Acts and Major Events
The Sugar Act
- Parliament passed the Sugar Act on April 5th, of 1764.
- This act was made so that England could make money off of the colonies.
- More imports such as sugar, wines, and coffees were all getting taxes put on them.
- The British never asked to put these taxes on the goods, which angered the colonists.
- The taxes that were put on rum, made a huge decline in the industry since no one wanted to pay the extra money.
- The act made it harder on the colonists because the markets were limited with British goods.
- The Sugar act eventually was abolished and replaced in 1766 by the Revenue Act. The Revenue Act reduced the taxes on imports from anywhere.
The Stamp Act
- The Stamp Act was passed by Parliament on March 22nd, 1765.
- This act made all American colonists have to pay taxes on every piece of printed paper.
- Buying a stamp would prove to the British officials that you paid the taxes on any piece of paper you printed.
- The money from the stamps helped pay for protecting the colonies (with soldiers and forts around boarders).
- This act also helped England make money from the colonies.
- If a colonists did not have a stamp, they were seized and trialed without a jury, which resulted in being fined or being sent to jail.
- A small portion of the colonists thought that the act was able to preserve the British empire and support the navy and army.
- Unlike few, many colonists were very angered because if the British could tax paper, then what couldn't they control.
The Declaratory Act
- The Declaratory Act was passed on March 18th, 1766, after the Stamp Act was abolished.
- The colonists were completely against the taxes, which Ben Franklin knew and said.
- This act made it clear that the British still had authority, and Parliament could pass any law they chose.
- It also stated that Parliament wasn't just having control over the taxing laws in America, but they also had total control over in England.
The Townshend Act
- The Townshend Act is named after Charles Townshend, whom was the New Chancellor of the Exchequer.
- Townshend wanted money and riches for the colonies.
- The Act put taxes on many imported goods, such as lead, tea, glass, paper, and paint.
- Since many officers were lazy, Townshend told them that if they seize a ship with goods they were able to keep 1/3 of the profit on the ship.
- This act, like others, made the colonists very angry because they viewed the taxation as an abuse of power; they refused to import British goods. Since this, the British exports to the colonies dropped a total of 40%.
- While the colonies denied the British imports, the British send troops to the colonies which increased overall colonial resistance.
- Finally, in 1770, the British Parliament abolished all the Townshend Acts, except the act on tea.
The Boston Massacre
- The Boston Massacre, ironically, wasn't a full blown massacre as many would believe to be.
- On March 5th, 1770, the unemployed colonists threw snowballs at the British soldiers, also known as the Red Coats.
- The British then fired into the mob of colonists which killed three men and wounded others. Eventually two of the wounded men died from the injuries.
- The colonists would advertise this event as the "blood thirsty British soldiers slaughtered innocent Americans".
- The first person to be shot and killed was a black sailor named Crispus Attucks.
- Attucks is the only one out of the five shot and killed that became widely known. Attucks is considered to be the first hero of the American Revolution.