In 1765, the British Parliament was forced to repeal the Stamp Act, after widespread chaos and protest in the colonies; however, Parliament viewed this precedent as a dangerous trendsetter and sought to eradicate the problem before it could spread. To this end they affixed the Declaratory Act of 1766 to the repeal of the Stamp Act. The Act stated that British Parliament had as much power to fix laws in the colonies as it had back in Britain and throughout the rest of the Empire: parliament was the ultimate legal authority throughout the colonies. 

King Phillip’s war was fought between Native Americans and Puritan colonists in the 1670s. The war was the culmination of several decades of growing hostility between the Native people and the colonists. For their part, the Native Americans had seen their populations ravaged by European diseases, their lands settled by foreign settlers, and their sovereignty undermined by the imposition of English law. The tensions came to head when King Phillip’s (Native name: Metacomet) father died under suspicious circumstances, shortly after visiting with a colonial assembly. 

The colony of Maryland was established, in part, as a safe place for Catholics to settle. It was an attempt to protect this tradition, against the dominant Anglicanism. The Act allowed for any Trinitarian Christians to settle in Maryland and be afforded equal social and political rights. It did state, however, that denying the divinity of Christ was punishable by death. Although it was frequently repealed and reinstated and then repealed permanently following the Glorious Revolution, many historians consider it to be a framework for later acts of religious toleration in the United States.

It was the Quartering Act of 1765. Needless to say, it was a contributing factor in the American colonists' rebellion.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19th, 1775, were the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.

The Third Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that American citizens are forever protected from having to quarter soldiers in their house. The Amendment was likely added in response to the Quartering Act, which the British instituted during colonial rule: it was designed to ensure a similar imposition on the rights of Americans would not happen again. The freedoms of religion, the press, and speech are all guaranteed in the First Amendment. The right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment.

Thomas Hooker founded the colony of Connecticut after an extensive disagreement with the Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. Hooker was a prominent Christian theologian and minister throughout his life.

The colony of New Hampshire was established by royal charter and founded by John Mason in 1629. The first community there had been established only six years previously. 

The colony of Georgia had largely prospered under royal rule, and at the time of the First Continental Congress, in 1774, the majority of Georgians felt that they needed British rule to protect them from Native American attacks. After the battles of Lexington and Concord, many Georgians began to swing towards allegiance with the rest of the Americans.  

The territory known as New Jersey was originally controlled by the Netherlands—and then by Sweden—before coming in to British hands in the 1660s. The Duke of York, later King James II, awarded the territory of New Jersey jointly to Lord Berkeley and George Carteret. To try to entice settlers Berkeley and Carteret provided for religious freedom in the colony and gave away large tracts of land.