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Sugar Act
The Sugar Act was passed by the British on April 5, 1764, and made colonists pay 3 pence per pound of sugar. The act was passed to end the smuggling trade of sugar and molasses from the French and Dutch West Indies and to only have sugar traded directly from Britain to help the British pay off their war debt. The colonists were unhappy with this act because it was a restriction of their justice and trading. -
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History Timeline
5 acts/policies imposed by the British after the French and Indian War. -
Currency Act
The Currency Act prevented the colonies from controlling the printing of their own money and the usage of it, which overall reduced most national debt. Colonists harshly protested against this act because they couldn't print their own money, spend it in the ways that they wanted, and felt like they couldn't maintain economic value. On the other hand, Britain liked this act because they had control over all currency in most colonies and also made some profit in the process. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act forced colonists to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used with a stamp, and the British used that tax to help pay off their debt due to the Seven Years' War with France. The colonies disliked this act very much, so they rebelled against it by debating and writing documents against it, mobbing tax collectors, and attacking ships delivering the stamps by destroying all the stamps on the boat. -
Quartering Act
This Act stated that colonists, by law, had to provide housing, food, and drink for the British troops stationed in their towns. This helped the British pay for the costs of housing and provisioning for their soldiers. The colonists opposed this act, not because they had to house the British soldiers in their homes, but because they were being taxed to pay for the provisions and barracks for the army that could be used against them. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act allowed the British East India Company to ship and sell their tea directly to the colonies, but to help the British East Company from bankruptcy, the colonists had to pay taxes on their tea. The American colonists started to boycott British tea entirely, and on December 16, 1773, an organization called the sons of liberty, dressed up as Indians and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The British responded to this rebellion by passing the Intolerable Acts.
