Protests Spread
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PROTESTS SPREAD
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Protests Spread. Protests Spread. British officials sought a means of taxing the colonists in a way that would not anger them. The Townshend Acts were a series of measures introduced into Parliament by Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend in 1767. . Charles Townshend. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Protests Spread
PROTESTS SPREAD
British officials sought a means of taxing the colonists in a way that would not anger them.
The Townshend Acts were a series of measures introduced into Parliament by Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend in 1767.
PROTESTS SPREAD
Townshend hoped the acts would pay imperial (British) expenses in the colonies and weaken the colonial assemblies.
Because Benjamin Franklin and other Americans in Britain had argued against Parliament's power to impose the Stamp Act on the ground that it was a direct tax, British leaders convinced themselves that the colonists would accept so-called indirect taxes such as import duties.
This was a wishful misunderstanding of colonial opinion.
TOWNSHEND ACTS OF 1767
TOWNSHEND ACTS OF 1767
The acts imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea imported into the colonies.
The acts also created a Board of Customs Commissioners to enforce customs laws without the accused having recourse to a trial by jury.
TOWNSHEND ACTS OF 1767
The Townshend Acts set up a system to enforce the new import duties.
To help customs officers find illegal (smuggled) goods, they were allowed to use writs of assistance.
Writs of Assistance – court orders that allowed officials to make searches without saying for what they were searching.
Many colonists saw these writs and the searches they allowed as yet another violation of their rights.
TOWNSHEND ACTS OF 1767
When the New York assembly refused to supply money to house and feed soldiers under the Quartering Act, Parliament suspended the assembly.
The colonies reacted with a series of Non-Importation Agreements, or boycotting of British goods-which reduced colonial imports from Britain in 1768-1769 by half.
The boycott hurt British merchants and manufacturers, who put pressure on Parliament.
On March 5th, 1770, Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties-except the one on tea.
TOWNSHEND ACTS OF 1767
That tax was left in force to demonstrate Parliament's right to tax the colonies.
In the years before the Revolution, resistance to the tea tax became a symbol of American patriotism.
TOWNSHEND ACTS OF 1767
