1. “You Say You want a Revolution!” British Acts in the American Colonies
US History

2. NOTE: King George III and the British Parliament ruled the American Colonies FOCUS QUESTION: Why did the Colonists Rebel?

3. How the Colonists Reacted
Proclamation of 1763
Year
What this Act Did
How the Colonists Reacted
1763
English banned settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Fur traders have to get royal permission to enter new frontier
Wanted to separate colonists from the American Indians
Act was hard to enforce and settlers continued to go west

5. How the Colonists Reacted
Sugar Act
Year
What this Act Did
How the Colonists Reacted
1764
English Parliament set a duty (import tax) on foreign sugar, molasses, wine, and other goods
Was seriously enforced
Royal inspectors searched homes for smuggled goods.
Colonists protested the law
Started smuggling items in.

6. How the Colonists Reacted
Stamp Act
Year
What this Act Did
How the Colonists Reacted
1765
English Parliament passed a tax on printed matter of all kinds
newspapers, ads, cards, and legal documents
Things had to be printed on stamped paper or have stamps attached to show the tax has been paid
Colonists Rioted
Colonial assemblies met in protest
Passed resolutions against it
Merchants agreed not to buy British goods

8. How the Colonists Reacted
Quartering Act
Year
What this Act Did
How the Colonists Reacted
1765
English Parliament required colonists to supply British troops with housing and other items
When soldiers were sent to colonies to keep order, some state assemblies protested.

10. How the Colonists Reacted
Declaratory Act
Year
What this Act Did
How the Colonists Reacted
1766
It stated that British Parliament could pass laws for the colonies
Colonists largely ignored this act b/c they were celebrating the repeal/banning of the Stamp Act

12. How the Colonists Reacted
Townshend Acts
Year
What this Act Did
How the Colonists Reacted
1767
English Parliament placed taxes on glass, paper, paints, and tea.
Powerful opposition organized, boycotted buying British goods, organized protests, newspapers attacked British, which led to the Boston Massacre (1770)

13. How the Colonists Reacted
Tea Act
Year
What this Act Did
How the Colonists Reacted
1773
English Parliament gives East India Company the right to sell tea directly to Americans without taxes
Prices of tea dropped dramatically.
BOSTON TEA PARTY occurred after this act was passed(dressed as American Indians, colonists dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into harbor)

15. How the Colonists Reacted
Intolerable Acts
Year
What this Act Did
How the Colonists Reacted
1774
British Parliament passes Coercive Acts.
(specifically passed to punish colonists for their participation in the Boston Tea party)
4 laws designed to punish Boston and to strengthen British control over colonies; (1) Closed port of Boston; (2) Changed Massachusetts government - made colonists pay for tea; (3)British officials committing crimes in colonies must be tried in England; (4) ordered quartering/housing of troops
Boycott of British goods and led to the FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

16. Why did Colonists React the way they did?
Taxation without Representation