To many in the Continental Congress, war was unthinkable. So why did they finally create this revolutionary document?

In 1773, a group of colonists protested 13 years of increasing British oppression by attacking merchant ships in Boston Harbor.

The Tea Act of 1773, an act of Great Britain's Parliament, was the catalyst for some of the most important moments of the lead-up to the Revolutionary War.

From the 1760's onward, colonial anger grows as the British pass a series of taxes and laws. With each one, the two groups move closer to war.