Stamp Act / Put a tax on legal
documents such as
wills, diplomas,
marriage papers,
newspapers almanacs,
playing cards and dice. / Riots broke out. Mobs burned
down houses and tarred and
feathered tax collectors.
They boycotted British goods. / British merchants
suffered. Trade fell
by 14%. In 1766
Parliament repealed
the Stamp Act.
Townshend
Act / The Townshend Act taxed glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea and other goods. It established new ways to collect taxes. Customs officials were sent to the colonies and were allowed to use writs of assistance to enforce the law. / -Colonists once again protested that this was “taxation without representation” and writs of assistance violated their rights as British citizens.
-Colonists boycotted(non-importation agreements) British goods. Colonists also burned British officials in effigy, paraded, and petitioned the British government. / British merchants hurt by thenon-importation agreements
pressured Parliament to
repeal the taxes.
The Townshend Act was
repealed by Parliament in
1770.
Quartering
Act / Under the Quartering Actcolonists had to provide housing, candles, bedding, and beverages to British soldiers stationed in the colonies. /
- Many colonists believed the Quartering Act was a clear violation of the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
- The New York Assembly refused to
NY assembly. The
Quartering Act was eventually
repealed by Parliament
in 1770.
Act / Provisions / Colonists Reaction / Result
Sugar Act / The Sugar Act replaced
an earlier tax on molasses.
The new law made it easier
to bring smugglers to
trial. / Colonists continued to do what they had already been doing before the Sugar Act to avoid paying the tax – they smuggled molasses into the colonies and bribed tax collectors to look the other way. / Writs of assistance were
used to try and catch
smugglers
( legal documents which
allowed British customs
officials to inspect a ship’s
cargo without giving any
reason to the ship’s owner
or crew).
Tea Act / The British East India Company (BEIC) was in financial trouble because colonists were refusing to buy British tea to protest the tax on it. The Tea Act allowed the BEIC to bypass the local colonist merchants and sell directly to the colonists. / American tea merchants were angry because they thought the Tea Act violated their right to “free enterprise.” Daughters of Liberty brewed “liberty tea” from raspberry leaves. Members of the Sons of Liberty threw 342 chests of tea into BostonHarbor on the night of December 16, 1773 to protest the Tea Act. / Britain punished Boston
with the Intolerable Acts that were not to be lifted until they
paid for the tea.
Intolerable Acts
Acts / The Intolerable Acts closed the Port of Boston until all of the property damages caused by the Boston Tea Party were paid for. Citizens of Boston were only allowed to hold only one town meeting per year. All juries were to be chosen by British officials and any customs officials charged with a crime would stand trial in Britain. A new Quartering Act stated colonists would have to house British soldiers when no other housing was available. / Committees of Correspondence spread word to the other colonies that sent shipments of food overland to Boston. In September of 1774 delegates from 12 colonies met in Philadelphia – First Continental Congress (FCC). The FCC agreed to boycott British goods and not to export goods to Britain. They urged the colonists to set up militias. In Massachusetts, they began collecting weapons and gunpowder and storing it in Concord. / The opening shots of the
American Revolution.