Writs of Assistance
♦ Legal Document which allowed British naval officers to inspect colonial ship (to check for smuggled goods). The British did not need to have any reason at all to search.
♦ Response: They said Writs violated their rights to privacy as British citizens
Proclamation of 1763
♦ British barred the settlement of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains
Colonial Response:♦ Anger after just having fought the war♦ Prevented some from moving west, others
moved West anyway
Sugar Act, 1764
♦ Tax on molasses and sugar (from Triangular Trade)
♦ British actually lowered the tax, but it was enforced for the first time.
♦ Smugglers were put on trial without juries (a group of their peers-single person decided)
♦ Colonial Reaction:– Taxation without representation is wrong!– Trial without juries is wrong! –Against their Brit.
Rights
Stamp Act, 1765
♦ Required revenue stamps to be put on all publications and legal documents (newspapers, wills, marriage papers, etc
Colonial Response♦ Organized Stamp Act Congress:fought the
tax, Sons of liberty: they boycotted British goods
Declaratory Act, 1766
♦ Claimed the British could make laws and raise taxes whenever they wanted
♦ Reaction: Not much. Stamp Act was just repealed(overturned), so they didn’t notice this act.
Quartering Act, 1765
♦ Required the colonist to quarter (only feed) British troops in America.
♦ Reaction: New Yorkers refused, Bostonians grew more upset
Townshend Act, 1767
♦ Tax on tea, glass, lead, paper, and silk
♦ Allowed writs of assistance
♦ Reaction: Colonists signed non-importation agreements-stop importing goods from Eng. that were taxed by Townshend Acts.
Boston Massacre, 1770
♦ March 5, 1770♦ Snowballs and rocks thrown at British
soldiers♦ Unknown person shouted “Fire”♦ 5 colonists were killed♦ Crispus Attucks, former slave, first to die
for liberty
Boston Massacre cont’d
♦ Sam Adams publicizes it with propaganda (using the press to prove or exaggerate a point of view)-calls it a massacre of innocent victims-was actually fault on both sides
♦ Paul Revere prints an engraving showing unarmed men and women being fired upon (and even a little puppy dog )
♦ John Adams, a lawyer, defends the British troopsSaying the most imp. idea was for the colonists to
uphold the rule of law and avoid mob rule.
Reaction to Boston Massacre
♦ Colonists Propaganda♦ British respond by repealing the most of the
Townshend Acts, but left the tax on tea.
Tea Act, 1773
♦ Removed taxes paid by the British East India Company (had 15 million pounds of extra tea)
♦ Let BEIC sell directly to colonist-cut out the colonial merchant middleman-colonial business lost huge money, even though the tea was actually cheaper
Colonial Response: Boston Tea Party
♦ December 16, 1773: 60 members of the Sons of Liberty dressed up as Mohawk Native Americans and threw 342 chests of tea overboard on three different ships-a social, economic and political act
Intolerable Acts, 1774
♦ Britain reacts to the Boston Tea Party:
• Closes the port of Boston
• Town meetings could only be held once a year
• British officials committing crimes in the colonies would be tried in Great Britain, where they would find a more friendly environment
• Stronger Quartering Act-now had to house soldiers as well as feed them
Continental Congress, 1774
♦ Responded to Intolerable Acts by:– Forming an association to boycott British trade– Declaring Intolerable Acts unconstitutional– Claimed their liberties as Englishmen had been
violated– Urged each colony to form a militia (an army of
citizens)