UNIT 3.3 - Taxation Without Representation

key terms events and significance

Sugar Act - 1764 (PCE/GEO)

• Place duties on foreign sugar + certain luxuries / regulates sugar trade + raise avenue

• Stricter enforcement of Navigation Acts = no more smuggling

Quartering Act - 1765 (PCE/GEO)

• Colonists provide food + living quarters for British soldiers in colonies

Stamp Act - 1765 (PCE/GEO)

• Raise funds for British military / revenue stamps on most printed paper —> first direct tax paid by colonists

• Colonists really hated it because they felt it was against their rights

Patrick Henry, the Stamp Act Congress, & the Sons and Daughter of Liberty

• Young Virginia lawyer spoke against the Stamp Act / demanded citizen’s rights recognition

• Representatives of 9 colonies met in NY 1765 —> resolved that only elected representatives have legal authority to approve taxes

• Secret society formed to intimidate tax agents / violent procedures

Declaratory Act - 1766 (PCE/GEO)

• Repealed the Stamp Act but enacted the Declaratory Act to save face

• Parliament had the right to tax + make laws for colonies “in all cases whatsoever” —> prompted future conflicts

Townshend Acts & Writs of Assistance - 1767 (PCE/GEO)

• Imposed taxes on colonial imports of tea, glass, and paper

• Officials who conducted the search of private homes for smuggled goods

Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania (WXT)

• Protests the Townshend Acts / accepted Parliament’s right to regulate trade but no taxation without representation (violation of principle English law)

• 1767 + 1768 / John Adams / British taxing needed assemblies + colonial representative’s approval

Massachusetts Circular Letter (NAT/PCE)

• 1768 / James Otis + Samuel Adams

• Sent copies to every colonial legislature / urged for Townshend Acts repeal

Boston Massacre - 1770 (SOC)

• British troops fired into a crowd of colonies that harassed them and killed five

• They were acquitted —> inflamed anti-British sentiment

Committees of Correspondence (NAT/PCE)

• 1770 - 1772 / Samuel Adams + a few other Americans suspected British officials undermining colonists liberty —> exchange letters about suspicious British acts

• Virginia House of Burgesses elevated it —> organized intercolonial committees (1773)

Tea Act & the Boston Tea Party - 1773 (NAT)

• Made British tea cheaper to prevent smuggling —> buy it = Britain can tax colonies so no

• A group of disguised Bostonian board East India Company ship + dumped 342 chest of tea into the harbor

“Intolerable Acts” & the Coercive Acts - 1774 (NAT/PCE)

• A series of punitive acts after Boston Tea Party / 1774

• Closed Boston’s port / suspended Massachusetts charter / royal officials accused of crimes are tried in Britain / British troops quartered in private homes (expansion of Quartering Acts)

Explain how British colonial practices regarding North America led to the Revolutionary War

British’s strict enforcement of policies with their taxation to help them recover their finance provoked the colonists. The colonists believed they were British citizens and thus it was unjust that Britain imposed tax on them for benefits. They claimed only colonial representatives can impose tax and would defend their rights if they got violated.