Coercive/Intolerable Acts
The Acts
The four Intolerable Acts, also known as the Coercive
Acts, formed Britain's punishment of both the town of Boston
and the province of Massachusetts for the destruction of the
East India Company's tea on 16 December 1773. They were
rushed through Parliament in the spring of 1774. Their
purpose was to show rebellious colonials that, unlike 1766,
when the Stamp Act was repealed, and 1770, when four of
the five Townshend taxes were withdrawn, Britain would not
retreat this time.
The Boston Port Act closed Boston to seaborne commerce
until the town paid for the tea. Since trade was the town's
life, the act and its enforcement by the Royal Navy amounted
to a blockade, which was an act of war. The Massachusetts
Government Act abolished the province's royal charter of
1692. The new structure would replace a provincial council
elected by the assembly with one appointed by the governor
in the name of the king. Towns would meet once per year,
solely to elect local officers. County courts would enforce the
act's provisions. The Administration of Justice Act let the
Crown remove the trials of public officials under accusation
to another province or to Britain on the ground that they
could not get fair trials in local courts. The Quartering Act
allowed British commanders to billet soldiers in colonials'
homes if no barracks or public buildings could be found. The
commander in chief in America, General Thomas Gage,
became governor of Massachusetts.
The Quebec Act, passed at the same time, granted legal
privileges to the Catholic Church in the former French
province, established nonrepresentative government there,
and gave Quebec control of much of the interior north of the
Ohio River. It was not part of the package of punishments.
But the Intolerable Acts, the Quebec Act, and the naming of
Gage all figured among the "abuses and usurpations" listed
in the Declaration of Independence.
Colonial Reaction
A fleet blockaded Boston harbor, and troops under Major
General Thomas Gage maintained order. But the Bostonians
remained firm despite the threat of economic disaster.
Surrounding towns and colonies sent in abundant food
supplies.
British opponents who had predicted that the Coercive
Acts would defeat their purpose by alienating colonists
previously unsympathetic with Bostonian rashness were
proved correct. Americans of all classes, political
persuasions, and interests, whatever their misgivings about
the Boston Tea Party, saw in the acts a general threat to
their liberty. The colonies united and responded quickly to
Virginia's call for a continental congress to meet in
Philadelphia in September 1774 to seek redress of their
grievances.