The Boston Tea Party, Intolerable Acts & First Continental Congress

The Intolerable Acts: Coercive + Quebec Acts>>> It's time to unite!!!

- In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed a series of resolutions in 1774 called the Coercive Acts. Massachusetts was placed under martial law, - Quartering Act was reinstated. All forms of local legislation were forbidden, and the commander of the British army in America was appointed governor of Massachusetts - Boston Harbor was closed until the people responsible for the destruction of the tea stepped forward and paid its full value. - Quebec Act The Quebec Act allowed French Canadian Catholics the right to settle in the land west of the Proclamation Line. This aroused the ire of many people in the colonies that had otherwise been unconcerned about what was happening in Boston.

political right required!!! No new act helps/

- allowing the Company to bring shiploads of tea directly to America. They didn't have to go through English merchants, and they didn't have to pay export duties on the shipments. So, even though the colonists would have to pay an import tax, the tea was still less expensive. - American merchants stirred up opposition to the Tea Act, saying that they were still being taxed without representation. In October 1773, a group of colonists in Philadelphia managed to force the resignation of British tea agents after being threatened with tar and feathering. Many ports would not allow ships carrying tea to enter the harbor. They were forced to sail back to England.

The First Continental Congress Declaration and Resolves a Patriot government William Pitt the Conciliatory Resolution

During the months of September and October 1774, the First Congressional Congress met to assert their rights within the British government, not to rebel against it. - First, they sent the Declaration and Resolves to King George III in which they condemned the Intolerable Acts as a violation of British law. They sanctioned the colonial militias and a Patriot government in Massachusetts and endorsed a boycott of British goods, including slaves. Finally, they agreed to meet again the following spring if England had not granted them full representation and undone some of the wrongs they had committed. - Many in England were incensed by the Congress and its work, but William Pitt (for whom Pittsburg is named) defended the colonies. Parliament passed the Conciliatory Resolution relieving taxes for colonies that supported the government. But before news of the law could reach the colonies, war had broken o

The Boston Tea Party

Massachusetts had a loyal governor who insisted that three ships be allowed to anchor and demanded that the tea be paid for, tax and all. But laborers on the docks wouldn't unload it, and merchants wouldn't pay for it. The ships sat in Boston harbor for a month before the Sons of Liberty finally decided to take action. On December 16, 1773, as many as one hundred and fifty men (a few of whom were dressed as Indians) dumped the ships' cargo - valued at nearly one million dollars today - overboard into the sea. The event has come to be known as the Boston Tea Party, and it stands out as one of the defining moments of American historyBenjamin Franklin insisted that the money had to be repaid. And, in fact, four New York merchants approached the Prime Minster and offered to compensate the Company. But their offer was refused, and Boston was in big trouble.

REVIEW

Tension between England and its colonies had calmed down following the Boston Massacre in 1770. Three years passed without serious incident, and England decided it was time to try and collect some tax money. The Tea Act would have lowered the price of tea while still collecting the Townshend duty, and it would have helped bolster the nearly-bankrupt British East India Company, but colonists protested yet another example of taxation without representation. Many colonies refused shipments of tea and successfully bullied the tax agents into resigning, but the Massachusetts governor insisted on allowing three shiploads of tea into the harbor. During the Boston Tea Party, the Sons of Liberty threw the cargo overboard rather than allow the tea to be unloaded and the tax paid. Britain responded by passing the Coercive Acts aimed at punishing Boston. They simultaneously passed the Quebec Act that angered Americans because it allowed Canadians to settle in land west of the Proclamation line. Together, these actions were called the Intolerable Acts. Delegates from twelve colonies met at the First Continental Congress to lodge a formal protest. Parliament responded with the Conciliatory Acts, but before word of the compromise reached the colonies, war had broken out.