Great Britain raises taxes S.S. lesson

Pressure to remove the Stamp Act increased.

A group of London merchants complained that their trade suffered from the colonial boycott. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.

British officials also tried harder to arrest smugglers.

Colonial merchants were required to list all the trade goods on their ship. The list had to be approved before they could leave colonial ports. The British Navy began to stop and search ships for smuggled goods.

Protests against the Stamp Act began almost immediately.

Colonists formed a secret group called the Sons of Liberty. They used violence to scare off tax collectors. Many colonial courts shut down because people refused to buy the stamps required for legal documents. Businesses openly ignored the law by refusing to buy stamps.

The Massachusetts legislature called for a Stamp Act Congress.

Delegates from nine colonies met in New York. They issued a declaration that the Stamp Act was a violation of their rights and liberties

Samuel Adams helped found the Committees of Correspondence.

Each committee got in touch with other towns and colonies. Its members shared ideas and information about the new British laws and ways to change them.

At a Boston town meeting in May 1764, local leader Samuel Adams agreed with James Otis.

He believed that Parliament could not tax the colonists without their permission. The ideas of Otis and Adams were summed up in the slogan "No Taxation without Representation," which spread throughout the colonies.

Grenville did not expect this tax to spark protest.

In Britain people already paid similar taxes. But colonists saw it differently The Stamp Act was Parliament's first attempt to raise money by taxing the colonists directly, rather than by taxing imported goods. Mercy

James Otis, a colonial lawyer, argued that the power of the Crown and Parliament was limited.

Otis said they could not "take from any man any part of his property, without his consent in person or by representation." Colonial assemblies had little influence on Parliament's decisions. The colonists were subjects of the Crown instead of citizens of England.

The British government continued to search for new ways to tax the American colonies, further angered colonists.

Prime Minister Grenville proposed the Stamp Act of 1765 This act required colonists to pay for an official stamp, or seal, when they bought paper items. The tax had to be paid on legal documents, licenses, newspapers, pamphlets, and even playing cards. Colonists who refused to buy stamps could be fined or sent to jail.

Great Britain had won the French and Indian War, but Parliament still had to pay for it.

The British continued to keep a standing army in North America to protect the colonists from Native American attacks. To help pay for this army, Prime minister George Greenville asked Parliament to tax the colonists. In 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act, which set duties on molasses and sugar imported by the colonists. This was the first act passed specifically to raise money in the colonies

Parliament's actions upset many colonists who had grown used to being independent and governing themselves.

The Parliament's longtime practice of salutary neglect had fostered individualism among the colonists The rising merchant class thought the taxes were unfair and hurt business Many believed that Great Britain had no right to tax the colonies at all without popular consent.

Parliament also changed the colonies' legal system system by giving greater power to the vice-admiralty courts.

The courts had no jury and the judges treated suspected smugglers as guilty until proven innocent. In regular British courts, accused persons were treated as innocent until proven guilty.

A popular method of protest was the boycott, in which people refused to buy British goods.

The first colonial boycott started in New York in 1765. It soon spread to other colonies. Colonists hoped that their efforts would hurt the British economy and might convince Parliament to end the new taxes.

Parliament passed the Townshend Acts.

These acts pleased duties on: Glass Lead Paint Paper Tea To enforce the Townshend Acts, British officials used writs of assistance. These allowed tax collectors to search for smuggled goods. Colonists hated the new laws because they took power away from colonial government.

In May 1765 a Virginia lawyer named Patrick Henry presented a series of resolutions to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

These resolutions stated that the Stamp Act violated colonists' rights. In addition to taxation without representation, the Stamp Act denied the accused a trial by jury. Henry's speech in support of the resolutions convinced the assembly to support some of his ideas.

Tax Collectors in Massachusetts seized the ship Liberty on suspicion of smuggling.

This action angered the ship's owner and the Sons of Liberty. They attacked the houses of the customs official in protest. In response, the governor broke up the Massachusetts legislature. He asked troops to restore order. British soldiers arrived in Boston.

Parliament Members were upset that the colonists challenged their authority.

Thus, Parliament issued the Declaratory Act. It stated that Parliament had the power to make laws for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." The Declaratory Act further worried colonists. The act stripped away much of their independence.

Colonists responded to the Townshend Acts by boycotting British goods.

Women calling themselves the Daughters of Liberty supported the boycott. Samuel Adams wrote a letter arguing that the laws violated the legal rights of the colonists. The Massachusetts legislature sent the letter to the other colonies' legislatures, who voted to join the protest.