The Success And Failure Of The Parliament’S Acts: How They Led To Revolution

*INTRO* While the Parliament passed a few successful acts, most imposed laws failed and led to bitterness of the colonists which, as a result, led to war. John Adams, delegate to the Continental Congress and America’s first vice president, stated that “when the pot is set to boil, the scum rises to the top” in regards to ugliness in British America during the years leading up to the new world freeing itself from the British Empire. With the British originating in Jamestown, Virginia, colonists endured extreme hardships of starvation and death attempting to establish a life in their apparent new found world. Close to only one hundred years later would the British occupy thirteen colonies in the East and South that were each flourishing into a land filled with agriculture, trade, and most importantly, sustainable life.

Although these colonies stayed under British control, the colonies were initially ran with a very hands off Britain; as long as taxes were paid when due, there were not many rules. However, this did not last. Economic inequality prevailed in the new world that citizens leaving Britain were attempting to escape: this led to tensions between the rich and the poor. The poor were continuing to be shorted of land and resources compared to the increasingly rich, while also having their needs and wishes constantly ignored. In turn, this led to Bacon’s Rebellion which is where the colonies lost their freedom and the independent lifestyle they have become accustomed to – England realized they needed to be more hands on so the new world would not get out of control.

Starting in 1764, the Parliament in Great Britain, which citizens in the new world had no representation in, began to impose new laws and taxes which in turn infuriated the colonists. These acts initially led to small acts of rebellion such as: smuggling and boycotting. However, the anger of the colonists grew and eventually caused greater disobedience of incompliance of British authority to finally result in the American Revolution. The British government began establishing policies on the American colonies from trade to taxation to demonstrating superiority which the Americans reacted unfavorable to. Parliament began inciting resentment within the colonists by enacting the Navigation Acts. As a way of bringing wealth into the British Empire, Great Britain insured importation and exportation of goods to and from the colonies were restricted to British ships only. This channeled the flow of colonial raw materials to England and kept foreign goods out of American ports which the colonists viewed as a detriment. They were losing out on potential income as well as having to deal with restrictions of trade. The new world peoples began to smuggle goods to avoid the limits that were set as a result.

Therefore, this act overall failed and only led to rebellion and colonists being angry of their diminished economic opportunity. The Sugar Act was established next as an aftermath of the expensive nature of the French and Indian War - British attempted to tax goods in the new world to repay those debts. This law placed tariffs on goods such as: sugar, coffee, wines, and other imports. Despite paying the least amount of taxes and being the location of where the war took place, colonists were outraged since they did not believe Britain had the right to tax them. Due to the boycotting of such goods as a response to the act, this taxation also failed. The government responded by passing the Stamp Act which taxed every type of printed material: newspapers, pamphlets, legal papers, diplomas, and more. As the first direct tax placed on Americans, this was also the first successful act that was passed. People could not boycott or smuggle these kinds of materials, so they were forced to live by the tax that was levied. While the guaranteed revenue was a good thing for Britain, anger began to enlarge in Americans.

Groups like Sons of Liberty began to develop and violent protests broke out against the tax. With the colonists acting out due to their rejections of taxes with no representation, the Parliament passed the next two acts as a way of displaying their dominance over the Americans: the Quartering Act and the Declaratory Act. The Quartering Act required local legislatures to house and feed new British troops sent to the colonies while the Declaratory Act stated that the colonies are subordinate and the Parliament can enact any law that it wish “to bind the colonies and the people of America”. Despite the acts not causing as much action as the taxation laws, they were successful in exhibiting that the British government was above the Americans. All of these acts were a leading cause to the Boston Massacre that actually ended taxes being repealed resulting in relative peace for the next two years. Tensions picked back up upon the creation of another taxation law, the Tea Act. Upon the British East India Company discovering a large amount of perishable excess tea stored in England, the Parliament wish to tax Americans of this tea. Despite actually paying less for the tea, the outcry when the ships arrived in American cities was strong.

As a result of breaking the peace with another taxation, Sons of Liberty destroyed the tea which would later be known as the Boston Tea Party. Due to the loss of a ginormous amount of money and disturbing calmness, this was another failed act of the British government. Since the British officials saw no chance of the rebels responsible for the Boston Tea Party being convicted by a jury of their peers, the Parliament finally passed the Coercive, or Intolerable, Acts. These acts stated that the Boston Harbor would remain closed, court cases would be held outside of Massachusetts if no fair trial was expected, and everyone was punished including those outside of calling for a revolution. This final act was the last failure of the Parliament due to it being the motivation of creating the First Continental Congress. While few of the policies imposed by Parliament were successful, most led to damage among the relationship between the British Empire and the colonies. In perspective of Great Britain, the Stamp Act was the most successful law that was imposed. Previous policies and taxes were only applicable to certain types of trade and goods in different areas of the American colonies. This differed from those because it the first direct tax that was imposed on the colonists.

The law effected every colony and resulted in Great Britain grasping money out of the majority of Americans who could no longer sneakily find ways out of paying for the British taxes. Ironically, this would also be one of the most damaging acts Parliament would pass. Due to this passing law, mobs and groups were created, the colonists’ fury intensified, and the new world peoples began to perceive themselves as American rather than British. Although John Adam’s quote related to the mobs’ violent attacks on the tax collectors and their families, stamps were publicly burned and looting spread as a result of the colonists adverse reaction as well. In addition to the act paving the way for conflict and rebellion, the colonists viewed it as a deliberate attempt to undercut their strength and independence. In fact, the Americans believed the British were attempting to censor their rights to write and read freely. Lastly, it unified the people which set the stage of them regarding Great Britain as their common enemy. The previous policy enacted, the Sugar Act, only impacted the wealthy by taxing goods they mainly purchased. As a means of getting the poor to care about this tax, the more fortunate led their inferior neighbors to believe that the Parliament was going to come after them next with taxing something of theirs. Luckily, and coincidentally, the wealthy turned out to be right. This caused a surge of trust amongst the previously tensioned groups together to gain the understanding that the Parliament was against them. At the same time, this was the first act that negatively effected all of the colonists to which they all were forced to go through the same things and finally relate to one another.

Paragraph 3: How did these failures lead to revolution? Despite have worse acts than others, all of the failed policies played a role in angering the Americans to the point of revolution. Beginning with the Navigation Acts, this is where the colonists began to grip a belief of the British Empire being a major cause of detrimental factors being brought into the colonies. Since independence and economic opportunity was taken away from them, some rebellion and dissension began to arise. The next failure, the Sugar Act, was another detrimental act that was imposed onto Colonial America. While the disobedience and disagreement between the Americans and the British progressed from this policy, this law created an immense amount of anger and resentment. The colonists were experiencing financial troubles from the war already and with the new taxation in place, they felt like it violated their God-Given rights as Englishmen. The aftermath of this act was one of the biggest leading causes into the revolution: colonists demanded representation in the Parliament but were denied. Without any American representation in a strictly British group, colonists were unable to agree with taxes being placed onto them.