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Revenue Acts
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Sugar Act
Tax given in 1733 on molasses/sugar and products with them, but wasn't enforced until later in 1764, when the act was changed, so that smuggles could get nothing off of foreign sugar.
The colonists did not like this they started violent protests and hurting those enforcing the act.
In 1766 the British Government repealed the Sugar Act and lowered the duty from 3 pence a gallon to 1 pence a gallon. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was the first direct tax on the American colonies, a stamp was put on all pieces of paper.
Most colonists hated the act. The Sons of Liberty was organized and forced stamp distributors to resign and attacked British officials. Stamp Act Congress was delegates from nine colonies petitioned Parliament to repeal the act.
In 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed by Parliament. Parliament then passed the Declaratory Act, which was that laws on the colonies were legally binding. -
Quartering Act
This act forced citizens in America to provide food and shelter for British soldiers.
There was very little violence when fighting this act, but it did cause lots of contention among the colonies because they saw this as Parliament trying to enforce the rules rather than to protect people.
Parliament repealed the Quartering Act in 1770, because the benefits were very few, but it was brought back in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. -
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws and taxes put on the colonists, it taxed paper, oil, glass, lead, paint and tea. It also made it impossible to smuggle.
Colonists did not like the new taxes, so they started boycotting again. The Daughters of Liberty were started, they encouraged people to use home spun clothes instead of British clothes. The colonists harassed the British, the most famous being the Boston Massacre where 5 colonists died.
In April 1770 repealed all but the tax on tea. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act granted British East India Company Tea a monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies.
The colonists were not happy with this so they dressed up as Indians on December 16, 1773 and threw lots of tea into Boston Harbor, later known as the Boston Tea Party.
This time Parliament did not back down. They passed even more acts, which the colonists called the Intolerable Acts.
