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Sugar Act
Parlaiment, desiring revenue from it's North American colonies, passes the first law specifically aimed at raising colonial money for the crown. The act increased duties on non-British goods shipped to the colonies. -
Currency Act
This act prohibited American colonies from issuing their own currency, angering many American colonists. -
Beginnings of Colonial Opposition
American colonists responded to the Sugar Act and Currenct Act with protest. By the end of the year, many colonies were practicing nonimportation, a refusal to use imported goods. -
Quartering Act
The British further angered the American colonists with this act, which required the colonies to provide barraks and supplies to British troops. -
Stamp Act
Parlaiment's first direct tax on the American colonies. This act like the others from 1764 were enacted to raise money for Britain. It taxed newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, broadsides, legal documents, dice, and playing cards. -
Organized Colonial Protest
American colonists responded to Parliament's acts with organized protest. Throughout the colonies, a network of secret organizations known as the Sons of Liberty was created, aimed at intimidating the stamp agents who collected Parliament's taxes. -
Repeal of the Stamp Act
After all of the protesting and American colonists causing an uproar the decision in 1766 was to repeal the Stamp Act. -
Declaratory Act
The Repeal of the Stamp Act did not mean Great Britain was surrendering any control over the colonies. The Declaratory act which was passed the same day the Stamp Act was repealed, stated that parliament could make laws binding the American colonies "in all cases whatsoever." -
Resistence to the Quartering Act in New York
New York served as headquarters for British troops in America, so the Quartering Act had a great impact on New York city. -
Townshend Act
To help pay the expenses involved in governing the American colonies, Parliament passed the Townsend Acts, which initiated taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.h -
Nonimportation
In response to new taxes. the colonies again decided to discourage the purchase of British imports. -
Massachussetts Circular Letter
Samuel Adams wrote a statement, approved by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, which attacked Parliament's persistence in taxing the colonies without proper representation, and which called for unified resistance by all the colonies. -
Virginia's Resolutions
The Virginia House of Burgesses passed resolutions condemning Britain's actions against Massachusetts, and stating that only Virginia's governor and legislature could tax its citizens. The members also drafted a formal letter to the King, completing it just before the legislature was dissolved by Virginia's royal governor. -
Towshend Act Cutbacks
Because of the reduced profits resulting from the colonial boycott of imported British goods, Parliament withdrew all of the Townshend Act taxes except for the tax on tea.
