The Stamp Act was passed by the British in March of 1765. The act imposed a tax on ship’s papers, legal documents, licenses, and playing cards.
STAMP ACT PROTESTS
Boston shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers organized a secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty. Led by Samuel Adams, the colonial protest prevented any stamps from being sold.
TOWNSHEND ACTS
Named after Charles Townshend, the leading government minister, who decided a new method of gaining revenue from the American colonies. Unlike the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts were indirect taxes on important materials, which included: glass, lead, cloth, and what angered colonists most was tea.
BOSTON MASSACRE
On March 5, 1770 there was a fight about the jobs in Boston, a black man, Crispus Attucks, began to speak out to the British army. The British officer opened fire upon the crowd killing Crispus and four others. Samuel Adams labeled this the Boston Massacre.
THE BOSTON TEA PARTY
In December of 1773 the Sons of Liberty dressed up as Native Americans, snuck onto a boat in the harbor that was delivering the tea and dumped 18,000lbs of the East India Company’s tea into the Hudson River.
INTOLERABLE ACTS
King George III was so angry about the dumping of the tea that he had Parliament pass a series of laws. One of the laws shut down the Boston Harbor because colonists refused to pay for the damages on the tea. This is also when the Quartering Act became authorized.