Rum was the great social lubricant of the day, and was much in demand throughout the colonies but heavy taxation could put the beverage out of reach of many in the lower reaches of society.Paragraph 6 The Stamp Act The stamp act of 1765 was the first international tax levied directly on American colonists by the British government. The act which imposed a tax on all paper documents in the colonies, came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the seven years war and looking to its North American colonies as a revenue source. Arguing that only their own representative assemblies could tax them, the colonists insisted that the act was unconstitutional and they resorted to mob violence to intimidate stamp collectors into resigning. Parliament repealed the stamp act in 1766, but issued a Declaratory Act at the same time to reaffirm its authority to pass any colonial legislation it saw fit. The issues of taxation and representation raised by the stamp acts trained relations with the colonies to the point that 10 years later, the colonist rose in armed rebellion against the British.Paragraph 7 Declaratory Act 1766 Declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp act. It stated that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the …show more content…
Samuel Adams, speaking for the Massachusetts legislature. Governor Francis Bernard of Massachusetts dissolved the legislature when it issued a circular letter describing the measures it had taken against the Townsend Acts. The circular letter led to a series of Non Importation Agreements, which reduced colonial imports from Britain in 1768 - 1769 by half.Paragraph 9 The Boston Massacre The British troops had been billeted in Boston in October 1768 after repeated request from the British Customs officials who had been harassed or intimidated because of their efforts to enforce the Townsend Acts. Patriot leaders and commemorated in a widely circulated engraving by Paul Revere, aroused intense public protests and threats of violent retaliation. Many patriots criticized the verdicts and the anniversary of the Boston Massacre became a patriotic Holiday the removal of troops from Boston and the repeal of all but one of the contested import duties resulted in a lowering of tension in the years following the incident. Governor Hutchinson’s reluctant removal of troops from Boston under threat of insurrection dramatized the impotence of imperial power.Paragraph 10 The Boston Tea Party The famed act of American colonial