The Boston Tea Party, Intolerable Acts & First Continential Congress

Declaration and Resolves

condemned the Intolerable Acts as a violation of British law

William Pitt

defended the colonies

Parliament action

passed the Conciliatory Resolution, relieving taxes for colonies that supported the government -> war broke out before

The Tea Act

- 1773: Prime Minister, allow Company to bring shiploads of tea directly to America

The Boston Tea Party result

- 1774, Coercive Acts, Quebec Act - Quartering Act: reinstated - All forms of local legislation were forbidden - commander of the British army in America was appointed governor of Mass. - Boston Harbor closed: people responsible for the destruction gave up + paid in full

The Boston Tea Party controversial

- Benjamin Franklin insisted that the money had to be repaid - offer was refused

First Congressional Congress met

- During the months of September and October 1774: assert their tights within the British govt, not rebel against it

The Boston Tea Party cause

- Mass governor: insisted three ships be allowed to anchor and demanded that tea be paid for, tax and all

First Congressional Congress outcome

- able to cooperate - sent the Declaration and Resolves to King George II - sanctioned the colonial militias and a Patriot government in Massachusetts - endorsed a boycott of British goods including slaves - agreed to meet again if England had not responded as wished

Quebec Act

- allowed French Canadian Catholics the right to settle in the land west of the Proclamation Line

The Boston Tea Party reaction

- laborers on the docks wouldn't unload it, and merchants wouldn't pay for it. - ships sat in the harbor for a month-> Sons of Liberty: December 16, 1773: dumped the ships' cargo - valued at nearly one million dollars today - overboard into the sea

October 1773

- opposition: tax without representation - force the resignation of British tea agents - not allow ships carrying tea to enter the harbor

The colonies' belief and solution

- republicanism: legislature for each colony -> elected representative in Parliament - Sons of Liberty

Intolerable Acts

= Coercive Acts + Quebec Acts

the committees of safety

Each of the colonies had organized secret governments, Philadelphia

Coercive Acts 1774

Massachusetts was placed under martial law