The following is from Samuel
Adams, a member of the
Massachusetts legislature (the
group of people that made the
laws for the Massachusetts
colony).
I do not stand alone. The shouts of
my fellow colonists come together
as one voice, crying out against the
unfair taxes from Parliament and
His Majesty.
First, they passed the Quartering
Samuel Adams
Act, forcing us to take soldiers into
our home, then they passed the
Sugar Act, making us pay a tax on all the sugar products that we use,
and now, worst of all, they have passed the Stamp Act, a law that
requires us to put an expensive stamp on all of our important papers,
even the newspaper!
I understand that people need to pay taxes, and I understand that the
British government needs money to pay for protecting us colonists
during the French and Indian War, but we have a certain way of doing
things here in the colonies. First, people here in colonies elect people
they know to the colonial assembly (also called the legislature; it’s the
group of people that make laws for the colonies). Then, the people in
the colonial assembly decide how much taxes people in the colonies
should pay. All the people get to choose the people that decide how
much everyone must pay in taxes. It’s a great way of doing things.
However, everything has changed. Now, Parliament decides how much
we must pay in taxes. The people in Parliament live all the way across
the ocean in England, and we don’t know them. And even worse, we
don’t get to choose them. Yes, that’s true, we don’t get to elect the
people in Parliament that are making the laws that we must follow. We
wouldn’t mind paying taxes and following laws if we got to choose who
makes our taxes and laws, but we don’t!
People in the colonies are
furious1 with Parliament and the
king. We have complained to
them, and told them that it is
unfair that we don’t get to
choose someone in Parliament,
but they have ignored us, so we
have decided to get them back
for what they have done to us.
Some of the colonists, including
me, have started a group called
the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of
Liberty protest against the unfair
taxes from the British
government. We burn the
A British tax collector being tarred and
stamps that the British make us
feathered. These colonists are also forcing
buy for our papers. We tar and
him to drink tea.
feather tax collectors. That
means that we kidnap tax collectors, strip them naked, cover them in
1
furious: very angry
hot tar and feathers, and force them to walk around in public like that
for everyone to see. It is really embarrassing and painful for the tax
collectors! We also march around shouting, “No taxation without
representation!” This means that we do not want to be taxed without
getting to choose someone to represent the colonies in Parliament.
But the best thing we have done to get back at the British are the
boycotts. The Sons of Liberty encouraged people in the colonies to stop
buying products from England. People all across the colonies started
only buying things that we made here in the colonies. It has hurt British
businesses a lot. Many British businesses rely2 on colonists to buy their
products. Some of the businesses have already started to go out of
business.
I think that we are doing a great job showing the British government
that we hate their unfair taxes, and I am sure that they will get rid of
those hated taxes very soon!
2
rely: count on