With Several different colonies already established in both New England and the Chesapeake Bay area's, British colonists had settled in and made a new life in America; branching out from the two original colonies to form the states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Florida, New Jersey and Nova Scotia. Although they were a continent away from their mother land, England, and were settled down in a new land, they were still considered British citizens.
As such the laws of British rule were still applicable to the American colonists, including taxation; and they were still beneficiaries of the perks that came along with being British citizen, such as protection from Indian threats, by British soldiers. However, the amicable relationship between Great Britain and the colonists did not remain in place long after the Royal Crown began to flex its Superior muscles on the colonists. With several acts and taxes being placed upon colonists, in order to recoup from the massive debt that Great Britain had accumulated after The French and Indian War had ended.
The American colonists had physically and financially survived the French and Indian War. However, they had also survived Pontiac's Rebellion which ended in 1766, and the race wars that were brought on in part by the Paxton Boys when the massacred Conestoga Indians in Lancaster (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.128). The American colonists proved themselves to be gritty survivors, so when the British issued the “Proclamation Act of 1763 which forbade White Settlement west of the Proclamation line, a border running along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains,” the American colonists were undoubtedly upset (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.129).
The colonists had fought in the French and Indian war hoping to expand and set off further out west, and with the British government putting restrictions on their expansion they were a little more than just inconvenienced. They did not know it at the time, it was but the first of many unbearable rules that the colonists would come to face.
The first set of acts that were put into place restricting the colonists movements and autonomy began in 1764. The first was the Currency Act of 1764. This act took away the colonies right to print and use paper money as currency within the colonies. Instead the British required the colonists to pay British merchants in gold and silver; neither of which were in colonial circulation. With this restricting action, the British had effectively brought all “American economic activity under British control” (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.130). The act also successfully restricted the colonists personal finances by requiring gold and silver as payment. With money tight, colonists sought to do business with smugglers, who could get the colonists provisions, like sugar, at a cheaper price than the British were charging.
Unfortunately, that was swiftly put to a stop with the Sugar Act of 1764. The British underhandedly “lowered the duties on British molasses by half,” in an attempt to control the selling and purchasing activities of colonial traders, by making it less financially burdensome for colonial traders to comply with the British law (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.130). This tax was considered an indirect tax, meaning that monies did not come directly from the hands of the colonists, nonetheless they paid the tax through their purchases. However, with the sweet came the bitter, in the form of a caveat added to the Sugar Act that required violators of the act to be tried in vice-admiralty courts. With this caveat, when a violation occurred the violator would be tried at sea, without a jury. The colonists argued that type of trial deprived them of liberty that they were given under the British Constitution, and that without a trial they were “subjects to political slavery” (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.130). With the flurry of acts imposed upon them, the colonists of America were finding themselves to be secondary to the British Empire, and they did not like it.
In one fell swoop, the British Crown had clenched its fist around the colonists of America, reminding them who was in charge, and subjugating them to the Empires will. All of which had been implemented and led by the British Prime Minister George Grenville.
The colonists idea that they were becoming secondary citizens and that “Parliament was not treating them as equals of their peers across the Atlantic,” became solidified with the passing of the Stamp Act in 1765 (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.130). This act was a direct tax on the colonists, meaning it was taken directly from their pockets and given to Parliament, as a way to “defray the costs of the British Empire” (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.130). Every single piece of paper in the colonies was subject to this internal tax; from newspapers to playing cards. The Stamp Act was the act that put colonial British citizens over their edge of patience with Parliament. Colonists viewed the tax as being unconstitutional as well as robbing them of their liberty and rights as British citizens. Their argument stemmed from the fact that under the British Constitution, all British citizens had a right to representation in the House of Commons, “where tax bills originated,” and since they did not have such representation, the taxes were unconstitutional (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.132). Then in what seemed to be a concerted effort to flex their muscles of power, in the same year Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which required colonists to house British soldiers with barracks, and if there were no barracks, colonists were to house them in “barns and other uninhabited buildings” (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.132).
With each act Parliament exerted their control over the colonists and their lives. Naturally the colonists rebelled, and eventually their rebellion persuaded Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. However, the repeal had an even bigger caveat that the act held. Parliament swiftly passed The Declaratory Act of 1766 which declared “Great Britain's supreme authority over the colonies” (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.136). With that declaration, and under the guidance of Prime Minister Charles Townsend, who much like Prime Minister George Grenville, set forth with a flurry of new Acts to be imposed upon the colonists beginning in 1767--a mere three years after Grenvilles cluster of acts. The Townshend Acts, as they were called, seemed strikingly similar to the acts of Grenville. In his own act which involved British soldiers, Townsend passed The Restraining Act of 1767 required payment for the British soldiers garrisons supplies. Townshend then passed the “Townshend Revenue Act of 1767 which place duties on various consumer items like paper, paint, led, and glass” (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.137). The Townshend Revenue Act was strikingly similar to the Stamp Act, except for placing a tax on all paper products, the Townshend Revenue Act text additional items as well. This act seemed all too familiar to the colonists. Then, as if in a bad case of deja vu, Townshend past the Indemnity Act of 1767, which exempted tea produced by the British East India Company from taxation; however, when the tea was sold to the colonies the colonists still had to pay taxes on the tea.
This act was reminiscent to the indirect tax imposed on colonists with the Sugar Act of 1764. By requiring colonists to pay tax on tea that the British did not have to pay tax, confirmed to the colonists that they were being treated as second class citizens to the British living in England. With the passing of the Townshend Act it was as if the Stamp Act had never been repealed, and even worse, the new acts took away even more rights from the colonists. In a move to reduce smuggling, much like the caveat to the Stamp Act Grenville passed, Townsend introduced the Commissioners of Customs Act of 1767 Which led to the Vice-Admiralty Court Act, which in turn gave even more power to judges who put colonists on trial for violations of acts. Colonists had already been up in arms about having a vice admiralty court which put colonists on trials without juries, with this act Townshend set up three more courts in which to take colonists to trial.
In an effort much like before, with the repeal of the Stamp Act, parts of the Townshend Acts were also repealed--with the exception of vice admiralty courts and a tax on tea. Then, as if to put the proverbial nail in the coffin the Tea Act of 1773 was passed. Once again colonists had seen their rights taken away and seemingly returned, only to be taken away with even more force. Just as they had done with sugar, colonists had found a way to smuggle tea, this time from the Dutch, in an effort to boycott British tea and to avoid the high costs of British tea.
However, with the Tea Act, Parliament had given the British East India Company the Monopoly on all of the tea coming into the colonies, and allow them to do so without paying import or export duties, which allowed them to undercut the low price of the Dutch tea. These actions cut-out Colonial merchants from their profits just like the Sugar Act had. All of the acts that were passed seemed all too familiar to the colonists, their voices were not being heard, instead they were being pacified with repeals, and then being punished with even harsher acts. All of this brought tensions to their boiling point.
OpenStax. “U.S. History.” OpenStax CNX, U.S History, OpenStax, 2014, cnx.org/contents/p7ovuIkl@3.84:gMXC1GEM@3.
The American colonists had physically and financially survived the French and Indian War. However, they had also survived Pontiac's Rebellion which ended in 1766, and the race wars that were brought on in part by the Paxton Boys when the massacred Conestoga Indians in Lancaster (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.128). The American colonists proved themselves to be gritty survivors, so when the British issued the “Proclamation Act of 1763 which forbade White Settlement west of the Proclamation line, a border running along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains,” the American colonists were undoubtedly upset (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.129).
The first set of acts that were put into place restricting the colonists movements and autonomy began in 1764. The first was the Currency Act of 1764. This act took away the colonies right to print and use paper money as currency within the colonies. Instead the British required the colonists to pay British merchants in gold and silver; neither of which were in colonial circulation. With this restricting action, the British had effectively brought all “American economic activity under British control” (OpenStax, Chapter 5, p.130). The act also successfully restricted the colonists personal finances by requiring gold and silver as payment. With money tight, colonists sought to do business with smugglers, who could get the colonists provisions, like sugar, at a cheaper price than the British were charging.
In one fell swoop, the British Crown had clenched its fist around the colonists of America, reminding them who was in charge, and subjugating them to the Empires will. All of which had been implemented and led by the British Prime Minister George Grenville.
In an effort much like before, with the repeal of the Stamp Act, parts of the Townshend Acts were also repealed--with the exception of vice admiralty courts and a tax on tea. Then, as if to put the proverbial nail in the coffin the Tea Act of 1773 was passed. Once again colonists had seen their rights taken away and seemingly returned, only to be taken away with even more force. Just as they had done with sugar, colonists had found a way to smuggle tea, this time from the Dutch, in an effort to boycott British tea and to avoid the high costs of British tea.
Works Cited
OpenStax. “U.S. History.” OpenStax CNX, U.S History, OpenStax, 2014, cnx.org/contents/p7ovuIkl@3.84:gMXC1GEM@3.
Comments
Post a Comment