Following the French and Indian War, Britain sought to recoup its debts by imposing taxes on the colonies, including the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts. The colonists, feeling they were being taxed without representation in Parliament, protested these measures vigorously, coining the phrase “no taxation without representation.” [We need to revive this since our representatives found ways to tax us without our permission. Then they tell us it’s patriotic to give them more money they can waste.]
London granted the British East India Company a monopoly on the sale of tea in North America. It meant that the colonists’ tea would not be sold. Everybody drank tea. It was unfair competition.
When three ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver, arrived in Massachusetts. The colonists demanded that the products be sent back to England. Defiant, the royal governor ordered the locals to buy the product, or else. That did not sit well with the Patriots. On December 16, 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty, a group of colonial activists, and others, disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded the three British ships. They proceeded to throw 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, valued at over $1 million today.
The Intolerable Acts were passed in April 1774, 252 years ago.
As a result, the British Parliament decided to punish the colonists.
The punitive Intolerable Acts stripped Massachusetts of self-governance and rights it had enjoyed since its founding, triggering outrage and indignation across the Thirteen Colonies.
The British Parliament hoped these punitive measures would, by making an example of Massachusetts, reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority that had begun with the Sugar Act of 1764.
The English Parliament didn’t take the hint. They enacted even more rules against the colonies, called the Intolerable Acts or Coercive Acts. The Brits were getting revenge but were also setting a tone. Don’t mess around with us in London.
In America, town meetings were shut down. Boston Harbor closed. Massachusetts was placed under direct control of the Crown. All trials against British soldiers, no matter what they did, took place in England. Patriots were forced to house the Redcoat soldiers in their own dwellings.
Although initially successful in limiting rebel activity, the Intolerable Acts ultimately led directly to the American Revolution.
In 1700, the first conference was held in Philadelphia in December. King George declared the North American colonies to be in open rebellion. The following spring, in 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord took place. George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The Declaration of Independence was signed one year later, in 1776, 250 years ago.
Sentinel has had a “you might not know” section since 2011. Bill O’Reilly does as well and went over the Intolerable Acts today on the radio. I never get tired of this story or anything concerning the Sons of Liberty.