The Stamp Act & Quartering Act

Stamp Act To bring an end to Pontiac’s Rebellion, the British government had established the Proclamation Line of 1763. This agreement reserved all land west of the Appalachian Mountains for the Native Americans and forbid the American colonists from moving onto the prized territory of the skirmishes. Many colonists were angered by the treaty because they believed that they had fought the French and Indian War to take control of the Ohio territory. Any colonists who violated the treaty were forced from their land.

Stamp Act Britain's government also came out of the Seven Years War nearly bankrupt. To pay off the massive war debt that had been accumulated by defending the colonies, British Parliament and King George III decided to impose higher taxes on the colonies that Britain had sent soldiers to defend.

Stamp Act One of the first taxes that Parliament imposed was the Stamp Act of 1765. This tax placed a small fee on just about everything that was printed in the colonies. This included legal documents such as contracts, licenses, mortgages, but also advertisements, newspapers, calendars…even playing cards.

Stamp Act The American colonists were furious! According to English law, British citizens had to give their consent to any taxes through their representatives in Parliament, but the American colonies had no representatives. “No taxation without representation!” became a rallying cry throughout the colonies.

Stamp Act To protest the unfair Stamp Act, the homes of royal tax collectors were burned down. The tax collectors themselves were brutally attacked. Some were even tarred and feathered by angry mobs. Colonists also organized a boycott of British goods. Four months after the Stamp Act was passed by Parliament, it was repealed.

Quartering Act Even after the end of the French and Indian War and Pontiac’s Rebellion, tribes still occasionally attacked colonial settlements along the frontier. In 1765, the British government seized the Ohio Valley with the Indians as an excused to send thousands of soldiers to the American colonies.

Quartering Act But the British soldiers, known as the Redcoats because of their blood-red uniforms, were never sent to the frontier. Instead the soldiers were stationed in troublesome cities such as New York and Boston, where protest against the Stamp Act had been the strongest. In Boston, there was one Redcoat for every four colonists! The British government undoubtedly believed that these additional troops would return order to rebellious colonies.

Quartering Act If there wasn’t enough room in the local army barracks (or quarters), colonists were ordered to open up inns, taverns, and even their private homes to the soldiers. This action that had been passed by Parliament in 1765 was known as the Quartering Act. Housing, feeding, and cleaning up after the unruly British soldiers was seen as yet another outrage that had been heaped onto the American colonies!

Quartering Act The colonists were no so easily fooled, especially in Boston. King George III had sent his soldiers to keep the city under control after the unrest that had been stirred up by the Stamp Act. British troops were also ordered to put an end to the widespread smuggling of imported goods such as tea and sugar. Many items from Europe were heavily taxed by the British government, so the American colonists smuggled then into the colonies illegally to keep prices low.

Quartering Act Soldiers were ordered to break down the doors of homes, taverns, ships and warehouses if there was any reason to suspect that illegal smuggling or unlawful protest meetings were taking place. Boston had become a city under foreign occupation! It wasn’t long before having so many unwanted soldiers in the city led to resentment and anger. A handful of street brawls between angry colonists and British soldiers eventually culminated in a violent confrontation known as the Boston Massacre.