What Effect Did Taxes Have On The American Colonies

Following the climactic events of the French Indian War and the Lexington and Concord skirmishes, tensions bubbled between the colonies and the mother country, Britain. This friction stemmed from debate over whether the parliament had the right to legislate over the colonies. Britain felt they should have full jurisdiction over the colonies, while the colonies wanted true representation from within the colonial legislatures. The French and Indian war garnered a large amount of debt and in attempt to repossess some of the money lost, the British Parliament imposed taxes upon colonists. Britain originally  implemented the Stamp Act of 1765, but appealed the law after the obstinate reactions of colonists. However, they then issued the Declaratory Act of 1766 which only reiterated the

Soon the Quartering Act was passed, directing the colonies to provide quarters for British soldiers. Americans found this oppressive because it meant that soldiers were placed in colonial homes. In 1764 Parliament passed the Stamp Act, putting a duty on most printed materials. This was a normal tax for the British as it had been going on in Britain for a long time, and it made sense that the rest of their empire would pay the same tax. This placed a burden on merchants and the colonial elite who did most legal transactions and read the newspapers. Also passed in the same year was the Declaratory Act, which stated that the colonies were subject to the will of Parliament. This made a lot of sense to the British, as Parliament was their ruling body, but, to the colonies who had become used to their own government during the years of salutory neglect, this was a direct threat to their way of life.

After the victory towards French in the Seven Years War, the political and social relationship of the colonists and Great Britain had shifted to a different direction. The colonists began to think of themselves as Americans. At that time, The British government felt that the colonies had become quite independence, and they wanted their colonies to start paying tax in order to help England pay the national debt. Not only were Americans forced to pay direct taxes, but they were also obliged to involve in strict regulatory acts such as Sugar Act and Currency Act. Sugar Act (1764) strongly affected American’s trading in which their oceanic vessels and cargos could be inspected by the British Navy and might be confiscated if the paper and the goods that being transported were in disagreement. Currency Act (1764) restricted colonial governments to print their own paper money. These two acts put some colonists in anger but they were not enough to result in civil disorder until the Stamp Act was passed. The reason that the colonists resisted government authority with the passage of the Stamp Act (1765) was because the Stamp Act collected taxes in all type of papers including newspapers, playing cards, licenses, and stamps. This outraged many colonists especially the educated and

Beginning in 1764, Great Britain began passing acts to exert greater control over the American colonies. The Sugar Act was passed to increase duties on foreign sugar imported from the West Indies. A Currency Act was also passed to ban the colonies from issuing paper bills or bills of credit because of the belief that the colonial currency had devalued the British money. Further, in order to continue to support the British soldiers left in America after the war, Great Britain passed the Quartering Act in 1765. This ordered colonists to house and feed British soldiers if there was not enough room for them in the colonist’s homes. An important piece of legislation that really upset the colonists was the Stamp Act passed in 1765. This required stamps to be purchased or included on many different items and documents such as playing cards, legal papers, newspapers, and more. This was the first direct tax that Britain had imposed on the colonists. Events began to escalate with passage of the Townshend Acts in 1767. These taxes were created to help colonial officials become independent of the colonists by providing them with a source of income. This act led to clashes between British troops and colonists, causing the infamous Boston Massacre. These unjust requests and increasing tensions all led up to the colonist’s declaration as well as the Revolutionary War.

     The passing of the Stamp Act by Parliament in 1765 caused a rush of angry protests by the colonists in British America that perhaps "aroused and unified Americans as no previous political event ever had." It levied a tax on legal documents, almanacs, newspapers, and nearly every other form of paper used in the colonies. Adding to this hardship was the need for the tax to be paid in British sterling, not in colonial paper money. Although this duty had been in effect in England for over half a century and was already in effect in several colonies in the 1750?s, it called into question the authority of Parliament over the overseas colonies that had no representation therein.

In the chapter Kings, Parliament, and Inherited Rights, starts off with the quote about the revolution. The revolution was in the mind and the hearts of people, a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. The evolution of the revolution began was an argument over rights that changed into struggle for power of each party to assert their rights as it understood them, then afterward struggle for empire as Americans began to conceive a more ambitious and independent course for themselves. Americans believe that legally of all parliamentary statutes was measured against the constitution; on that basis, being unrepresented in Parliament, they denied the rights of the body to tax them directly according to the principles of constitutional law. A particular act focused on in the chapter is the Stamp Act, which imposed a stamp tax ranging from one shilling to six on various commercial and legal documents such as wills, mortgages, and college degrees, as well as on newspapers, almanacs, calendars, pamphlets, playing cards and dice. Also the Trade and Navigation Acts was a parliamentary revenue raised in America would make England governors and their appointees independent of local pressure and more faithful enforcing British statutes. These made the colonies more united. Colonies wanted to distance

By 1765 when Parliament passed the Stamp Acts, the colonies were already governing themselves so a certain extent and smuggling goods to avoid the British taxes. The colonists were being taxed extensively so that Britain could pay back their debts from the Seven-Years War, which was not fair for the colonists to be paying for, seeing as the colonies had absolutely no involvement in the Seven-Years war.

Their were mounting tensions between the Britain and its colonies between 1750 and 1776. This was evidently a result of the Stamp Tax, Townshend Duties, Boston Massacre, and Tea Tax. The majority of these offenses were money based. While the colonist had no objections to taxes, they did not appreciate being forced to pay for things that did not benefit them and was solely created in order to alleviate some of Britain’s enormous debt. The first offensive tax that the settlers had to pay was the Stamp Act. It had an affect on anyone who used paper, primarily those who worked in business and law. They resisted this with public demonstrations, such as assaulting effigies of stamp distributors. Next, came the Townshend Duties. These were a broad

The imposition of taxes on the American Colonies by the British Government in the 1760s set in motion a series of action and reaction that led to a break between the components of the British Empire. Americans responded with much anger and public resistance to the Stamp Act in 1763. Much of this resistance was expressed in the colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia. In Massachusetts, the mobs not only threatened violence, but damaged and at times destroyed the property of officials who were involved in the Stamp Act’s implementation. Virginia on the other hand took legislative action denouncing the imposition of taxes on the Colonies by Parliament. It was Virginia’s example that was followed nine of her sister colonies when their legislatures made similar resolutions. These actions also lled to the formation of the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 (Middlekauff, 2005). This Stamp Act Congress sent an appeal to Parliament and the King requesting the repeal of the Stamp Act with the justification that the costs associated with the act would prevent the colonies from purchasing British goods (Brown & Carp, 2014).

During this time period our young country was still trying to figure out the right things to do and trying to avoid the wrong things. On top of that the French and Indian War had just ended and Great Britain was broke. Some of the new laws and acts benefited the colonies, others made it even harder and even enraged the colonists. George Grenville passed act after act trying to get more money out of the people. The first was The Sugar Act. This tax ended up costing the colonies four times the amount they were actually getting from it. Trying to make up for this, he created The Stamp Act. Parliament passed this act on February 13th, 1765.

With opportunities of land to barter and resources to use, colonists were eager to move past the legal limits. The prosperity they saw past the lines drawn by the British were far too great to be taken away by rulings from another continent. But not only did Britain see the need to restrict the colonists’ geography, but was eager to find a way to pay for the debt they had accumulated following the war they had just fought. Their previous practices of salutary neglect towards the colonists was not creating enough revenue to support their financial obligations. With the idea that colonists should pay for the military support British troops offered them, they imposed the first of many taxes on the colonies, the Stamp Act of 1765. This act taxed all paper products, which heavily weighed on lawyers, printers and merchants. With enough opposition from the colonists, Britain repealed the act which began to give colonists faith in their ability to stand up for their rights. Still in demand of revenue, parliament introduced the next set of tariffs, the Townshend Acts of 1767, just two years later. These acts taxed all glass, lead, paint, paper and tea. Having a direct affect on nearly all colonists, the Sons of

The Stamp Act of 1765 was passed by parliament as a direct tax on the colonies for paper products carrying an embossed revenue stamp. The revenue created by this act would fund the British troops still stationed in America, protecting the colonies.

The British drafted acts such as the Stamp and Townshend Acts, which placed taxes on legal documents, supplies, glass paper and lead, the Quartering Act, which forced colonists to house and feed British soldiers; in addition, the British took the opportunity to raise taxes on sugar since the tariffs on that product had just been lowered by making the Sugar Act. Not only would the British take as much money as they could away from the British in taxes, but they would also ruin business for the colonists by drafting the Navigation Laws: this limited colonial trade and forced foreign ships to pay England a fee when headed to the colonies; since merchants didn’t want to pay the fee, the colonists lost many of their important

In March 22,1765 a crisis was brewing in the British's thirteen colonies over in North America. Britain passed the Stamp Act! A tax originally made so that Britain could pay off its debt from the French & Indian war was now being a catalyst for discussion and debate over Britain's right to tax the colonist. The Stamp Act was a necessity if Britain wanted to pay for the French & Indian war debt quickly as well as efficiently. The Stamp Act also provided the British with a good and reasonable way for Britain to tax its colonist.

By 1765, at a Stamp Act Congress, all but four colonies were represented as the “Declaration of Rights and Grievances” was passed. They were determined to let Parliament know that they were equal to British citizens, that there would be no “taxation without representation,” and all efforts to stop tax on colonists would continue (Kennedy, etal 2011.) Although Lord Rockingham, the predecessor of Grenville, sought to repeal of the Stamp Act, this in no way meant Parliament was conceding their control. In fact, while the Stamp Act was repealed, another called the “Declaratory Act of 1766,” gave Parliament the authority to make laws binding the American Colonies, “in all cases whatsoever.” In 1767, George III passed the Townshend Acts to collect tax on glass, lead, paints, paper and, tea. Recognizing that tea was a favorite among the Americans, it ensured greater revenue the British government. Again, the colonists’ rights for representation were ignored and they started to boycott British goods and ultimately, smuggle tea. When the Quartering Act was passed, which specified that colonists were to give room and board to British troops, tension began to rise. For two years, the colonists tolerated British troops on their soil and their dissatisfaction with the British Parliament and King George III became evident through many violent riots, abusiveness of tax collectors and destruction of property. According to Kennedy, etal (2011), Parliament, continually met with