True History - Veritas Card #17 - Parliament Acts Unjustly

Parliament Acts Unjustly - 1764 - 1774

   Yesterday we studied about the French and Indian Wars. The French and the Indians sided together, while the British and the soon to be 'Americans' sided together. Now there is tension building between the American colonists and the British.
   The British had debt that needed to be payed off. They were hoping that the colonies would provide revenue to help pay the bills. But the colonies were trying to get started and on their own feet. Remember how the Pilgrims came over and wanted to separate from the Church of England. Settling in America did provide some advantages, but England was not happy at the thought of the American Colonies not being under British rule in the same way that they would be if the colonies would have been on the same continent.
   The British Parliament passed a series of taxes which angered the American colonies. Some of the taxes that were passed were; The Sugar Act of 1764, The Stamp Act (1765), The Quartering Act of 1765, and a tax on tea, which ended up bringing about the Boston Teaparty.
  The Stamp Act of 1764 taxed legal documents, newspapers, and similar articles in the colonies. The colonists responded to the Stamp Act of 1764 with a Stamp Act  Congress. They came up with "Taxation without representation is tyranny." Lawyers and printers had a voice in speaking against this tax.
   The Quartering Act of 1765 made it so the colonists had to provide places for the British soldiers to stay and for the supplies the soldiers would need.
   The reason for the tax on tea was because of a failing tea company. Any surplus tea would be taxed. When the tea arrived in Boston Harbor, the colonists dressed like Indians and boarded the ships and threw all the tea overboard. In turn, the British decided to pass several laws against Massachusetts. The laws were called the Intolerable Acts.
   The Intolerable Acts did several things against the colonists. It closed the Boston Harbor. It made it so that the British soldiers would have to be quartered in private homes, and it reduced the self-rule in Massachusetts. As this tension continues, we will see the outcome of this very soon!