Stamp Act (1765)
Problem: Sugar Act is not raising enough money – British need increased revenue to alleviate their debt
Solution:
 Direct tax on all public documents – had to be on British stamped paper.
 Stamped paper was more expensive than non-stamped paper.
 Non-stamped paper was illegal.
 Tax was a couple of cents (shillings) for each page of paper
Colonial Reaction:
 Protests Against Stamp Act o 1. Sons of Liberty- coordinated street protests of the Act
 Harass tax collectors and burn stamps
 Objective: use confrontation to get Stamp Act removed o 2. Stamp Act Congress
 Politicians from various colonies meet to discuss the response to the Stamp Act
 Objective: use petition to get Stamp Act removed o 3. As a result of protests Parliament repealed the Stamp Act
Townshend Acts (1767)
 Indirect tax on imports rather than a direct tax on a product’s sale o Shipments of glass, lead, paper, paint and tea
 Import tax results in higher prices
 Protests reach their highest point with destruction of government property (tax collectors home) in Boston
 NON-Importation Agreement o Signed by multiple colonies to collectively boycott imports from
Britain o OBJECTIVE: to force decrease in profits to cause removal of the
Townshend Acts
 In order for it to be successful ALL colonists had to agree to stop buying British goods
 Colonial women were important to this cause because they were the major household consumers
 HOMESPUN MOVEMENT: women begin making clothes in order to boycott o Also made tea- brewed on roots & herbs o In response to colonial protests the British Crown sends 4,000 soldiers to Boston
 16,000 citizens in Boston
 1 to 4 soldier to citizen ratio

Boston Tea Party
 Tea Act (1773) o British Problem: #1 Colonists are boycotting British tea because of the tea tax o British Problem: #2 Because of non-importation the British East
India Company was struggling to sell tea in the colonies
 The future of the E. India CO. was important to the health of the
British economy o ACT:
 lowered the existing tax on tea (makes the tea cheaper) to end the colonial boycott
 Gives the East India Co. exclusive rights to sell tea in the colonies (monopoly)
 Cuts colonial merchants out of the equation o Colonial merchants enraged by Parliament’s actions
 REACTION:
 Sons of Liberty threaten to riot if the East India
Company shipments are unloaded after being shipped in December of 1774 o Most colonial governors send the tea back to
England --- MA governor refuses to send tea back
 Result: Colonists dump close to $1 million into Boston Harbor
 Coercive Acts: 1774 o Boston Harbor will be blockaded by British war ships until the $$ lost is repaid o Martial Law: civilian government is suspended – more troops sent to
Boston and military given control of the government o Quartering Act: Parliament forced colonists to house British soldiers in their homes if necessary