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The Intolerable Acts were called the Coercive Acts in Great Britain and are sometimes called the Punitive Acts. The Intolerable Acts were passed in response to the Boston Tea Party and ongoing opposition to British laws governing the colonies(curious George is mad). The Intolerable Acts were aimed at isolating Boston, the seat of the most radical anti-British sentiment, from the other colonies. Colonists responded to the Intolerable Acts with a show of unity, convening the First Continental Congress to discuss and negotiate a unified approach to the British. The acts were​​ the

Boston Port Act.

Administration of Justice Act.

Massachusetts Government Act.

Quartering Act.

Quebec Act.

Some of the acts included letting soldiers go into people's homes looking if there was a meeting against the British! And the Boston Port Act makes Boston residents can’t do shipments to other places except for Britain!

The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure enacted by Parliament in May 1773.
By ALex

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The Acts

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The Acts
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British Parliament adopts the Coercive Acts in response to the Boston Tea Party

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Upset by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property by American colonists, the British Parliament enacts the Coercive Acts,

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Britain's House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament, helped issue a series of acts in response to the Boston Tea Party and the American colonies' continual rebellion.

Someone was going to pay.

Parliament was utterly fed up with colonial antics. The British could tolerate strongly worded letters or trade boycotts. They could put up with defiant legislatures and harassed customs officials to an extent.

But they saw the destruction of 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company as wanton destruction of property by Boston thugs who did not even have the courage to admit responsibility.

Someone was going to pay.

Calami-tea

The British called their responsive measures to the Boston Tea Party the Coercive Acts. Boston Harbor was closed to trade until the owners of the tea were compensated. Only food and firewood were permitted into the port. Town meetings were banned, and the authority of the royal governor was increased.

To add insult to injury, General Gage, the British commander of North American forces, was appointed governor of Massachusetts. British troops and officials would now be tried outside Massachusetts for crimes of murder. Greater freedom was granted to British officers who wished to house their soldiers in private dwellings.

This Town has received the Copy of an Act of the British Parliament, wherein it appears that we have been tried and condemned, and are to be punished, by the shutting up of the harbor and other marks of revenge, until we shall disgrace ourselves by servilely yielding up, in effect, the just and righteous claims of America....The people receive this cruel edict with abhorrence and indignation. They consider themselves as suffering the stroke ministerial...I hope they will sustain the blow with a becoming fortitude, and that the cursed design of intimidating and subduing the spirits of all America, will, by the joint efforts of all, be frustrated.

- Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren (May 14, 1774)

Colonists sometimes took out their anger over unfair taxes on the tax collector, as depicted in this drawing from 1774.

The Quebec Act

Parliament seemed to have a penchant for bad timing in these years. Right after passing the Coercive Acts, it passed the , a law that recognized the Roman Catholic Church as the established church in Quebec. An appointed council, rather than an elected body, would make the major decisions for the colony. The boundary of Quebec was extended into the Ohio Valley.

In the wake of the passage of the Quebec Act, rage spread through the 13 colonies. With this one act, the British Crown granted land to the French in Quebec that was clearly desired by the American colonists. The extension of tolerance to Catholics was viewed as a hostile act by predominantly Protestant America.

Democracy took another blow with the establishment of direct rule in Quebec. Although the British made no connection between the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act, they were seen on the American mainland as malicious deed and collectively called the Intolerable Acts.

INTOLERABLE ACTS

Boston Port Act
An act to discontinue, in such manner, and for or such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town, and within the harbour, of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America.

Massachusetts Government Act
An Act for the better regulating the government of the province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.

Administration of Justice Act
An act for the impartial administration of justice in the case of persons questioned for any acts done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England.

Quebec Act
An Act for making effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America.

Throughout the colonies, the message was clear: what could happen in Massachusetts could happen anywhere. The British had gone too far. Supplies were sent to the beleaguered colony from the other twelve. For the first time since the Stamp Act Crisis, an intercolonial conference was called.

It was under these tense circumstances that the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774.

Fairfax Resolves
In response to the closing of the Port of Boston and the passage of the other Intolerable Acts by Parliament, colonists voiced their opposition on a local level. In July 1774, Fairfax County, Virginia, passed the Fairfax County Resolves in protest. This website offers the text of this document, which was drafted by George Mason and George Washington.

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The Intolerable Acts
The series of acts British Parliament passed in 1774 in reaction to the Boston Tea Party came to be known in the American colonies as the Intolerable Acts. This U.S. History website offers a brief description of the Intolerable Acts with a link to each specific act.

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The Declaration of Rights and Grievances
What was the colonies' reaction to the "impolitic, unjust, and cruel" Intolerable Acts? They called a Continental Congress in September of the same year and listed their grievences against the British. This U.S. Constitution website looks at the First Continental Congress.

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Class Conflicts among Americans in the Revolutionary Period
Not every colonist supported the rebellious actions of the Sons of Liberty and the call to action of the Committees of Correspondence. Loyalists, men and women loyal to Britain and the king, could be found throughout the colonies. Tensions between loyalists and patriots were fueled by class conflicts. One loyalist, Gouverneur Morris, penned letters voicing his concern about the American Revolution, excerpts of which are presented and explained at this Montclair State College website.

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About one-third of all American colonists remained loyal to the British during the Revolution. Take this quiz to uncover other fun facts about the road to revolution.
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In response to the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament attempted to crack down on the defiant American colonists with the passage of harsh laws severely restricting the colonists' freedoms. The Americans referred to this oppresive legislation as The Intolerable Acts

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Intolerable Acts, (1774), in U.S. colonial history, four punitive measures enacted by the British Parliament in retaliation for acts of colonial defiance, together with the Quebec Act establishing a new administration for the territory ceded to Britain after the French and Indian War (1754-63).

The cumulative effect of the reports of colonial resistance to British rule during the winter of 1773-74 was to make Parliament more determined than ever to assert its authority in America. The main force of its actions fell on Boston, which seemed to be the centre of colonial hostility. First, the British government, angered by the Boston Tea Party (1773), passed the Boston Port Bill, closing that city's harbour until restitution was made for the destroyed tea. Second, the Massachusetts Government Act abrogated the colony's charter of 1691, reducing it to the level of a crown colony, replacing the elective local council with an appointive one, enhancing the powers of the military governor, Gen. Thomas Gage, and forbidding town meetings without approval. Third, the Administration of Justice Act was aimed at protecting British officials charged with capital offenses during law enforcement by allowing them to go to England or another colony for trial. The fourth Intolerable Act included new arrangements for housing British troops in occupied American dwellings, thus reviving the indignation that surrounded the earlier Quartering Act, which had been allowed to expire in 1770. Passed on June 2, 1774, the new Quartering Act applied to all of British America and gave colonial governors the right to requisition unoccupied buildings to house British troops. However, in Massachusetts the British troops were forced to remain camped on the Boston Common until the following November because the Boston patriots refused to allow workmen to repair the vacant buildings General Gage had obtained for quarters.

The Quebec Act, under consideration since 1773, removed all the territory and fur trade between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from possible colonial jurisdiction and awarded it to the province of Quebec. By establishing French civil law and the Roman Catholic religion in the coveted area, Britain acted liberally toward Quebec's settlers but raised the spectre of popery before the mainly Protestant colonies to Canada's south.

The Intolerable Acts represented an attempt to reimpose strict British control over the American colonies, but, after 10 years of vacillation, the decision to be firm had come too late. Rather than cowing Massachusetts and separating it from the other colonies, the oppressive measures became the justification for convening the First Continental Congress later in 1774.

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Intolerable Acts | 1774, Definition, Summary, Significance, & Facts

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Intolerable Acts, four punitive measures enacted by Britain in 1774 against the American colonies. They included the Boston Port Bill, which closed Boston Harbor, and the Massachusetts Government Act, which abrogated the colony's charter of 1691. Learn more about these and the other Intolerable Acts.

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The Intolerable Acts- Boston Tea Party Ship

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The Intolerable Acts- Boston Tea Party Ship

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Parliament Extends Its Control Over The Colonies

March to September 1774
Following the colonists' defiant display at the Boston Tea Party, the majority of England was surprised, bewildered, and angered by the colonists' actions. After much debate in the Parliament, King George III assumed an active role in deciding punishment for the rebellious and costly colonists by personally advising Lord North, the Prime Minister of Britain at the time. This resulted in the "Coercive Acts," passed in March 1774, which were intended to quell the colonists and force them into submission.

"The die is now cast. The Colonies must either submit or triumph."

There was some opposition in Parliament to these acts by American sympathizers, including concerns that the balance of governmental power in England would be disrupted by the King's influence over Lord North. One of the more prominent American sympathizers was Edmund Burke, a statesman and leader in the conservative Whig party, who warned that such punishment would only invoke a "fierce spirit of liberty" in the colonies. Those members of Parliament who sided with Burke invoked many of the arguments employed by the Patriots, stating that it was morally wrong to tax America without representation in the Parliament.

Unfortunately for England and King George III, the plan backfired as Burke had suggested. Instead, the colonies became more united through their common hatred of the British, referring to the new acts as the "Intolerable Acts." After years of acts designed to control the colonists who craved liberty and sovereignty, the Intolerable Acts continued to build the colonists' fervor and eventually led to the " shot heard round the world."

Read the Intolerable Acts as they were written in 1774:

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Intolerable Acts | Boston Port Bill | Quebec Act | 1774

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Parliament extended its control with the Intolerable Acts. Learn about the Boston Port Bill, the Quebec Act, and the the Intolerable Acts of 1774.

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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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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 Townshend Acts- The Boston Tea Party Ship

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The Townshend Acts- The Boston Tea Party Ship

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Historical Facts About The Townshend Acts

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A complete guide to Townshend Acts and their impact, in Boston. Stamp Act of 1765. Boston Massacre. Includes a list of interesting facts you may not know.

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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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Get information about the Stamp Act from the DK Find Out website for kids. Find out when the Stamp Act was imposed and other facts from DK Find Out

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The Stamp Act- National Constitution Center

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The Stamp Act- National Constitution Center

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The seeds of Revolution: The Stamp Act protests in Boston

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It was on this day in 1765 that the British Parliament signed the Stamp Act, a move that lit the fuse for a revolution in the American colonies that burned for a decade.

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LIBERTY! . The Stamp Act Riots & Tar and Feathering | PBS

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