British Acts & Colonial Response

Proclamation of 1763

• What the British Did: Following Pontiac's Rebellion, King George III issued a royal decree prohibiting American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains to prevent further conflict with Native Americans.

• How Colonists Responded: Colonial land speculators and settlers were outraged, feeling as if they earned that land after the war ; many ignored the boundary line entirely and moved west anyway, creating early resentment toward imperial authority.

Sugar Act (1764)

• What the British Did: Prime Minister George Grenville lowered taxes on foreign molasses but strictly enforced smuggling laws, establishing Vice-Admiralty courts where judges (not juries) decided cases.

• How Colonists Responded: Merchants in port cities boycotted British luxuries and argued that trial without jury and direct taxation violated their constitutional rights as English subjects.

Stamp Act (1765)

• What the British Did: Parliament passed the first direct (internal) tax on colonists, requiring a stamp on all paper goods (newspapers, legal documents, playing cards) to pay off British war debt.

• How Colonists Responded:

• Political: Patrick Henry introduced the Virginia Resolves; nine colonies formed the Stamp Act Congress to declare "no taxation without representation."

• Action: Samuel Adams organized the Sons of Liberty, who burned effigies and attacked stamp collectors.

• Economic: Widespread non-importation agreements (boycotts) forced Parliament to repeal the act in 1766.

Declaratory Act (1766)

• What the British Did: Passed simultaneously with the repeal of the Stamp Act; asserted that Parliament had absolute power to pass laws binding the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."

• How Colonists Responded: Colonists celebrated the repeal of the Stamp Act and largely ignored the declaration's ominous implications for future taxation.

Townshend Acts (1767)

• What the British Did: Imposed indirect import taxes (duties) on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea; used revenue to pay royal governors' salaries (removing colonial purse power) and authorized writs of assistance (search warrants).

• How Colonists Responded: John Dickinson wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania; colonial women (Daughters of Liberty) organized spinning bees to make homespun cloth; widespread non-importation boycotts resumed.

Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770)

• What the British Did: British soldiers stationed in Boston fired into an angry mob of colonists throwing snowballs and rocks, killing five people (including Crispus Attucks).

• How Colonists Responded: Paul Revere engraved an anti-British propaganda image; Samuel Adams used the event to form the Committees of Correspondence to coordinate anti-British news; John Adams defended the soldiers in court to uphold rule of law.

Tea Act (1773)

• What the British Did: Granted the financially struggling British East India Company a monopoly on the American tea trade, making British tea cheaper than smuggled Dutch tea while retaining the Townshend tea tax.

• How Colonists Responded: Colonists viewed it as a trick to force them to accept parliamentary taxation; led directly to the Boston Tea Party (December 1773), where the Sons of Liberty dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

Coercive / Intolerable Acts (1774)

• What the British Did: Punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party by closing Boston Harbor (Boston Port Act), replacing local government with military rule (Massachusetts Government Act), expanding the Quartering Act, and allowing royal officials to stand trial in England.

• How Colonists Responded: Other colonies rallied to support Massachusetts by sending supplies and convening the First Continental Congress (1774), which established the Continental Association to enforce a total boycott of British goods and urged colonies to arm local militias.

Sons and Daughters of Liberty

• What They Were: Secret Patriotic organizations formed across the colonies in 1765 to actively resist British imperial policies and taxation.

• What They Did:

• Sons of Liberty: Organised public protests, enforced non-importation agreements (boycotts), intimidated stamp distributors (tarring and feathering), and carried out direct actions like the Boston Tea Party (1773). Key leaders included Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.

• Daughters of Liberty: Led domestic economic resistance by producing homespun cloth (replacing boycotted British textiles) and creating herbal teas to boycott British imports