CHAPTER ONE 1010 SUGAR STAMPS AND TEA The treaty that ended the French and Indian War in 1763 made Great Britain master of Canada and of the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River The whole cost of governing this vast region was suddenly shifted from France to Britain The British government therefore decided to station British troops in the colo nies to prevent the French from recovering Canada and to defend the colonies against the Indians British officials believed that the country had made great sacrifices in order to expel the French from Canada The British people staggered under an immense national debt and their taxes were higher than ever before Most thought it only right that the colonies should help pay for the support of these troops Beginning in 1764 the British Parliament imposed a series of taxes intended to make the colonies profitable at the least expense to Britain
James Otis helped formulate the colonists grievances against the British government in the 1760s
12 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION STIFLING THE STAMP ACT Trade offered one source of revenue The old Molasses Act having yielded little income was modified in 1764 The colonists had to pay import duties on for eign molasses sugar wine and other commodities More important measures were adopted to prevent smuggling Revenue officers sought writs of assistance allowing them to search homes for smuggled goods and James Otis gained fame in his flaming attack upon their use Because the new Sugar Act would not afford a large revenue it was supplemented in 1765 by the Stamp Act This measure levied a direct tax on all newspapers printed in the colonies and on most commercial and legal documents used in business It was realized that these two revenue acts would provide less than half the money needed for the army Another measure the Quartering Act required each colony to bear part of the expenses incurred by British troops when stationed or moving within its borders The Currency Act of 1764 increased the load of taxes to be carried by the colonists This act directed the colonists to pay within a fairly short time the whole domestic debt which they had created in waging the French and Indian War Opposition to the Stamp Act spread through the colonial assemblies especially that of Virginia People in Boston and later other colonies formed
SUGAR STAMPS AND TEA 13 groups known as the Sons of Liberty to protest the act The opposition came to a head in the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 which asserted that the colonists as English subjects could not be taxed without their The Sons of Liberty show their disapproval of the Stamp Act of 1765 by burning a copy of it in Boston Massachusetts The act was repealed in 1766
