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Proclamation of 1763
A proclamation that was made to prevent colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains after the French and Indian War. It wouldn’t allow colonists and colonial governments to buy or make agreements with Natives. Licensed traders were the only ones allowed to go west, having permission to make deals with Native Americans. Three new colonies were made named Quebec and West & East Florida. The colonists became infuriated, ignoring the proclamation and settling west despite the boundary. -
Sugar Act
This act put an enforced tax on sugar, molasses, and any other goods that weren’t from Britain like coffee and certain fabrics hoping to end smuggling from other countries. Those who tried to evade the tax would have to be judged by a British judge and ship cargoes would be confiscated. This made colonists buy from the British instead of others like the French or Dutch. Merchants and legislatures would then protest against the act with Parliament reducing the tax two years later. -
Currency Act
Great Britain wouldn't allow colonists to use or have their own currency, which were bills of credit in trade. New bills couldn’t be made and the currency that was present at the time couldn’t be reissued and any debt to British merchants had to be in British currency. The lack of hard currency would be detrimental to the colonial currency. Colonists protested and stated that trade with Britain would worsen because of the lack of hard currency. -
Stamp Act
This act directly taxed legal and printed documents that colonists purchased, having a stamp to prove payment of the tax. This act included newspapers, wills, pamphlets, licenses, dice, playing cards, and more. Hostility and resistance grew in the colonies, forming nonimportation associations, secret organizations in protest of the Stamp Act, mobs, the Stamp Act Congress, destroying stamps, boycotting, and creating a set of resolutions of how their liberties were being threatened. -
Quartering Act of 1765
In this act, British soldiers were to be housed in the barracks that the colonies had, but if they were too small for the soldiers, then they would be housed in local inns, ale houses, livery stables, and more. If those still weren’t enough to house them, then colonists had to house them in bars, outhouses, uninhabited houses, and more. The New York Colonial Assembly didn’t like how they were told to house British soldiers instead of being asked and decided to not comply with it. -
Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act stated how Parliament could make and pass any laws concerning the colonies. They stated that their ability to tax the American colonies was the same as having the ability to tax Great Britain. The colonists became angry at the fact that Britain wasn’t allowing them to have representation in Parliament and would continue taxing them regardless. -
Townshend Act
The Townshend Act put a tax on imported goods that the colonies received like glass, paint, paper, tea, and lead. This act was also a way for Charles Townshend to change the colonial government in a way where the revenue of the act would be used for the salaries of colonial governors and judges. Colonists would boycott British goods, start making the taxed items like clothes, protest, resort to violence, stop importing British goods for a year, and would use local items and what they had. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre would be a result of the arrival of troops in the colonies especially after the Townshend Act. There was a group of colonists that weren't too friendly with a soldier resulting in snowballs and rocks being thrown by them. Eventually, the soldier asked for backup, and soon shots were fired and three Americans were killed with six injured. Propaganda would be made and spread against the British, depicting the soldiers as the instigators despite it actually being the colonists. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party would occur as a response to being taxed without representation with it being a form of political protest. Colonists, mainly the Sons of Liberty, dressed as Indians and went on three vessels, dumping 342 chests of tea from Britain into the harbor, angering Britain and showing defiance. This was to show how they wouldn’t accept being taxed without representation or accept the tyranny that Britain was committing. -
Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)
The Coercive Acts would be made to mainly punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Harbor was closed until the tea was paid for, the Massachusetts Constitution ended, the judicial authority was moved to Britain, colonists had to quarter troops, and French-Canadians were allowed to freely worship. Delegates from the colonies except Georgia met together at Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress in 1774 to show their support for Boston and the acts Britain put on them. -
Quartering Act 1774
This Quartering Act would extend to all of the colonies instead of just Massachusetts and would allow the royal governors to find where to shelter soldiers instead of letting the colonial legislature. This would anger colonists because they wanted to keep their distance from the British soldiers because of tensions growing, but now they had to shelter these soldiers. -
Quebec Act
This act allowed Quebec to practice their religion which was Roman Catholicism, allowed them to speak French, and reestablished French civil law. This would upset and enrage colonists because they wouldn’t be able to control the land that Quebec had and they didn’t like how they were allowed to practice Roman Catholicism since they were Protestant and felt like it would ruin stability and unity within the colonies.