The Quartering Act 1765

1. The Quartering Act 1765 By: Sarah Mbiki, Alberto Enriquez, and MuamerOmerspahic

2. Why did it happen? What caused it? • Quartering Act- Passed by Parliament on March 1765 requiring the colonies to provide basic needs, housing, and to feed British soldiers. • After the French and Indian War had ended to protect the colonies from the reaming French and Indians who may prose a future threat. British troops lingered around the colonies. • Since England was in major debt from the war, Parliament passed the Quartering Act to cut the cost for England, so they no longer need to supply the troops with supply anymore. • Also if the soldiers would have returned back to England Parliament would have to provide them with pay and pension. So by keeping them in the colonies would pay for them. • Parliament saw it as if the colonies were going to received protection shouldn't they have to pay for it.

3. What were the features/facts of it? • American colonists were required to lodge and feed British troops in barracks or private property. • During the French-Indian war, colonist’s homes were forcibly ceased by the British army. • During the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, one of the grievances mentioned by Thomas Jefferson was that King George III quartered a large body of troops in the colonies. • The third amendment prohibits the wrongful quartering of soldiers in private households.

4. What were the results of it? Effects? Outcome? How did it change things? • The colonist felt that the act meant that the Redcoats could kick out colonists from their own rooms so they could move in. • The New York colonial assembly resented Parliament for commanding them to provide quarters for British troops. • They wanted to be asked and then to give their consent, if they wanted to have them at all. • The New York colonial assembly refused to abide by it, and in 1767, Parliament passed the New York Restraining Act. • The Restraining Act prohibited the royal governor of New York from signing any further legislation until the assembly complied with the Quartering Act.

5. What were the results of it? Effects? Outcome? How did it change things? • The Royal governor managed to convince Parliament that the assembly had complied. • Conflicts rose on an island in Massachusetts where soldiers weren’t able to keep peace in a city affected by the Townshend Revenue Acts. • An injunction was made which British officials followed to quarter their soldiers in public places, not in private homes. • Because of the new injunction, they had to resort to pitching tents on Boston Common. • This living close caused many fight between colonists and soldiers. • Eventually led to the Boston Massacre in 1770, during five colonial rioters were killed and the relationship between Bostonians and the resident Redcoats would never be the same. • The British soldiers stayed in Boston until George Washington drove them out with the Continental Army in 1776.