Britain taxes the colonies

 

During the 1600's Britain saw the colonization of the new world as a cash cow, or at least hoped it would be. It had funded much of the exploration and written charters for many of the colonies and territories acquired by the mid 1600's. In return for funding, transportation and land, England expected its share of goods and profits from the British colonies. Colonists depended upon shipments of goods and supplies from Europe to keep them going. Lucrative crops including tobacco, rice, sugar, saltfish, grains and hardwoods coming out of the colonies demanded trade on shipping routes to Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. England controlled this commerce and capitalized on this new found source of income through tariffs and taxes. Before long, the colonists who had put their blood, sweat and tears into the land and producing the goods found a way to circumvent the British rule and began smuggling goods directly to buyers, cutting out the middle man, the Crown. England was pissed, and not in a one-too-many pints sort of way, so they retaliated by passing Acts in Parliament. These included the Navigation Acts whereby restrictions were put on how and who supplied goods to the colonies and how the colonies traded with Europe. England basically established a monopoly on the shipping of goods back and forth from the colonies so they could control the duties they would receive. In the meantime in England, war and conflict with other European countries was rapidly draining the treasury. By the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, England had an enormous debt to pay. Parliament thought that the Colonists should subsidize part of the debt for defending the colonies during this time as well as help pay administration costs incurred by the colonies from London. England had tried to offset some of the costs and regain lost funds through several imposed taxes to this point including the Molasses Act implemented from 1733 through 1763. This forced the colonists to purchase more expensive sugar from The British West Indies, increasing England's profit margin instead of buying it from the French West Indies, which was much less expensive for the settlers in America. Colonists resented this and in 1764 when it was renewed as the Sugar Act by parliament, it caused much unrest in the colonies. In 1765, a further effort to refill the war chest in England by penalizing the colonies through the Stamp Act had begun. The Stamp Act imposed a tax on all official documents as well as newspapers, magazines and land transfers. These and other documents had to be printed on paper produced in England that had the revenue stamp embossed in it and the tax had to be paid in British currency, not paper colonial money. Outrage from the colonists prompted colonial legislatures to petition Parliament to repeal the act, and nine colonies sent delegates to a congress with the purpose of drafting a statement of protest. The Sons of Liberty rallied support for the resistance movement from the public and American merchants organized non-import associations that were designed to hit London merchants right in the wallet and convince them to support repeal. All of these pressures contributed to the repeal of this law in 1766.

The Townshend Acts, named for Lord North Charles Townshend who supported the taxation of the colonies, levied taxes on trade goods. Similar to the Navigation acts, the Townshend Acts taxed paper, tea and glass but the tax was levied on goods imported from Britain instead of foreign trade and some of the revenue would go to pay some officials in the colonies. This meant that the colonies could not put an official in their pocket by directly withholding his pay. Protests came in the form of a circular letter to be discussed in state congresses which was vehemently opposed by English appointed governors who rapidly dissolved their assemblies when colonial delegates voted to reject the recall of the letter and discuss it anyway. This incident reestablished the Sons of Liberty who in retaliation for the Acts lead a campaign to involve the public, men and women, to agree not to purchase British goods. The women organized as well and became a major force in the non consumption movement, hurting the tea, textiles, and foodstuffs. "Buy American" prompted women to spin their own cloth, drink local tea and purchase home grown food. In 1769, imports dropped dramatically.

The Boston Massacre was Britain's answer to the Townshend Acts debacle. 4,000 troops were sent into Boston, a hotbed of colonial opposition. The soldiers competed in an already depleted job market with the populous of Boston. Of course, this sparked angry encounters with the locals and on the fifth of March, 1770, a group of waterfront workers who were pissed (and this time I mean it in the "had way too much whiskey" sort of way) got into a scuffle with nine British soldiers. The mob outnumbered the company of soldiers and one thing led to another before someone in the crowd shouted "fire!" The Redcoats opened fire and five civilians were killed on that day. British troops were then withdrawn from the city and the Townshend Acts were repealed.

After a relatively calm period in Boston after the Massacre, some of the Patriots, including Samuel Adams, felt that the resistance movement might relax. In 1773, Sam Adams found a very good way to fan the flames of a dying ember. Parliament granted a legal monopoly to the East India Company on tea shipment into the colonies. In addition, merchants with loyalist connections had been chosen to distribute the tea, allowing them to undercut the American merchants. The colonists and Patriots were furious and when three cargo ships carrying huge amounts of tea sailed into Boston Harbor, a plan was hatched. On Sixteen December, 1773, a group of men dressed as Indians boarded the three ships and dumped every last case of tea into the harbor.

This series of events paved the way for revolution. In response, Parliament passed a myriad of acts aimed at strangling the colonies into submission. The colonists retaliated by holding the first Continental Congress and formally opposed the Coercive Acts. They also provided for a second meeting if their grievances were not addressed and satisfied by England. They had not yet declared their independence but the ball started rolling in that direction. The Revolution had begun.