British+Policies

=**The Proclamation of 1763** Information Sheet= = = = = = = = = =Even after the French and Indian War was over, British soldiers stayed in the Ohio River Valley to keep order. Most of the American Indians wanted the soldiers to leave the area. An Ottawa chief named Pontiac led the Indians in a war against the  British called Pontiac’s Rebellion. After much bloodshed, the British defeated the Indians but tensions remained high. In an effort to avoid more conflict and tension with American Indians,  King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763. It recognized the Indians’ right to the land and it did not allow colonists to  settle west of the Appalachian Mountains. This made colonists very angry because they wanted to settle on the land and they  did not want British soldiers to live among them. Because the Proclamation was difficult to enforce, many colonists  disregarded it which showed their unhappiness with British  attempts to control them.=

=**Navigation Acts Information Sheet**= = = = = =**The Navigation Acts were efforts to put the theory of mercantilism into actual practice. Beginning in 1650, Parliament acted to combat the threat of the rapidly growing Dutch carrying trade. Under the provisions of this legislation, trade with the colonies was to be conducted only in English or colonial ships. Certain "enumerated" items (such as sugar, tobacco and indigo) were to be shipped only within the  empire. Trade destined for nations outside the empire had to go first to England. Some of the legislation was designed to protect colonial interests. For example, tobacco production in England was prohibited, leaving the colonies as the sole source of that lucrative product. The American colonists were never fully comfortable with those laws, but became ardently opposed with the passage of the Sugar Act of  1733. Under that law, a duty was placed on the importation of sugar from the French West Indies, forcing the American rum distillers to buy  more costly sugar from the British West Indies. When Britain decided to step up enforcement of the Navigation Acts and other trade acts, Vice-Admiralty courts were set up to bring criminal  charges for smuggling. Defendants were assumed guilty until he proved himself innocent. Parliament also passed the Currency Act in 1764 which assumed control of the colonial currency system. There were no gold or silver mines and currency could only be obtained through trade as regulated  by Britain. The most significant result of the Navigation Acts upon American history was the stifling of colonial manufacturing and increased resentment  against the mother country.**  **

Stamp Act Information Sheet  In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act which taxed anything  printed on paper by requiring colonists to buy a stamp, or seal,  for paper products. Parliament continued to try to raise funds to protect the colonies and pay the debt of the French and Indian  War through such taxes. This act caused colonists to resent British rule. Samuel Adams began the Committees of Correspondence, groups that contacted other towns and colonies about British  taxes and how to fight them. One popular protest method was the boycott, where people refuse to buy certain goods in  protest. Many colonial women made substitutes for the boycotted British goods. In Boston, Samuel Adams also helped form secret societies called the Sons of Liberty, which were  groups of men that protested British policies and sometimes  used violence to get their message across. In 1765, a congress of nine colonies met in New York to discuss the taxes at the Stamp Act Congress. They decided that only colonial governments should tax the colonies and they sent a  request to King George III to repeal the act. Benjamin Franklin, representing Pennsylvania, spoke before Parliament and urged  them to repeal the act so that colonists could end the boycott  and prevent a possible revolution. The protests and boycotts worked and King George III had no other choice but to repeal  the Stamp Act. The colonies celebrated the repeal of the act, but they still disagreed with Parliament on many issues. After the repeal, the King approved the Declaratory Act which  essentially said that Parliament had full authority over legislation  in the colonies.

Quartering Act Information Sheet  After the Stamp Act protests, Britain sent even more troops to  keep order in the colonies. Due to the social and political problems that took place in the colonies after the Stamp Act, the  British Parliament also passed the Quartering Act of 1765. This act required colonists to quarter, or house and feed British  soldiers. There were two major issues the colonists had with the Quartering Act. The first was that colonists did not like having a standing army of soldiers with blank search warrants, or writs of  assistance. They had lost their sense of rights over their property. The other issue was that housing and supplying the soldiers was costly. The British response was that the colonists should pay their share of the expense of providing them with the  protection from Indian attacks. In addition, the soldiers began taking jobs at a lower wage which further outraged colonists  and increased tension between the colonies and Britain.

Townshend Acts Information Sheet  In 1767, Parliament passed the Townshend Acts which made  colonists pay taxes on imported tea, glass, paper, and other  items to pay for rising military costs due to the Quartering Act. Again, colonists boycotted British goods. A group of women called the Daughters of Liberty made their own cloth instead of  buying British cloth. By 1770, the protests worked and Parliament repealed most of the taxes, but left the tax on tea  because the British wanted to show that they still had the power  to tax. Anger continued to grow against the British government, and in protest, the Sons of Liberty continued to use violence  and attacked the homes of British officials and colonial tax  collectors. More British troops were sent to protect the officials.

Boston Massacre Information Sheet  Anger and tension continued to grow as Britain sent more  soldiers to Boston when colonists resisted taxes. The tension exploded on March 5, 1770, when a crowd gathered around an  angry colonist arguing with a British soldier. Colonists began to shout insults and throw snowballs at the soldier. Soon more soldiers arrived, and as the mob grew louder and angrier, shots  were fired. This deadly riot resulted in five colonists being killed that evening, and the event was later branded the Boston  Massacre by colonists. Samuel Adams and other colonists used the incident as propaganda, one-sided information used to influence public  opinion. Through the Committees of Correspondence, Samuel Adams shared news and ideas with people in other colonies  regarding the incident. John Adams chose to represent the soldiers in this infamous trial to demonstrate that colonists value the right to a trial by jury  for all citizens. He later stated that this was his biggest contribution to his country.

Tea Act & Boston Tea Party  Information Sheet  In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act which made the British  East India Company (BEIC) the only company allowed to sell  tea to the colonies, which made this a monopoly over tea. The price of tea was actually much lower, but colonists were still  unhappy that they were forced to pay import taxes to Britain. In order to avoid paying these taxes, colonial merchants refused to  unload the tea from the British ships or sell the tea in the  colonies. The Daughters of Liberty contributed to the boycott efforts by making their own tea. On December 16, 1773, some Sons of Liberty, disguised as American Indians, illegally boarded the ships and dumped 342  crates of British tea into Boston Harbor. This protest was called the Boston Tea Party.

=Coercive Acts (Intolerable Acts)  Information Sheet= = = = = =**The Boston Tea Party made the British government furious. British Prime Minister Lord North convinced Parliament to pass laws called the Coercive Acts in the spring of 1774, which  colonists called the Intolerable Acts because they were so  harsh. These acts were an effort to make the colonists pay for the tea and to keep the colonists from planning other attacks. These laws stopped all trade between Boston and Britain, did not allow town meetings, gave Britain control of the colony, and  strengthened the Quartering Act. Since the port of Boston was closed, the trading of goods between the colonies also stopped  which greatly impacted the economies of all the colonies. This led to support for Boston as goods were brought in from the  other colonies. In addition it stirred revolutionary spirit throughout the colonies.**=