New Taxes and Tensions
What series of events led to the arrival
of British troops in Boston in 1768?
*Townshend Acts
*Boycott
*Crackdown on smugglers
*Disbanding the Massachusetts
legislature
Townshend Acts
• (1767) Laws passed by Parliament placing
duties on certain items imported by the
colonists. Duties on imported glass, lead,
paint, paper, and tea. The money from these
duties paid for military costs and the salaries
of colonial governors.
writs of assistance
• Special search warrants that allowed tax
collectors to search for smuggled goods.
Daughters of Liberty
• Women’s groups that used boycotts and other
measures to support the colonies’ resistance
to the British.
Boston Massacre
• (1770) Incident in which British soldiers fired
into a crowd of angry colonists, killing five
people.
propaganda
• Stories and images designed to support a
particular point of view.
How did Samuel Adams and John Adams differ
in their response to the Boston Massacre?
• Samuel used it as propaganda against the
British.
• John defended the soldiers accused of
murdering innocent civilians.
Tea Act
• (1773) Law passed by Parliament allowing the
British East India Company to sell its low-cost
tea directly to the colonies, undermining
colonial tea merchants; led to the Boston Tea
Party.
Why did colonists oppose the Tea Act?
• Merchants feared the act would put them out
of business.
• Others feared a monopoly for the East India
Company would lead to other monopolies
that would threaten colonial businesses in the
future.
Boston Tea Party
• (1773) Protest against the Tea Act in which a
group of colonists boarded British tea ships
and dumped some 340 chests of tea into
Boston Harbor.
The Intolerable Acts
*Coercive Acts*
• Britain passed the Coercive Acts, which colonists called the
Intolerable Acts. The acts had several effects.
1.Boston Harbor was closed until Boston paid for the lost
tea.
2.The Massachusetts charter was canceled. The governor
decided if and when the legislature could meet.
3.Royal officials accused of crimes were sent to Britain for
trial. This let them face a more friendly judge and jury.
4.The Quartering Act forced colonists to quarter, or house
and supply, British soldiers.
5. General Thomas Gage became the new governor of
Massachusetts.
What were the major effects of the Intolerable
Acts, and what methods did colonists use to
protest them?
• Colonists supported new boycotts.
• Some colonists wrote essays and poems
critical of the British government's actions.
Mercy Otis Warren wrote plays such as The
Group and The Blockheads. In The Group,
Warren gave British supporters names such as
Hum Humbug to make them look foolish.