The American Revolution was from 1775 to 1783. It started because colonists were being treated and taxed unfairly by Britain. In 1764 the taxing started with the sugar act. The sugar act was when they started taxing the colonists for their sugar because they wanted more money for overseas for more imports. At first the colonists were fine with a few taxation's but then began to get fed up. There was also the currency act which prohibited colonists to issue paper money. The Quartering Act that followed that meant that colonists had to house, feed, and take care of any soldiers that came to their door and asked. This was a big expense for the colonists especially since the troops would always take the best of what the families had and didn't care how much it was or if they had enough even for themselves. The Stamp Act came after when they taxed all pieces of paper had to have a stamp on them that the colonists had to pay for. It wasn't even just for mailing or for envelopes, it was all printed material. The Stamp Act was later repealed that year.
In 1770 the Boston Massacre took place. The colonists used yellow journalism or propaganda to make everyone even more mad at the British than they were before. A mob had formed around the British soldiers as colonists yelled insulting comments at the like "lobster backs". The colonists allegedly started throwing stones at the soldiers and then the soldiers fire back killing 5 people, one of which was a runaway slave. The story that came out to anger and enrage colonists was that the British soldiers shot and killed many innocent people through the town. This was used to fire up the colonists to want to fight back and rebel against the British government. In 1773 the biggest Act of taxation happened which was the Tea Act. The Tea Act charged everyone very highly for tea which was extremely big and popular thing to drink at the time. Not long after that taxation the Boston Tea Party happened. The Boston Tea Party was when colonists dressed up as Indians, crept onto a ship full of tea shipments and dumped it all overboard. The King was furious and refused to have anymore needed imports or exports come through until all the tea was paid for. The King even closed Boston Harbor. The King could tell people were no one longer with him or following him so he issued the Intolerable Act that restricted town meetings so no one could discuss what was happening.
After that people started fighting. The British General Gage marched his troops from Boston to a place nearby Lexington trying to destroy the colonial guns and munitions then planned to Concord. British in Boston seek high ground held by Americans near Bunker Hill. The Americans fought them off hard and ended up winning the battle but losing many lives. The British were trying to respond to military pressure and banned all American goods. On July 4, 1776 congress confirmed Thomas Jefferson's masterwork, The Declaration of Independence and America gains their freedom.