Acts of the British Parliament
on the Colonists
Taxes Leading to the American
Revolutionary War
Proclamation of 1763
• The end of the French and Indian War in 1763 was a cause for great
celebration in the colonies
– Expand to the great western frontier
– It had opened to them when the French ceded that contested territory to the
British.
• The royal proclamation of 1763 did much to dampen that celebration. The
proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to colonial expansion.
– The King wanted to calm the fears of the Indians
– Felt that the colonists would drive them from their
– Many in the colonies felt that the object was to pen them in along the Atlantic
seaboard where they would be easier to regulate.
– All lands west of the heads of all rivers which flowed into the Atlantic Ocean from
the west or northwest were off-limits to the colonists.
• Establishing and manning posts along the length of this boundary was a
very costly undertaking. The British ministry would argue that these outposts
were for colonial defense, and as such should be paid for by the colonies.
– From the American perspective this amounted to a tax on the colonies to pay for
a matter of that the colonists were opposed to.
The Sugar Act (Revenue Act)
1764
• Modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act
(1733)
– Colonial merchants were required to pay a tax of six
pence per gallon on the importation of foreign
molasses.
– Because of corruption, they mostly evaded the taxes
and undercut the intention of the tax (Smuggling)
• The Sugar Act reduced the rate of tax on molasses
from six pence to three pence per gallon and was
strictly enforced.
– The act also listed more foreign goods to be taxed
including sugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento,
cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the
export of lumber and iron.
• This act, and the Currency Act, set the stage for the
revolt at the imposition of the Stamp Act.
The Currency Act
1764
• The colonies suffered a constant shortage of
currency with which to conduct trade.
– There were no gold or silver mines and currency
could only be obtained through trade as
regulated by Great Britain.
• The Currency Act of 1764 prohibited all
American colonies from issuing paper
currency, thereby creating severe monetary
problems.
The Quartering Act
1765
• The Quartering Act of 1765
was intended to help the
British defray the cost of
maintaining troops in
America.
• The Act required that the
colonists had to supply
British troops with food,
munitions and barracks.
• The Act was bitterly
resented by the Americans,
particularly because the
troops were used to enforce
Parliament’s new tax
policies in the colonies; the
negative effect this had on
American sentiment
The Stamp Act
1765
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The objective of the Stamp Act
was to reduce the burden of
administering the colonies by
taxing trade and certain other
products.
Taxes collected under the
provisions of the Stamp Act were
to be applied exclusively to
treasuries in America, and used
only for the administration of the
colonies.
The act provided that a revenue
stamp be applied to a long list of
items, including newspapers,
books, pamphlets, legal
documents, licenses, diplomas,
and playing cards.
Colonists viewed the Stamp Act
crisis as a violation of their rights
and privileges as British subjects .
The Stamp Act
1765
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For every parchment, or sheet or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any declaration, a stamp duty
of three pence.
For every parchment, or sheet or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any special bail, a stamp duty
of two shillings.
For every parchment, or sheet or piece of paper, on which may be engrossed, written, or printed, any petition, bill, answer,
claim, plea, a stamp duty of one shilling and six pence.
For every parchment, or sheet or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any copy of any position, bill,
a stamp duty of three pence.
For every such pamphlet and paper contained in a half sheet, or any lesser piece of paper, which shall be so printed, a stamp
duty of one half penny for every printed copy thereof.
For every such pamphlet and paper (being larger than half a sheet, and not exceeding one whole sheet), which shall be printed,
a stamp duty of one penny for every printed copy thereof.
For every pamphlet and paper, being larger than one whole sheet, and not exceeding six sheets in octavo, or in a lesser page,
or not exceeding twelve sheets in quarto, or twenty sheets in folio, which shall be so printed, a duty after the rate of one shilling
for every sheet of any kind of paper which shall be contained in one printed copy thereof.
For every advertisement to be contained in any gazette newspaper, or other paper, or any pamphlet which shall be so printed, a
duty of two shillings.
For every almanac, or calendar, for any one particular year, or for any time less than a year, which shall be written or printed on
one side only of any one sheet, skin, or piece of paper, parchment, or vellum, within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp
duty of two pence.
For every other almanac or calendar, for any one particular year, which shall be written or printed within the said colonies and
plantations, a stamp duty of four pence.
And for every almanac or calendar, written or printed in the said colonies and plantations, to serve for several years, duties to
the same amount respectively shall be paid for every such year.
And be it further enacted ..., That all books and pamphlets serving chiefly for the purpose of an almanack, by whatsoever name
or names intituled or described, are and shall be charged with the duty imposed by this act on almanacks, but not with any of
the duties charged by this act on pamphlets, or other printed papers ...
Provided always, that this act shall not extend to charge any bills of exchange, accompts, bills of parcels, bills of fees, or any
bills or notes not sealed for payment of money at sight, or upon demand, or at the end of certain days of payment....
The Declaratory Act
1766
• The Declaratory Act of 1766 asserted that
Parliament “had, hath, and of right ought to
have, full power and authority to make laws and
statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the
colonies and people of America, subjects of the
Crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.”
• “By one statute it is declared, that parliament
can “of right make laws to bind us in all cases
whatsoever.” What is to defend us against so
enormous, so unlimited a power?...They boast of
their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer
no milder conditions than servitude or death.”
The Repeal of the Stamp Act
1766
• The American colonists won their first victory over
Parliament when the Stamp Act was repealed in early
1766.
• The boycott of English goods proved to be the decisive
factor, as there was no way to ignore the pain the
American boycott was inflicting on English
manufacturers.
• “The Repeal of the Stamp Act, to whatsoever causes
owing, ought much to be rejoiced at, for had the
Parliament of Great Britain resolved upon enforcing it the
consequences I conceive would have been more direful
than is generally apprehended”
The Townshend Revenue Act
1767
• Taxes on glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea
– Designed to raise £40,000 a year
– For the administration of the colonies.
• The result was the resurrection of colonial
hostilities created by the Stamp Act.
• “The Townsend Duties Crisis was never
resolved. It culminated in the Boston Tea Party,
that triggered off the final sequence of events
leading to the War of American Independence.”
• Peter D.G. Thomas, The Townsend Duties Crisis
The Tea Act
1773
• The Tea Act was final spark to the revolutionary movement in
Boston.
• The act imposed no new taxes.
– It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was
floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of
unsold tea.
– This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain
price.
– The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the
business of local merchants.
• Colonists in Philadelphia and New York turned the tea ships back to
Britain. In Boston the Royal Governor was stubborn & held the ships
in port, where the colonists would not allow them to unload. Cargoes
of tea filled the harbor.
– This situation lead to the Boston Tea Party.
The Intolerable Acts
1774
• The “Intolerable Acts” of 1774, known to the British as the Coercive
Acts, were four exceedingly severe Acts passed expressly to punish
the colonists for the Boston Tea Party.
• The most important of these, the Boston Port Act, closed Boston’s
port to all commerce except for food and fuel—and provisions for the
Royal army.
• The Act stipulated that the port could not be re-opened until the
colonists had paid for the tea that had been destroyed in the Boston
Tea Party.
• Boston town meetings could not be convened without the governor’s
prior consent.
• Thomas Jefferson’s wrote of this Act that “the cowards who would
suffer a countryman to be torn from the bowels of their society, in
order to be thus offered a sacrifice to parliamentary tyranny, would
merit that everlasting infamy now fixed on the authors of the act!”
Quebec Act
1774
• Set procedures of governance in the area of
Quebec.
• Principal components of the act:
– Expansion of territory to take over the Canadian
portions of the Indian Reserve
– Expansion of territory to take over land that is now in
the United States (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio,
Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota).
– Replaced the oath of allegiance so that it no longer
made reference to the Protestant faith.
– Guaranteed free practice of the Catholic faith.
Prohibitory Act
1775
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It was Great Britain's way of retaliating against an American revolt.
– This act was enacted as one of the precursors to the American Revolutionary War.
– Basically, it was to destroy the American economy by making it incapable of operating.
– The British Navy created a blockade surrounding the colonies so that they could not trade
with any country
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It declared “all manner of (the American colonies’) trade and commerce is and shall
be prohibited;”
Any ships found trading “shall be forfeited to his Majesty
– As if the same were the ships and effects of open enemies
– His Majesty shall have the sole interest and property of all ships, vessels, goods and
merchandise, which they shall seize and take
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This fateful Act declared all Americans to be outlaws beyond the king’s protection
The American Prohibitory Act ended any chance for reconciliation—indeed, this Act
marked the point of fracture in an increasingly dramatic exchange between the
Americans and the British Crown and Parliament.
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Four months before the Act was issued, the drama had begun to escalate in August of
1775 when the king issued a proclamation declaring the colonies to be in a state of “open
rebellion”—this was the first official recognition of the rebellion in America.
Other Acts Placed on the Colonists
• The Hat Act enacted in 1732
• To control hat production by the Americans in the
Thirteen Colonies.
– It specifically placed limits on the manufacture, sale, and
exportation of American-made hats.
– The act also restricted hiring practices by limiting the number of
workers that hat makers could employ, and placing limits on
apprenticeships by only allowing 2 apprentices.
• The law's effect was that Americans in the colonies were
forced to buy British-made goods, and this artificial trade
restraint meant that Americans paid four times as much
for hats and cloth imported from Britain than for local
goods.