Chapter 5 – The Spirit of Independence 1763 - 1776

Taxation without Representation

Describe how the British government angered the American colonists after the French and Indian War.

Section Vocabulary

1) Revenue

2) Writs of assistance

3) Resolution

4) Boycott

5) Effigy

6) Nonimportation

7) Repeal

8) Prohibit

9) violate

British Policy Colonists’ View & Response

The Proclamation of 1763

Prohibited, or prevented, colonists from moving west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Allowed the British government to:

1) Control westward movement and avoid conflict with the Indians.

2) Ensure plenty of people would stay on the coast to trade and buy goods from the British.

3) Control the fur trade in the frontier.

War Debt

At the end of the French and Indian War, Great Britain’s national debt soared to more than 140 million pounds. (1 British pound is 1.55 US dollars)

British citizens paid more on the debt per person than the colonists did.

Britain needed new revenue, or incoming money, to pay the war debt. The king and Parliament believed that the colonists should pay part of the costs.

The king and Parliament issued new taxes on the colonies and began to enforce existing taxes more strictly.

Most of the taxes centered around trade…import and exporting good.

Colonists turned to smuggling to avoid paying taxes on goods.

Consequences of smuggling for Britain?

Lost revenue

In 1767 Parliament authorized writs of assistance. These legal documents allowed customs officers to enter any location to search for smuggled goods.

Also made all smuggling trials go to vice-admiralty courts instead of colonial courts because colonial juries rarely convicted smugglers. In a vice-admiralty court, defendants had to prove their innocence and in a jury trial, one is innocent until proven guilty.

The Sugar Act

1764 – Lowered the tax on imported molasses.

Parliament had hoped this would make people import the molasses legally instead of smuggling it.

This Act also let officers seize goods from smugglers without having to go to court first.

British Policy Colonists’ View & Response

Angered colonists. Felt the British violated, or interfered with, their rights as English citizens.

Sugar Act

Writs of Assistance Violated their right to be secure in their homes.

Vice-admiralty courts Vice-admiralty courts violated their right to a jury trial.

The Stamp Act

Placed a tax on almost all printed material, including newspapers, wills and playing cards. All printed material had to have a stamp. Materials were stamped after the tax was paid.

Opposition to the Stamp Act

1) Parliament had interfered in colonial affairs by taxing the colonists directly.

2) Taxed without the colonists giving their consent.

Stamp Act Protests

•Patrick Henry, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, persuaded the assembly to pass a resolution (a formal expression of opinion) declaring that only the colony could lay taxes on its own citizens.

Another Stamp Act Protest

Samuel Adams of Boston helped start a secret organization called the Sons of Liberty to protest.

Paul Revere was another important member of the Sons of Liberty.

Sons of Liberty groups sprang up in other cities too.

Protestors burned effigies, ragdoll figures, representing tax collectors and destroyed houses belonging to royal officials.

Sons of Liberty tarring and feathering a tax collector

More Stamp Act Protests

Delegates from 9 colonies met in New York at the Stamp Act Congress. They drafted a petition to the King and Parliament declaring that the colonies could not be taxed except by their own assemblies.

Still more Stamp Act protests

People refused to use the stamps. They urged merchants to boycott, or refuse to buy, British and European goods in protest.

Thousands of merchants signed nonimportation agreements – pledges not to buy or use goods imported from Britain.

The boycott caused merchants to lose business so they begged Parliament to repeal, or cancel, the Stamp Act.

In March 1766 (less than one year after it was enacted), Parliament repealed the law.

On the same day, it passed the Declaratory Act. This law stated that Parliament had the right to tax and make decisions for the British colonies “in all cases.”

Townshend Acts

From the experience with the Stamp Act, Parliament learned that the colonists would resist any internal taxes – those paid inside the colonies. As a result, the new taxes would apply only to imported good…..things that came into the colonies from the outside……like glass, tea and paper, with the taxes being paid at the port where they entered America.

By now, ANY taxes angered the colonists. They believed only their own government representatives had a right to tax them. The colonists organized another boycott.

Throughout the colonies, women formed groups called the Daughters of Liberty.

They urged Americans to wear homemade fabrics and produce other goods they needed themselves rather than buy them imported from Britain.

Describe how the British government angered the American colonists after the French and Indian War.

In order to repay __________ caused by the ____________________________, the British government enacted various Acts aimed at raising ________________. The ______________________ was supposed to help reduce _________________ that the colonists were doing to avoid paying the tax. Instead of pleasing the colonists, this angered them because they felt Britain was violating their _____________ as British citizens. The _______________________placed a tax on all printed materials. This was the first _________________tax that Parliament had ever enacted on the colonists. Patrick Henry asked the Virginia House of Burgesses to enact a ______________________that only colonists could tax colonists. Samuel Adams formed a secret protest society called the ________________________________who often protested with violent actions. The ____________________________called on delegates from 9 colonies to declare that only colonial assemblies could tax colonists. A year later, the Stamp Act was ____________________ but the __________________________ was enacted on the same day which stated that Britain had the right to _____________colonies under all circumstances. The ________________________ Acts taxed all ________________goods, like glass, tea and paper. Colonists reacted by __________________________all British goods brought to America. The ________________________________ encouraged colonists to make their own products at home instead of buying from the British.