By the time the Continental Congress declared independence in 1776, the British government had done quite a bit to provoke it. Colonists had been resisting Parliament’s authority for almost a decade. But many American patriots wanted to remain loyal to King George III right up until the American Prohibitory Act of December 1775.

The king not only brushed aside the colonists’ legitimate grievances but declared them to be in rebellion and cast them outside royal protection. The act authorized a war against them — a naval blockade of their ports and the hiring of foreign mercenaries to suppress their rebellion.