New Relationship Between Britain and the Colonies

• War altered the relationship between Britain and colonists because:

– Increased colonists taxes to pay off Britain's war debt

– Stricter enforcement of Navigation Acts

– Peacetime army of 10,000 remains in America = willingness to use force to retain authority and increases costs

– Higher import duties on tobacco and sugar were imposed and excise taxes were increased

The Sugar Act - 1764

• Cut tax on molasses in 1/2, hoping colonists would buy instead of smuggle

• Duties now on goods not on before• Stricter enforcement of Smugglers

– Violators would be tried by Admiralty Courts, not juries (b/c colonists were sympathetic)

• Colonists Complaints– Reduced Colonists Profits– No right to tax colonists, since they did not have

representation– No real effects on people other than merchants and

traders

A caricature by Gillray featuring King George III and Queen Charlotte. (Sugar Act)

Stamp Act (1765)• Sought to raise funds for

defense of America through tax of paper goods.

• All legal documents, newspapers, playing cards, etc. had to bear a government stamp.

• Unlike the Sugar Act, this was the first internal tax intended to raise revenue

• Americans already short on cash due to currency limits

• Stamp Act affected lawyers, merchants, editors

• Instances of Opposition:– Stamp Act

Congress – Sons of Liberty

Colonial Opposition to Stamp Act

Protest against the Stamp ActThe sign in the background

reads:"The Folly of England and the

Ruin of America”

Designed by Franklin, as part of his campaign to have the Stamp Act repealed. "The Moral is, that the Colonies may be ruined, but that Britain would thereby be maimed."

Issues Important to Colonists

• Were the colonies represented in Parliament?

• Did Parliament have the right to tax the colonists if they had the right to regulate trade?

• Paid 1/25th in tax, but made 5x the salary of equal in England.

• Parliament repealed Stamp Act

• Parliament asserted its rights to regulate colonies "in all ways whatsoever."

The Declaratory Act - 1766

Colonial Reaction to Declaratory Act

• Ignored Parliaments’ absolute powers

• Many regarded it as an example of a corrupt government

• Revealed the extent to which British and American views of the system had drifted apart

Townshend Acts (1767-1770)

• William Pitt becomes sick, replaced by Charles Townshend as chancellor of exchequer

• new duties placed on a number of goods:– Paper, paint, glass, lead, and tea

• Increase Custom Duties

• PURPOSE: Provide salaries for British colonial officials so that the local colonial governments could not coerce them by withholding wages.

Other Laws under Townshend:

• NY legislature suspended until it housed British soldiers

• Authorized blank search warrants called Writs of Assistance

• Created more admiralty courts, without juries

• Colonial officials would receive their salaries directly from the Crown.

Colonial Reactions to the Townshend Acts

• Led by Sam Adams - Revived Non-importation agreements and smuggled tea– Women wove cloth– Homemade tea– Liberty – Ship, John

Hancock

• Bostonians rioted against the collection of customs duties and threatened officials lives– Tar and Feather Collectors– Chase out of Boston

British Reaction to Colonists Protests

• Britain sent 4000 British soldiers to Boston to protect the custom officials.

Boston Massacre • Tensions grew between

colonists and British soldiers– Hate of British troops– Soldiers taking colonists

jobs to supplement small wages

• March 5, 1770, group of Bostonians taunted soldiers

• One soldier, after being hit fired his musket

• Other troops fired into the crowd

• 5 people killed

• Aroused great colonial anger.

The Move Toward Independence (1770-

1775) • Key factors

– Constitutional factor--colonists demanded the right to examine the purpose for each law passed, refusing to obey those that raised revenue

– Social conflicts factor • Lower class discontent resulted from limited

franchise, established churches, inheritance laws.

• Upper class colonists welcomed protest support from lower classes at first, but became alarmed with mob violence. England now had two groups of protestors to deal with.

1770

• Britain again appealed to colonial demands due to economic restraints

• April 12, 1770 – Repealed 4 of 5 Townshend Act duties– Kept 3 pence Tea Tax as a sign that

Parliament could still tax the colonists.• Colonists started Black Market for Tea

1770-1772• Relative calmness, but tensions brewing• Colonists kept dissensions through writings

leaflets, pamphlets, political gatherings• The Gaspee

– British revenue ship that caught smugglers– Seized by RI residents dressed as Natives, set it on fire, sank in Narragansett Bay– British put accused on trial in England rather than

America

Tea Act of 1773

• Passed to support the East India Tea Company• Taxed the tea at source (i.e. India) so there was no tax

collection in the colonies. • Act allowed the tea to go directly to America instead of

having to be imported to Britain first– Lowered costs of tea– Tea even less expensive than Dutch smuggled Tea

Pro Con

1) British tea was cheaper (9d)

1) Britain selected merchants to sell to colonies

2) Still paying 3d Townshend Duty

– New York & Philly: ships not allowed to land– Charlestown: ships docked but tea put in warehouse

for 3 years.

Colonial Reaction to Tea Act

Engraving of John Lamb reading the Tea Act in New York on December 17, 1776.

Colonial Reaction to Tea Act

– Boston: • Boston Tea Party• Dec. 16, 1773 – Colonists watched as about 60 men,

some dressed as Mohawks, dumped tea in harbor.– Destroyed tea worth an estimated £10,000. – Today’s money approximately equal to a

million $– Mixed response from colonies

• Parliament’s response to Boston Tea Party:– Boston Port Act - Closed Boston Harbor– Mass. Gov. Act- Placed Boston under Martial Law– Administration of Justice Act- Removed trials involving royal officials

out of New England– Quartering Act - Allowed for quartering of troops in colonists' barns or

empty homes– Quebec Act - Extended Quebec's boundaries south, est. Roman

Catholicism as its official religion, representative assembly convincing colonists that liberty was threatened and generally Protestants

Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)

Colonial Response

• First Continental Congress, Sept. 1774– Established Declaration of Colonial

Rights – defending colonial rights to run own affairs

– Supported Protests in colonies– Agreed to reconvene in May 1775 if demands not met