Acts and reactions

Or am not, are too, am not, are too…….

The situation

• England wants to reassert control over trade in the colonies.

• The Northern colonies especially Massachusetts are bypassing the colonial mercantilist rules by smuggling and using the black market.

• People can get what they need cheaper from foreign competitors of British merchants

• England and France engage in a series of wars in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The fighting eventually spills over to the American colonies and is called the French and Indian War.

• The British eventually defeat the French and their Indian allies. England gains control of Canada and the land east of Mississippi to the Appalachian mountains.

• England also gets a massive war debt.• In order to raise revenue they enact a

series of laws designed to prop up their economy.

• The colonists in Massachusetts refused to obey the navigation acts and openly traded with Europe the Caribbean and Africa.

• In fact they refused to even answer King Charles II charges for 2 years.

• 1684 King Charles II takes away Ma. Charter and forms the Dominion of New England ( Ma, R.I. Conn.) all colonial assemblies were dissolved, Sir Edmund Andros appointed governor general.

The navigation acts

The Navigation acts• A series of laws that regulated the delivery

of goods to the north American colonies.

• All pilgrim ships must be outfitted with GPS navigation systems.

• All goods to and from colonies must be carried on British ships

• All ships must have 3/4ths of crew be English

• This makes everything more expensive for the colonists

The staples act

• Sort of an add on to the navigation acts where all imports to the colonies must first stop in England to pay a custom duty (tax) this made money for the mother country (England)

• Frustrated colonists openly broke these laws and England had a hard time enforcing them.

The proclamation act 1763

• French and Indian war ends and Britain wants to avoid conflict with natives and declares that people cant settle west of the Appalachian mountains.

• This cuts the supply of available land down drastically and the colonists resent being told where they can settle.

The sugar act

The Sugar act 1764

• Changed the tariff rates on raw sugar and molasses from foreign colonies also taxed wine ,silk, coffee, indigo.

• Act also violated colonists rights of due process

• James Otis claims this act is taxation without representation- its tyranny.

The stamp act

The stamp act 1765

• Placed a tax on all printed materials in the colonies: newspapers, documents even playing cards.

• Thos was Britain's first direct tax on the colonies, designed to solely create revenue for the crown.

• Leads to a non importation agreement between merchants in the colonies until the stamp act was lifted

Non importation agreements

• Colonies decide to boycott English goods as protest of the stamp act .

• Colonists decide to make their own or make do with out in order to send a message to parliament about unfair taxes

Your gonna stay where????

Quartering act 1765

• After the French and Indian wars England needed money

• Required the colonies to pay for more of their own defense by providing barracks and places for the soldiers to stay when they are sent to America

• This angered colonists who considered themselves to be Englishmen.

Committees of correspondence

• Early 1773 Thomas Jefferson, after the “Gaspee Affair” , has the idea to get official committees to write back and forth to keep tabs on what the British were doing in different parts of the colonies

“The Gaspee Affair”

Writs of assistance 1767

• Townsend act taxed lead, paper, glass, paint.

• People charged were assumed guilty until proven innocent, and tried in vice admiralty court

• To help revenue officials collect the tax they used writs of assistance- general search warrants that allowed officials to enter any house looking for smuggling

We’re looking for evidence of smuggling

The Boston Massacre

• 1767 the Townsend acts- which changed taxes on many items was passed- colonists opposed these acts ---the colony of Ma. Writes a letter of protest British crown orders them to recant- but we don’t the colonial assemble is dissolved, non importation agreements and protests lead to the Boston massacre march 5 1770, 5 dead 6 wounded.

The tea act 1773

• England tried to prop up the failing East India Tea co. by lowering taxes on tea to increase sales in the colonies

• The tea act repealed 80% of taxes making official tea cheaper then smuggled tea, middlemen merchants were losing business colonists believed England was trying to ruin their economy.

The Boston tea party

• December 1773 patriots dressed as Indians sneak aboard tea ships and throw the tea overboard to prevent it from being sold. 342n chests of tea ruined .

• King George gets all worked up and decides to punish Ma. With the coercive acts. As an example for the other colonies

The coercive acts 1774

• Designed to punish ma. And end colonial challenges to the British authority – Closed port of Boston – All officials had to be appointed by cerown no

town meetings– British troops and officials would be tried in

England– People had to house troops in New England

2000 sent to Boston

The first continental congress

• 55 delegates representing 12 colonies get together and come up with a complaint for the king

• “Declaration of rights and grievances” – Claiming loyalty to the king they protested the

coercive acts…among other things– Created non importation league with officials

to enforce the boycott of British goods