The British Of The Colonists

The colonists were being heavily taxed, and treated very unfairly. With acts such as the

The taxation of the colonists was very important to what would eventually be the American Revolution. The people of the colonies were finally united, though they have not called for an army to be made or haven’t talked about independence, they are starting to come together, and make their differences blur.

Many colonists were angered because of high taxes England chose to enforce on them. These taxes were a result of the British participation and victory in the French and Indian war. However, what made the colonists even more angry was the fact that they were being taxed without representation in England’s Parliament. The colonists thought that, in order to be taxed by the British, they should have representation in it. They saw it as unfair to be taxed by a government they had no say in. As Patrick Henry said in his speech made to the Virginia House of Burgesses, “We can under law be taxed only by our own representatives...The Stamp Act is against the law. We must not obey it…” (Doc. 1). Since many colonists thought this taxation broke the law, some of them chose to protest by going to the House of Burgesses, boycotting imports, or simply not paying it in response. This response is justified; if

When the Founding Fathers resisted these taxes on principle that Parliament did not have the authority to tax the colonists, Britain attacked and minimized colonial self-rule , declared colonists subject to any act of Parliament , reestablished internal taxes , closed colonial ports, dissolved

By suddenly ending “salutary neglect”, the British Parliament had, unknowing, prompted the beginnings of the Americans' grievances. Though not much protest occurred in response to the Proclamation (most colonists moved West anyways), the Act itself would set a precedent for Americans' sense of anxiety. The first direct tax on the American colonies, the Stamp act, contributed significantly to the beginnings of pre-Revolutionary unity. With the rallying battle cry, “No taxation without representation”, the American colonists proceeded to call together the Stamp Act Congress. Not only was this event significant due to the fact that it was another group meeting, automatically signifying at least some unity, but major proponents of Revolution, such as Samuel Adams, started new efforts towards uniting colonists against Britain, such as the Sons of Liberty. The following several years, though not marked with tremendous amounts of unification, definitely contributed to a growing sense of anxiety and oppression amongst the American colonists. With more direct taxes such as the Tea Acts, Coercive Acts, and Quartering Acts. Grievance after grievance, the number of “unreasonable” British actions inevitably forced the Americans into a dilemma. While some colonists, such as Richmond Henry Lee, equated such acts to the British desire to “ruin” the colonies, others, such as Mather Byles, believed that a radical

Parliamentary taxation was another one of the main sources of the colonists' anger. With the Sugar Act of 1764, they were forced to pay one-third of Britain?s French and Indian War costs. The Stamp Act was excessive for the colonists as well, but was met with much more hostility. They rebelled against these taxes because they were being taxed without representation in England, they felt the British had no right to tax their colonies when they themselves had no say in how they were ruled. ?For imposing taxes on us without our consent,? was another political whine that Thomas Jefferson inscribed in the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson had purpose in saying this, because political problems had most effect in the deciding factors of breaking away from Britain.

The biggest reason that colonists were becoming disgruntled with their mother country, Britain, was Britain’s heavy debts that Britain had accumulated while fighting wars with France which needed to be alleviated. As with all governments, Britain had to tax its people to procure the funds needed to pay these debts. Britain saw their colonies as thousands of British citizens that they had not taxed satisfactorily. After realizing this, Britain imposed several new taxes on goods imported and exported to and from the colonies. The colonists were livid over the new taxes. After all, Britain had practiced salutary neglect for almost 100 years. Salutary neglect is the practice of leaving one’s foreign acquisitions to their own devices with little to no interference of their government, social, or economic aspects. The colonists immediately began to petition these new taxes. Their logic: “No taxation without representation.”

The British also felt that they could not afford to lose the vast amount of territory they had won for America during the war. So the British Government permanently stationed regular troops in the colonies to protect their interests. This resulted in the Quartering Act of 1765. This stipulated that British regular troops were to be lodged in public houses, inns, even empty homes if the barracks were overcrowded or unavailable. Furthermore, this lodging was to be at the expense of the local colonist authorities. The colonists did not see the need for the standing army as the war was already won. The reaction of the Reverend John Tucker of Boston

In an excerpt from the Second Continental Congress, the colonists questioned, “What is to defend us against so enormous, so unlimited a power?” (Document 5). They felt as though they were unprotected under British rule. King George of England acted as a tyrant, freely taxing the colonies for no good reason. John Dickinson, a leader who served in the Stamp Act Congress, stated, “Never did the British parliament, (until the passage of the Stamp Act) think of imposing duties in America for the purpose of raising revenue” (Document 2). After the Stamp Act, none of the taxes were justified; the colonies were being taxed simply to create income for Britain. With the unlimited control and absurd taxes, the colonists were bound to start a

The colonists believed they had a right to be represented in Parliament before being taxed or at least vote for the taxing officials. The phrase “no taxation without representation” began to become popular within the colonies.

A major discrepancy the Colonists argued for in the Declaration was Parliament’s act of “imposing taxes on us without our consent”. Becoming a rally cry in the fight for independence, “no taxation without representation” was a consistent belief felt throughout the colonies. The Stamp Act, the first of many taxes to be imposed on the colonists, sparked this belief. The Stamp Act was classified as a direct tax, one the colonists all felt the impact of. There was no way to avoid this tax as it was added onto the price of the item as you were buying it. Document C illustrates this point. When asked about a direct tax, all Benjamin Franklin had to say was that the direct tax was forced upon the people, without their consent and without and representation. His view represents the view of the majority of the colonists. The major reason the colonists felt this tax as unfair was because this tax was levied without their consent, it was decided in Parliament, thousands of miles away, where no American represented the colonists. The Stamp Act was not the only tax the Americans had a problem with. Another tax was the tea tax. Outraged on the East India Trading Company’s monopoly on tea, the Sons of Liberty dumped tea into the harbor in protest of the tea tax. The result was the Boston Port Bill which closed down the Boston port until the colonists paid back the Crown for the lost tea. The Boston Port Bill

What made the taxations so unfair in the eyes of the colonists, was the fact that they had no representation in the parliament and no one was looking after their interests when the laws were being passed in England. The colonists felt left out, their own country was treating them as if they were foreigners and using them to improve the economy of mainland Britain at the expense of their own. Rebellions continued and independence talks began. "No taxation without representation!" Was a common phrase that echoed around the colonies.

While the actions Britain committed were somewhat extreme, the colonies still belonged to Britain, thus they had to abide to the laws set forth by

King George took a stance with the government to improve their economic status to gain more power, harming his own people in the long run. He imposed and put resistance in his set of laws but the colonists objected his sudden orders due to the unjust taxation on random products. The Sugar Act, Declaratory Act, Tea Act, Townshend act, and Intolerable Act repress the colonist’s freedom. These acts guaranteed the rights of Parliament and taxed many important items such as tea, sugar and wine. “No Taxation without representation,” (a term the patriots adapted to their revolutionary movement) refers to a situation that involves the government imposing taxes, in this case the British, on a particular group of citizens (American colonists.) The colonies in America were forced to pay a large amount of money without having representation in the British Parliament. This whole situation backfired on the Parliament with rebellions and violent acts such as the Boston Tea Party and the Boston

The colonists didn’t like taxation without representation because it meant they couldn’t vote on laws. King George III taxed thing like sugar and paper on the colonies. So if they didn’t follow the rules the British army would arrest them. The king also ignored letters sent to him to restore rights. The British king and army were very violent in the colonies.