On December 16, 1773, a group of patriotic settlers associated with the Sons of Liberty destroyed 342 cases of tea in Boston, Massachusetts, an act that became known as the Boston Tea Party. The colonists participated in this action because Parliament had passed the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on the sale of tea in the colonies, thus saving the company from bankruptcy. This made British tea cheaper. In addition, a small tax has been added. This angered the settlers. News of the Boston Tea Party reached England in January 1774. Parliament responded by passing four laws. Three of the laws were aimed at directly punishing Massachusetts. This was done for the destruction of private property, to restore British authority in Massachusetts, and to reform colonial government in America. Parliament, which wanted revenue from its North American colonies, passed the first law specifically to raise colonial funds for the crown.
The Act increased customs duties on non-British goods shipped to the colonies. Stamp Act. Parliament`s first direct tax on the American colonies, this law, like those passed in 1764, was enacted to raise money for Britain. He taxed newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, leaflets, legal documents, dice, and playing cards. Stamps issued by Britain were placed on documents or parcels to show that the tax had been paid. On March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the stamp duty. The tax required settlers to pay taxes on every page of paper they used. The tax also included fees for playing cards and dice. When the loyalist governor of Boston, Thomas Hutchinson, refused to allow a number of British ships to sail without forcing the colonists to pay the tariffs, things quickly spiraled out of control.
The Sons of Liberty, along with many other protesters, disguised themselves as Mohawk warriors and boarded the three British ships that remained in port. They worked for three hours, pouring 342 cases of British tea into the water around Griffin`s Wharf. As Congress and colonial assemblies passed resolutions and petitioned against the Stamp Act, the colonists took matters into their own hands. The most famous popular resistance took place in Boston, where opponents of the Stamp Act, who called themselves the Sons of Liberty, recruited the Boston mob against the new law. This crowd roamed the streets with an effigy of Andrew Oliver, the Boston stamp dealer, which they hanged and beheaded at Liberty Tree before ransacking Oliver`s house. Oliver agreed to resign as a stamp dealer. Prominent figures such as Benjamin Franklin and members of the pro-independence group known as the Sons of Liberty argued that the British Parliament did not have the power to impose a domestic tax. Public demonstrations erupted and the ensuing violence attracted widespread attention. The tax commissioners were threatened and resigned out of fear; Others simply failed to raise funds. As Franklin wrote in 1766, the “Stamp Act should be enforced by force.” When this was not possible, Parliament did not repeal the Stamp Act until a year later, on 18 March 1766.
In May 1765, Patrick Henry of Virginia wrote the Virginia Resolves, which clarified the “taxation without representation” argument. This 1774 print shows Boston settlers pouring tea down the throat of a Loyalist official whom they tarred and feathered. Tax commissioners were often threatened with tar and feathers when attempting to enforce the Stamp Act of 1765, which imposed a tax on all official papers and documents in the American colonies. The consequences of the stamp law affected constitutional guarantees and the First Amendment. (Printed by Philip Dawe via Wikimedia Commons, public domain) Although this was a relatively local and minor incident, the Sons of Liberty, particularly Paul Revere, effectively promoted the event and disseminated reports of British abuse in the American colonies. The already tense tensions intensified as the war drew closer. The Intolerable Acts (passed / Royal Assent from March 31 to June 22, 1774) were criminal laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws were intended to punish Massachusetts settlers for their opposition to the Tea Party protest in response to the British government`s tax changes.