Intolerable Acts
Series of acts passed by the British Parliament in 1774
following the Boston Tea Party.
The Boston Port Act (March 1774) closed the port of Boston for an
indefinite period of time and required that the tea already destroyed be
paid for and future duties on tea honored. The Administration of Justice
Act (May 1774) allowed, under certain conditions, a royal official
accused of the commission of a capital crime in the course of his duty to
be tried in England for the alleged offense.
The Massachusetts Government Act (May 1774) reorganized the
government of the province so that all important officials plus the
formerly elective Council were to be appointed (directly or indirectly) by
the King, to serve at his pleasure; in addition, the governor could forbid
all town meetings except a yearly one to elect town officers; this was
meant to deprive Boston Radicals of their chief propaganda and
coordinating device, the town meeting.
The Quartering Act (June 1774) required all colonial governments (the
previous acts applied only to Massachusetts or Boston) to provide
barracks for royal troops at or conveniently near the place where they
were needed. (In 1768, Massachusetts had not built barracks for the
troops stationed in Boston, since barracks were available both on Castle
William and on an island three miles out in Boston harbor; the troops
spent an uncomfortable winter in tents on Boston Common.) Also
passed at this time, and thought by the Americans to be meant as a
punishment for the colonies, was the Quebec Act (June 1774), an
intelligent piece of colonial legislation that adapted the government of
Canada to suit the French majority there.
Unfortunately, it also gave special privileges to the Catholic Church in
Canada and extended the boundary of Quebec down to the Ohio River,
outraging the Protestant sensibilities of the colonists as well as violating
the boundaries of several of the colonies, thus frustrating the plans of
some colonial land speculators. The Intolerable Acts were considered a
menace to the political, religious, and economic well-being of the
colonies.