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Writs of assistance
Allowed customs officers to enter any ship or building suspected to be hiding smuggled goods. Officers were also allowed to enter private houses
Colonists Reaction: Colonists argued that this violated their basic rights. -
Proclamation of 1763
Proclaimed colonists were not permitted to settle to the west of the Appalachian line except for fur trading. This allowed England to control the expansion of the settlers and attempted to limit the conflicts between Natives and colonists.
Colonist Reaction: Colonists ignored the line and crossed anyway to settle. -
Sugar Act of 1764
Raised duty on sugar and lowered duty on molasses, which hurt competition for sugar farm in the colonies. The act was created to eliminate illegal sugar trade between the colonies and the French/Spanish. New courts were also created to accuse the smugglers, eliminating favorable local juries.
Colonists Reaction: Regulators Movement: farmers with little representation wanted taxes lowered, Battle of Alamance: Governor wins -
Stamp Act of 1765
Placed a tax on paper products such as newspapers, playing cards and legal documents to help pay for the British soldiers stationed along the Appalachian mountains.
Colonists Reaction: Colonists annoyed at the prospect of having to pay taxes when they weren't represented in England. House of Burgesses passed Patrick Henry’s Stamp Act resolves and declared that the only taxes Virginians should pay are the ones passed by the House of Burgesses. -
Mutiny Act of 1765
Required colonists to help provision and maintain the army, and it was made by the Greenville ministry to try and increase their authority in the colonies.
Colonists Reaction: Further antagonized colonists as they saw it as an assault on their liberties, while British viewed the act as a compensation for giving the colonists their protection -
Quartering Act
Required colonists to feed and house the British troops that were fighting the French
Colonists Reaction: Further antagonized colonists, as they saw it as an assault on their liberties -
Stamp Act Congress
aka First Congress of American Colonies, was a meeting held in NYC and consisted of representatives from some of the colonies. Wanted to create a unified protest against the new British taxation. They issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances where they claimed that Parliament didn’t have the right to impose the tax without colonial representation. Six of the nine delegations signed the petition.
Colonist Reaction: Helped organize and rally the colonists into a uniform protest. -
Declaratory Act
Repeals the Stamp Act due to the economic pressure of the colonists’ boycott of British goods (affected merchants). Parliament also gains “absolute authority” over the colonies.
Colonists Reaction: Colonists didn’t see it as a directly threatening act, but the principle of Parliament declaring ultimate sovereignty worried radicals. -
Townshend Acts
Series of acts passed by Parliament that imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea imported into the colonies.
Colonists Reaction: Colonists still saw the act as unfair since it was created without any representation in Parliament -
Boston Massacre
British troops were stationed in Boston because collectors of the Townshend taxes were being threatened and intimidated. The troops were harassed with snowballs, leading them to fire into the crowd of Bostonians around them, killing 3 and mortally wounding another 2.
Colonists Reaction: To decrease tension, the troops were taken out of Boston and almost all the taxes were repealed in the following years. -
Tea Act-Tea Party
Tea Act greatly lowered the tax on tea from the East India company, granting it a monopoly and making it cheaper than smuggled tea. To protest this, colonists in major cities like Philadelphia, New York and Charleston rejected shipments of tea. In Boston, Sam Adams and members of the Sons of Liberty dressed up like Mohawk natives and threw 342 chests of tea into the ocean. -
Coercive Acts
A series of acts passed by British Parliament after the Boston Tea Party. They were meant to punish the Boston citizens by closing their port until they paid money for destroying the tea, making British officials immune to criminal prosecution and allowing Catholic Canadians the freedom to worship at the Protestants’ borders.
Colonial Reaction: Other colonies came to Boston’s aid. They sent supplies and formed Provincial Congresses to discuss resistance to the British crown. -
Quebec Act
recognized Catholic Church and allowed Catholics to take a place in office. Quebec was given a new governor and assembly and the boundary line was extended down to Ohio and West of the Mississippi River.
Colonist Reaction: Was seen to some colonists as another Coercive Act. Colonies saw this as England restricting their western land claims and development. Some recognized that there was no democracy in Quebec and feared that England might take away their democracy. -
First Continental Congress
made up of representatives from all colonies except Georgia, met to discuss British resistance after the Intolerable Acts were passed. They also petitioned to King George III to address their grievances and organized a boycott of British goods.
Colonists Reaction: Colonists still want to stay under British rule, but they organized for a second Continental Congress to meet if their concerns were not addressed. -
Lexington & Concord
British troops notified of a stockpile of weapons in Concord, and planned to march there from Boston. Paul Revere and William Dawes rode to Lexington, alerting Samuel Adams and John Hancock to leave town. Samuel Prescott went to Concord and alerted the town to move weapons. British burned the few weapons they found & turned back. Minutemen fired upon the retreating British until there was British naval support.
Colonial Reaction: Was the first battle of the Revolutionary War. -
Second Continental Congress
Militarily, Congress took over the army outside Boston and created the Continental Army, with George Washington in control. They created a statement of position with the Olive Branch Petition. Financially, Congress started issuing paper certificates and borrowing from domestic and foreign sources. The Declaration was written, and a few non-binding resolutions were set, asking the states for supplies in the war effort.
Colonists Reaction: Organization of the American war effort -
Olive Branch Petition
Letter to king as a last ditch attempt by the moderates in America to avoid a war against Britain. The petition affirmed American loyalty to GB (despite already authorizing Canada invasion) and asked king to prevent further conflict. Rejected by England even though the King had refused to read it before declaring the Colonists traitors
Colonists Reaction: Petition followed up by Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (making success of petition in London virtually impossible) -
Declaration of Independence
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration declared why the colonies had to become independent of Britain. It is explained that the people have certain rights that can’t be taken away, lists complaints against the king, and argues that the colonies thus must be free to protect the colonists’ rights.
Colonists Reaction: Officially declared the colonies separate from Britain
