Timeline of Revenue Acts

The Proclamation of 1763

• October 7, 1763
• This act prevented Colonists from moving out west past the Appalachians in attempt to keep the Natives happy.
• The Colonists were furious because they just finished fighting the French and Indian War to win the right to move out west, but the British were trying to take that away from them. Some Colonists ignored this law and moved out there, others, like George Washington, bought land anyways because they knew the law would be lifted some day, and everyone came together wanting separation from the British.
• The British Government ignored the protests and people that just didn't follow the law. They sent more troops to America.

The Stamp Act

• March 22, 1765
• The Stamp Act required all paper goods (except books) to have a stamp bought and placed on it. This included news papers, documents, licenses, even playing cards. If you were caught without a stamp on a paper good, you were heavily fined. And if you were caught with a fake stamp, you were sentenced to death. Any court issues dealing with the Stamp Act were dealt with in Britain.
• The Colonists were angry that the British took away their right to govern themselves and forcing taxes upon them. Unluckily for the British, this angered the wrong people. This angered people such as lawyers and newspaper publishers. The people were educated and able to mass communicate. The Stamp Act Congress was formed- the first united effort of Americans against the British. They came up with the saying "No taxation without representation!"
• The British Government issued this act in February, but it wouldn't go into effect until November. Ben Franklin warned the British about how the Colonists were feeling and the act was repealed.

The Townshend Acts

• June 29, 1767
• The Townshend Acts, presented by Charles Townsend, taxed a lot of imported goods, such as glass, lead, paint, tea, and paper. Townsend thought that the people might hate paying taxes on these imported items a little bit less, but he was very wrong.
• The Colonists protested and revolted in many ways because of these laws. One successful protest was made by Charles Dickinson. He wrote under the pen name "A Farmer from Boston" and spread more ideas about "No taxation without representation". Colonists began boycotting British goods. Colonies such as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia were not happy because their economy relied heavily on imports and exports. One protest in Boston got out of hand and turned into what we now know as The Boston Massacre.
• Eventually, the British Government repealed all of the taxes except for the one on tea.

The Tea Act

• April 27, 1773
• The Tea Act of 1773 placed a tax on tea in the colonies and was a British attempt to create a tea monopoly. The British originally sold their tea to merchants in London who would then sell it to the Americas, but Britain decided to cut the middle man out and sell directly to the Americas. This act made it almost impossible to buy tea from anyone other than the British and placed a tax on all tea that was sold.
• The Colonists weren't necessarily mad about the tax itself (after all, it was lower than the tax that was on it before). But they were really mad that Britain was taxing them without being able to have a say in it. This goes back to the common idea at the time, "no taxation without representation". They boycotted all British tea. Another protest because of this was the British Tea Party in which the Sons of Liberty dumped 342 crates of tea into the harbor.
• In response, the British Government passed the Coercive Acts also known as the Intolerable Acts among the Colonists.

The Intolerable Acts

• June 2, 1774
• The Intolerable Acts were a series of laws passed mainly against Boston. They shut down Boston's port, replaced their current government with British officials, they made it less punishing for British officials to hurt colonists, and they made it the law that Boston must feed and shelter British soldiers.
• The Colonists form a group called the First Continental Congress. This is a group of 56 delegates that would meet in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. They discussed and planned the best way for them to either break away or make peace with Britain.
• When the First Continental Congress sent an Olive Branch Petition to the King, there was no response. The British Government didn't respond at all. The Congress met again and because there wasn't any response and then came the War for Independence.