Acts of Parliament

Question 0

Molasses Act 1733

Answer 0

1733. Placed duties on sugar and molasses if they were purchased from a non-British island.
      Colonist response: To avoid these charges, some merchants began to smuggle these items into the colonies from non-British islands, which significantly increased the tension between the British colony and the colonists

Question 1

Navigation Acts1651-1663

Answer 1

The British government passed a series of Navigation Acts to limit colonial trade. This was done to ensure that Britain would gain wealth by having fewer imports than exports. England claimed that these acts were good for the colones because they had a steady market in England for their products.
1. prohibited colonists from trading specific items such as sugar and cotton with any country other than England.
2. The Act also required colonists to use English ships to transport goods
Colonist response: Colonies wanted the freedom to buy or sell gods wherever they could get the best price. e.g. they bought they bought molasses from non-British islands

Question 2

Quartering Act - 1767

Answer 2

1767. This stated that if necessary British soldiers would be quartered (housed) for free in inns, stables, taverns, and other public buildings. Colonial authorities were required to pay for the cost of housing and feeding these soldiers
      Colonist response: The colonists were angry because it meant that innkeepers and other businessmen might have to turn away customers because their rooms were filled withBritish soldiers. Some colonists refused to pay other taxes that they were required to pay and many decided not to buy goods made in England.

Question 3

Townshend Act 1767

Answer 3

Through this Act, the British Government placed taxes on tea, glass, paper, and paint.

• some colonists refused to pay taxes
• many decided to not buy goods made in England, as a protest

Question 4

Stamp Act 1765

Answer 4

1765 - required that stamps be put on 54 kinds of paper, including playing cards, newspapers, and wills
Taxes the colonists had to pay for these stamps ranged from a penny for newspaper to a thousand pennies for a diploma. payment had to be in gold and silver
Colonist response: Began to speak out against the taxes and asked the parliament to repeal the act. first time that a large number of colonies acted together. Broad decision was made by the colonies that parliament had no right to tax them so long as the American colonies had no representation in Parliament (No taxation without representation was the slogan that came out of this meeting)

Question 5

Intolerable Acts 1774

Answer 5

1774 king had the parliament pass three new laws after the Boston tea party. They were called the intolerable acts because they were very hard on the colonists
1. closed Boston harbor to all ships until the tea was paid for
2. prohibited the colonists from holding town meetings
3. required the the colonists to house British soldiers for as long as England wanted them to, and stated that any British subject who committed a crime in America would be sent to England to be tried rather than be tried in colonial courts.
Colonists response: closing of Boston harbor was the final insult. All but one of the colonies sent representatives to a meeting in Philadelphia called the First Continental Congress to discuss how to best to respond to these abuses. They agreed to
1. continue to boycott British goods
2. instruct the colonial militias to prepare for the possibility of war
3. send a message to the king, declaring what they believed were their rights (life, liberty, and property).
4. they agreed to meet again in 1775 if King George III refused their petition
5. Patrick Henry from Virginia believed that the colonies needed to separate from the British. People who agreed with Henry and supported the colonists’ cause against the British became known as Patriots

Question 6

What were the different ways that Colonists responded?

Answer 6

1. some smuggled goods to prevent paying taxes
2. some people wrote to the parliament and ask them to change the Acts
3. some people formed a group called the Sons of Liberty and attacked the tax collectors and burned the tax stamps
   4 some refused to buy things that were British
4. some threw rocks or snowballs at the British soldiers
5. Some refused to pay taxes to the British
6. Some refused to follow the rules of the British
7. Some moved over across the Appalachian mountains in defiance of the Proclamation of 1763
8. People of Newbury, MA voted to send a message that said that people who were taxed in this way were being treated as slaves.