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