Still, however, in 1770, the colonists were continuing to show loyalty to the king, (document C). By this time, one main question arose in the colonial mind: Which body of government, the colonial legislature, or the British Parliament, was the supreme source of authority? Although loyalty to King George III was taught in schools, colonists began to question his authority, especially after the Boston Massacre, on March 5, 1770. The incident aroused much questioning and hatred towards the British soldiers, known as 'lobster backs' who were quartered in Boston. By 1772, a Boston town meeting responded to the Quartering Act, (document D), stating their dissatisfaction with it, and that it was an unconstitutional law. America saw itself as having its own constitution, and that it was their right to disobey any laws that went against it. This type of relationship became more and more clear as time went by, however loyalty to the king remained. Then, by July of 1774, the Intolerable Acts had taken effect, closing down Boston's port to trade, and affecting the trial process in America. As a result, the Bostonians became very angry at parliament, and friction became even more intense. Thomas Jefferson responded blatantly to it, saying that Parliament had finally gone too far when it disallowed Boston to trade. He then turned to the king, as the last hope, saying that it was the king's duty to protect them, (document…
When the news of the “Tea Party” impacted Great Britain, King George lll and the Parliament were irritated.The Boston Tea was not the only one.There was approximately ten other tea party a example is Philadelphia, NYC, and Charleston.The King was frenzied with Boston behaver , The king decided to teach the colonists of Boston a lesson , with coerce! On March 28,1774, the parliament departed the Coercive Acts . they were set up by five laws that was mandatory onto the colonists of Boston.…
In 1773 we took yet another blow to our economy and rights of representation when the British government passed the Tea Act. This allowed the East India Company to avoid the stop and taxes in Britain mandated by the Navigation Acts, making it very difficult for American merchants to compete with the low price of the imported tea. The government was attempting to trick Americans into accepting the tax on tea from the Revenue Act of 1767 by passing it off as the import tax from the Navigation Acts that was no longer required to be paid by the East India Company. The only way to make Parliament see how all of these policies were really affecting the colonies was to take a stronger stance than we did with the Gaspee. We threw all of the tea into the Boston Harbor, because being tricked by a government that is supposed to be representing us is a violation of our…
Another area which must be discussed is the metropole responses to acts of resistance in the peripheries. W.A. Speck mentions some British politicians believed duty on Tea was ‘a symbol of parliamentary sovereignty over the colonies’ (Speck, 2015, p.32). It could be argued the reprisal policies following The Boston Massacre demonstrate the metropole believed they had a right to exercise they perceived superiority, as they considered the peoples in the peripheries as children. Measures such as the The Quartering Act could be seen as the metropole exercising to its parliamentary sovereign. As mentioned above, the colonists saw these polices by the metropole is unfair. From a British point of view the acts of resistance were not only caused disruption to profits, it is highly likely some politicians they saw the acts of resistance as…
My father was a local merchant in the city of Boston in 1764 when Parliament passed The Sugar Act1 in yet another attempt to increase Britain’s revenue after the end of the Seven Years War. One of nine children, my family struggled financially during the upcoming years. I suppose my parents worried constantly that we would suffer economic loss as Great Britain passed many taxation acts2 which further tightened any financial gain attained from the trade of goods. My father was friends with Samuel Adams3 and one cold winter night I snuck out, following my father, as I knew something big was about to happen. Father had been ranting all through supper how Parliament needed to be taught a lesson and he and Sam had gathered several men to protest this taxation without our consent.4 Hidden in the fog on the night on December 16, 1773, at the age of fifteen; I watched as my father, along with several other men dressed as Indians, threw barrels and barrels of tea shipped from the East India Company into the waters of the harbor.5 It was this event that made me determined, like my father, to remain true as a patriot and take a stance against the imperial government. This night was just the beginning of the political, economical, and social issues that I witnessed throughout the next two decades.…
J.R. Pole states in his book, The Pursuit of Equality in American History, that the American Revolution plays an extremely important role in the history of equality in American society. "The American Revolution in all its aspects constituted an upheaval which was also a point of departure and reference for all subsequent definitions of equality; it was a major event in the ideology and rhetoric of world history." The mismanagement of the colonies, the taxation policies that violated the colonist rights, the distractions of foreign wars and politics in England had also played a role in the outbreak of the revolution. England passed many Acts that were despised by the colonies. The most hated of these Acts were the Stamp Acts. Lord Grenville enacted the Stamp Act which forced the colonists to pay for stamps on printed documents . Besides, taxation without representation other major events also created ill feeling towards Britain. The Boston Massacre was an event that occurred on 1770. Tensions caused by the military occupation of Boston increased as soldiers fired into a crowd of civilians. Five Americans died and six more were injured in this massacre. Another major event, the Boston Tea Party where angered Bostonians dressed as Indians boarded three tea ships and dumped it all into…
The main piece of aggravation to the colonists was the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was protested upon the principle “No taxation without representation”. This particular act affected virtually all the colonists and limiting economic success, and thus the colonists protested. An additional factor in the company was the Townshend Act. The British Parliament was illegally taxing. As a result, the colonists boycotted British goods (Document C). The Tea Act made the colonies economically inferior to that of England’s. The Tea Act was an act where the colonies merchants were being evaded and the British took over the trading. This hurt the economic success of the colonists, multitudes strengthened in resentment and soon after the Boston Tea Party followed (Document F). The British were furious at the colonial resistance to British law. In retaliation the Intolerable Act was passed. The Intolerable Act deactivated the Boston Port at Massachusetts Bay. Deactivating the port also deactivated the center of economic success for the colonies (Document H). England was also limiting the colonists to raw material production, which also hindered their economic success.…
The Boston Massacre was a tragic event that took place on March 5, 1770. Tensions between the American colonists and Britain have been going on for years. When Bostonians decided they have had enough and demanded for actions, immediate and unexpected events happened. They were attacked the british soldiers at the customhouse, which is the building the soldiers were directed to protect, and the attackers grew exponentially in numbers.…
During the American Revolution, the British were careful not to take risks. With history of protesting and violence from the colonists, they monitored certain historical points that marked such events. For example, the British soldiers closely guarded popular town meeting places, to prevent the colonists from planning for the battle. Such places were the Old South Meeting House, and the famous Faneuil Hall. Not only did Britain guard these, but also controlled placed that had a past of protest and violence. The State house was one of these, which was where the Boston Massacre took place. The massacre was a protest that ended in five Bostonians being killed by Redcoats. Despite their efforts, the message of the oncoming battle made way to…
The Boston Massacre was a tragic incident the occurred on March 5, 1770. Five colonists were shot dead during this event. Some people believe it was an accident and someone yelled fire and not the British leader. Others believe it was planned and their leader DID yell fire at the scene.…
Although many historians believe that the Boston Massacre was an act of murder, it is clear that the incident was an act of self-defense. First reason why it was self-defense, is that the colonist Crispus Attucks was holding a cordwood stick and swung it at James Bailey. James Bailey then shot Crispus Attucks. James Bailey shot Crispus Attucks in act of self-defense. This led on to more shootings, but more colonists were getting angry and more violent. Another reason why it was self-defense, is that the captain of the British soldiers Preston, never did say fire and he never ordered his troops to fire. The colonists were taunting the soldiers by saying, "Fire, fire," which lead to more confusion. Also, Captain…
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770 between a “patriot” mob, throwing snowballs, stones, and sticks, and a squad of British soldiers. British troops in the city of Boston were not welcome. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been expanding since Royal troops appeared in Massachusetts in October, to enforce a heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. British Captain Thomas Preston, the commanding officer at the Customs House, to join the guard outside the building. The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the British. This spiraled into a cluster of angry people fighting for what they believed, and not backing down, leading to what we know as the Boston Massacre.…
The Massacre that was held in Boston Massachusetts on March 5, 1770 was a small yet horrific event. It started out as colonist teased and taunted the British soldiers. They also threw rocks and whatever else they could throw at them. The soldiers reacted to this by firing back at the colonist killing five people, three were killed on impact and two died later on, several were wounded. Immediately after, the colonist disappeared and the soldiers reported back to their barracks. Even though we cannot be exact on what happened for sure about what happened that day; some eyewitnesses claim they heard the commander tell the soldiers to load their weapons and fire. Some evidence proves Captain Preston’s innocence of not commanding the soldiers to fire, and that it was done in the heat of the moment (Martin Kelly).…
The Boston Massacre occurred because of an act called the stamp act was passed in 1765.The…
The American Revolution (1775-83) is also known as the American Revolutionary War and the U.S. War of Independence. The conflict arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. Skirmishes between British troops and colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord in April 1775 kicked off the armed conflict, and by the following summer, the rebels were waging a full-scale war for their independence. France entered the American Revolution on the side of the colonists in 1778, turning what had essentially been a civil war into an international conflict. After French assistance helped the Continental Army force the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1779, the Americans had effectively won their independence, though fighting would not formally end until 1783. For more than a decade before the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, tensions had been building between colonists and the British authorities. Attempts by the British government to raise revenue by taxing the colonies (notably the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Tariffs of 1767 and the Tea Act of 1773) met with heated protest among many colonists, who resented their lack of representation in Parliament and demanded the same rights as other British subjects. Colonial resistance led to violence in 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on a mob of colonists, killing five men in what was known as the Boston Massacre. After December 1773, when a band of Bostonians dressed as Mohawk Indians boarded British ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, an outraged Parliament passed a series of measures (known as the Intolerable, or Coercive Acts) designed to reassert imperial authority in Massachusetts. In response, a group of colonial delegates (including George Washington of Virginia, John and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, Patrick Henry of Virginia and John Jay of New York) met in…