“No Taxation Without
Representation”
UNIT 3, NOTES 3
Results of the French and Indian War
 Britain became the leading European power in North
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America
English language and traditions became the status quo
in most of North America
British government in deep economic debt after
borrowing so much money to fund the war effort
New territory required the presence of additional forts
and military outfits (10,000 new troops) along the
frontier
British government decided that American colonists
would pay for the war and their protection through
extra taxes
Proclamation of 1763
 Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa Indians united
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several tribes and attacked forts/towns
along the frontier west of the Appalachians
Colonists wanted to fight for their right to
settle west of the Appalachians
British officials did not want to pay for
another war or disrupt the fur trade
Royal Proclamation of 1763: decree issued
by King George that prevented colonists
from settling west of the Appalachians
without special permission from the British
government
Western farmers outraged
Customs Reform
 Colonial merchants smuggled
goods in and out of North
America without paying
customs duties (taxes on
imports and exports)
 George Grenville, British Prime
Minister and lord of the
Treasury, came down harder on
smugglers by denying them a
fair trial by jury and sending
them before military tribunal
 Young colonial lawyer named
John Adams defended an
alleged smuggling merchant
named John Hancock on the
basis that Hancock’s rights as a
British citizen were being
denied
Taxes!
 Sugar Act (1764)
 Increased tax rates on raw sugar, molasses, silk, wine, and other goods
imported from foreign countries
 Allowed British officials to seize goods without due process (proper court
procedures)
 Currency Act (1764)
 Banned the use of paper money in the colonies to slow inflation (excess
money = loss in value of every dollar/pound)
 Angered farmers and artisans that needed paper money to pay back loans
 Stamp Act (1765)
 Required stamps to be purchased and placed on most printed materials
including newspapers, pamphlets, wills, mortgages, deeds, etc.
 First direct tax Britain had imposed on colonists
 Quartering Act (1765)
 Required colonists to provide barracks for British troops or pay for their
rent
Stamp Act Crisis
 Propaganda
 Pamphlets and editorials circulated through the colonies and public
speeches were made condemning the taxes
 James Otis wrote a pamphlet arguing that colonists could not be justly
taxed without representation in Parliament… “No Taxation Without
Representation!”
 Stamp Act Congress
 Representative body with members from 9 colonies
 Drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances stating that only
colonial representatives had the power to tax the colonists
 Sons of Liberty
 Group of organized activists and protestors that led anti-tax
demonstrations and defied British law
 Organized by Isaac Sears
 Propaganda: meetings, demonstrations, hung an effigy of the stamp
distributor from a tree
 Boycott
 Colonists boycotted all British goods when the Stamp Act took effect on
November 1, 1765
 Nonimportation agreement: document signed by merchants agreeing not
to buy British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed
More Taxes!
 Declaratory Act (1766)
 Passed after Parliament repealed the Stamp Act
 Asserted that Parliament had the power to make laws for the
colonies
 Townshend Acts (1767)
 Included the Revenue Act of 1767 that put new duties on glass,
lead, paper, paint, and tea
 Legalized writs of assistance: search warrants that enabled
customs officers to enter any location to look for evidence of
smuggling
Response and Retaliation
 John Dickinson wrote Letters From a Pennsylvania Farmer
Only assemblies elected by colonists had the right to tax them
Sam Adams
 Helped organize the Boston chapter of the Sons of Liberty
 United Bostonians of different social classes to stand against
British tax policies
 Responsible for circulating a letter disclosing information about
a British scheme to pay government officials with Townshend
Act tax money and thereby use those officials to replace colonial
assemblies
Virginia Resolves: document created by the House of Burgesses
claiming that it alone had the power to tax Virginians
Daughters of Liberty: female version of the Sons of Liberty;
refused to buy British wool so they “homespun” their own clothes
In view of the colonial protests, Parliament dissolved several
colonial assemblies
Colonists signed new nonimportation agreements to further
boycott British goods
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IQ’s
 What is this a picture of?
 Is this an accurate interpretation of the events of that
day?
Response and Retaliation
 Boston Massacre
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Mobs continued to threaten customs officers in Boston
Britain dispatched 1,000 troops (“lobster backs”) to Boston to
maintain order
On March 5, 1770…a crowd of angry Bostonians began taunting and
throwing snowballs at British soldiers
British soldiers fired into the crowd and killed 5 colonists,
including
the famous African-American Crispus Attucks (1st casualty of the
Revolution)
Colonials newspapers and propaganda portrayed the soldiers as killers
and the British government as tyrannous
Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts
CW/HW – Unit 3, Notes 3 – Page 123- #’s 3, 4 and 5
1) What argument did the Stamp Act Congress make
in protest against the British taxes?
2) Why do you think the British were so willing to
pass new taxes in the face of colonial opposition?
CW/HW – Unit 3, Notes 3 – Page 123 #’s 3, 4 and 5
3) Use a graphic organizer similar to the one below to list the
acts passed by the British Parliament and the colonists’
reactions to the acts
ACT
Colonists’ Reaction