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Intolerable Acts Dbq

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-‘The Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts) transformed the argument between the colonies and Great Britain from a dispute over the right to taxation into a challenge to any parliamentary authority’ (Bailyn). Do you agree with this statement?

The Intolerable Acts brought the disagreement between the colonies and Great Britain from an argument over taxes to a much higher level, in which the entire parliamentary authority was confronted. The colonists were originally upset with the taxes Britain was imposing on them such as the Trade and Navigation Acts, the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act and the Townshend Revenue Act. But as its name suggests, the Intolerable Acts were those that pushed the Americans to their limit. Their impact encouraged all …show more content…

Female colonists played a highly public role at this time and became known as the Daughters of Liberty. Women spun wool to make clothes for their husbands and decided not to drink British tea. The consequence of these actions by the colonists saw Britain repeal all duties except for the tea duty. This was to prove that parliament had the right to tax the colonies. Money from the taxes raised in the 1773 Tea Act would be used by parliament to pay royal governors salaries so they would be independent to the colonies. In America, Samuel Adams urged the colonists to send the tea back to Britain. A group of Bostonians, disguised as Indians, boarded a ship at night and dumped £10,000 worth of British tea. This became known as the Boston Tea Party. It was an act of revolutionary defiance. John Adams described it as ‘the most magnificent movement in history’.
In response to the events of the Boston Tea Party, the British parliament passed a series of laws called the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts in 1774. These Acts were: the ‘Boston Port Act’, closing down all trade of Massachusetts; the ‘Massachusetts Government Act’, Massachusetts was no longer allowed to govern themselves; the ‘Administration of Justice Act’, any person charged with murder while trying to enforce the law would be tried in England; and the ‘Quartering Act’, allowing British troops to be housed in

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