Road to Liberty: Intolerable Acts

After Britain won the French and Indian War, it faced massive debt, both due to the war and due to multiple other factors, such as debts resulting from ongoing conflict with neighboring Spain. For this reason, British Parliament voted to tax their American colonies, telling colonial leadership that the taxes were necessary to ensure their own protection against Native American Indian attacks. Colonists did not view Native Americans as a continued threat and were outraged by this new form of taxation without representation. 

After Britain won the French and Indian War, it faced massive debt, both due to the war and due to multiple other factors, such as debts resulting from ongoing conflict with neighboring Spain. For this reason, British Parliament voted to tax their American colonies, telling colonial leadership that the taxes were necessary to ensure their own protection against Native American Indian attacks. Colonists did not view Native Americans as a continued threat and were outraged by this new form of taxation without representation.

To punish the Massachusetts colonists, British Parliament passed four punitive laws in 1774. The Boston Port Act shut down Boston Harbor until the destroyed tea was repaid, crippling the local economy. The Massachusetts Government Act nullified the colony’s charter and limited town meetings. The Administration of Justice Act allowed British officials accused of crimes in the colonies to be returned home for trial in Britain, which the colonists viewed as a license for British officials to commit crimes without facing consequences. Lastly, the Quartering Act expanded the government’s power to house soldiers in private homes—a clear violation of property rights granted to all other British citizens.

These harsh laws, known as the Intolerable Acts, outraged colonists, united them against British rule, and sparked the convening of the First Continental Congress.