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Learn about the The Stamp Act of 1765. A tax the Britain placed on the American colonies eventually leading the Revolutionary War.

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The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The act, which imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and looking to its North American colonies as a revenue source.

Arguing that only their own representative assemblies could tax them, the colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional, and they resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning. Parliament passed the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765 and repealed it in 1766, but issued a Declaratory Act at the same time to reaffirm its authority to pass any colonial legislation it saw fit. The issues of taxation and representation raised by the Stamp Act strained relations with the colonies to the point that, 10 years later, the colonists rose in armed rebellion against the British.

Why The Stamp Act Was Passed

British Parliament passed the Stamp Act to help replenish their finances after the costly Seven Years' War with France. Part of the revenue from the Stamp Act would be used to maintain several regiments of British soldiers in North America to maintain peace between Native Americans and the colonists. Moreover, since colonial juries had proven notoriously reluctant to find smugglers guilty of their crimes, violators of the Stamp Act could be tried and convicted without juries in the vice-admiralty courts.

Raising Revenue

The Seven Years' War (1756-63) ended the long rivalry between France and Britain for control of North America, leaving Britain in possession of Canada and France without a footing on the continent. Victory in the war, however, had saddled the British Empire with a tremendous debt. Since the war benefited the American colonists (who had suffered 80 years of intermittent warfare with their French neighbors) as much as anyone else in the British Empire, the British government decided that those colonists should shoulder part of the war's cost.

Britain had long regulated colonial trade through a system of restrictions and duties on imports and exports. In the first half of the 18th century, however, British enforcement of this system had been lax. Starting with the Sugar Act of 1764, which imposed new duties on sugar and other goods, the British government began to tighten its reins on the colonies. Shortly thereafter, George Grenville (1712-70), the British first lord of the treasury and prime minister, proposed the Stamp Act; Parliament passed the act without debate in 1765.

Stamp Act opponent Patrick Henry is known for his "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech, delivered before a meeting of Virginia's colonial leaders in 1775 in an effort to mobilize a militia against a possible attack by the British. He later served as Virginia's governor (1776-79, 1784-86).

Instead of levying a duty on trade goods, the Stamp Act imposed a direct tax on the colonists. Specifically, the act required that, starting in the fall of 1765, legal documents and printed materials must bear a tax stamp provided by commissioned distributors who would collect the tax in exchange for the stamp. The law applied to wills, deeds, newspapers, pamphlets and even playing cards and dice.

The Roots of Colonial Resistance

Coming in the midst of economic hardship in the colonies, the Stamp Act aroused vehement resistance. Although most colonists continued to accept Parliament's authority to regulate their trade, they insisted that only their representative assemblies could levy direct, internal taxes, such as the one imposed by the Stamp Act. They rejected the British government's argument that all British subjects enjoyed virtual representation in Parliament, even if they could not vote for members of Parliament.

The colonists also took exception with the provision denying offenders trials by jury. A vocal minority hinted at dark designs behind the Stamp Act. These radical voices warned that the tax was part of a gradual plot to deprive the colonists of their freedoms and to enslave them beneath a tyrannical regime. Playing off traditional fears of peacetime armies, they wondered aloud why Parliament saw fit to garrison troops in North America only after the threat from the French had been removed. These concerns provided an ideological basis that intensified colonial resistance.

Colonists React to the Stamp Act

Parliament pushed forward with the Stamp Act in spite of the colonists' objections. Colonial resistance to the act mounted slowly at first, but gained momentum as the planned date of its implementation drew near. In Virginia, Patrick Henry (1736-99), whose fiery orations against British tyranny would soon make him famous, submitted a series of resolutions to his colony's assembly, the House of Burgesses. These resolutions denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies and called on the colonists to resist the Stamp Act.

Newspapers throughout the colonies reprinted the resolutions, spreading their radical message to a broad audience. The resolutions provided the tenor for the proclamations of the Stamp Act Congress, an extralegal convention composed of delegates from nine colonies that met in October 1765. The Stamp Act Congress wrote petitions to the king affirming both their loyalty and the conviction that only the colonial assemblies had the constitutional authority to tax the colonists.

While the Congress and the colonial assemblies passed resolutions and issued petitions against the Stamp Act, the colonists took matters into their own hands. The most famous popular resistance took place in Boston, where opponents of the Stamp Act, calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, enlisted the rabble of Boston in opposition to the new law. This mob paraded through the streets with an effigy of Andrew Oliver, Boston's stamp distributor, which they hanged from the Liberty Tree and beheaded before ransacking Oliver's home. Oliver agreed to resign his commission as stamp distributor.

Similar events transpired in other colonial towns, as crowds mobbed the stamp distributors and threatened their physical well-being and their property. By the beginning of 1766, most of the stamp distributors had resigned their commissions, many of them under duress. Mobs in seaport towns turned away ships carrying the stamp papers from England without allowing them to discharge their cargoes. Determined colonial resistance made it impossible for the British government to bring the Stamp Act into effect. In 1766, Parliament repealed it.

The Stamp Act's Legacy

The end of the Stamp Act did not end Parliament's conviction that it had the authority to impose taxes on the colonists. The British government coupled the repeal of the Stamp Act with the Declaratory Act, a reaffirmation of its power to pass any laws over the colonists that it saw fit. However, the colonists held firm to their view that Parliament could not tax them. The issues raised by the Stamp Act festered for 10 years before giving rise to the Revolutionary War and, ultimately, American independence.

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Stamp Act - Fact, Reaction & Legacy | HISTORY

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The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on American colonists by the British Parliament. The issues raised by the Stamp Act festered for 10 years before giving rise to the Revolutionary War and, ultimately, American independence.

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Kids learn about the history of the French and Indian War of the American Colonies between 1754 and 1763 including major battles, events, ending, and results.

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The French and Indian War was fought between 1754 and 1763 in British North America and French North America. They fought over land which is now in the United States and Canada. The French had some Native American allies and the British had other allies.

The conflict took place during Seven Years' War. France was already fighting Prussia. Because of this, they did not send many troops to Canada.

The French built a new fort in the territory they both wanted, and the British decided to try to get them to leave. After failing in a small battle in 1754 they tried again with the Battle of Monongahela in 1755. The British commander, General Edward Braddock, led 1,500 British soldiers in an attack on Fort Duquesne. He failed and died with many of his men. A militia officer, George Washington, led the defeated survivors home.

In 1756, the French captured the British Fort Oswego. They took more than 1,700 British soldiers captive.

The French were victorious again at Fort William Henry in 1757. After they captured the fort, the Indians did not follow the rules of British surrender. They killed about 150 British soldiers after they had surrendered.

In 1759, at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (also called the Battle of Quebec), the British defeated the French and took control of Quebec City.

In 1760, Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst led the British in the defeat of the French. The British took control of Montreal.

The fighting in North America stopped on September 8, 1760, with the French surrender of Montreal and the rest of Canada to the British.

The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763. France had to give its North American lands east of the Mississippi River to Britain except the small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, near Newfoundland. Britain offered France the choice to give up its Canadian land or the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, which British troops had taken during the war. France chose to keep the islands, which were valuable for their sugar plantations.

With the Royal Proclamation of 1763, colonists in British North America became unhappy over their share of the winnings. The war had been expensive and England began taxing the American colonists to pay for it. These were two of the causes of the American Revolution.

Interesting facts about the French and Indian War

Some Indian tribes helped the French fight because the French had been better at befriending them than the British had.

To encourage the colonies to unite in the battle against the French and Indians, Benjamin Franklin printed a drawing showing the colonies as parts of a chopped-up, writhing snake. It was the first political cartoon printed in America.

Roland-Michel Barrin de la Galissonière, the governor of New France, had signs made of lead that told settlers and travelers that they were traveling on French land.

While most Indian tribes sided with the French, there were a few that sided with the English.

Many present-day Cajuns are descendants of these French and Indian War refugees that settled in Louisiana.

The war inspired the song "Yankee Doodle."

Spain, which allied with France in 1762, was forced to give Florida to the British.

George Washington was a colonel in the British militia during the war.

Images for kids

In Spanish: Guerra franco-indígena para niños

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Learn French and Indian War facts for kids

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War began in 1754, when British colonial troops under George Washington tried to drive the French from what is now western Pennsylvania. They failed. British soldiers arrived in 1755. They lost a battle for Fort Duquesne, near what is now Pittsburgh.

The next few years of the war continued to be difficult for the British. The French had a better army, and the Native Americans knew how to fight in the woodlands.

By the end of 1757, however, the British had begun to gain ground. They had collected more money and better supplies than France. They also had become experts in wilderness fighting. By 1760 the British had captured all of New France. The war ended when Britain and France signed the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763.

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War began in 1754, when British colonial troops under George Washington tried to drive the French from what is now western Pennsylvania. They failed. British soldiers arrived in 1755. They lost a battle for Fort Duquesne, near what is now Pittsburgh. The next few years of the war continued to be difficult for the British.

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Townshend Acts - Definition, Facts & Purpose | HISTORY

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The Townshend Acts were a series of unpopular measures, passed by the British Parliament in 1767, that taxed goods imported to the American colonies. The laws heightened the tensions between Great Britain and the American colonists and were a precursor to the Revolutionary War.

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Learn about the Townshend Acts from the American Revolution including how they got their name, what the laws did, why the colonists protested them, results, and interesting facts.

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The British Parliament in 1767 passed a series of laws known as the Townshend Acts, after the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend. This series of taxes proved very unpopular in the American colonies.

Just a year before, Parliament had rescinded the Stamp Act in response to great outcry from the American colonists. But the Crown still needed money because it had incurred a significant amount of debt in winning the French and Indian War.

George Grenville , who was in charge of the Treasury when the war ended, decided that the American people should pay a large part of the money Great Britain owed to its banks and to other countries that had given it money to buy weapons and to otherwise fight the war. After all, at the time, the American colonists paid less than one-twentieth of the taxes paid by people living in England.

The Townshend Acts had five parts:

1. The New York Restraining Act. Parliament had in 1765 passed the Quartering Act, which required colonial assemblies to look after British soldiers, providing food, housing, and supplies. In response to the New York assembly's skimping on provisions, the British Government suspended the assembly's operations.

2. The Revenue Act. This was a host of new taxes on various things imported into the colonies. Among them were china, glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea. Townshend chose those items because he thought that the colonists would have difficulty producing them on their own and so would have to buy them from Britain and, naturally, pay the taxes. In anticipation of an increase in smuggling in response to the new taxes, the Government also authorized customs officials to employ search warrants known as writs of assistance to aid in the seizure of contraband. Such writs were used to search people's homes as well.

3. The Commissioners of Customs Act. This created a new customs commission, with headquarters in Boston, and authority to punish anyone who didn't pay the new taxes.

4. The Indemnity Act. This eliminated all taxes on tea that the British East Indian Company brought into Great Britain. As a result, tea sold by that company was cheaper than tea sold by any other company (and was even cheaper than tea sold on the black market).

5. The Vice-Admiralty Court Act. This created admiralty courts in Boston, Charleston, and Philadelphia, to be more effective than the one existing court, in Halifax.

The opposition to the Stamp Act, Townshend thought, focused on "internal" taxes, ones that governed daily activities that took place within the colonies. Parliament had heard from no less eminent a spokesman than Benjamin Franklin that this was how Americans looked at things. The new taxes placed duties on "external" activities, on goods imported to the colonies from other places. No matter what Franklin or anybody else said, Townshend had misjudged the American sentiment. Imposing taxes in order to regulate trade was one thing; erecting new taxes just to raise money was something altogether different. Further, the colonists had no representation in Britain's far-away Parliament.

Opposition to the Townshend Acts was swift and loud, if not often violent. Among the acts of protest were the publication of the Massachusetts Circular Letter, drafted by John Adams and James Otis, Jr., which urged the other colonies to follow Massachusetts' lead and petition King George III to repeal The Townshend Acts, and John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, which warned that the new taxes set a dangerous precedent and urged resistance through economic means.

Dickinson also wrote the patriotic "Liberty Song," which appeared in the Boston Gazette and became quite popular throughout new England. One of the stanzas was this:

By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall;
IN so RIGHTEOUS a Cause let us hope to succeed,
For Heaven approves of each generous Deed.

American colonists boycotted British-made goods. An effort spearheaded by the Sons of Liberty signed on people in 24 Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island towns to go out of their way to avoid buying British goods of almost any kind, not just the ones with the new taxes. Rougher customers resorted to vandalism of shops selling the items being taxed or intimidating people who were willing to pay the taxes in order to obtain the goods being taxes.

Some riots broke out and were put down with violence by British soldiers; one particularly violent altercation involved the confiscation of the Liberty, a ship belonging to John Hancock.

Townshend didn't live long enough to see most of it. His successor, Lord North, confronted the colonists' vitriol.

As usual, in Boston, tensions were high. British troops arrived there in October 1768 and kept coming, totally more than 2,000 the following year. Tempers boiled over in March of 1770, in what was later called the Boston Massacre. A month later, Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts, with the exception of the Tea Act. That tax was reaffirmed in 1773, an action that led to the reaction known as the Boston Tea Party. By the time that Parliament repealed the tea tax, in 1778, the Revolutionary War had begun.

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The British Parliament in 1767 passed a series of laws known as the Townshend Acts, after the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend. This series of taxes proved very unpopular in the American colonies. Just a year before, Parliament had rescinded the Stamp Act in response to great outcry from the American colonists.

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Learn about the Boston Massacre where five colonies were killed by the British. Major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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The Boston Massacre was one of the events that led to the American Revolution. In 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts, a group of British soldiers shot their muskets into a crowd. Five colonists were killed.

The massacre happened at a time of tension between the American colonies and Great Britain. In 1767 the British Parliament passed the Townshend Acts. These acts placed taxes on goods such as tea, paper, and glass. The taxes angered many colonists. They felt that the Townshend Acts were unfair because the colonies were not represented in Parliament.

British soldiers arrived in Boston in 1768 to keep order. On the night of March 5, 1770, a group of British soldiers were trying to quiet an angry mob. Colonists were shouting and throwing things at the soldiers. Captain Thomas Preston, the leader of the soldiers, did not order his men to shoot. But in the confusion the soldiers began firing into the crowd. One of the five men killed was a former slave named Crispus Attucks. He is remembered as one of the first people to die for American independence.

Only two of the British soldiers were found guilty of the killings, and they were not punished harshly. The massacre caused many colonists to speak out against rule by Britain.

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The Boston Massacre was one of the events that led to the American Revolution. In 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts, a group of British soldiers shot their muskets into a crowd....

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Kids learn about the Boston Tea Party major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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Boston Tea Party

Part of the American Revolution

Date

December 16, 1773

Location

Caused by
Tea Act

Goals

To protest British Parliament's tax on tea. "No taxation without representation."

Methods

Throw the tea into Boston Harbor but do no damage to anything else.

Resulted in
Intolerable Acts

Parties to the civil conflict

The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. They were upset by the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes on it, while the colonists were charged tax when they purchased it by order of the Townshend Acts.

American Patriots were upset because the taxes in the Townshend Act were a violation of their rights. Demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company.

They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the events grew into the American Revolution which began near Boston in 1775. The Tea Party became a famous event in American history, and since then other political protests such as the Tea Party movement have referred to themselves as historical successors to the Boston protest of 1773.

Background

The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767 angered colonists because they meant that the British could tax the colonies with no representation in the Westminster Parliament ("no taxation without representation"). One man who did not like the taxes was John Hancock. In 1768, his ship Liberty was forcefully taken by British customs officials and he was charged with smuggling. He was defended by John Adams and the charges were eventually dropped. However, Hancock later faced several hundred more accusations.

Hancock organized a boycott of tea from China sold by the British East India Company, whose sales in the colonies then fell from $383,458 (320,000 pounds) to $623 (520 pounds). By 1773, the company had large debts, huge stocks of tea in its warehouses, and no possibility of selling it because smugglers such as Hancock were importing tea without paying taxes (import tax). The British government passed the Tea Act, which allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the colonies directly, which allowed them to sell for lower prices than those offered by the colonial merchants and smugglers.

The British East India Company ships carrying tea were prevented from landing, as most American ports turned the tea away. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, the British-appointed Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain. He convinced the tea brokers, two of whom were his sons, not to back down.

The East India Company with the help of Governor Hutchinson made plans to bring in - by force - the tea under the protection given by British armed ships. Governor Hutchinson had been urging London to deal harshly with the Sons of Liberty. If he had done what the other royal governors had done and let the ship owners and captains resolve the issue with the colonists, Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver would have left the harbor without unloading any tea.

The Boston Tea Party

On December 16, 1773, the evening before the tea was supposed to be landed, the Sons of Liberty, in three groups of 50 Boston residents each, organized by Samuel Adams, burst from the Old South Meeting House and headed toward Griffin's Wharf. Three ships - the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver - had hundreds of crates of tea on them. The men boarded the ships and began destroying the cargo. By 9 pm they had opened 342 crates of tea in all three ships and had thrown them into Boston Harbor.

They took off their shoes, swept the decks, and made sure that each ship's first mate knew that the Sons of Liberty had destroyed only the tea. The whole event was remarkably quiet and peaceful. The next day, they sent someone around to fix the one padlock they had broken.

John Adams and many other Americans considered tea drinking to be unpatriotic following the Boston Tea Party. Tea drinking declined during and after the Revolution, resulting in a shift to coffee as the preferred hot drink of Americans.

The Reaction

Whether or not Samuel Adams helped plan the Boston Tea Party is debated, but he immediately worked to advertise and defend it. He explained that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob but was instead a peaceful, meaningful protest and the only remaining option the people had to defend their constitutional rights. The issue was never the tax itself but how the tax was passed without American input. United States Congress taxed tea from 1789 to 1872.

There were both colonial and British officials who disliked that the Boston Tea Party happened. For instance, Benjamin Franklin stated that the destroyed tea must be paid for. The British government punished the colonies by closing the port of Boston and put in place other laws that were known as the " Intolerable Acts," called the Coercive Acts in Britain.

The Boston Tea Party was one of the important events that led to the American Revolution. At the very least, the Boston Tea Party and the reaction that followed caused support to grow for revolutionaries in the thirteen colonies who were eventually successful in their fight for independence.

American activists with different political views have used the Tea Party as a symbol of protest. In 1973, on the 200th anniversary of the Tea Party, a mass meeting called for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon and protested oil companies in the ongoing oil crisis. Afterward, protesters boarded a replica ship (an exact copy of a ship) in Boston Harbor and dumped several empty oil drums into the harbor.

In 1998, two conservative U.S. Congressmen put the federal tax code into a chest marked "tea" and dumped it into the harbor.

The Boston Tea Party Museum is located on the Congress Street Bridge in Boston. It features reenactments, a documentary, and a number of interactive exhibits. The museum features two replica ships of the period, Eleanor and Beaver. Additionally, the museum possesses one of two known tea chests from the original event as part of its permanent collection.

Interesting facts about the Boston Tea Party

Boston was one of four cities that was to receive tea shipments from the British East India Company.

The Beaver, one of the ships that was boarded by the Sons of Liberty, had been quarantined in the outer harbor for two weeks because of a case of smallpox.

The tea that was destroyed was originally from China.

George Washington condemned the Boston Tea Party, which was not referred to as a "party" until about 50 years later.

The identities of the participants were hidden for decades after the event.

One of the members of the raiding party was Moby Dick author Herman Melville's grandfather, Thomas Melville.

Enough tea was dumped into the harbor to fill 18.5 million teabags.

The only person harmed in the Boston Tea Party was John Crane. He was knocked unconscious by a falling crate and thought to be dead. He was reportedly hidden under a pile of wood shavings in a nearby carpenter's shop but awoke hours later.

Images for kids

This iconic 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier was entitled The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor; the phrase "Boston Tea Party" had not yet become standard. Contrary to Currier's depiction, few of the men dumping the tea were actually disguised as Native Americans.

This notice from the "Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Feathering" in Boston denounced the people who bought tea as "traitors to their country."

Plaque affixed to side of the Independence Wharf building (2009)

The Boston Tea Party Museum in Fort Point Channel

Replica of the Beaver in Boston

In Spanish: Motín del té para niños

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The story behind the Boston Tea Party - Ben Labaree

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The Boston Tea Party

It was another cold December night in Boston. The three British ships the were sitting in Boston harbor, their holds full of tea that wasn't being unloaded because the angry residents of Boston were threatened not to buy or use the tea. Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver

The anger was directed at the government of Great Britain, which at that time had passed the Tea Act, a law that almost guaranteed that the American colonists would buy tea from the East India Company. Why? Because the law lowered the price on tea that the East India Company so much that it was the cheapest tea around. In fact, it was way below the price charged by other tea companies. Most American colonists, looking for ways to cut costs and save money, would choose a cheaper tea over a more expensive tea any day.

Why did this law come about? Well, the East India Company wasn't doing so well and the British government wanted to help the company get back on its feet.

Other tea companies weren't happy about the Tea Act, of course, but the American colonists viewed it as another example of "taxation without representation": In effect, the Tea Act was putting a tax on tea sold by companies other than the East India Company. As with the Stamp Act and other unpopular taxes, they were all voted in by Parliament, which was thousands of miles away, and the American colonists had no way to influence the law or speak out against it while it was being debated in government.

So the colonists were angry. They wanted to do something else to let the British know about the unhappiness that the Tea Act was causing. Some people wanted to keep things nonviolent; others wanted bloodshed. The result was somewhere in the middle.

group of colonists determined to make things change was the A Sons of Liberty. Led by such impassioned patriots as Samuel Adams and John Hancock, the Sons of Liberty had secret meetings at which they discussed how best to get their message across to Great Britain, that the American people wanted more of a role in governing themselves.

Christmas was approaching in the year 1773, and the colonists faced another year of unopposed and unrepresentative taxes. The Sons of Liberty decided to take action.

Donning disguises that made them look like they were Native Americans, a large group of the Sons of Liberty on December 16 stormed aboard those three unsuspecting British ships and dumped 342 crates full of tea overboard. By any standards, that's a lot of tea. These crates happened to be jammed full of tea, and so the companies that made that tea lost a lot of money that night.

Because the Sons of Liberty were disguised as Native Americans, they could claim that they were not guilty of dumping the tea. The British government knew better, of course, and grew angrier than ever at what it saw as Americans' ingratitude. The very next year saw the passage of what came to be called the Intolerable Acts, one of which closed the port of Boston entirely.

The Boston Tea Party was a symbolic act, an example of how far Americans were willing to speak out for their freedom. Two short years later, Americans were willing to give their lives for their freedom, as shots rang out on Lexington Green.

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The Boston Tea Party It was another cold December night in Boston. The three British ships the were sitting in Boston harbor, their holds full of tea that wasn't being unloaded because the angry residents of Boston were threatened not to buy or use the tea.

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After the Tea Party, Parliament passed four punishing acts in 1774. The first law closed Boston Harbor until the colonists paid for the ruined tea. The second law placed Massachusetts under military rule. The third law protected British officials who were accused of crimes in the colonies. The fourth law said that British soldiers could be housed in colonists' homes. Another law passed in 1774 gave an area of land west of the 13 colonies to Quebec. The colonists called these laws intolerable (unbearable) and coercive (forceful).

The British thought that the strict new laws would bring the colonies under control. Instead, the colonies decided to work together against the British government. They set up the Continental Congress, which issued the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

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The Intolerable Acts (also called the Coercive Acts) were harsh laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774. They were meant to punish the American colonists for the Boston...

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Learn about the Intolerable Acts of the American Revolution including how they got their name, the Boston Port Act, Quartering Act, results, and interesting facts.

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The Intolerable Acts The Intolerable Acts were a series of laws sponsored by British Prime Minister Lord North and enacted in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party.

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10 Things You May Not Know About the French and Indian War

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10 surprising facts about the imperial war for colonial domination between Great Britain and France.

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History Brief: The Stamp Act is Implemented

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The Townshend Acts were named after Charles Townshend, chancellor of the Exchequer (head of Britain's treasury). Townshend introduced the four acts, and Parliament passed them in June and July 1767.

The first act was aimed at the New York Assembly. The assembly had refused to pay for the food, drink, housing, and transportation of British soldiers in New York. Parliament therefore ordered the assembly to be suspended until it would agree to pay for the British soldiers. The second act placed taxes on tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass purchased by the colonies. The third act set up ways to collect the taxes. The fourth act helped tea sellers in England by removing the fees for shipping their tea to the colonies.

The Townshend Acts outraged many colonists. Many of them refused to follow the new laws. Some reacted with violence. Parliament repealed most of the Townshend Acts on March 5, 1770-the same day as the Boston Massacre. However, it kept the tax on tea, which continued to anger colonists.

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The Townshend Acts were named after Charles Townshend, chancellor of the Exchequer (head of Britain's treasury). Townshend introduced the four acts, and Parliament passed them in June and July 1767. The first act was aimed at the New York Assembly. The assembly had refused to pay for the food, drink, housing, and transportation of British soldiers in New York.

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Sugar Act

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Sugar Act, in U.S. colonial history, British legislation (1764) aimed at ending the smuggling trade in sugar and molasses from the French and Dutch West Indies and at providing increased revenues to fund enlarged British Empire responsibilities following the French and Indian War. Learn more about the Sugar Act here.

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Parliament abandoned the policy of salutary neglect when it desperately needed money. The Sugar Act required payment of a tariff on certain items. The tariffs upset the colonist because they had no representation in Parliament.

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Quartering Act, (1765), in American colonial history, the British parliamentary provision (actually an amendment to the annual Mutiny Act) requiring colonial authorities to provide food, drink, quarters, fuel, and transportation to British forces stationed in their towns or villages. Resentment over this practice is reflected in the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids it in peacetime.

The Quartering Act was passed primarily in response to greatly increased empire defense costs in America following the French and Indian War and Pontiac's War. Like the Stamp Act of the same year, it also was an assertion of British authority over the colonies, in disregard of the fact that troop financing had been exercised for 150 years by representative provincial assemblies rather than by the Parliament in London. The act was particularly resented in New York, where the largest number of reserves were quartered, and outward defiance led directly to the Suspending Act as part of the Townshend Acts of 1767. After considerable tumult, the Quartering Act was allowed to expire in 1770.

An additional quartering stipulation was included in the Intolerable Acts of 1774.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Adam Augustyn.

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Quartering Act | Summary, Significance, & Facts

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Quartering Act, the 1765 British parliamentary provision requiring colonial authorities to provide food, drink, quarters, fuel, and transportation to British forces stationed in their towns. Resentment over this practice is reflected in the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids it in peacetime.

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Perhaps none of the punitive acts passed by the British parliament to quell the rebellious activities occurring in the colonies during the buildup to the Revolutionary War were quite as personal as the Quartering Act of 1774. While other acts dealt with taxation, regulation, trade, and the administration of justice, the Quartering Act actually dealt with the disposition of armed British soldiers in the colonies. The Quartering Act specified the conditions for the lodging of British troops in all of colonial North America. However, there are many misconceptions about the Quartering Act.

The Quartering Act of 1774 was not the first British quartering act. With an empire that stretched across the world, the British needed to quarter troops in countries all around the globe. Though many British soldiers had stayed in the American colonies during the French and Indian War (1754-1763), some continued to stay in the colonies following the conflict. Having a standing regular army in colonial cities during peacetime began to lead to resentment and anger among the colonial leaders. While in London, this force was viewed as a necessary evil to help secure the borders of the British North American empire.

In 1765, Parliament passed an amendment to the Mutiny Act, which became known as the Quartering Act of 1765. Contrary to popular belief, this Quartering Act did not direct British soldiers to be billeted in the private homes of the colonists. The 1765 act actually prohibited British soldiers from being quartered in private homes, but it did make the colonial legislatures responsible for paying for and providing for barracks or other accommodations to house British regulars. Other accommodations the colonists could billet British troops in included "inns, livery stables, ale houses" and other public houses.

British soldiers had been housed in New York and other American cities but were generally forced to stay in military barracks. In the city of Boston, the placement of British troops constantly was an issue as the city tried to keep them farther from the center of the city, while the British officers pushed to have them closer among the townsfolk.

Relationships between British soldiers and colonial civilians were often tense and occasionally boiled over into violence, especially in Boston. In the most famous incident, on March 5, 1770, after a few heated exchanges, a group of British soldiers fired into a crowd of Bostonians killing five and wounding six in an event that would be branded as the Boston Massacre.

As tensions continued to grow between the soldiers and civilians, the people of Boston continued to fight back against the British attempts to tax and control them. This culminated in December of 1773 when numerous Bostonians, in an act of defiance, dumped thousands of pounds of British tea into Boston Harbor.

In 1774, following the infamous Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passed four acts known as the Coercive Acts. The first three acts closed the port of Boston, took away Massachusetts' ability to self-govern, and removed their ability to administer justice to British soldiers in the colony. The last act passed was the Quartering Act of 1774 which applied not just to Massachusetts, but to all the American colonies, and was only slightly different than the 1765 act. This new act allowed royal governors, rather than colonial legislatures, to find homes and buildings to quarter or house British soldiers. This only further enraged the colonists by having what appeared to be foreign soldiers boarded in American cities and taking away their authority to keep the soldiers distant.

As it had been an ongoing debate in colonial British America, the 1774 act sought to clarify and expand the British ability to quarter troops in American cities. It stated upfront that "doubts have been entertained whether troops can be quartered otherwise than in barracks" and the Royal governor had the right to use "uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings" to quarter soldiers. While "other buildings" could be open to broad interpretation, contrary to popular belief, the 1774 act (like the 1765 act) did not mandate that British soldiers stay in the occupied private homes of American colonists. In fact, it specifically prohibited it.

Regardless, the American colonists were enraged by the Quartering Act along with the other Coercive Acts and they were quickly rebranded "The Intolerable Acts." The Quartering Act was also especially reviled as it applied not just to rebellious Boston or Massachusetts but to all of the American colonies. Leaders in other colonies began to wonder what other punishments Great Britain may place on them for actions they were not responsible for.

The British troops continued to be quartered in Boston and on April 19, 1775, large scale bloodshed between British regular soldiers and Massachusetts militiamen broke out at the Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the American War for Independence.

A year later in July of 1776, Thomas Jefferson included the Quartering Act in the Declaration of Independence in a list of the "repeated injuries and usurpations." Among those grievances against King George III was that he "kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures" and was "quartering large bodies of armed troops among us." Though he was not referring to soldiers being stationed inside inhabited private homes, the very presence of armies stationed in American cities during peacetime was a threat to American liberty.

The relationship between armed soldiers and the civilian governments became a central issue of the American Revolution. As the new United States of America formed its own army to defend the former colonies, it became paramount that this military bend to the will of the civilian government to ensure the military could not be used against the people. This was something George Washington would be especially sensitive to and would be sure to defer to civilian authority.

Following the successful conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the issue of continuing to have a standing army during peacetime was fiercely debated. Many anti-Federalists in the early republic era would argue that the United States did not need a standing army during peacetime. As that debate continued in the new United States Congress, the issue of having soldiers stationed in American cities was agreed by all to be unacceptable.

Included in the new Bill of Rights for U.S. Constitution in 1790 was the Third Amendment. This Amendment stated that "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." Though it is often thought today as an irrelevant amendment, at the time following the Revolutionary War, it was considered a usurpation of American liberty to allow soldiers to be quartered among civilian populations and they wanted to ensure that American homes would be protected against the always looming possibility of an armed takeover. Although the British Army was prohibited from being boarded in private inhabited homes in America, the fact that the local government was effectively powerless opened the door to potential abuses of power. The popular narrative that British soldiers forced themselves into the homes of Americans proved to be a true fear of the American people that was addressed as the nation created the new United States Constitution.

Further Readings

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Perhaps none of the punitive acts passed by the British parliament to quell the rebellious activities occurring in the colonies during the buildup to the Revolutionary War were quite as personal as the Quartering Act of 1774.

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Video has information about the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act

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Colonists protested further taxes imposed through the Quartering Act and the Stamp Act. The efforts were successful and forced the British to listen to the colonists.

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Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZ62-134241)

The Quartering Act required the American colonies to provide food, drink, quarters (lodging), fuel, and transportation to British forces stationed in their towns or villages. The British Parliament passed it in 1765, shortly after the passage of the Stamp Act. The Quartering Act amended a section of the Mutiny Act, which was renewed annually. That section allowed for the shelter of military troops in the colonies. In effect, the Quartering Act placed additional financial responsibilities for the care of the troops onto the colonists.

Shortly before the Quartering Act was passed, England had won the French and Indian War in America. As a result, Britain had acquired more land. The land included parts of eastern Canada, the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, and Florida. However, the war had been expensive. Bringing the British soldiers back to England would have incurred more costs. Therefore, Parliament decided to keep the troops in America, where they could oversee the new lands and protect the colonists. In order to defray the cost of the troops, the Quartering Act made the colonists pay the soldiers' room and board expenses.

The Quartering Act also became a way for the British to assert their authority over the colonies. The colonists were against having a standing army during peacetime, and they certainly did not want to pay for one. They opposed being taxed when they had no representation in Parliament. In fact, various small rebellions had already broken out over tax issues. The soldiers were therefore expected to collect the taxes and prevent any uprisings. Under those conditions tensions between England and the colonists continued to grow.

The colonists in New York particularly resented the Quartering Act. New York quartered the largest number of British reserves. The colony's legislature defied the Quartering Act. In response, Parliament enacted the Suspending Act as part of the Townshend Acts of 1767. The Suspending Act prevented the New York legislature from meeting until they agreed to follow the law. New York subsequently agreed to pay for some, though not all, of the costs of the troops.

The Quartering Act caused considerable turmoil before Parliament allowed it to expire in 1770. It was subsequently reinstated in 1774 as part of the Intolerable Acts. Colonial authorities addressed the issue in the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It states that soldiers shall not be housed on private property during peacetime without the owner's permission.

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The Quartering Act required the American colonies to provide food, drink, quarters (lodging), fuel, and transportation to British forces stationed in their towns or villages....

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Quartering Act | What, Background, Causes & Impact - History for Kids

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The Quartering Act was passed primarily to solve the problems of accommodating the British soldiers in colonial America. Click for more.

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American Revolution: The Continental Congress

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Kids learn about The Continental Congress meetings; major events in the American Revolutionary War.

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The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies. It governed the colonies before and during the American Revolution and met three times from 1774 to 1789.

The following men served as the president of the First Continental Congress:

Peyton Randolph (September 5, 1774 - October 21, 1774)

Henry Middleton (October 22, 1774 - October 26, 1774)

The following men served as the president of the Second Continental Congress:

Peyton Randolph (May 10, 1775 - May 23, 1775)

John Hancock (May 24, 1775 - October 31, 1777)

Henry Laurens (November 1, 1777 - December 9, 1778)

John Jay (December 10, 1778 - September 27, 1779)

Samuel Huntington (September 28, 1779 - March 1, 1781)

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The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies. It governed the colonies before and during the American Revolution and met three times from 1774 to 1789.

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This page describes the formation of the First Continental Congress.

First Continental Congress

What are we Going to do About it?

In response to the Intolerable Acts, America's first Continental Congress met on September 5, 1774. 56 delegates from 12 colonies met at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia to discuss a unified position and Parliament's assertion that it could control the colonies. Georgia was the only colony that refused to send a delegate.

Grievances Against Parliament

As part of the convention, John Adams drafted the Declaration of Rights which countered that America need not respect decisions by Parliament that involved domestic affairs within America. Furthermore, the delegates agreed to resume the boycott on British goods until the Intolerable Acts were repealed. During the two-month long convention, delegates also agreed that if the new royal governor of Massachusetts attempted to rule by force, the residents had a right to defend themselves, and that colonists from throughout America would come to their aid. The congress agreed to meet again in May of 1775.

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Causes of the Revolutionary War - First Continental Congress

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This page describes the formation of the First Continental Congress. In response to the Intolerable Acts, America's first Continental Congress met on September 5, 1774. 56 delegates from 12 colonies met at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia to discuss a unified position and Parliament's assertion that it could control the colonies.

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The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to fight against the Intolerable Acts set by Britain. They joined together the colonies telling Britain they would not stand for this.

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The Continental Congress was a gathering of representatives from America's 13 Colonies that served as a nominal federal government before and during the Revolutionary War, from 1774 to 1781. The Congress had two main meetings and several subsequent ones.

The main impetus for the formation of the Continental Congress was Parliament's passage in 1774 of the Intolerable Acts, which, among other things, closed the port of Boston and imposed martial law. Not surprisingly, the Sons of Liberty, who were in the habit of agitating for radical solutions to colonial problems, called for a boycott of British goods and of general civil disobedience. Some colonial merchants, wary of losing some of their biggest customers, wanted a clear set of objectives and a set of mutually agreed on principles to which all colonists could look. The result was the Continental Congress.

Colonies chose delegates to attend the Congress in different ways. Some states had their colonial assemblies choose the delegates; others had a general election; others had an open meeting.

A total of 55 delegates from every colony except Georgia first gathered on Sept. 5, 1774, in Philadelphia's Carpenters Hall. (Georgia did not want to alienate the British soldiers whose help they needed to stave off attacks from nearby Creek Native Americans.) Peyton Randolph was named president, and Charles Thomas was appointed secretary. The delegates discussed their disagreements with Parliament and suggestions for how to resolve them.

One key debate very early on had to do with representation in the Congress itself. Delegates from states with higher populations insisted that they should have more influence on whatever votes the delegates were going to take because they represented more people. Delegates from states with smaller populations sought equal representation for all. After much discussion, the delegates agreed that each colony would have one vote.

The key point of distinction in the Continental Congress is that the delegates did not advocate independence at this point. Rather, they wanted to present their concerns to Great Britain with a united voice, in order to encourage Parliament and the king to acknowledge those concerns.

The first major action taken by the Continental Congress was to discuss a plan by Pennsylvania delegate Joseph Galloway for the implementation of an American parliament. The beginning of Galloway's Plan of Union of Great Britain and the Colonies included this reinforcement of the idea of conciliation: "Resolved, that this Congress will apply to His Majesty for a redress of grievances under which his faithful subjects in America labor; and assure him that the colonies hold in abhorrence the idea of being considered independent communities on the British government, and most ardently desire the establishment of a political union, not only among themselves but with the mother state, upon chose principles of safety and freedom which are essential in the constitution of all free governments, and particularly that of the British legislature."

The delegates were initially divided on whether to support such a plan, and a final decision was rendered moot by the report of the Suffolk Resolves, a set of meetings in Massachusetts that took things one step further, arguing the following:

that the Intolerable Acts were unconstitutional and government officials should resign

that the power of the tax should reside in the hands of local officials

that Massachusetts should set itself up as a free state, with an armed militia, in order to encourage Parliament to repeal the Intolerable Acts.

These issues became part of the discussions of the Continental Congress. As with Galloway's plan, the delegates split initially on whether to support the Suffolk Resolves, the report of which had been delivered to the Continental Congress by noted horseman Paul Revere. After much debate, the delegates on September 17 endorsed the ideas espoused in the Suffolk Resolves.

On October 20, the delegates released the Articles of Association, which, among other things, gave Great Britain a deadline of December 1 to repeal the Intolerable Acts; if that deadline passed with no relevant action taken, the Congress vowed, colonists would begin their boycott. As a further pronouncement, the colonists vowed to place an embargo on exports if Parliament didn't act before September 10, 1775.

On October 26, the Continental Congress delegates put together a formal petition stating the grievances that the colonists had against King George III. This was the "Declaration of Rights and Grievances." The delegates addressed their letter to the king and not to Parliament because they thought that Parliament was to blame for the passage of the Intolerable Acts. The last thing that the delegates did before adjourning was to set a date on which to reconvene: May 10, 1775.

Next page > The Second Continental Congress > Page 1, 2

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The Continental Congress was a gathering of representatives from America's 13 Colonies that served as a nominal federal government before and during the Revolutionary War, from 1774 to 1781. The Congress had two main meetings and several subsequent ones.

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First Continental Congress Facts

The First Continental Congress took place between September 5 th, 1774 and October 26 th, 1774 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Carpenter's Hall. It was a meeting between 12 of the 13 colonies' delegates, at an early stage of the American Revolution. The meeting took place because the British Parliament had passed the 'Coercive Acts' in response to the Boston Tea Party in Massachusetts. The only colony that did not send delegates was Georgia, who was looking for help from the British to deal with the problems they had with Native Americans. In total 56 delegates from 12 colonies attended.

During the meeting, discussions at the First Continental Congress involved how to deal with the possibility of their petition to halt the 'Coercive Acts' being rejected by the British.

Discussions at the First Continental Congress also involved calling a Second Continental Congress if the petition to halt the 'Coercive Acts' was rejected.

The 'Coercive Acts' were also referred to as the 'Intolerable Acts'.

Peyton Randolph presided over the First Continental Congress from September 5 th, to October 21 st, 1774, when Henry Middleton took over. Henry presided over the First Continental Congress from October 22 nd to October 26 th, 1774.

The Secretary to the First Continental Congress was Charles Thomson, the leader of Philadelphia's Committee of Correspondence.

Although delegates of 12 colonies attended, they did not all agree why they were there.

Conservative delegates believed they should be creating common policies to force an end to the British acts and reconcile with Britain. Radicals believed they needed to put an end to the abuses of British power. Some believed that the legislative power of British Parliament needed to come to an end.

The result of the First Continental Congress was to pass and sign the Continental Association in the Declaration and Resolves. The Continental Association called for a boycott of British goods, which would come into effect in December of that same year.

The first accomplishment of the First Continental Congress was a compact to boycott British goods, agreed to by the colonies. It was also agreed that if the acts were not repealed the colonies would cease to export to Britain as of September 10 th, 1775.

The second accomplishment of the First Continental Congress was to ensure that a Second Continental Congress would take place on May 10 th, 1775, which would not only include the colonies, but others by invitation. Those to be invited included Quebec, P.E.I. Nova Scotia, East and West Florida, and the only colony that did not attend the First Continental Congress - Georgia. It is believed that ultimately only invitations were sent to Quebec.

Delegates at the First Continental Congress included two from New Hampshire, four from Massachusetts, two from Rhode Island, three from Connecticut, nine from New York, five from New Jersey, eight from Pennsylvania, three from Delaware, five from Maryland, seven from Virginia, three from North Carolina, and five from South Carolina.

Delegates at the First Continental Congress included future United States Presidents George Washington (1st President) and John Adams (2 nd President).

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first continental congress facts for kids

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fun facts about first continental congress

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The First Continental Congress took place between September 5 th , 1774 and October 26 th , 1774 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Carpenter's Hall. It was a meeting between 12 of the 13 colonies' delegates, at an early stage of the American Revolution.

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The Boston Massacre | Road to the Revolution

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The First Continental Congress | Road to the Revolution