The 18th century proved to be a time of rapid change and growing hostility between the American colonies and Great Britain, largely due to many new tax laden acts being passed in Parliament. These acts, such as the Molasses Act, the Proclamation of 1763, the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and the Coercive Acts, combined caused the colonists to be disobedient to the Crown, and helped plant seeds of independence. We must further look at each individual act and determine the response to, and consequences of each.

The beginning of the 18th century was a relatively conflict free time between the colonists and England. In 1733, the British parliament passed the Molasses Act, which put heavy taxes on imported molasses, except that from the British controlled West Indies. This act was clearly placed on the colonists for British profit; mercantilism at its best. If the sugar industry thrived, British nobleman and investors thrived, and therefore more money was pumped into Britain’s economy. The colonial response was one of a subdued, prospering nation. “Oh, that’s OK, we deserve to pay a small tax to our mother country.” Although a few took matters into their own hands and r

The colonists were complaining, but evidently they were not heard three thousand miles away, because a year later (1764) parliament passed the Sugar Act. The brainchild of Prime Minister Granville, the Sugar Act was passed to provide direct revenue for Britain to erase a proposed one-fifth of their war debt. Although the act lowered the tax from 6 cents to 3 cents a barrel, Britain planned to strictly enforce it, and made it illegal to import non-British sugar. The colonists were disgruntled and had a simple solution, ignore the tax. They did this as an act of defiance, so that their rights and complaints no longer fell on deaf ears. The complaints of colonists were left unabated in March of 1765 when parliament passed the Stamp Act, which mandated that all legal documents, college degrees, newspapers, etc, had to have a special tax stamp placed on them. This internal tax was exorbitant, such as ten dollars for a college degree, which was a huge amount in the 18th century. The colonies became a hotbed of contempt and defiance of England. Riots and mobs formed, stamp “tax collectors” were harassed, their homes looted, and thousands of stamped documents were burned in the streets. This act also fueled memberships in the Sons of Liberty (1765), formed the Stamp Act Congress (1765), and powered the Committees of Correspondence (1763). All these groups were seedlings of the new anti-Brit

Some topics in this essay:
Coercive Acts, Sugar Act, Townshend Acts, West Indies, Native Americans, Stamp Act, Indian War, Committees Correspondence, Declaratory Act, American Revolution, parliament passed, sugar act, 18th century, coercive acts, stamp act, matters own hands, molasses act, proclamation 1763, matters own, british government, pay tax,