Intolerable Acts

After a group of American colonists known as the Sons of Liberty raided three British ships and dumped their cargo of tea in Boston Harbor in December 1773—an event that came to be known as the Boston Tea Party—Parliament’s response was swift and predictable. Viewing the North American colonies as unruly and even treasonous in their resistance to taxation protocols that had long defined Britain’s economic relationship with its far-flung colonies, Parliament passed in the first months of 1774 four acts designed specifically to isolate the radicals in Massachusetts, long a hotbed of revolutionary talk, and to quash the call for independence throughout the American colonies. The acts were known as the Coercive Acts in Britain, as they were designed to force Massachusetts to accept its colonial status, and those targeted by the acts decried them as punitive, illegal, and intolerable. More than any other move by Parliament, the so-called Intolerable Acts unified the colonies and set the groundwork for revolution.

Brief History

Reeling from the cost of the military occupation of their New World colonies and frustrated by grassroots movements toward independence in territorial possessions from which they were separated by more than three thousand miles, British leaders refused to consider the American colonies any different from the British Empire’s other possessions—lands acquired and occupied largely to bring revenue to British companies and to the British crown. In the 1760s, a number of Americans argued against taxation by the British government, citing the English Bill of Rights, which required that any British subject who was taxed be represented in Parliament. As the American colonists were not adequately represented, they argued, they could not be required to pay taxes.

Parliament did not concede, and it continued to levy taxes on a variety of imported goods during the 1760s. When the British East India Company faced an unprecedented oversupply of tea and the threat of losing millions in profits, Parliament allowed the company to sell its tea directly to the colonies. Although this made the tea less expensive, it was still being taxed. The attack on the ships in Boston Harbor and the destruction of three ships worth of tea sent a clear signal to Parliament. In response, Parliament decided to make an example of Massachusetts, imposing strict new laws that would punish the colony, isolate it from its neighbors, and demonstrate to all thirteen American colonies the financial ruin that any revolutionary action would bring,

The Intolerable Acts consisted of four interrelated acts that essentially put Massachusetts under martial law. The first, the Boston Port Act, closed immediately and indefinitely the busy harbor of Boston, at the time one of the most lucrative ports of entry in the colonies, essentially cutting off the entire colony from imported goods and the financial rewards of the colony’s once-thriving trade business. The second, the Massachusetts Government Act, largely dismantled the colonial government superstructure by subjecting all government positions to appointments that approved by the royal governor, Parliament, or the king himself. The act also limited local town meetings to a single meeting per year. The third law, the Administration of Justice Act, provided that any royal government appointee accused of any capital offense, from gross financial misconduct to murder, could not receive a fair trial in Massachusetts, given the toxic atmosphere of the rebellious colony, and would henceforth be tried in England. Some colonists viewed this act as effectively giving British colonial representatives the freedom to act with impunity. The Quartering Act, which technically affected all the colonies, gave British troops the right to seize any uninhabited building to serve as quarters for as long as they deemed necessary. This act was very similar to the earlier Quartering Act of 1765.

A fifth act, known as the Quebec Act, is often grouped with the Intolerable Acts but was not a direct result of the events in Boston. Rather, it granted French Canadians rights to land in the Ohio region, which was known for its lucrative fur trade. In part because it positioned Catholic French settlers against Protestant colonial settlements, the Quebec Act further infuriated the American colonists.

Impact

Intended to isolate the unruly Massachusetts colony, the Intolerable Acts had the opposite effect. The British government had acted to deny colonists their very livelihoods, and the difficulties faced by Massachusetts residents in the wake of the acts resonated with many. Up and down the Atlantic seacoast, even public figures not entirely swayed by advocates for independence rallied around the colony and warned that Parliament’s harsh actions could be just as easily leveled against other colonies. Many colonial leaders argued that the British government was out of touch with its own colonies and was more interested in crushing opposition than in governing an empire. Political leaders from as far south as the conservative Carolinas, among the colonies most committed to the monarchy, joined to decry the Intolerable Acts as unjust.

In the fall of 1774, representatives from twelve of the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Known as the First Continental Congress, the body sought to determine the appropriate response to the British government’s actions. Its often contentious debates set the stage for the unification of the colonies as a first step toward the military actions that would ultimately secure their independence.

Bibliography

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