The Quartering and Stamp Acts

After the British Parliament decided the colonies should pay more to them. George Grenville was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Grenville created courts to collect taxes. In 1765, British Parliament passed an unpopular law called The Quartering Act of 1765. This law or act required the colonists to provide housing and supplies to the British soldiers. The soldiers were placed in the colonies to protect the land. This got colonists angry, plus they started to think the British Parliament had the soldiers placed in their houses to spy on them.

Parliament was able to gain power from the king through the Glorious Revolution, which meant Parliament was a governing body representing the people in England. British citizens were given protection from unfair taxes by the Magna Carta. King George said the colonists deserved to be taxed because the British protected them. He had more power then the Parliament. Money was being spent faster than it was brought in. One of these reasons was because the colonists needed money to pay the troops being used to protect their colonies, and because they had to pay the English governors who had been assigned to the colonies.


On March 1765, British Parliament passed a bill that was intended to raise more money from the colonists called Stamp Act. This bill consisted of the colonists paying taxes for everything they printed. It was the first time the colonists made a direct tax. Colonists claimed that threatened their prosperity and liberty. They did not have a representation in the British Parliament. People from the colonies thought the Stamp Act created a conspiracy to destroy American liberties. Parliament saw the colonists selfish and narrow-minded. Parliament had the right to levy taxes on them. The Stamp Act lasted only one year before Parliament repealed it.

Boston Tea Party

    
      The British East Indian Company would bring tea to the colonies. The British Parliament passed a law allowing this company to sell the tea directly to the colonists. This made the tea cheaper than the one the colonists smuggle. Even though the tea the British East Indian Company sold was cheaper, the colonists refused to buy their tea.

On December 16, 1773, the Boston Patriots dressed up like Mohawk Indians for disguise, and boarded on ships that brought tea from England. After getting in, they threw all the tea into the ocean and this was called The Boston Tea Party. Over 300 boxes of English tea were thrown into the sea. This act was to protest the taxes they had placed on tea. The Sons of Liberty organized this Boston Tea Party. The Sons of Liberty was an organization trying to stop the British from taxing them.


According to a participant of this party called Ebenezer Stevens, they never really dressed as indians. Approximately 2/3 of the people who participated were supposedly under the age of 20. 9 protesters were age 40 and over, and there were 16 teenagers. A member of the Sons of Liberty tried to steal some tea before it was dumped into the harbor. A member of this organization was forbidden to steal tea from the ships. This member was punished. This more than 300 containers thrown into the sea totaled 90,000 pounds of tea.

The Sons of Liberty

      Those who opposed British taxes started calling themselves Patriots. These patriots then made an organization or association known as The Sons of Liberty. This is an association that was formed initially to protest the Stamp Act. The colonists at this point, when the Stamp Act was declared, they got really angry and decided to make this association. These organizations started initially in Boston and New York, but then some other colonies adopted it as well.

      By the end of the year the Sons of Liberty existed in every single colony. Their main objective was to make the tax collectors, to stop collecting the taxes. With this the Patriots in Boston came with an idea. This idea was known as Tarring and Feathering. This was a physical punishment, the victim would be stripped to his waist, then hot tar was either poured or painted onto the person while the person couldn't move, and last but not least either the victim had feathers thrown at him or he was rolled around on a pile of feathers so these would stick to the tar. The Bostonians would pour hot tea down the throat of a tax collector who has been tarred and feathered. When the tax collectors saw what the Sons of Liberty would do to them, they were very scared and eventually they stopped collecting taxes. So by the end of the year there were no tax collectors in order to collect the taxes.

      Thomas Hutchinson was the Massachusetts Governor and he said that it was the colonists duty to pay for the taxes, England had imposed. The colonists heard this and they got so angry that they burned down Hutchinson's house. After the Stamp Act was repealed (1766), a year passed and the Sons of Liberty disbanded. But their Patriotic spirit and the name did not vanish.

The French and Indian War

     The French and Indian War was also known as The Seven Year War. This war was known to Europe as The Seven Year War while in America it was known as The French and Indian War. This war started on 1756 and ended on 1763. Many people think that this war was a fight between the French and the Indians, but it was the French and Indians fighting against England. All Indian Tribes from the eastern part, except for one tribe, fought with the French and against the British.

      The British and French battled for colonial domination in North America, the Caribbean and in India. This war spread through Europe, Africa and the West Indies. From 1756 to 1757, France destroyed British forts, while the Indians raided frontier settlements in Pennsylvania. On 1758 to 1759, the war shifts, the British somehow managed to stop the shipping from the French to the Indians, leaving the Indians with no ammunitions to fight with. As a result the Indians desert the French and stop fighting against the British. 

      The British can now take over Quebec since the Indians are not protecting it anymore. In 1759 England captures Quebec. By 1760 they had control over Canada, meaning that the British won the war. Then the Treaty of Paris (1763) officially declared that the British got most of the French land in North America and this finally ended the Seven Year War.

About Us

This blog is a project for our US History class on the American Revolution. Two students will be managing this blog and our names are Mariale and Daniela. (from left to right)