The Boston Tea Party
On December 16th, 1773, 150 Bostonians, led by the
leaders of the Sons of Liberty, dressed up as Mohawk
Indians and boarded tea ships in the Boston Harbor. The
Bostonians then dumped 342 tea chests into the Boston
Harbor accumulating nearly $1 million worth of damages
today. The Boston Tea Party was in protest to the Tea Act
of 1773.
The Coercive or Intolerable Acts
The Coercive Acts were a series of four acts (the Boston
Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the
Administration of Justice Act, and the Quartering Act)
established by the British government. The aim of the
legislation was to restore order in Massachusetts and
punish Bostonians for the Boston Tea Party. The colonists
called the Coercive Acts the Intolerable Acts because they
thought they were not tolerable (they could not stand
them).
The Boston Port Act
On March 25, 1774, the British Parliament passed the
Boston Port Act, the first of the Intolerable Acts, closing
Boston Harbor to commerce (the buying and selling of
goods). The act was meant to force Boston into paying for
tea dumped into the harbor four months earlier during the
Boston Tea Party. Parliament believed that the colonies
would not support Boston and it would be only a short
time before Boston accepted and paid for the tea,
reestablishing British authority in the colonies. They
could not have been more wrong. The thirteen colonies
were deeply disturbed by the Boston Port Act, and came
together in a way that shocked Parliament. Rather than
separating Boston from the rest of the colonies, the
Boston Port Act ignited all of the colonies into antiBritish actions.
The Massachusetts Government Act
The Massachusetts Government Act, the second of the
Intolerable Acts, was passed on May 20th, 1774. The Act
brought the control of the government of Massachusetts
directly under the control of the British Government by
requiring almost all positions in the colonial government
be appointed by either the King or the Royal Governor
(also appointed by the King). In order to intimidate
Bostonians, King George III appointed General Thomas
Gage, who commanded the British army in North
America, as the new military governor of Massachusetts.
The appointment of General Thomas Gage made it clear
to Boston colonists that the crown intended to impose
martial law, in which a military government suspends
civil law. Under the new martial law and the
Massachusetts Government Act the constitution of
Massachusetts was discontinued (no longer followed) and
Bostonians could no longer have town meetings.
The Administration of Justice Act
The Administration of Justice Act, the third of the
Intolerable Acts, was passed on May 20th, 1774. Under
the Administration of Justice Act, the appointed Military
Governor (General Thomas Gage) had the right to send
rebellious colonists to trial in other colonies or in Great
Britain to be heard by a British Judge (in order to avoid
bias in the Boston court system). In addition, any British
soldier who was arrested and had to go to court for an
offense that they said occurred because they were
upholding the law or because they were suppressing
(ending) a riot had the right to go to trial in another
colony or back in Great Britain as well. Many colonists
were upset with the Administration of Justice Act because
they believed it gave British soldiers the right to do as
they pleased without having to worry about being
punished.
The Quartering Act
On June 2nd, 1774 the Quartering Act, the fourth
Intolerable Act, was passed. In the Quartering Act of
1765, Parliament had simply demanded that colonists
provide barracks for British soldiers (empty buildings or a
place to put up tents as they did in Boston) and supplies.
However, the Quartering Act of 1774 added to this by
stating that British soldiers now had the ability to stay in
the houses of civilians, if necessary, to maintain order.
Although the other three Intolerable Acts were solely for
Massachusetts, the Quartering Act of 1774 was enforced
in all of the colonies.
The First Continental Congress
On September 5, 1774, delegates from each of the 13 colonies,
except for Georgia, met in Philadelphia as the First Continental
Congress to organize colonial resistance to the Intolerable Acts.
The delegates included a number of future leaders, such as
future presidents John Adams of Massachusetts and George
Washington of Virginia, and future U.S. Supreme Court Chief
Justice and diplomat John Jay of New York. After much
discussion, the Congress issued a Declaration of Rights,
affirming its loyalty to the British Crown but disputing the
British Parliament’s right to tax it. The Congress also passed the
Articles of Association, which called on the colonies to stop
importing goods from Britain beginning on December 1, 1774,
if the Intolerable Acts were not repealed. Should Britain fail to
redress the colonists’ grievances in a timely manner, the
Congress declared, then it would revisit on May 10, 1775, and
the colonies would cease to export goods to Britain on
September 10, 1775. After proclaiming these measures, the First
Continental Congress disbanded on October 26, 1774.
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