Restraining Act 1775
The Restraining Act of 1775, also referred to as the New England Restraining Act, was a legislative measure enacted by the British Parliament in March of that year. It prohibited the New England colonies from trading with any nations other than Great Britain and banned fishing in the North Atlantic. This act was part of a broader British effort to quell colonial dissent following rising tensions over taxation and governance, particularly after events like the Boston Tea Party. Initially aimed at Massachusetts and nearby states, the restrictions were soon expanded to include additional colonies as colonial boycotts against British goods intensified.
Despite its punitive intent, the act became largely irrelevant when hostilities erupted between colonial militias and British troops in April 1775, marking the start of the Revolutionary War. The enforcement of the act was complicated by the buildup of colonial militias and the political climate of growing resistance. Though it was set to take effect in mid-1775, the Restraining Act was ultimately rendered obsolete by the Prohibitory Act later that year, leading to a complete cessation of trade between the colonies and Britain. The escalating conflict ultimately fostered a shift toward independence, culminating in the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
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Restraining Act 1775
The Restraining Act of 1775, also known as the New England Restraining Act, was a two-part measure passed by the British Parliament in March 1775. The Act forbid the New England American colonies from trading with any nation except for Great Britain. A second part of the act banned the American colonists from fishing in the North Atlantic. The Restraining Act was one of several attempts by Great Britain to punish the colonies for their growing insubordination. A few weeks after passing the initial act, Parliament extended the restrictions to many of the other colonies. Although meant to punish the colonists, the Restraining Act of 1775 was also accompanied by a measure meant to broker peace between Great Britain and its colonies. However, fighting broke out on April 19, 1775, sparking the Revolutionary War and making both proposals a moot point.
Background
Great Britain established its first colonies in North America in the early seventeenth century. The Virginia Colony was founded by the Virginia Company in 1607 with the establishment of a settlement at Jamestown. This was a trading company sanctioned by the British Crown. It was given exclusive rights to colonize the region around Jamestown. In 1620, a second British colony was founded in modern-day Massachusetts by a group of religious reformers. By 1732, the British American colonies had grown to thirteen, stretching from Massachusetts in the North to Georgia in the South.
Britain was one of several European powers to establish colonies in the Americas. France had control of most of Canada, while Spain had long held territory in the Caribbean, southern North America, and South America. Tensions within Europe and repeated conflicts over land in North America sparked what would be known as the Seven Years’ War. Although the Seven Years’ War was officially declared in 1756, fighting between Britain and France in North America had started two years earlier. In North America, the conflict was known as the French and Indian War.
Great Britain emerged victorious from the war in 1763 with significant land gains, including all of France’s colonial holdings in Canada and a large swathe of land east of the Mississippi River. However, the war proved to be very expensive to finance and left Great Britain in severe debt. To help offset the cost of the war, the British Parliament began enforcing excise duties on sugar and molasses imported from non-British colonies, effectively making colonists pay more for products such as rum, wine, and coffee. In 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which imposed a direct tax by requiring colonists to pay for a stamp on all legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, and even playing cards.
The measures angered the American colonists who felt that Great Britain had no right to impose taxes on them without sufficient representation in Parliament. British political leaders felt that the colonists should pay for the war effort as British troops were sent to North America to defend the colonies from the French.
Overview
Colonial anger over the taxes resulted in numerous protests, some of which turned violent. Britain’s Parliament was forced to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766 but reaffirmed its right to tax its colonies. Over the next several years, tensions increased as Britain imposed additional taxes on its colonies. The colonists responded with growing protests, forcing Parliament to back down and repeal several of the taxes, but the British began looking for new ways to tax the colonists. By 1773, the British had repealed most of its original taxes, but maintained a tax on tea, which was very popular in the colonies. In defiance, the colonists bought smuggled tea from the Dutch, leaving the British East India Company stuck with millions of pounds of unsold tea and nearly bankrupt.
Parliament responded by passing the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company exclusive rights to sell tea in the colonies. The tea would, of course, be taxed. In December 1773, angry colonists in Boston, Massachusetts, disguised themselves as Native Americans and tossed three shiploads of British tea into the harbor. The event, known as the Boston Tea Party, infuriated the British Parliament, which passed a series of punishing laws against the Massachusetts Colony, including revoking its right of self-governance.
Representatives from the other colonies were alarmed, believing that Britain might decide to target them one day as well. On September 5, 1774, delegates from twelve of the colonies met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the First Continental Congress. At the time, the delegates were not pushing for independence and hoped that the relationship between Great Britain and the colonies could be repaired. The delegates compiled a list of grievances against the British and laid out certain rights that they felt were owed to them as British subjects. They also agreed to boycott all trade with Great Britain until their demands were met and the restrictions against Massachusetts were lifted. The Congress adjourned on October 26, 1774, and called for a Second Continental Congress in 1775 to discuss Britain’s response to the petition. In the meantime, local militias across the colonies began to prepare for possible armed conflict.
Although many in Britain’s Parliament were angry at this affront by the colonists, some wanted to broker peace. The Prime Minister, Lord North, proposed that if the colonists could promise to sufficiently tax themselves, Parliament would agree not to impose any taxes. While this measure passed in the House of Commons, many members of Parliament wanted to take a hard line against the colonial rebellion and passed the New England Restraining Act, which was signed into law by King George III on March 30, 1775.
The act forbade the colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island from trading with any nation other than Great Britain, Ireland, and the British colonial holdings in the Caribbean. The New England states were singled out because Britain considered them to be the hotbed of colonial rebellion. Parliament hoped that the act would cut off the colonies from all trade and slowly destroy their economies and force them to drop their demands. The law was to take effect on July 1, 1775.
Soon after the act was passed, Parliament became aware that Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia were also boycotting British goods and actively raising militias. As a result, Parliament extended the act to include those colonies as well. Delaware, Georgia, New York, and North Carolina were not included in the edict because Parliament mistakenly believed they were not taking part in the boycott.
The Restraining Act also forbid New England states from fishing in the waters off the coast of Newfoundland, Labrador, Cape Breton, or Nova Scotia, or in the Saint Lawrence River. This would give fishers in British-controlled Canada a monopoly on the prime fishing grounds and severely hamper New England’s economy, which had a sizable fishing industry. This provision of the act was to take effect on July 20, 1775. Any colonial ship found in violation of this edict would have its cargo confiscated by the British.
Although the Restraining Act was meant to punish the colonies, it never really had a chance to take effect. Worried about the rise in the number of militias and the arms build-up among the colonists, British troops had been dispatched to Massachusetts to squash any armed rebellion before it started. In mid-April 1775, British General Thomas Gage led a contingent of soldiers to Concord, Massachusetts, to arrest rebel leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock and confiscate a stockpile of arms in the town.
However, the colonial leaders were warned of the British arrival and organized local militias to meet the British in the town of Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. Shots were exchanged between the two sides, marking the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Within two months, colonial troops had besieged Boston, delegates would meet again in the Second Continental Congress, and George Washington would be named commander-in-chief of the newly formed Continental Army. The Second Continental Congress made one more attempt to avoid war with Britain, but it was rejected by the British in August 1775.
Although technically taking effect in June and July 1775, the Restraining Act was deemed obsolete and repealed in December 1775 when the British Parliament passed the Prohibitory Act, which cut off all trade between the thirteen colonies and Britain and removed the colonies from the “King’s protection.” This meant that any American sailing vessel could be attacked or seized by the British or any other nation. It also meant that the American colonists would have to fend for themselves against attacks by Native Americans or foreign soldiers on the frontier.
With any chance at reconciliation gone, the voices calling for a clean break with Great Britain grew louder, resulting in the passage of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. By 1783, the newly formed United States had defeated Great Britain and won its independence.
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