TIME BEFORE THE
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
By Kate, Hanna and Sommer
The Sugar Act
On April 5, 1764, England's Parliament passed a modified version of the Sugar
and Molasses Act (which was set in 1733), which was about to expire. Under the
Sugar Act, colonial merchants had been required to pay a tax of sixpence (coins)
per item on the importation of foreign molasses/sugar. The colonists were very
upset by this and began to boycott.
The Quartering Act
With the Quartering Act, the colonists had to pay to
have British soldiers in their house and to eat with them.
That did not go well with the people because the soldiers
should have paid them to be in their house.
The Stamp Act
On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act was passed by Parliament
without debate. The Stamp Act was that the people had to
pay taxes on newspapers, legal documents and other everyday
items. It also meant that shopkeepers would have to put a
stamp of the taxation on the product.
Tax
The Townshend Act
This was a tax on paint, glass, lead, paper and tea. These
also were very important items to the colonists to use.
The Tea Act
Tea was the main drink for the people of America. When the king
taxed the tea, the colonists were very mad. The Tea Act, passed by
Parliament on May 10, 1773, would launch the final spark to the
revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to
raise revenue in the American colonies.
Groups of the Revolution
The main group of people were the Sons of Liberty.
They were the ones responsible for the Boston Tea Party
also. They were very against the King and his taxes.
Daughters of Liberty
Daughters of Liberty were the women against the
king. They didn’t buy the fabric from England, but
made their own.
Stamp Act Congress
The Stamp Act Congress, or First Congress of the American Colonies, was a
meeting held in New York City, consisting of representatives from some of the
British colonies in North America; it was the first gathering of elected
representatives from several of the American colonies to talk about a protest against
new British taxation. Parliament had passed the Stamp Act, which required the use
of specially stamped paper for virtually all business in the colonies.
N O N I M P O R TAT I O N AG R E E M E N T S
Colonial resistance to British control took many forms, perhaps the most
effective was the non-importation agreements. Such agreements appeared
as early as 1766. They had a chilling effect on the British Merchants who
traded with the colonies. The Stamp Act was repealed, eventually, based
on appeals from Merchants who lost money shipping goods to a land
that would not receive them.
T H E B O S T O N M A S S AC R E
British soldiers fired at the people of Boston after
they threw snow at them. 5 people died in the
attack. This made the colonists furious.
B O S T O N T E A PA RT Y
The Boston tea Party was the last revolt before the
war. The Sons of Liberty dressed up as Native
Americans and stormed the ship with tons of pounds
of tea on them. They threw it all overboard. That
cost England lots of money.