After the French and Indian War, Britain was nearly broke. The cost of shipping soldiers, supplies, and weapons to the colonies to defend them against France had nearly broke the treasury.

English citizens still living in England were paying very high taxes to help pay off the war efforts. Many English were angry that they were paying the bulk of the colonist’s war.

Colonists HAD been paying taxes prior to the French and Indian War, but these taxes were collected locally by their colonial governments. This way, the taxes they were paying were used ONLY in their OWN colony to make it better.

Britain had pretty much left the colonies alone when it came to taxing them, but now, facing financial disaster, they begin considering new strategies.

It wasn’t long before Parliament in England decided that they might have found a solution. Parliament would propose that the colonists would begin paying their fair share as far as taxes go.

Up to this point in history, the colonists had never had to pay any taxes on ANY product other than sugar. This would be a shock to them.

Before there was granulated sugar, the most cost effective way to process and ship sweetener was black strap molasses.

The Sugar Act was very short lived, due to the fact that the Sugar Act made sugar all but impossible to afford. George Grenville, in charge of Parliament reduced the tax by half, but told the British Navy to step up patrols to stop people from smuggling molasses.

People in the colonies simply stopped buying molasses from Britain, and Britain was forced to rethink their strategy.

Stamp Act

The Stamp Act taxed widely used items such as wills, diplomas, marriage papers, newspapers, almanacs, playing cards, and dice.

Colonists immediately began protesting the Stamp Act. They argued that England and Parliament had no right to tax them without giving them someone to represent their concerns back in Parliament in England.

Their argument was fair (to a certain extent). Taxes today ensure that when you have a concern, and are a tax payer in Pennsylvania, you are therefore entitled to call your state senator and argue your concerns.

Colonists argued that if they were given equal representation in Parliament, then they would gladly pay the tax.

English citizens were shocked that the colonists would demand such a thing, because quite simply, they weren’t paying the same amount of taxes as the English citizens were.

When it became clear that the two parties weren’t going to come to agreement mainly due to the fact the colonists were beginning to boycott these English goods thereby hurting merchants back in England, and they were beginning to stage increasingly violent protests, the act was eventually….

REPEALED

The Townshend ActDespite the fact that the Stamp Act had been Repealed, England and it’s citizens were still faced with tremendous debt after The French and Indian War. English citizens began to grow more and more unhappy being saddled with a debt for a war that had very little to do with them first hand. Many still argued that the colonists still should be paying their fair share for the war effort.

In England, two members of the British Parliament clashed very publicly. George Grenville charged Charles Townshend with cowardice and accused him of being afraid to tax the American colonists.

This ultimately acted like a dare to Townshend. Townshend fired back to Grenville that he was no coward, and that he would show that he wasn’t afraid.

The next month, Parliament passed the Townshend Act.

The Townshend Act taxed items like glass, paper, paint, lead, and tea.

The Writ of AssistanceThe Townshend Act also included a new way to collect taxes for British officials living in Colonial America. Customs officials were sent to America with orders to stop smuggling. Parliament now issued a legal document with The Townshend Act called the “Writ of Assistance”.

The Writ of Assistance allowed British officers to board and inspect a ship’s cargo without giving a reason.

Colonists immediately argued that the Writ of Assistance violated their “English Bill of Rights”.

Not only did colonists boycott the products taxed under the Townshend Act, but they began public demonstrations, many time making effigies (scarecrows that looked like British tax collectors), and the would hang them from street lights or set them on fire.

Today in America, we have what is called a “Search Warrant” which is provided for us under our 4th Amendment.

Protests went on in the colonies against The Townshend Act and especially the Writ of Assistance, until finally the Townshend was repealed with one small exception.

Repealed

A very small tax was left on Tea in the colonies. The tax was hardly noticeable, but had been left there on purpose by Parliament to simply prove that they had the right to tax the colonists, and as long as the colonists continued to buy tea from England, their purchases were telling England that they (the colonists) consented to the tax.

This small and seemingly insignificant tax would have dire consequences in the coming years.

POP QUIZ

For every dollar the colonists were paying in taxes, how much do you think the English citizens still living in England were paying?

The English citizens were actually paying 100 times the amount the colonists were being asked to pay.

So, you can see, this was not an argument with a clear winner. Both sides made a very valid argument about the taxes.

Colonists: Claimed that if Britain would just give them a person in Parliament to represent their concerns then they would happily pay the taxes.

Britain: Claimed that there was no way they could get a voice in Parliament, because citizens in Britain were paying 100 times what the colonists were being asked to pay in order to have their voice heard in Parliament.Britain claimed that the colonists should pay the tax because Britain had almost run itself into debt in order to protect them from France.

Ironically, on the very day that Britain decided to repeal the Townshend Act, the Boston Massacre would occur in the

colonies.

What caused the Boston Massacre?

How many colonists were killed in the Boston Massacre?

Who drew blood first?

A. The colonists.

B. The British soldiers

The Tea ActTo begin with, this was not a tax on tea.

British East India Trading Company ~ Company

who had a ton of tea left over after many colonist

boycotted it.

Mr. Krabbs ~ Merchant in the colonies who takes British tea and sells it to the colonists for a profit.

Mr. Kranick ~ A man who lived in these colonies, who purchased and drank tea from Mr. Krabbs store.

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The British East India Trading Company had a surplus of British tea sitting in its warehouses in England about to go bad. This trading company was the largest trading company in Britain at the time, and if it were to fail, it would have massive consequences to a struggling British economy after the French and Indian war.

So they went to Parliament and asked for their help.

HELP!

Parliament came up with a pretty radical idea. They truly tried to come up with an idea that would benefit everyone involved. Unfortunately for them, they were shocked at colonial reaction.

How it worked

“$1.00 per pound please.”

“$1.00 per pound please.”

“$1.00 per pound please.”

After the British East India Company sold the tea to the colonial merchants for a certain price, the colonial merchants would then sell the tea to colonial buyers for a slightly elevated price to make a profit.

“That will be $1.50 per pound please.”

What the Tea Act did, was cut out the middle man. The colonial merchants (Mr. Krabbs) were informed that they would no longer be able to sell tea to the colonists.

Instead, colonists would have to buy their tea directly from the British East India Company.

Because the middle man was cut out, it actually reduced the price of tea for the colonists.

“That will be $1.25 a pound please.”

“Wow, that’s a good price!”

What actually surprised both Parliament and The British East India Company, was that the colonists, despite saving money on their tea, felt bad for the colonial merchants. They therefore decided that since the merchants were one of them…just trying to get by, that they would stick together, and boycotted the tea from the British East India Company.

“Me Money!”“Aww, I feel bad for that guy. So, I will do what I can to help him out.”

BANKRUPT!

When Britain refused to repeal the Tea Act, Colonists decided to do something about it.

HeeeeeYaaaaaah!!!!

AND THE BOSTON TEA PARTY WAS BORN!

When the King of England learned about the Tea Party, he wasn’t amused. In fact he was down right angry. He immediately moved to punish the city of Boston and it’s residents with The Intolerable Acts.

Intolerable Act – Rule #1: No town meetings more than once a year without Permission from the king himself. Can you guess why?

Intolerable Act – Rule #2: The Port of Boston was officially closed.

CLOSED!

Intolerable Act – Rule #3: British troops would now be housed within colonial homes if they needed shelter for the night.

KNOCK ,KNOCK

Who is it?

Intolerable Act – Rule #4: British officials charged with a crime would now be tried in Canada or England. No British official would stand trial in America.

“Yup, I just mistreated colonists, and stole their money, and now my trial will take me home. Ha ,Ha, Ha…chew on that you stinkin ‘colonial dogs.”

Colonists decided that since the king had sent troops to enforce his new laws, that they had better begin to prepare for trouble. They began stockpiling weapons in the town of Lexington. But when loyalists told British troops that they had seen colonists bringing rifles to a business in town and then leaving without them, the British soldiers moved in to disarm them before they did something “stupid”.

What happens next goes down in History as the midnight ride of Paul Revere, as riders, who had been watching the British troop movements, rode across the countryside to warn minutemen that British troops were coming.

At Lexington, the colonial troops were scattered quickly, and as the British soldiers encountered the minutemen again just outside Concord, this time they discovered the colonists were a bit more resolved.

And the American Revolution Began!