not allow this.
For a long while England had been at war with France. King George said
that the colonists should help pay the expenses of that war, and
therefore he began to tax them heavily.
They were obliged to pay a tax on every pound of tea, and stamped paper
must be bought for every legal document.
The colonists were much aroused on account of the tea tax and the stamp
act, as it was called.
One day startling news came to John Paul in Virginia. A shipload of tea
had anchored in Boston harbor. The colonists declared that they would
not pay the tax on this tea, and some of them, dressed as Indians, had
gone on board the vessel and thrown it all into the harbor.
Later on, came the news that the king had sent his English soldiers to
Boston to keep the people quiet. He had also closed the port of Boston
and said that no more ships should come in or go out. This aroused the
whole country. Everybody felt that something must be done to preserve
the freedom of the people.
Each colony chose men as delegates to confer together about what was
best to be done. The delegates met in Philadelphia on the 5th of
September, 1774. That meeting has since been called the First
Continental Congress of America.
The delegates of the colonies decided to send a petition to the king
asking that he would remove the taxes and not make unjust laws.
All winter the people waited for an answer, but as none came, matters
grew worse in the spring.
On the 19th of April, 1775, a battle was fought with the king's soldiers
at Lexington, in Massachusetts. This was the first battle of the
American Revolution.