Transcript Turmoil Over Taxation - Hillsdale Public Schools

TURMOIL OVER
TAXATION
George Grenville – Prime
Minister – colonists should
help pay debt created from
French and Indian War. Later
on became member of
Parliament
SUGAR ACT OF 1764
Sugar Act of 1764 put a
tax on molasses which
was a valuable item in
the triangular trade.
SUGAR ACT OF 1764
Replaced a previous tax
that had led to colonial
traders bribing tax officials
to look the other way.
• Law made it easier to put
smugglers on trial
•
STAMP ACT OF 1765
• Placed
new duties on
legal documents; taxes
newspapers, almanacs,
playing cards, and dice.
STAMP ACT OF 1765
REACTION TO
STAMP ACT OF 1765
 Colonists protested angrily.

Colonists coined the slogan “No
Taxation Without
Representation.”

Colonists united. Delegates met
in a Stamp Act Congress in
NYC.
REACTIONS TO STAMP ACT
• The Congress drew up a
petition, a formal written
request to someone in
authority, signed by a group
of people.
•
Colonists boycotted, or
refused to buy, British goods.
BRITISH MERCHANTS IN
FINANCIAL TROUBLE
BECAUSE WERE NOT
SELLING GOODS
•
Parliament repealed, or
cancelled, the Stamp
Act in 1766.
STAMP ACT REPEALED
TOWNSHEND ACTS-1767
•
•
Taxed goods such as
glass, paper, paint, lead,
and tea.
Named after British
Treasury official Charles
Townshend
TOWNSHEND ACTS OF 1767
Set
up new ways to collect
taxes, including writs of
assistance, legal
documents that allowed
officers to inspect another
person’s property without
giving a reason.
• Custom officials sent to
colonies stop smuggling.
• Writs of Assistance violated
rights as British citizens
property could not be searched
without a good reason if person
suspected of committing a
crime.
REACTION TO TOWNSHEND
ACTS
•
Colonial merchants (North) and
planters (South) signed
agreement to stop importing
taxed goods.
•
Sons of Liberty and Daughters
of Liberty, mock hangings,
petitions, boycotts, threats.
SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY
Formed by angry colonists to
protest British policies
• They staged mocked
hangings of cloth or straw
effigies dressed as British
officials (tax collectors)
•
What would you think if you were a British
official?
SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY
•
•
Women paraded, signed
petitions, and organized a
boycott of British cloth, they
made their own cloth
They went further organizing
boycotts and threatening people
who did not boycott.
NEW COLONIAL
LEADERS EMERGE IN
THE COLONIES AS THE
STRUGGLE OVER
TAXES CONTINUES…
SAMUEL ADAMS – MASS.
•
•
He arranged
protests and
stirred public
support.
A talented
organizer from
Massachusetts.
JOHN ADAMS – MASS.
• Massachusetts
lawyer who had
a knowledge of
British law that
earned him
respect.
•
Sam’s Cousin
MERCY OTIS WARREN – MASS.
•
•
•
She wrote plays that
made fun of British
officials.
Also from Mass.
Using her pen, she
also called for
greater rights for
women
ABIGAIL ADAMS – MASS.
•
Abigail Adams
wrote to spur
colonists to action.
•
Friends with Mercy
Otis Warren
Wanted greater
rights for women
•
GEORGE WASHINGTON
•
Member of
Virginia House
of Burgesses.
Protested the
Townshend
Acts.
PATRICK HENRY
Also from
Virginia
• He gave
speeches
that stirred
others to
action.
•
PATRICK HENRY
“Treason…
If this be
treason,
make the
most of it”
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Also from
Virginia
• was a 22
year old
rising law
student.
•
BOSTON MASSACRE
BOSTON MASSACRE
•
•
Britain sent soldiers to Boston
to protect customs officials.
Bostonians saw the British as
bullies and insulted or even
assaulted the British soldiers.
BOSTON MASSACRE
•
On March 5, 1770,
Bostonians gathered
outside the Boston
customs house, shouting
insults and throwing things
at the British guards.
BOSTON MASSACRE
Suddenly, panicked soldiers
fired into the crowd, killing
some colonists.
• Colonists protested the
incident, calling it the Boston
Massacre.
•
BOSTON MASSACRE
• The
soldiers were tried,
but John Adams
defended them and
was able to win light
sentences for them.
COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE
•
Samuel Adams formed a
committee of
correspondence, a group
that regularly wrote letters
and pamphlets reporting to
other colonies on events in
Massachusetts.
RESULTS…
•
By coincidence, on day
of Boston
Massacre…Townshend
acts repealed.
•
Most taxes were
repealed with the
exception of…………
THE TAX ON TEA….
THE TEA TAX EXPLODES IN MASS.
• By 1770, at least one million
Americans brewed tea twice a
day.
•
People “would rather go without
their dinners than without a dish
of tea.” according to a visitor to
the colonies
TEA ACT OF 1773
•
The British East India
Company sold tea to
colonial tea merchants.
The tea merchants sold
the tea to the colonists for
a higher price.
TEA ACT OF 1773
When the British East India
Company had money
troubles, Parliament passed
the Tea Act.
• The act said British East
India Company could sell
directly to colonists.
•
TEA ACT OF 1773
American merchants
protested being cut out of
the tea trade. Other
colonists said it was a
trick to force colonists to
pay the tax on tea.
• Colonists boycotted tea.
•
BOSTON TEA PARTY
•
The Boston Sons of Liberty
showed their displeasure by
staging the Boston Tea Party.
Disguised as Indians, they
raided three ships and
dumped their cargo of tea
into Boston Harbor.
INTOLERABLE ACTS
• passed
to punish
Massachusetts
• The port of Boston
was closed.
INTOLERABLE ACTS
•
Massachusetts colonists
could not hold town
meetings more than once
a year without the
governor’s permission. In
other words, they limited
Massachusetts assembly.
INTOLERABLE ACTS
•
•
Customs officers and other
officials could be tried in
Britain or Canada instead of in
Massachusetts so Customs
officials to be tried elsewhere.
A new Quartering Act said
colonists must house British
soldiers in their homes.
MORE TROUBLE FOR COLONISTS…
• Quebec Act-Sets Up
Government for Canada
• Gives religious freedom to
French Catholics
• Extended the borders to include
land between the Ohio and
Missouri Rivers into territory
that some of the Colonists
claimed
FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
Delegates from 12
colonies gathered in
Philadelphia.
• All Colonies represented
except Georgia
•
FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
•
Agreed to boycott all
British goods and to stop
exporting goods to
Britain.
FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
Urged each colony to set
up a militia, which is an
army of citizens who
serve as soldiers in an
emergency.
• Agreed to meet again the
next year.
•