Acts of the British Parliament on the Colonists

1. Acts of the British Parliament on the Colonists Taxes Leading to the American Revolutionary War

2. Proclamation of 1763 • The end of the French and Indian War in 1763 was a cause for great celebration in the colonies • Expand to the great western frontier (Gained Canada from France) • The royal proclamation of 1763 did much to dampen that celebration. The proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. • The King wanted to calm the fears of the Indians • Felt that the colonists would drive them from their home. • easier to regulate because they were in proximity to Britain

3. The Sugar Act (Revenue Act) 1764 • Modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act (1733) • Colonial merchants were required to pay a tax of six pence per gallon on the importation of foreign molasses. • Because of corruption, they mostly evaded the taxes and undercut the intention of the tax (Smuggling) • The Sugar Act reduced the rate of tax on molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon and was strictly enforced. • The act also listed more foreign goods to be taxed including sugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento, cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the export of lumber and iron. • This act, and the Currency Act, set the stage for the revolt at the imposition of the Stamp Act.

4. The Currency Act1764 • The colonies suffered a constant shortage of currency with which to conduct trade. • There were no gold or silver mines and currency could only be obtained through trade as regulated by Great Britain. • The Currency Act of 1764 prohibited all American colonies from issuing paper currency, thereby creating severe monetary problems.

5. The Quartering Act1765 • The Quartering Act of 1765 was intended to help the British defray the cost of maintaining troops in America. • The Act required that the colonists had to supply British troops with food, munitions and barracks. • The Act was bitterly resented by the Americans, particularly because the troops were used to enforce Parliament’s new tax policies in the colonies; the negative effect this had on American sentiment

6. The Stamp Act 1765 • The objective of the Stamp Act was to reduce the burden of administering the colonies by taxing trade and certain other products. • Taxes collected under the provisions of the Stamp Act were to be applied exclusively to treasuries in America, and used only for the administration of the colonies. • The act provided that a revenue stamp be applied to a long list of items, including newspapers, books, pamphlets, legal documents, licenses, diplomas, and playing cards. • Colonists viewed the Stamp Act crisis as a violation of their rights and privileges as British subjects .

7. The Repeal of the Stamp Act 1766  • The American colonists won their first victory over Parliament when the Stamp Act was repealed in early 1766. • The boycott of English goods proved to be the decisive factor, as there was no way to ignore the pain the American boycott was inflicting on English manufacturers. • “The Repeal of the Stamp Act, to whatsoever causes owing, ought much to be rejoiced at, for had the Parliament of Great Britain resolved upon enforcing it the consequences I conceive would have been more direful than is generally apprehended”

8. The Townshend Revenue Act1767 • Taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea • Designed to raise £40,000 a year • For the administration of the colonies. • The result was the resurrection of colonial hostilities created by the Stamp Act. • “The Townsend Duties Crisis was never resolved. It culminated in the Boston Tea Party, that triggered off the final sequence of events leading to the War of American Independence.” • Peter D.G. Thomas, The Townsend Duties Crisis

9. The Tea Act 1773 • The Tea Act was final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. • The act imposed no new taxes. • It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. • This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. • The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants. • Colonists in Philadelphia and New York turned the tea ships back to Britain. In Boston the Royal Governor was stubborn & held the ships in port, where the colonists would not allow them to unload. Cargoes of tea filled the harbor. • This situation lead to the Boston Tea Party.

10. The Intolerable Acts 1774 • The “Intolerable Acts” of 1774, known to the British as the Coercive Acts, were four exceedingly severe Acts passed expressly to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party. • The most important of these, the Boston Port Act, closed Boston’s port to all commerce except for food and fuel—and provisions for the Royal army. • The Act stipulated that the port could not be re-opened until the colonists had paid for the tea that had been destroyed in the Boston Tea Party. • Boston town meetings could not be convened without the governor’s prior consent. • Thomas Jefferson’s wrote of this Act that “the cowards who would suffer a countryman to be torn from the bowels of their society, in order to be thus offered a sacrifice to parliamentary tyranny, would merit that everlasting infamy now fixed on the authors of the act!”

11. Other Acts Placed on the Colonists • The Hat Act enacted in 1732 • To control hat production by the Americans in the Thirteen Colonies. • It specifically placed limits on the manufacture, sale, and exportation of American-made hats. • The act also restricted hiring practices by limiting the number of workers that hat makers could employ, and placing limits on apprenticeships by only allowing 2 apprentices. • The law's effect was that Americans in the colonies were forced to buy British-made goods, and this artificial trade restraint meant that Americans paid four times as much for hats and cloth imported from Britain than for local goods.